ced that in asking me the
question he was told to ask, he emphasized certain words which
needed no emphasis, and spoke them slowly, with a look that
made me determine to fix each one in my mind. This I did, and
putting them together when I got the chance, I made out, 'I
want to get you home. Say you invented this model, and could
put the thing in working trim.'

"That was a big order! If I said it and could keep my word,
would it be a patriotic job to present the enemy with a
perfectly good machine, of a new make, in the place of a wreck they
didn't understand? This was my first thought. But the
second reminded me of a sentence I'd constructed with some of
the emphasized words; '_I want to get you home_.' How did he
expect to get me home--if not by air?

"With that I caught a glimpse of the plan, as one sometimes
catches sight of the earth through a break in massed
clouds when flying. If the man meant to help me, I would help
him. If he turned out a fraud, the Germans shouldn't profit
by his treachery I'd stop that game at the last moment, if I died
for it!

"You will know nothing about the new and curious bombing
biplane of super-speed invented by Leroy Harman of Galbraith,
Texas. But Father knows as much as any one not an expert in
aeronautics can know. When the Government wouldn't believe
in Harman, Father financed him by my advice. I left home for
France before the trial machine that was to convince officialdom
had come into being; and I didn't even know whether it had
made good. But the minute I saw what lay on the ground,
surrounded by a ring of Germans, I said to myself; 'Good old
Leroy!'

"I'd seen so much of his plans that they remained printed on
my brain, and I could--if I would--set that biplane on its wings
again almost as easily as if I _had_ invented it.

"Odd that the Bosches and I both trusted Herter, seeing he
must be false to one side or other! But he's that sort of man.
And I always take a tip from my own instinct before listening to
my reason. Maybe that's why I didn't do badly in my brief
career as a flier. Anyhow, I played up to Herter; and I got the
job of superintending the reconstruction of poor Harman's
damaged machine. It was a lovely job for a prisoner, though
they watched me as a German cat would watch an Allied mouse.
Herter was nearly always on the spot, however, for he'd made
himself responsible