"In five minutes or so, after I've spoken to Bessie," came the answer.

Jack was as good as his word, and the two chums were soon preparing for
another night's sound sleep, hoping they would not be aroused by any
disturbance, such as had occurred on that other night.

In this at least they were lucky. The Germans had evidently suffered so
severely on account of that other raid they did not care to repeat it.

So the night passed altogether in peaceful fashion; that is, for such
times of warfare, where hundreds of thousands of fighting men, backed by
unlimited batteries and monster guns, were daily grappling in what was
destined to go down in history as the most extraordinary, as well as the
most protracted, engagement of the entire war.

The boys were up early, and Harry Leroy seemed surprised when told that
the two air service boys did not expect to fly that day.

"Something's up, I warrant," he told them bluntly, "and you're bound to
keep a tight upperlip about it. All right, I wouldn't ask you to whisper
just one word to me; only I feel sore because they have left me out of
the game. But I never was lucky in drawing prizes. I'll go out and vent
my spleen on some Fritz who happens to get in my way."

When the airmen trailed in toward noon on that October day, first,
rumors reached Tom and Jack, and then came the plain story connected
with Harry's extraordinary conduct on that wonderful morning.

Other pilots said the boy seemed to be possessed of a spirit such as
they had never known him to show before. He hunted out the Boche
wherever he could find him, forced him to give battle, and then simply
played with him, no matter if he chanced to be one of the best-known
German aces.

Two he had sent down in flames, for which he would receive due credit;
and there were reports that he had also made as many more drop to the
earth in a condition of impotence.

"Why," said a pilot who recounted some of these happenings to the air
service boys, "Harry seemed possessed of a reckless spirit that will be
the death of him yet unless he curbs it. He'll soon have the entire
Boche escadrille on his tail, crazy to fetch him down. And if he keeps
up this sort of work and lives, he'll soon make our leading ace look to
his laurels."

When Harry came in finally he looked flushed, but triumphant.

"What's all this we hear about your carrying-on this morning?" demanded
Jack, almost immediately.

"Oh, I just made up my mind th