ported glumly. "There's no road into Lille or ower
Lille--ye'd better send a submarine up the Liza."

Tam had never thoroughly learned the difference between the Yser and the
Lys and gave both rivers a generic title.

"Did you see any concentrations east of the town?" asked Blackie.

"Beyond an epidemic of mad Gairman airplanes an' a violent eruption of
Archies, the hatefu' enemy shows no sign o' life or movement," said Tam.
"Man, A've never wanted so badly to look into Lille till now."

Undoubtedly there was something to hide. Young Turpin, venturing where
Tam had nearly trod, was shot down by gun-fire and taken prisoner.
Missel, a good flyer, was outfought by three opponents and slid home
with a dead observer, limp and smiling in the fuselage.

"To-morrow at daybreak, look for Tam amongst the stars," said that
worthy young man as he backed out of Blackie's office, "the disgustin'
incivility o' the Hoon has aroosed the fichtin' spirit o' the
dead-an'-gone MacTavishes. Every fiber in ma body, includin' ma
suspenders, is tense wi' rage an' horror."

"A cigar, Tam?"

"No, thank ye, sir-r," said Tam, waving aside the proffered case and
extracting two cigars in one motion. "Well, perhaps A'd better. A've run
oot o' seegairs, an' the thoosand A' ordered frae ma Glasgae factor hae
been sunk by enemy action--this is no' a bad seegair, Captain Blackie,
sir-r. It's a verra passable smoke an' no' dear at four-pence."

"That cigar costs eight pounds a hundred," said Blackie, nettled.

"Ye'll end yeer days in the puirhouse," said Tam.

True to his promise he swept over Lille the next morning and to his
amazement no particular resistance was offered. He was challenged
half-heartedly by a solitary machine, he was banged at by A-A guns, but
encountered nothing of that intensity of fire which met him on his
earlier visit.

And Lille was the Lille he knew: the three crooked boulevards, the
jumble of small streets, and open space before the railway station.
There was no evidence of any unusual happening--no extraordinary
collection of rolling stock in the tangled sidings, or gatherings of
troops in the outskirts of the town.

Tam was puzzled and pushed eastward. He pursued his investigations as
far as Roubaix, then swept southward to Douai. Here he came against
exactly the same kind of resistance which he had found on his first
visit to Lille. There were the three circles of fighting machines, the
strengthened Archie batter