"All right," said Greene. "In with you! Ever been up?"

"No. This is my first trip," said Frank.

"Easy enough, if you don't get scared. Keep perfectly still. No matter what happens, don't touch me or anything except the grips for your hands that you'll find there. She's apt to rock and kick like a broncho sometimes but you can't fall out, because you'll be strapped in.

Remember, now, don't touch me and don't touch any levers or anything else you see."

CHAPTER XII

THE MONOPLANE

Looking down from above, as he was doing, it was hard for Frank to keep his bearings at all. Naturally, everything looked very different. He had been used to looking up at houses, and had had them in one plane. Now everything was flat before him. In the day time the resemblance of the country as he now saw it to a map might have helped him. But at night, even on a clear night, things were blurred. Fences and roads ran together confusedly. And this night was not clear. The day had been fair, but now clouds were coming up.

"We'll have some rain, hang it!" said Greene. "The firing seems to bring it. At least that's what they say. Wonder if it's true? I suppose it might."

"I should think it might be a good thing," said Frank. "It'll make it harder for them to see us, won't it! And that ought to help us."

"Yes, but it'll make it a good deal harder for us to see what we're after, too. Cuts both ways, you see. Still I don't mind as long as we don't have fog or wind, and I think I'd rather have the wind. You know where you're at with wind, anyway. In a fog--Lord! You've no idea what a thing fog is until you've tried to make a landing in it."

With the motor m.u.f.fled down, they were able to talk easily. In the earlier days of aeroplanes the motor made so much noise that anything like a sustained conversation was impossible. But now the motor only purred gently in their ears, just like that of a motor car. For military purposes the silence thus obtained more than made up for the slight sacrifice of power. The more old-fashioned 'planes, many of which were still in use, advertised their presence to an enemy as soon as they came at all near. But this new type, largely used by the British and the French, as Frank knew, had to be seen before they were in any danger, so silently do they wing their flight.

"Talking about fog," Greene went on, talking as indifferent as if they had been on solid ground, "I had a nasty experience just before Kaiser Bill started this trouble. Went up at Sheerness, for an experimental flight in this same 'plane. First time I'd had her out, and I didn't know her very well. And one of those old-fashioned sea fogs came rolling in when I was ten miles from anywhere. Never saw anything so sudden in my life!"

"How did you find your way, sir?"

"I didn't! I just went up and up until I was above the fog and in the sunlight. You can do that, you know. But that was a queer fog--rose a whole lot. Anyway, when I got above it, it was precious cold. And the sun didn't do me much good. I'd got lost, so far as my bearings below were concerned, making spirals as I went up. What I hoped for was to find out something when I was above the fog."

"How was that? You mean that the fog would only spread over a certain distance?" he asked.

"That's it exactly. Only I didn't know that fog! So far as I could tell, it spread over all England and Ireland, too, with some left over for France! Only one thing for it, of course. I knew I'd get away from it if I kept on flying. So I steered by the sun as well as I could, and kept on until my petrol began to run short, and a cylinder began missing. And then, just as I was wondering whose windows I'd break when I went down, it began to thin out, and slipped away as quickly as it had come. And I was right above the golf links on Wimbledon Common. I volplaned down, and landed on a putting green, and an old colonel who'd been invalided home from India said I'd done it on purpose, and he was going to have me court-martialled!"

Frank laughed heartily at the story. But at the same time, he suspected Captain Greene's purpose in telling it. He thought the captain wanted to keep his spirits up, and make him forget that he had never had a flight before, and he admired and liked him more than ever in consequence, even though, as he told himself, it wasn't necessary.

"h.e.l.lo! I think we're getting near your spot, young 'un," said Greene, abruptly. He dipped down, and Frank peered down to see where they were.

"Yes," he cried, in a.s.sent. "There's the hill we were coming down when we saw them, just as we rounded that turn. That's the road they were marching along, and there, over to our left, are the woods. I wonder if they're still there."

"We'll soon know," said Greene. "Now for a little climbing. I'm not afraid of being hit, but orders are to find them without being seen, if we can manage it. So we'll try the high spots for a bit."

At once the monoplane began climbing, ascending in great spirals. Frank was absorbed by the sensation. He found that he could see the ground receding without feeling any qualms, and said so.

"You're lucky," said Greene, briefly. "Made me feel queer first few times I tried it, I can tell you. You're probably a born flyer--and the chances are you'll never do much of it, I suppose! Always the way!"

