ruits of the harvest, as in prewar times, but lay desolate, with
ruined farm buildings, and everywhere the indelible mark of the ruthless
hand of the Hun showing what had befallen the border Departments of poor
bleeding France.

Finally came the welcome signal that announced the arrival of the last
of the air fleet. All was now ready for the start. Every pilot knew what
place he was expected to occupy in the formation; and when another flash
was seen they took up their positions.

The leader occupied the place of honor. After him came two more planes a
little apart. The next pair were even further away from each other, and
so it went on to the end. In as far as Jack could make out, the
expedition at its start very much resembled the formation seen when a
flock of wild geese passes overhead, winging its flight toward the South
in the fall or toward Canada in the spring, making a triangle, or spear
head, with an old gander at the apex in supreme command.

Later on, as occasion arose, this formation would be changed, the
battleplanes surrounding the heavier bombers in order to protect them
from any hostile attack.

Far below could be seen occasional lights. These they knew came from
some camp of the Huns, where the tired soldiers were sleeping in
anticipation of another hard day's work ahead. Off to the right a fire
was burning, perhaps some building in the process of destruction to
prevent its falling into the hands of the Americans, who were in line to
overwhelm it on their next day's drive.

These things, however, received very little attention from the raiders.
They were more interested in the possibility of their progress being
halted by some block of Hun machines, bent on breaking up the raid
before it was well started.

No doubt, information had leaked concerning the assembling of all these
latest model planes. There were always ways whereby clever and daring
spies could communicate with their mates on the other side of the
fighting line, which was the main reason for so much secrecy in planning
this particular expedition.

So most of the time both Tom and Jack kept their eyes fixed on the line
ahead, waiting eagerly for the signal to close in.

"There she goes!" called out Jack suddenly; but of course his companion
had already seen the signal light from the leading plane, and was
commencing to carry out his part of the programme.

Enemy planes had been discovered barring their further progress, quite a
s