wasn't easy work. I met this officer in his motor car, and he brought
me along the last stage of the journey. Can you tell me where my brother
is? His name is Harry Leroy."

Torn said afterward that he felt as though he had gone into a spinning
nose dive with a Boche aviator on his tail, while Jack admitted that he
felt somewhat as he did the time his gasoline pipe was severed by a Hun
bullet when he was high in the air and several miles behind the enemy's
lines.

"Your--your brother!" Tom managed to mutter.

"Yes, Harry Leroy. He's from the United States, too. Perhaps you know
him, as I notice you are both aviators. He told me if I ever got to
France to come to see him, and he mentioned the names of two young
men--I have them here somewhere--"

She began to search in the depths of a little leather valise she
carried, and, at that moment, the military chauffeur who had brought her
to the aviation field turned to her, and spoke rapidly in French.

She understood the language, as did Tom and Jack, and at the first words
her face went white. For the chauffeur informed her that her brother,
Harry Leroy, whom she had come so far to see, was, even then, lying dead
or wounded within the German lines.

"Oh!" the girl murmured, her fare becoming whiter and more white.
"Oh--Harry!"

Then she would have fallen from the seat, only Tom leaped forward and
caught her in his arms.

And while efforts were being made to restore the girl to consciousness,
may I not take this opportunity of telling my new readers something of
the previous books of this series, so that they may read this one more
intelligently?

Torn Raymond and Jack Parmly, as related in the initial volume, "Air
Service Boys Flying for France; or The Young Heroes of the Lafayette
Escadrille," were Virginians. Soon after the great world conflict
started, they burned with a desire to fight on the side of freedom, and
it was as aviators that they desired to help.

Accordingly they went to an aviation school in Virginia, under the
auspices of the Government, and there learned the rudiments of flying.
Tom's father had invented an aeroplane stabilizer, but, as told in the
story, the plans and other papers had been stolen by a German spy.

Tom and his chum resolved to get possession of the documents, and they
kept up the search after they reached France and were made members
of the Lafayette Escadrille. It was in France that they met Adolph
Tuessing, the German spy.