It was a fine raid, well planned and splendidly executed.  It did not cost our side a man nor a machine, and it spread death and destruction among the centers that turned out the means of destruction that had made the world-war a thing of horror.  To bomb Krupp’s works!  The very thought had a ring of retribution to it!  The very name Krupp had so sinister a sound.  Well might the Brighton boys be proud of Joe for the part he had played in the inception of the idea and the work of carrying it through.  They were proud.  So was Joe’s mother when she heard of it.  Harry Corwin wrote home about it.  He wrote three times, as a matter of fact, before he could concoct an account of the night flight that would pass the censor.  Finally he accomplished that feat, however, and thus Joe Little’s mother heard of what her boy had done.  The brave woman cried a little, as mothers do sometimes, but her eyes lit up at the thought of the lad distinguishing himself among so many brave young men.  Such a son was worth the sacrifice, she thought, with a sigh.  “He is his father’s son,” she said to herself.  And to her came his words, spoken many months before, “And my mother’s,” and her heart swelled with pride.

CHAPTER XIV

A FURIOUS BATTLE

For a time it seemed that the Brighton boys were doomed to be separated, but word came to the squadron commander in some way of the manner in which they had entered the service, and he so arranged matters that they were retained in his unit.  Moreover, he saw to it that their work should so far as possible keep them in touch with each other.

News came one day that the squadron to which they belonged was before long to be transferred to the rear for a well-deserved rest, and a new lot was to take their place.  The boys were speculating upon this item of news one evening after dinner, when Joe Little said:  “What a fine thing it would be if one day we all went out on the same job!  Did you fellows ever come to think of the fact that the whole lot of us have never actually been out together once since we came to France?  I would like to see the whole lot of us have a shot at the Boches at the same time, before we quit.”

“I had a letter from Archie to-day,” said Jimmy Hill.  “He says it will be some time before he rejoins us.”

“Well, five of us are here yet, thanks more to luck than good sense,” laughed Joe.  “I think the Boche would know the five of us were left if we went out together and had a smack at him.”

“Stranger things might happen,” said Richardson, looking up from an illustrated paper.  “The chief was talking only yesterday about sending out a combined bombing and observing expedition to save hunters.  Three pilots gone sick in three days has made him short, he said.  I think the lot of us want a rest, if you ask me.  With three more fellows down there will not be such a lot of hunter pilots to choose from.  So you wonderful birds may have that chance to show off that you’re worrying about.”