CHAPTER V. THE RESOLVE
"Well, to-morrow, if all goes well, we'll be with Pershing's boys,"remarked Jack, as he and Tom were sitting in their quarters afterbreakfast, the last day but one they were to spend in the LafayetteEscadrille with which they had so long been associated.
"That's so. We'll soon be on the firing line with Uncle Sam," agreedTom. "Of course we've been with him, in a way, ever since we've beenfighting, for it's all in the same cause. But there'll be a little moresatisfaction in being 'on our own,' as the English say."
"You're right. What's on for to-day?" asked Jack.
"Haven't the least idea. But here comes a messenger now."
As Tom spoke he glanced from a window and saw an orderly coming towardtheir quarters. The man seemed in a hurry.
"Something's up!" decided Jack. "Maybe they've got word from poorHarry."
"I'm beginning to give him up," said Tom. "If they were going tolet us have any news of him they'd have done it long ago--the beasts!"and he fairly snarled out the words.
"Still I'm not giving up," returned Jack. "I can't explain why, but Ihave a feeling that, some day, we'll see Harry Leroy again."
Tom shook his head.
"I wish I could be as hopeful as you," he said. "Maybe we'll see himagain--or his grave. But I want to say, right now, that if ever I havea chance at the Hun who shot him down, that Hun Will get no mercy fromme!"
"Same here!" echoed Jack. "But here comes the orderly."
The man entered and handed Jack a slip of paper. It was from thecommander of their squadron, and said, in effect, that though Tom andJack were no longer under his orders, having been duly transferred toanother sector, yet he would be obliged if they would call on him, athis quarters.
"Maybe he has news!" exclaimed Jack, eagerly.
Again Tom shook his head.
"He'd have said so if that was the case," he remarked as he and his chumprepared to report at headquarters, telling the messenger they wouldsoon follow him.
"Ah, young gentlemen, I am glad to see, you!" exclaimed the commander,and it was as friends that he greeted Tom and Jack and not as militarysubordinates. "Do you want to do me one last favor?"
"A thousand if we can!" exclaimed Jack, for he and Tom had caughtsomething of the French enthusiasm of manner, from having associatedwith the brave airmen so long.
"Good! Then I shall feel free to ask. Know then, that I am a littleshort-handed in experienced airmen. The Huns have taken heavy toll ofus these last few days," he went on sorrowfully, and Torn and Jack knewthis to be so, for two aces, as well as some pilots of lesser magnitude,had been shot down. But ample revenge had been taken.
"By all rights you are entitled to a holiday before you join yournew command, under the great Pershing," went on the flight commander."However, as I need the services of two brave men to do patrol duty,I appeal to you. There is a machine gun nest, somewhere in the Bochelines, that has been doing terrible execution. If you could findthe battery, and signal its location, we might destroy it with ourartillery, and so save many brave lives for France," he went on. "I donot like to ask you--"
"Tell 'em to get out the machines!" interrupted Jack. "We were justwishing we could do something to make up for the loss of Harry Leroy,and this may give it to us. You haven't heard anything of him, haveyou?" he asked.
The commander shook his head.
"I fear we shall never hear from him," he said. "Though only yesterdaywe received back some of the effects of one of our men who was shot downbehind their lines. I can not understand in Leroy's case."
"Well, we'll make 'em pay a price all right!" declared Tom. "And nowwhat about this machine gun nest?"
The commander gave them such information as he had. It was not unusual,such work as Tom and Jack were about to undertake. As the officerhad said, they were practically exempt now that they were about to betransferred. But they had volunteered, as he probably knew they would.
Two speedy Spad machines were run out for the use of Tom and Jack, eachone to have his own, for the work they were to do was dangerous and theywould have need of speed.
They looked over the machine guns to see that they were in shape forquick work, and as the one on the machine Tom selected had congealedoil on the mechanism, having lately returned from a high flight, anotherweapon was quickly attached. Nothing receives more care and attentionat an aerodrome than the motor of the plane and the mechanism of themachine gun. The latter are constructed so as to be easily and quicklymounted and dismounted, and at the close of each day's flight the gunsare carefully inspected and cleaned ready for the morrow.
"Locate the machine gun battery if you can," was the parting request toTom and Jack as they prepared to ascend. "Send back word of the locationas nearly as you can to our batteries, and the men there will see to therest."
"We will!" cried the Americans.
Locating a machine gun nest is not as easy as picking out a hostilebattery of heavier guns, for the former, being smaller, are more easilyconcealed.
But Tom and Jack would, of course, do their best to help out theirfriends, the French. Over toward the German lines they flew, and beganto scan with eager eyes the ground below them. They could not fly at avery great height, as they needed to be low down in order to see, and inthis position they were a mark for the anti-aircraft guns of the Huns.
They had no sooner got over the enemy trenches, and were peering aboutfor the possible location of the machine gun emplacement, when theywere greeted with bursts of fire. But by skillfully dodging they escapedbeing hit themselves, though their machines were struck. The two chumswere separated by about a mile, for they wanted to cover as much groundas possible.
At last, to his great delight, Tom saw a burst of smoke from a buildingthat had been so demolished by shell fire that it seemed nothing couldnow inhabit it. But the truth was soon apparent. The machine gun nestwas in the cellar, and from there, well hidden, had been doing terribleexecution on the allied forces. Pausing only to make sure of hissurmise, Tom began to tap out on his wireless key the location of thehidden machine gun nest.
