Busy days followed, Tom and Jack were in the air much of the time.
And when they were not flying they were delivering talks to new
students, who were constantly arriving. They found time once to run
into Paris on their day of leave, to see Bessie and Nellie, and they
went on a little picnic together, which was as jolly as such an
affair could be in the midst of the terrible war. Nellie had
received no word of her missing brother, and Jack and Tom had no
encouragement for her.

Then came more hard work at camp, and another battle of the air in
which the American forces more than equaled matters, for they fairly
demolished a German plane squadron, sending ten of the machines
crashing to earth and the others back over the Hun lines, more or
less damaged. That was a great day. And, as a sort of reward for
their work, Tom and Jack were given three days' leave. At first
they thought to spend them in Paris, but, learning that neither
Bessie nor her mother nor Nellie could leave their Red Cross work to
join them, the two lads made other arrangements.

"Let's go back and see the fellows in the Lafayette Escadrille,"
suggested Tom.

"All right," agreed Jack.

And thither they went.

That they were welcomed need not be said. It was comparatively
quiet on this sector just then, though there had, a few days before,
been a great battle with victory perching on the Allied banners.
The air conflicts, too, had been desperate, and many a brave man of