Frank, looking down, saw that they were moving away from the woods which they were to reconnoitre, and mentioned it.

"Got to," said Greene, briefly. "Then we'll fly back. We can't climb in a straight line. When I went out for alt.i.tude once, I made twelve thousand feet, and when I finished climbing I was nearly fifteen miles, in a straight line, from where I started. Let's see. Got that flashlight I gave you? Play it right on the board there till I tell you to stop."

Frank obeyed, shooting the little spear of light on the various instruments in front of the aviator.

"All right. Hold it there. My barograph, you see. Gives me my height by showing the change in atmospheric pressure. That's how we calculate height. Not very exact, because all sorts of things vary the pressure.

But it's near enough. A thousand feet! That's good enough. I don't believe they're looking for us. We don't usually scout behind our own lines."

Now he brought the monoplane around in a great sweep and flew straight over the woods. But, though Frank looked down through powerful navy night gla.s.ses, of the sort that are used for look-out duty at sea, he could see nothing.

"Clasp them around my head--so," said Greene. "See the trick? All right!

Now I'll have a look. There's another pair in my pocket--use those for yourself."

But if the Germans were there, they were concealing their presence with a good deal of care and skill.

"Have to go lower, then," decided Greene. "Get ready! We'll shoot the chutes now."

He pointed the monoplane straight down, cut out his motor, and glided earthward in a glorious volplane, the most wonderful sensation that even flight, with all its wonders, can afford. When the earth seemed about to come up and hit them, though it was still actually a good five hundred feet below, he caught the machine, righted it, and started the motor again. Then he had to fly back until he was again directly over the woods, and once more, while the monoplane moved very slowly, they peered down. But still there was no sign.

"Humph!" said Greene. "If they were supposed to be anything but Germans, I'd say you'd told us a c.o.c.k and bull story, young 'un! English troops, or French, would show some sort of a light. Some fool would take a chance to get a smoke. But these Germans! They're not men--they're machines. They'll obey orders that officers wouldn't take the trouble to give in any other army. We'll have to make sure. Up we go again!"

Frank could not see how going up would make it possible for them to get the information that coming down hadn't afforded. But he said nothing, because he had come to feel by this time that when Captain Greene did a thing he had a perfectly sound reason for his action. Nor was he wrong.

Once more they climbed in a high spiral curve until they were higher than they had been before. For the first time, Frank now felt a peculiar ringing in his ears. He mentioned it, and Greene laughed.

"Pressure," he said. "You'll get used to it! Lord, sometimes I've felt as if my head would burst when I started to climb. But it doesn't last long. Feel in the seat there beside you, at your left. There ought to be a big electric torch."

"Here it is! I've got it, sir," said Frank, a moment later.

"All right. Touch the b.u.t.ton at the end. Let's see if it lights up properly."

It did, decidedly, for the result was a blinding glare.

"Pretty powerful, isn't it?" said Greene. "It's used for signalling, you see. Flash the light, and you can reproduce Morse perfectly. When you're high up it can be seen a long way, too. Now hold it straight down and flash it, then give a steady glare. Let us see if we cannot draw anything."

Frank obeyed, at the same time getting a glimpse of Greene's idea. He held the torch pointing straight down, and saw the beam of light shooting straight down. It was not powerful enough, of course, by the time it reached the treetops, to illuminate them, and so make anything below visible, but it was certainly strong enough to be observed from below, he thought. But still there was no movement, and the uncanny silence and darkness below persisted.

"All right. There's still another chance," said Greene, patiently. He drew a revolver from his pocket.

"Flash your little light this way. Let me see if it's all right," he said.

Frank obeyed.

"New fangled automatic--very powerful, and shoots a .44 bullet almost as far as an old-fashioned rifle," explained Greene. "Very useful if one runs into another 'plane unexpectedly--and the other fellow happens to be a German."

A moment later he opened fire, shooting straight downward. He could not aim, of course, but it was not his object to hit anything. He emptied one clip of cartridges, and before the last shot was fired the woods below began to spit fire. At once the monoplane began racing.

"Got 'em!" cried Greene, exultingly. "I thought that would do it! It isn't human nature to be under fire without sending back a shot or two--not even German human nature!"

No bullets came near them, but there was no longer any possible doubt that the Germans were below. The fusillade had settled that. Greene slowed down.

"Show your light quickly, then douse it at once," he cried.