ared not frame them.
There was no adequate reply.

* * * * *

Blake jammed his hat upon his head and walked blindly from the room.
Heedless of the protests of those he jostled on the street he went
raging on, but some subconscious urge directed his steps. He found
himself at the railway. There was a station, and a grilled window where
he was asking for a ticket back to Washington. And on the following
day--

"There is nothing I can do," he told General Clinton. "It is hopeless. I
ask to be relieved."

"Why?" The general snapped the question at him. What kind of man was
this that Boynton had sent him?

"They are fools," said Blake bluntly, "pompous, well-meaning fools! They
are planning better motors, more power"--he laughed harshly--"and they
think that with them we can attack ships that are independent of the
air."

"Still," asked General Clinton coldly, "for what purpose do you wish to
be relieved? What do you intend to do?"

"Return to the field," said Captain Blake, "to work, and put my planes
and personnel in the best possible condition; then, when the time comes,
go up and fight like hell."

An unusual phrasing of a request when one is addressing one's commander;
but the older man threw back his shoulders, that were bending under
responsibilities too great for one man to bear, and took a long breath
that relaxed his face and seemed to bring relief.

"You've got the right idea,"--he spoke slowly and thoughtfully--"the
right philosophy. It is all we have left--to fight like hell when the
time comes. Give my regards to Colonel Boynton; he sent me a good man
after all."

* * * * *

Another long flight, westward this time, and, despite the failure of his
hopes and of his errand, Blake was flying with a mind at peace. "It is
all we have left," the general had said. Well, it was good to face
facts, to admit them--and that was that! There was no use of thinking or
worrying.... He lifted the ship to a higher level and glanced at his
compass. There were clouds up ahead, and he drove still higher into the
night, until he was above them.

And again his peace of mind was not to last.

It was night when he swung the ship over his home port and signalled for
a landing. A flood of light swept out across the field to guide him
down. He went directly to the colonel's quarters but found him gone.

"In the radio room, I think," an orderly told him.

Co