misleading or so overdrawn as to be worthless. The boys gradually
came to judge these on their merits, which was in itself a big step
forward.

The individual characteristics of the boys themselves began to show.
Three of them were of a real mechanical bent. Jimmy Hill, Joe Little
and Louis Deschamps were in a class by themselves when it came to the
details of aeroplane engines. Joe Little led them all. One night he
gave the boys an explanation of the relation of weight to horsepower
in the internal-combustion engine. It was above the heads of some of
his listeners. Fat Benson admitted as much in so many words.

"Where did you get all that, anyway?" asked Fat in open dismay.

"It's beyond me," admitted Dicky Mann.

"Who has been talking to you about internal combustion, anyway?"
queried Bob Haines, whose technical knowledge was of no high order,
but who hated to confess he was fogged.

"Well," said Joe quietly, "I got hold of that man Mullens that works
for Swain's, the motor people. He worked in an aeroplane factory in
France once, he says, for nearly a year. He does not know much about
the actual planes themselves, but he knows a lot about the Gnome
engine. He says he has invented an aeroplane engine that will lick
them all when he gets it right. He is not hard to get going, but he
won't stay on the point much. I have been at him half a dozen times
altogether, but I wanted to get a few things quite clear in my head
before I told you fellows."