"Yes, I was thinking of Nellie," conceded Tom, and he was so bold and frank about it that Jack choked back the joke that he was about to make.
"I was thinking that we haven"t done very much to redeem our promise."
"But how can we?" asked Jack. "We haven"t had a chance to do anything to rescue Harry. Of course I want to do that as much as you do, but how is it to be done? Can you answer me that?"
"We can"t do it by just talking," said Tom. "That"s what I"ve been thinking about. A scheme came to me in the night, and I"ve been waiting to tell you about it."
"Shoot then, my pickled blunderbuss," returned Jack. "I"m with you to the last drop of petrol."
"Well, I don"t know that it"s so much," said Tom. "It"s only that we ought to get word to Harry, somehow, that we"re thinking of him and trying to plan some way of rescuing him. We ought to tell him his sister is here, too, and, at the same time we might drop him something to smoke and a cake or two of chocolate."
Jack looked at his chum in amazement. Then he burst out with:
"Say, while you"re at it why don"t you send him a piano, and an automobile, too, so he can ride home when he wants to? What do you mean--getting word to him? Don"t you know that the beastly Huns will hold up the mail as they please, and anything else we might send. They don"t even let the Red Cross packages go through until they get good and ready. Talk about your barbarians!"
"Oh, I wasn"t thinking of the mail," replied Tom.
"No? What then?"
"Why, we know where he is held a prisoner--at least we have the name of the prison camp, and he may be there unless he"s been transferred. Of course that"s possible, but it"s worth taking a chance on."
"A chance on what?" asked Jack, "You haven"t explained yet. What do you plan to do?"
"Fly over the place where Harry is held a prisoner and drop down a package and some letters to him," said Tom. "Now wait until you hear it all before you say it can"t be done!" he went on quickly, for Jack seemed about to interrupt.
"If Harry is held where he was first made a prisoner, it"s a big place, and there are thousands of our captives there, as well as French and British. Well, where there are so many they have to have a big stockade to pen "em in, worse luck. And dropping a bomb on a big place is easier than dropping one on a small object."
"Say! Suffering snuffle-boxes!" cried Jack. "You don"t mean to drop a bomb in Harry"s prison, camp, do you? Do you think he might possibly escape in the confusion?"
"Nothing like that," said Tom. "I mean drop a package containing some smokes, some chocolate and a letter telling him we haven"t forgotten him and that we"re going to try to rescue him, and for him to be on the lookout. That could be done."
"How?"
"By us flying over the place in our speedy Spad. We needn"t make a very big package, though the more of something to eat we can give him the better, for those Boches starve our men. Let"s get a week off--the commanding officer will let us go. We can go to our old escadrille and make arrangements to start from there. The boys will help us all they can."
"Oh, there"s no doubt about that," a.s.sented Jack. "They all liked Harry as much as we did. But I can"t see that your scheme will succeed. It"s a risky one."
"All the more reason why it ought to succeed," declared Tom. "It"s the fellows who take chances who get by. Now let"s see if we can get a few hours off to go to Paris."
"Go to Paris? What for?"
"To see Nellie Leroy and have her write her brother a letter. It will be better to have one come direct from her than for us merely to give him news of her in one of our notes."
"Yes," agreed Jack, "I guess it would. And I begin to see which way the wind blows. You wish to see Nellie."
"Oh, you make me tired!" exclaimed Tom. "All you can think of is girls!
I tell you I"m doing this for Harry!"
"And I believe you, old top, and what"s more, I"m with you from the word go. It"s a crazy scheme and a desperate one, but for that very reason it may succeed. The only thing is that we may not get permission to carry it out."
"Oh, I don"t intend that anyone shall know what our game is," returned Tom. "Of course the authorities would squash it in a minute. No, we"ll have to keep dark about that. All we need is permission to do a little flying "on our own," for a while."
"Suppose they won"t let us do that?"
"Oh, I think they will, after what we did yesterday," said Tom. "Come on, let"s get ready to go to Paris."
CHAPTER XIV. WILL THEY SUCCEED?
The scheme evolved, or, perhaps, dreamed of by Tom Raymond in his anxiety to get some word to the captive Harry Leroy worked well at the start. When he and Jack asked permission to have half a day off to make the trip to Paris it was readily granted. Perhaps it was because of their exploit of the day before, when their sharp eyes had discovered the camouflaged German battery and brought about its destruction, or maybe it was because the day was a misty one,+ when no flying could be done.
At any rate, soon after breakfast saw the two boys on their way to the wonderful city--wonderful in spite of war and the German "super cannon,"
which had itself been destroyed.
Tom and Jack knew that unless their plans were changed, the two girls and Mrs. Gleason would be at home in Paris, for they had a holiday once in every seven, and it was their custom to come to their lodging for a rest from the merciful, though none the less exceedingly trying, Red Cross work.
Nor had the boys guessed in vain, for when they presented themselves at the Gleason lodging, where Nellie Leroy was also staying, they were greeted with exclamations of delight.
"We were just thinking of you," said Bessie, as she shook hands with Jack.
"And so we were of you," Jack replied, gallantly.
"I thought of it first," said Tom. "He"ll have to give me credit for that."
"Yes," agreed Jack, "I will. He"s got a great scheme," he added, as Mrs.
Gleason came in to greet the boys. "Tell "em, Tom."
"Is it anything about--oh, have you any news for me about Harry?" asked Nellie eagerly.
"Not exactly news from him, but we"re going to send some news to him!"
exclaimed Tom. "I want you to write him a letter-a real, nice, sisterly letter."
"What good will that do?" asked Nellie. "I"ve sent him a lot, but I can"t be sure that he gets them. I don"t even know that he is alive."
"Oh, I think he is," said Tom, hopefully. "If the German airmen were decent enough to let us know he was a prisoner of theirs, they would tell us if--if--well, if anything had happened to him."
"I think," he went on, "that you, can count on his being alive, though he isn"t having the best time in the world--none of the Hun prisoners do. That"s why I thought it would cheer him up to let him know we are thinking of him, and if we can send him some smokes, and some chocolate."
"Oh, he is so fond of chocolate!" exclaimed Nellie. "He used to love the fudge I made. I wonder if I could send him any of that?"
Tom shook his head.
"It would be better," he said, "to send only hard chocolate--the kind that can stand hard knocks. Fudge is too soft. It would get all mussed up with what Jack and I have planned to do to it."
"What is that?" asked Bessie Gleason. "You haven"t told us yet. How are you going to get anything to Harry through those horrid German lines?"