resh as a daisy! This business has made me
forget there's such a thing as getting tired walking."

"Let's see, we stood here when I fired," continued Tom reflectively,
"and you walked straight to where the bird dropped. That would make the
direction due northwest by southeast. How about that, Jack?"

The other took a survey, and then pointed with his hand.

"When I saw the bird coming first of all, Tom," he finally remarked, "it
was just showing up over that clump of trees killed by gunfire. And it
was heading as straight as can be for us."

"Yes," Tom went on to say, "because a homing pigeon on being released
will rise to a certain height and take its bearings. Then it starts in a
bee-line for its loft, whether that is five miles away or hundreds of
miles. Some peculiar instinct tells it in which way home lies. It seldom
if ever goes astray. Sometimes birds have made a thousand miles, and
shown up at their home coop days after being set free."

"Well, then, the man who threw it into the air, after fastening this
cipher message to it, must be over to the southeast of us," affirmed
Jack.

"The bird was released within five minutes or so of the time I fired,"
Tom told his chum. "It's even possible the spy may have heard the report
of my gun."

"Tom, why not try to capture that spy?" asked Jack, eagerly, ready for
any sort of excitement.

The young aviators started off, walking briskly. They kept their eyes
alertly open as they proceeded. At the same time, on Tom's suggestion,
they continued to act as though still looking for game, even
investigating at a burrow that certainly was used by rabbits, as the
tracks plainly indicated.

Tom never deviated from a direct line due southeast. He knew that their
best chance of making a valuable discovery lay in finding the place
where the carrier pigeon had been released, to fly across the lines to
its home loft. This might be many miles to the rear of the fighting
front, even on Lorraine territory, in the neighborhood of the fortified
city of Metz itself.

The two passed over a mile without making any sort of discovery, Jack,
who did not possess quite as determined a nature as his comrade, was
already commencing to make certain sounds akin to complainings, as
though he felt keenly disgruntled because of their lack of success.

"Guess we'll have to give it up, Tom," he finally remarked.

"Wait," said Tom. "Before doing that let's investigate that old
shattered farmhous