just like a series of deep scars running in all directions."

"You can't see the first line trenches yet," said Leon. "You can
easily tell them for they'll run exactly parallel to one another and
the space in between them will be the only place where you see no
trenches. Behind both the French and German first lines there are any
number of other trenches running in all directions and all connected.
But in between the two front ones there is nothing; 'no-man's land'
they call it."

"'Dead-man's land' would be better I should think."

"See them firing," exclaimed Leon suddenly.

"At us?" queried Earl.

"No. You can see those puffs of smoke down below there though; those
are bursting shells."

"There are the first line trenches too," said Earl abruptly. "You can
tell them easily, can't you, just as you said."

"How high are we, Jacques?" inquired Leon.

The young aviator consulted his indicator. "Two thousand meters," he
replied.

"Let's see," said Leon, trying to figure it out in his head, "there are
a little over three feet in a meter and that would make two thousand
meters about six thousand feet or over. There are five thousand two
hundred and forty feet in a mile; that makes us a little over a mile
high."

"Can they hit us at this distance?" asked Earl.

"They can, but I hope they don't," said Leon grimly.

"Funny we haven't seen any other machines," remarked Earl.

"Well we're right over the front trenches now and I guess plenty of
people see us and are looking at us right this minute."

As he spoke a puff of white smoke suddenly appeared ahead of them but
some distance below.

"They're firing at us," exclaimed Jacques.

"Shall we drop a bomb on them?" cried Earl eagerly. "We want them to
know that we're alive, you know."

"Don't do it," cautioned Jacques. "It would probably be wasted here."

"There's another shot," cried Leon. "Behind us this time."

"Let's hope their aim continues as poor as that," said Jacques. "We
want to get those dispatches to Colonel Erhard at Flambeau before
anything happens to us."

"We'll be over hostile territory all the way, won't we?" asked Earl.

"We will," replied Jacques, "and we'll be fired at all the way too. If
they should send a couple of machines up after us we might have to run
for it."

"I don't know where we'd run to," said Leon grimly.

"Nor I," admitted Jacques. "Let's hope that we can out-distance any
machines that start to chase u