"Will I? Say, I"ll come if I have to hitch on behind, like a can to a dog"s tail!" cried Leroy, and, weak and ill-nourished as he was, it was evident that the sight of his former comrades had already done him much good.
So now that the position was well won by the Americans and the Allies, Tom and Jack turned their machine about, wheeled it to a good taking off place, and with Harry Leroy as a pa.s.senger, though it made the place rather crowded, they flew back over the recent battleground, and to their own aerodrome, where Harry and some other prisoners, brought through the air by other birdmen, were well taken care of.
The great battle was not yet over, for there was fighting up and down the line, and in distant sectors. But it was going well for Pershing"s forces.
"And now," remarked Harry, when he had had food and had washed and had begun to smoke, "tell me all about it." He was in the quarters a.s.signed to Tom Raymond and Jack Parmly, being their guest.
"Well, there isn"t an awful lot to tell," Tom said, modestly enough. "We heard you were in trouble, and came after you; that"s all. How did you like your German boarding house?"
"It was fierce! Terrible! I can"t tell you what it means to be free.
But I"d like to send word to my folks that I"m all right. I suppose they have heard I was a prisoner."
"Yes," answered Tom. "In fact, you can talk to one of the family soon.
That is, as soon as you can go to Paris."
"Talk to a member of the family? Go to Paris? What do you mean?" Harry fairly shouted the words.
"Your sister Nellie is staying with friends of ours," said Tom. "We"ll take you to her."
"Nellie here? Great Scott! She said she was coming to the front, but I didn"t believe her! Say, she is some sister!"
"You said it!" exclaimed Tom, with as great fervor as Harry used.
"Didn"t you get the bundles we dropped?" asked Jack. "The notes and the packages of chocolate?"
"Not a one," "replied Harry. "I was looking for some word, but none came, after one of the airmen told me he had dropped my glove. But I knew how it was--you didn"t get a chance to send any word."
"Oh, but we did!" cried Tom, and then he told of the dropping of the packages.
But, as Leroy related, he had been transferred from that camp a few days before.
Two of the packets fell among the prisoners, who, after trying in vain to send them to Harry, partook of the good things to eat, which they much needed themselves. They were given to the ill prisoners, and the notes were carefully hidden away. Some time after the war Harry received them, and treasured them greatly as souvenirs.
"But we didn"t make any mistake this time," said Tom. "We have you now."
"Yes," agreed Harry with a smile, "you have me now, and mighty glad I am of it."
A few days later, when Harry was better able to travel, he went to see Nellie in Paris, a message having been sent soon after the big battle, to tell her that he was rescued and as well as could be expected.
"But if it hadn"t been for Tom and Jack I don"t believe I"d be there now," said Harry to his sister, as he sat in the homelike apartment of the Gleasons.
"I know you wouldn"t," said Nellie. "They said they"d rescue you and they did. We shall never be able to thank them enough--but we can try!"
She looked at Tom, and he--well, I shall firmly but kindly have to insist that what followed is neither your affair nor mine.
And now, though you know it as well as I do, my story has come to an end. At least the present chronicle of the doings of the air service boys has nothing further to offer. Their further adventures will be related in another volume to be ent.i.tled: "Air Service Boys Flying for Victory."
But it was not the end of the fighting, and Tom and Jack did not cease their efforts. Harry Leroy, too, was eager to get back into the contest again, and he did, as soon as he had sufficiently recovered.
He told some of his experiences while a prisoner among the Germans, and some things he did not tell. They were better left untold.
However, I should like to close my story with a more pleasant scene than that, and so I invite your attention, one beautiful Sunday morning to Paris, when the sun was shining and war seemed very far away, though it was not. Two couples are going down a street which is gay with flower stands. There are two young men and two girls, the young men wear the aviation uniforms of the Americans. They walk along, chatting and laughing, and, as an aeroplane pa.s.ses high overhead, its motors droning out a song of progress, they all look up.
"That"s what we"ll be doing to-morrow," observed Tom Raymond.
"Yes," agreed Jack Parmly.
"Oh, hush!" laughed one of the girls. "Can"t you stay on earth one day?"
And there on earth, in such pleasant company, we will leave the Air Service Boys.
THE END