“He was an old-time flyer himself, and understood aeroplane construction pretty well, and he made a very decent landing not very far from our front lines.  Fortunately he was on the right side of them, though from what he told us afterward that was more luck than judgment.  He thought he was much further back than he was.

“He had become very tired, owing to his strained position on the body of the plane, and was afraid he would fall off.  So he came down.  He had a bad shock when he found that his pilot was stone dead, and had been for some time.  He must have died when the observer took over the control of the plane, but the observer, oddly enough, never thought of him as dead, and quite expected to be able to bring him around if he once got him safely landed.”

“Well, that was enough to give anyone a shock,” said Will.  “But he would have had a worse shock if he had come down on the Boche’s side.  More than one chap has done that just through not knowing exactly where he was.  I can’t imagine anything more tough than to get yourself down when something has gone utterly wrong, thanking your lucky stars that you are down with a whole skin, and then discover you are booked for a Hun prison, after all.  I could tell you a thriller along that line, but it’ll keep.  You’ve had enough now to make you believe that the Air Service demands of a man the very best there is in him, brawn and brain.”

The hour was late before the boys knew the evening had passed, and they were most cordial in their invitation to Will Corwin to come and pay them another call.  Will said he would do so when he could, but that next visit was to be long deferred.

Less than a fortnight later Will took part in a gallant fight against three machines that had attacked him far within the German territory.

He accounted for one, crippled another, and outsped the third—–­but when he landed his machine in his home airdrome he settled back quietly in the driving seat as the machine came to rest.  When his mechanics reached him he was unconscious!

Examination showed that Will had been hit by a machine-gun bullet, that had lodged in his shoulder.  In spite of his wound, which was increasingly painful and made him fight hard to retain consciousness until he got home with his plane, he made a fine nose-dive that gave him a clear road to his own lines, and managed to dodge cleverly once on his way back when the German Archies began to place shells unpleasantly close.

Will was given much credit for his pluck and tenacity, was recommended for a special decoration, and was packed off to a hospital to recover from his wound, which fortunately gave the doctors little worry, though it put Will on his back for a long time.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE ENEMY’S COUNTRY

Dicky Mann became more interested in the study of maps and their making than he would have thought it possible.  When he came sufficiently closely in touch with the intricate system by which the air-photograph and accurate map of every point behind the enemy line is carefully tabulated and filed away for reference, he developed a keenness for the work which made him a valuable member of the organization.