ht. This was done in order to
lead the Boche to believe that the night would pass without unusual
occurrences.

Quietly, every man who had been called to duty presented himself at his
special station equipped for work. The hostlers, under the supervision
of the officer in command at the aviation field, had seen to it that
every detail had been looked after. Tanks were filled, and each plane
carefully examined for defects that might imperil the lives of those who
were to trust themselves to its reliability.

As customary, the pilots and observers themselves took one last survey
of certain particular features where experience told them there was the
most reason to anticipate trouble.

Not a single plane but stood up under the test, which spoke well for the
infinite care taken in their manufacture, as well as the handling they
had received since being placed in action.

The signal being given, the monster machines began to take the air one
after another, units in a vast whole. There was no demonstration, though
scores of other aviators and assistants were on the field watching the
send-off, speculating as to the momentous business being thus undertaken
and often eating their hearts out with envy.

Tom and Jack were well satisfied with the big plane that had been given
into their charge. Of course Tom had handled just such a machine before,
and was well acquainted with its possibilities.

Jack on his part was pleased with the fact that the work of releasing
the old-shaped bombs would fall to his share of the duties. It was
something to feel pride in, this taking part in the most ambitious
expedition of the kind in which the Americans had ever embarked, without
a single French or British airman along.

Once aloft, they waited for the remainder of the huge squadron to join
them. The hum of the many motors made merry music in the ears of the two
young Yankee aviators. That droning sound seemed to be spelling the
downfall of autocracy, and the rule of real democracy throughout all the
world.

It was just the kind of night for such a raid. Clouds partly covered the
sky, but there was an absence of wind. Up there, far removed from the
earth, it was not dark, and when looking down objects were dimly seen.

The great forest stretched backward toward the south; and in the other
direction, had it been daylight, the aviators could have looked off to
the open country, where fields lay. These were no longer covered with
the f