Most of the aeroplanes carry a wireless outfit. An aerial trails afterthem, and the electric impulses, dripping off this, so to speak, reachthe battery headquarters. Owing to the noise caused by the motor of theairship, no message can be sent to the airman in return, and he has todepend on signs made on the ground, arrows or circles in white by dayand lighted signals at night, to make sure that his messages are beingreceived and understood.
The Allies, of course, possess maps of every sector of the enemy'sfront, so that by reference to these maps the aircraft observer can sendback word as to almost the precise location of the battery which it isdesired to destroy.
Quickly tapping out word where the battery was located, Tom awaiteddevelopments, circling around the spot in his machine. He was fired atfrom guns on the ground below, but, to his delight, no hostile planesrose to give him combat. A glance across the expanse, however, showedthat Jack was engaging two.
"He's keeping them from me!" thought Tom, and his heart was heavy, forhe realized that Jack might be killed. However, it was the fortune ofwar. As long as the Hun planes were fighting Jack they would not molesthim, and he might have time to send word to the French battery thatwould result in the destruction of the Hun machine nest.
There came a burst of fire from the Allied lines he had left, and Tomsaw a shell land to the left and far beyond the Hun battery hidden inthe old ruins. He at once sent back a correcting signal.
The more a gun is elevated up to a certain point, the farther it shoots.Forty-three degrees is about the maximum elevation. Again, if a gun iselevated too high it shoots over instead of directly at the target aimedat. It is then necessary to lower the elevation. Tom has seen that theguns of the French battery, which were seeking to destroy the machinegun nest were shooting beyond the mark. Accordingly they were told todepress their muzzles.
This was done, but still the shells fell to the left, and an addition
alcorrection was necessary. It is comparatively easy to make correctionsin elevation or depression that will rectify errors in shooting shortof or beyond a mark. It is not so easy to make the same corrections inwhat, for the sake of simplicity, may be called right or left errors,that is horizontal firing. To make these corrections it becomes needfulto inscribe imaginary circles about the target, in this case the machinegun nest.
These circles are named from the letters of the alphabet. For instance,a circle drawn three hundred yards around a Hun battery as a centermight be designated A. The next circle, two hundred yards less in size,would be B and so on, down to perhaps five yards, and that is gettingvery close.
The circles are further divided, as a piece of pie is cut, into twelvesectors, and numbered from 1 to 12. The last sector is due north, while6 would be due south, 3 east, and 9 west, with the other figures fornortheast, southwest, and so on.
If a shot falls in the fifty-yard circle, indicated by the letter D,but to the southwest of the mark, it is necessary to indicate that bysending the message "D-7," which would mean that, speaking according tothe points of the compass, the missile had fallen within fifty yards ofthe mark, but to the south-southwest of it, and correction must be madeaccordingly.
Tom watched the falling shells. They came nearer and nearer to thehidden battery and at last he saw one fall plump where it was needed.There was a great puff of smoke, and when it had blown away there wasonly a hole in the ground where the ruins had been hiding the machineguns.
Tom's work was done, and he flew off to the aid of Jack, who hadovercome one Hun, sending his plane crashing to earth. But the other,an expert fighter, was pressing him hard until Ton opened up on him withhis machine gun. Then the German, having no stomach for odds, turnedtail and flew toward his own lines.
"Good for you, Tom!" yelled Jack, though he knew his chum could not hearhim because of the noise of the motor.
Together the two lads, who had engaged in their last battle strictlywith the French, made for their aerodrome, reaching it safely, though,as it was learned when Jack dismounted, he had received a slight bulletwound in one side from a missile sent by one of the attacking planes.But the hurt was only a flesh wound; though, had it gone an inch to oneside, it would have ended Jack's fighting days.
Hearty and enthusiastic were the congratulations that greeted theexploit of Torn in finding the German machine gun nest that had beensuch a menace, nor were the thanks to Jack any less warm, for withouthis help Tom could never have maintained his position, and sent backcorrections to the battery which brought about the desired result.
"It is a glorious end to your stay with us," said the commander, withshining eyes, as he congratulated them.
There was a little impromptu banquet in the quarters that night, and Tomand Jack were bidden God-speed to their new quarters.
"There's only one thing I want to say!" said Jack quietly, as he rose inresponse to a demand that he talk.
"Let us hear it, my slice of bacon!" called a jolly ace.
"It's this," went on Jack. "That I hereby resolve that if we--I mean Tomand I--can't rescue our comrade, Harry Leroy, from the Huns--providedhe's alive--that we'll take a toll of five Germans for him--or as many,up to that number, as we can shoot down before they get us. Five Germanfliers is the price of Harry Leroy, who was worth a hundred of them!"
"Bravo! Hurrah! So he was! Death to the Huns!" were the cries.
Torn Raymond sprang to his feet
"What Jack says I say!" he cried. "But I double the toll. If Harry Leroyis dead he leaves a sister. You all saw her here! Well, I'll get fiveHuns for her, and that makes ten between Jack and me!"
"Success to you!" cried several.
With this resolve to spur them on, Tom and Jack bade their bravocomrades farewell and started for Paris, whence they were to journey tothe headquarters of General Pershing and his men.