a very old piano beating out tuneless accompaniment to a
bull-voiced singer roaring through the many verses of "Hinkey Dinkey
Parlez Vous".

"The Yank Marine went over the top,
_Parlez Vous_,
The Yank Marine went over the top,
_Parlez Vous_,
The Yank Marine went over the top
And gave old Fritz a whale of a pop,
Hinkey Dinkey, _Parlez Vous_."

McGee smiled as he sat for a moment listening to the words. All his
service had been with the English, who of course had composed many songs
highly complimentary to themselves, and only in the last few days had he
come in contact with the forerunners of the mighty American army now
pouring into French harbors from every arriving boat.

"Quite a fellow--this Yank Marine," he said to Siddons.

Siddons nodded, rather stiffly. "So it seems. Though he hasn't been over
the top yet. Prophecy, I suppose." He stepped from the car to the curb
with the bearing of one accustomed to being delivered in a
chauffeur-driven car.

McGee was on the point of calling out, "When shall I call, sir?" but at
that moment noticed young Hampden's genuine smile and heard him voicing
words of appreciation for the lift.

"Don't mention it," McGee said. "It was a pleasure. Cheerio! old man!"

"There," he thought, sinking back in the tonneau. "I said 'old man'.
Singular case, and that lets Siddons out rather neatly. Hum. I'll bet a
cookie he knows more about flying than I do--or anyone else, for that
matter. Well, we'll see. I wonder what sort of outfit Buzz drew."

Lieutenant "Buzz" Larkin was closer to McGee than any person in the
world. Close bonds of friendship had been formed while they were in
training in Cadet Brigade Headquarters, at Hastings, England. During
their months of service together in the Royal Air Force, on exceedingly
hot fronts, those bonds of friendship had become bands of steel, holding
them together almost as firmly as blood ties. Both were Americans, but
the motives back of their entrance into the R.F.C. were as widely
divergent as possible. Larkin, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, had
never disclosed the real reason for his entrance into a foreign service.
Perhaps he sought adventure. McGee, however, made no secret of the
motives back of his entrance. When word reached him that his brother had
been killed while doing observation work in a captive balloon, young
McGee, not yet eighteen, employed a trick (which he thought justified)
to gain en