and preparation."

John felt the gravity of his tone, but he asked no more questions,
seeing that the young Frenchman was reluctant to answer them, and that
he was also ready for his flight.

"You're in all senses a bird of passage, Philip," he said, "but I know
that whatever happens tomorrow or rather today we're going to see each
other again. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," said Lannes, extending his gloved hand. "We're comrades,
John, and I hope sometimes to turn your little fraternity of three into
a brotherhood of four. Tell the Englishman, Carstairs, that France and
England together can't fail."

"He'll think it mostly England."

"If we only win, let him think it."

Lannes stepped into the machine, it was shoved forward, then it rose
gracefully into the air and flew off in the usual spirals and zigzags
toward the east, where it was soon lost in the darkness. John gazed
toward the point, where he last saw it. It seemed almost a dream, that
flight of his with Lannes, and the fight with the Taubes, and the
Zeppelin. He was on the ground now, and the coming battle would be
fought on the solid earth, as man had been fighting from time
immemorial. He was about to return to his blanket when a glad voice
called to him and a figure emerged from the dark.

"Mr. Scott," came a pleasant voice. "And you were not drowned after all!
I thought that I alone escaped!"

It was Weber, paler than usual, but without a wound. John's surprise was
lost in gladness. He liked this man, whose manners were so agreeable,
and he had mourned his death.

"Mr. Weber," he said, shaking hands with him, "it's I who should say:
'and you are not dead?' We thought you were drowned under the
automobile. Mr. Wharton, Mr. Carstairs and myself escaped uninjured
although we had a hard time afterward with the Germans. How did you
manage it?"

"I _was_ under the automobile, and I _did_ come near being drowned, but
not quite. I'm a good swimmer, but I was caught by a strap. As soon as I
could disengage myself I swam rapidly down stream under water, came up
in the shadow, and crawled among some bushes on the bank. I saw the
Germans ride into the river, search the opposite shore, and after a
while go away. Then I emerged from the bushes, walked more hours than I
can count, and you see me here. I've brought information which I think
of value, and I'm on my way now to give it to high officers."

John shook hands with him again. Weber's manner, at once frank