. Perhaps we shall be shot. But we do not care
to let an old man, and a Frenchman follow us to a death that he
should not invite."

"I would go with you until I see you safely in sight of the station,"
objected the Frenchman.

"It seems unnecessary, and contemptible in us to risk your life
along with our own. Do you understand the lay of the land, Tom?
Can you find our objective without risking the life of our good
old friend here?"

"I am sure that I can," Reade nodded. "Like yourself, Dick, I
feel that he should not come further with us. And see here, monsieur.
You have not asked our names, neither have we known yours. Some
day, when all around here is French territory again, and the beastly
German has gone forever, we shall want to look you up, or write
you. I am Lieutenant Tom Reade, of the American aviation service,
and my friend is Captain Richard Prescott, of the American Infantry."

"And I am Francois Prim. My neighbors call me Papa Prim."

"Show us the way we are to go, Monsieur Prim," Dick urged.

"It is simple," replied Papa Prim. "You see, without fail, the
little building to which I am pointing, over by the roadside?"

"Yes."

"That was our school-house. Now it is an office for the Prussians.
They have a battalion or more of infantry camped in the field
across from the building. They are a guard to keep us afraid.
Sometimes one will see three or four regiments camped further
along on that field, either regiments going to the front or coming
back for rest. Now, from that building you turn and go in that
direction"---Papa Prim made a motion with his crooked
forefinger---"and so you come to four sheds that are easily missed
in the night, for they are camouflaged so as not to attract the eye
of French flyers in the day time. From here it will be the first
shed that you come to that is more likely to be open at night.
In each shed are two airplanes. They are kept here for the purpose
of sending up at night when French planes pass over to bomb railways
or perhaps to bomb German towns. When our own French airmen come
then these airplanes shoot up into the sky and give battle. But
the Huns have lost twelve planes here in half that number of months,"
Papa Prim added proudly, "and only lately have enough new ones
arrived from Germany to make up the eight required for this station."

"Where do the airmen sleep?" Dick interjected.

"In the camp with the troops; in the hangars there are no s