When a large aeroplane built after the monoplane model swiftly arose and went spinning off, Bud stared as though his whole heart was in his gaze.  He even dropped the burden he had on his back and rubbed his eyes, as if to make sure it could not be a dream.

“So that’s what you call a war aeroplane, is it?” he asked eagerly.

“The company building them for the Government meant them for that particular purpose,” Lieutenant Fosdick told him.

“Then they are different from all others, I take it?” Hugh advanced.

“In many respects,” was the frank reply.  “In the first place they are much stronger than the ordinary monoplane.  In case an attack is intended on the enemy’s redoubts, they may be compelled to carry heavy loads in the shape of combustibles and explosives.  Besides that, they have the recent improvements which I mentioned before as being secret, but which will add considerably to their effectiveness.  The wires used as guys are all heavier than customary, the motor is stronger, and the planes better able to resist shocks.  I have never seen a Santos Dumont or a Bleriot monoplane anything equal to this new departure.”

“It’s almost gone out of sight already,” declared Bud with a thrill of awe in his ambitious voice.

“Yes, although my colleague was boring upward at the time we last saw him; but the speed of that machine is marvelous.  No wonder these foreign spies take the great chances they do, hoping to learn what Uncle Sam is up to.  If they could carry back full information concerning the new explosive and the novel features of that splendid monoplane, it would be worth a million dollars, yes, many times that, to their respective governments.  Germany, you know, claims to have the best equipped corps of aviators in the world, just as she has the most remarkable army.  And Japan, too, is jealous of being left in the mad race, so she sends out spies to learn all that is going on.”

All these things were exceedingly interesting to the three scouts.  They were patriotic boys, like all scouts.  Though studying the arts of peace rather than those of cruel war, love of country was a cardinal virtue held up constantly before their eyes by Lieutenant Denmead.  Should danger of any type menace the defenders of the flag, boys like these would be among the first to want to enlist.  The Boy Scout movement was never intended to discourage a love of country.  And if war ever does come to the land we all love, thousands of those who rally to her defense will be found to have once been wearers of the khaki as Boy Scouts.

The camp of the Flying Corps was now seen ahead of them.  A challenge from a sentry and the giving of the countersign in a whisper by the lieutenant, told the lads that they were actually in a military camp.  Of course this was not their first experience among genuine soldiers, though those whom they once before assisted in the yearly maneuvers as signal corps operators had properly belonged to the State militia.  These men were seasoned regulars, serving the Government in the capacity of aviators and members of the Flying Squadron.