ur case, McGee."

"If I can help--"

"You can. A recent report from General Mitchell declares that casualties
from all causes have been as high as eighty per cent per month in
squadrons at the front. That's pretty stiff! Fortunately, the General
points out, the enemy losses have been as great, or even greater. I
don't want to leave a stone unturned that may help us to decrease that
percentage in this pursuit group--and _increase_ it among the
enemy! Here, take a look at this map, McGee."

He stepped to the table and with a pencil drew a circle around a spot
south of Epernay. "We are here," he said. "The lines are here." He moved
the pencil to the northwest of Epernay, where the heavy black lines
indicating the front crossed the Marne. "Notice that the lines swing
southwest through Comblizy and la Chapelle, then northwest again, back
to the Marne, and on to Chateau-Thierry. To-morrow we are to go here."
He circled a spot just south of La Ferte sous Jouarre. "See anything
peculiar in this situation?" He studied closely the faces of the two
junior officers. Mullins offered no reply.

"I think it peculiar that we have come up here, miles out of our way to
the north, when our destination is considerably southwest of us," McGee
offered.

"Exactly!" Cowan replied, approvingly. "But there is a reason for it--to
mislead the enemy. Their Intelligence Department seems to learn of every
move we make, and sometimes learns of it in _advance_ of that move.
That's the real reason we are here."

"I don't get it," Mullins said, shaking his head.

"The order sending us here came down in the regular way," Cowan
explained, "but the order that takes us to La Ferte, to-morrow morning,
was highly confidential. I did not disclose it until the moment of our
departure, and only then so that anyone forced down would know our
destination. There is to be a considerable concentration of air forces
on the apex of the salient between la Chapelle, this side of
Chateau-Thierry, and Villers-Cotterets, on the other side. It is the
beginning of a movement of concentration to drive the enemy back beyond
the Vesle. Hence the secrecy, and the effort to mislead the enemy as to
our movements."

McGee smiled, somewhat skeptically.

"What's wrong with that?" Cowan challenged.

"The enemy isn't so easily misled, Major," McGee answered. "We learned
that lesson on the English front, and learned it through bitter
experience. If the Hun doesn't know right