."

"Why didn't he get out of the way?" inquired Patsy with a shudder.

"Can't say. Preoccupied, perhaps. There wasn't much time to jump,
anyhow. I suppose that car carried a messenger with important news, for
it isn't like those officers to be reckless of the lives of citizens."

"No; they seem in perfect sympathy with the people," she returned. "I
wonder what the news can be, Ajo."

For answer a wild whistling sounded overhead; a cry came from those
ashore and the next instant there was a loud explosion. Everyone rushed
to the side, where Captain Carg was standing, staring at the sky.

"What was it, Captain?" gasped Patsy.

Carg stroked his grizzled beard.

"A German bomb, Miss Patsy; but I think it did no damage."

"A bomb! Then the Germans are on us?"

"Not exactly. An aeroplane dropped the thing."

"Oh. Where is it?"

"The aeroplane? Pretty high up, I reckon," answered the captain. "I had
a glimpse of it, for a moment; then it disappeared in the clouds."

"We must get our ambulances ashore," said Jones.

"No hurry, sir; plenty of time," asserted the captain. "I think I saw
the airship floating north, so it isn't likely to bother us again just
now."

"What place is north of us?" inquired the girl, trembling a little in
spite of her efforts at control.

"I think it is Nieuport--or perhaps Dixmude," answered Carg. "I visited
Belgium once, when I was a young man, but I cannot remember it very
well. We're pretty close to the Belgian border, at Dunkirk."

"There's another!" cried Ajo, as a second whistling shriek sounded above
them. This time the bomb fell into the sea and raised a small
water-spout, some half mile distant. They could now see plainly a second
huge aircraft circling above them; but this also took flight toward the
north and presently disappeared.

Uncle John came hurrying on deck with an anxious face and together the
group of Americans listened for more bombs; but that was all that came
their way that night.

"Well," said Patsy, when she had recovered her equanimity, "we're at the
front at last, Uncle. How do you like it?"

"I hadn't thought of bombs," he replied. "But we're in for it, and I
suppose we'll have to take whatever comes."

Now came the doctor, supporting the injured man on one side while Maud
Stanton held his opposite arm. Gys was smiling broadly--a rather ghastly
expression.

"No bones broken, sir," he reported to Mr. Merrick. "Only a good
shake-up and plenty of br