Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/144

Rh the States who used to be a chef in a Broadway lobster palace, and can do things up brown. I wish I had an invitation to join them some evening. I'm crazy for real food, cooked as we cook at home."

Jack felt sorry for Neal. He hoped the time would come some day when he could invite him to mess with the aviators, many of whom the other already knew to speak to.

"You see," continued their friend, the driver, still leaking information as new subjects occurred to him, "the escadrille doesn't hold out at their hangars exactly, but has quarters in an abandoned villa some little distance in the rear. It allows the boys a chance to enjoy some of the comforts of real living, so far as beds go, and rooms in which to sleep. I might also mention a cooking department, and a mess table at which they often entertain French officers high up in command. I don't know but what Joffre himself, and Petain, too, have been their guests when they chanced to be near by."

All this was deeply interesting, to Jack in particular. He was sure that the Americans were being treated royally by the French, who appreciated the work being accomplished daily by those from across the sea, and he longed to be in his place.