“Think you’re smart, don’t you,” snapped Stubbs.  “Why should I want to be killed?  I ask you now, why should I want to be killed?”

“Well, really, I don’t know,” replied Chester, “unless it is because you are so awfully sick.”

“Sick!” shouted Stubbs.  “Sick!  Who said anything about being sick?”

“Why, I understood you to say—­”

“Well, you understood wrong.  Sick?  No, I’m not sick, but we’ll all be worse than sick if Hal can’t coax a little speed out of this machine.  Say!” this to Hal, “what are you waiting for, anyhow?”

“Now you just hold your horses, Stubbs,” replied Hal.  “I’m running this party at this moment and I’m going to run it my own way.  Colonel Anderson, if you hear any more out of our war-corresponding friend, kindly sit on him, will you?”

“With pleasure,” replied the colonel briefly.

“Oh, you will, will you?” cried Stubbs.  “Well, you won’t.  I—­I’ll—­”

He subsided after muttering to himself for some moments.

The others now gave their undivided attention to the other craft, which by this time had drawn close to them.

“Man wig-wagging forward, Hal,” said Chester.

“I see him,” replied Hal, “but I can’t make out his signals.  Can you, Anderson?”

“No, I can’t.  He evidently has something to say, though.”

“Well,” said Hal, “we’ll have to hold a sudden council of war.  What are we going to do about it?  Shall we stop and talk, trying to fool him, or shall we run for it?”

“Well, if we were going to run, it would have been better before he got so close,” said Chester.  “Guess we may as well see what he has to say.  These Austrian uniforms won’t come in bad.  You do the talking, Hal.”

Hal nodded.

“All right,” he said.

He reduced the speed of the machine and the Austrian came closer.

“Ahoy, there!” he said in German.  “Who are you?”

“Lieutenant Drizladaz, attached to the Austrian army at Trieste,” Hal shouted back.

“What are you doing here?”

“Mission,” Hal yelled.

“Where to?”

Hal thought quickly.

“Greece,” he said finally.

“What for?”

“That,” said Hal, “is none of your business.  I have my orders and I haven’t time to fool around here with you.  I’m due back to-morrow night.”

There was a moment’s silence from the other machine and then a voice called: 

“Has your mission anything to do with Greece’s intervention in the war?”

“Well, I can’t say anything about that,” replied the lad, thinking to give the other the impression that it was.

“I see,” was the answer shouted back.  “Well, I wish you luck.  Sorry you can’t tell me all about it.”

“You probably will know soon enough,” replied Hal.

“Good.  Don’t want any company, do you?”

“No, I guess not.”