"Haird?--good Lord, mon--sir-r, A" mean--look here!"
He put his hand in his pocket and produced a worn leather case. From this he extracted two or three newspaper cuttings and selected one, headed "German Official."
""Captain Muller,"" read Tam, ""yesterday shot doon his twenty-sixth aeroplane.""
"That"s Muller," said the other carefully. "I can tell you no more--except look after yourself."
"Ha"e na doot aboot that, sir-r," said Tam with confidence.
He went up that afternoon in accordance with instructions received from headquarters to "search enemy territory west of a line from Montessier to St. Pierre le Pet.i.t."
He made his search, and sailed down with his report as the sun reached the horizon.
"A verra quiet joorney," he complained, "A" was hopin" for a squint at Mr. MacMuller, but he was sleeping like a doormoose--A" haird his snoor risin" to heaven an" ma hairt wis sick wi" disappointed longin". "Hoo long," A" says, "hoo long will ye avoid the doom Tam o" the Scoots has marked ye doon for?" There wis naw reply."
"I"ve discovered Tam"s weird pal," said Blackie, coming into the mess before lunch the next day. "He is Claude Beaumont of the American Squadron--Lefevre, the wing commander, was up to-day. Apparently Beaumont is an exceedingly rich young man who has equipped a wing with its own machines, hangars and repair-shop, and he flies where he likes.
Look at "em!"
They crowded out with whatever gla.s.ses they could lay their hands upon and watched the two tiny machines that circled and dipped, climbed and banked about one another.
First one would dart away with the other in pursuit, then the chaser, as though despairing of overtaking his quarry, would turn back. The "hare"
would then turn and chase the other.
"Have you ever seen two puppies at play?" asked Blackie. "Look at Tam chasing his tail--and neither man knows the other or has ever looked upon his face! Isn"t it weird? That"s von Hansen-Ba.s.sermann"s ninth sense. They can"t speak--they can"t even see one another properly and yet they"re good pals--look at "em. I"ve watched the puppies of the pack go on in exactly the same way."
"What is Tam supposed to be doing?"
"He"s watching the spotters. Tam will be down presently and we"ll ask David how he came to meet Jonathan--this business has been going on for weeks."
Tam had received the recall signal. Beneath him he saw the two "spotters" returning home, and he waved his hand to his sporting companion and came round in a little more than twice his own length. He saw his strange friend"s hand raised in acknowledgment, and watched him turn for the south. Tam drove on for a mile, then something made him look back.
Above his friend was a glittering white dragon-fly, and as he looked the fly darted down at the American tail.
"Missed him!" said Tam, and swung round. He was racing with the wind at top speed and he must have been doing one hundred and twenty miles an hour, but for the fact that he was climbing at the extreme angle. He saw the dragon-fly loop and climb and the American swing about to attack.
But his machine was too slow--that Tam knew. Nothing short of a miracle could save the lower machine, for the enemy had again reached the higher position. So engrossed was he with his plan that he did not see Tam until the Scot was driving blindly to meet him--until the first shower from Tam"s Lewis gun rained on wing and fuselage. The German swerved in his drive and missed his proper prey. Tam was behind him and above him, but in no position to attack. He could, and did fire a drum into the fleeing foeman, but none of the shots took effect.
"Tairn him, Archie!" groaned Tam, and as though the earth gunners had heard his plea, a screen of bursting shrapnel rose before the dragon-fly. He turned and nose-dived with Tam behind him, but now his nose was for home, and Tam, after a five-mile pursuit, came round and made for home also. Near his own lines he came up with the circling "Frenchman" and received his thanks--four fingers extended in the air--before the signaler, taking a route within the lines, streaked for home.
"Phew!" said Tam, shaking his head.
"Who were you chasing?" asked Blackie. "He can go!"
"Yon"s MacMuller," said Tam, jerking his thumb at the eastern sky. "He"s a verra likeable feller--but a wee bit too canny an" a big bit too fast.
Captain Blackie, sir-r, can ye no get me a machine that can flee? Ma wee machine is no" unlike a hairse, but A"m wishfu" o" providin" the coorpse."
"You"ve got the fastest machine in France, Tam," said the captain.
Tam nodded.
"It"s verra likely--she wis no" runnin" so sweet," he confessed. "But, mon! That Muller! He"s a braw Hoon an" A"m encouraged by the fine things that the baron said aboot ma poetry. Ech! A"ve got a graund vairse in ma heid for Mr. Muller"s buryin"! Hae ye a seegair aboot ye, Captain Blackie? A" gave ma case to the Duke of Argyle an" he has no" retairned it."
CHAPTER III
THE COMING OF MuLLER
There arrived one day at the aerodrome a large packing-case addressed "Sergeant Tam." There was no surname, though there was no excuse for the timidity which stopped short at "Tam." The consignor might, at least, have ventured to add a tentative and inquiring "Mac?"
Tam took the case into his little "bunk" and opened it. The stripping of the rough outer packing revealed a suave, unpolished cedar cabinet with two doors and a key that dangled from one of the k.n.o.bs. Tam opened the case after some consideration and disclosed shelf upon shelf tightly packed with bundles of rich, brown, fragrant cigars.
There was a card inscribed:
"Your friend in the Merman pusher."
"Who," demanded Tam, "is ma low acqueentance, who dispoorts himsel" in an oot-o"-date machine?"
Young Carter, who had come in to inspect the unpacking, offered a suggestion.
"Probably the French machine that is always coming over here to see you," he said, "Mr. Thiggamy-tight, the American."
"Ah, to be sure!" said Tam relieved. "A" thocht maybe the Kaiser had sent me droogged seegairs--A"m an awfu" thorn in the puir laddie"s side.
Ye may laugh, Mister Carter, but A" reca" a case wheer a bonnie detective wi" the same name as ye"sel", though A" doot if he wis related to ye, was foiled by the machinations o" Ferdie the Foorger at the moment o" his triumph by the lad gieing him a seegair soaked in laud"num an" chlorofor-rm!"
He took a bundle, slipped out two cigars, offered one to his officer, after a brief but baffling examination to discover which was the worse, and lit the other.
"They"re no" so bad," he admitted, "but yeer ain seegairs never taste so bonnie as the seegairs yeer frien"s loan ye."
"They came in time," said Carter; "we"d started a League for the Suppression of Cigar Cadging."
"Maybe ye thocht o" makin" me treesurer? Naw? Ah weel, a wee seegair is no muckle to gie a body wha"s brocht fame an" honor to the Wing."
"I often wonder, Tam," said Carter, "how much you"re joking and laughing at yourself when you"re talking about "Tam, the Terror of the Clouds,"
and how much you"re in earnest."
A fleeting smile flickered for a second about Tam"s mouth and vanished.
"In all guid wairks of reference, fra" Auld Morre"s Almanac to the Clyede River Time-Table," he said soberly, "it"s written that a Scotsman canna joke. If A"d no talk about Tam--would ye talk aboot ye"sel"s? Naw!
Ye"d go oop an" doon, fichtin" an" deein" wi"oot a waird. If ye"ll talk aboot ye"sel"s A"ll no talk aboot Tam. A" knaw ma duty, Mister Carter--A"m the offeecial boaster o" the wing an" the coor, an" whin they bring me doon wi" a bullet in ma heid, A" hope ye"ll engage anither like me."
"There isn"t another like you, Tam," laughed Carter.
"Ye dinna knaw Glasca,"" replied Tam darkly.