been made and the supplies and bombs were in place.

"Attention!" called the commander. "Are you ready?"

"Ready!" came from Tom, who was in command of one machine.

"Ready!" answered Haught, who was in charge of the second.

"Then go, and may good fortune go with you!"

There was a roar of the motors, and the big, ponderous machines started
for Germany.

Would they ever reach it?

CHAPTER XXIV

PRISONERS

Under the evening stars, the two big Italian machines slowly, and, it
must be said, somewhat ponderously, as compared with a speedy Nieuport,
winged their way toward the German river, behind which it was hoped,
some day, to drive the savage Huns.

"What do you think?" asked Jack of his chum, for in these latest
machines, by reason of the motors being farther from the passengers, and
by means of tubes, some talk could be carried on.

"I don't know just what to think," was the answer. "So much has happened
of late, that it's almost beyond my thinking capacity."

"That's right. And yet I can guess one thing you have in mind, Tom, old
scout."

"What is it?"

"Your father! You're hoping you can rescue him."

"That's right, I am. And as soon as this drive is over--if we come back
from it with any measure of success, and I can get a long leave of
absence--I'm going to make a thorough search for him."

"And I'll be with you; don't forget that!"

There was not time for too much talk of a personal nature, as Tom and
Jack had to give their attention to the great plane. The motors were
working to perfection, and with luck they should, within a few hours, be
over the great German works, which they hoped to blow up.

Tom was in charge of the plane, but he had Jack and others to help him,
and there was a certain freedom of movement permitted, not possible in
even the big photographing or bombing planes.

Down below little could be seen, for they were now over the French and
German trenches, and neither side was showing lights for fear of
attracting the fire of the other.

But Tom and Jack had been coached in the course they were to take and,
in addition, they had a pilot who, a few weeks before, had made a
partially successful raid in the region beyond the Rhine, barely
escaping with his life.

And so they flew on under the silent stars, that looked like the small
navigating lights on other aeroplanes. But, as far as the raiders knew,
they were the only ones aloft in that particular region just the