Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/178

Rh active Nieuport had been used with satisfactory results, though of course both of them had served aboard one at Pau, and knew how to handle such a plane perfectly.

On his part Tom often found his thoughts roving to the subject of his father's recent loss, and wondering if the fortunes of war would ever again bring him in contact with the treacherous Adolph Tuessig.

He would sit while taking a sun-bath, and allow his fancy to imagine a meeting with the thief somewhere, perhaps even far back of the German lines.

"Wouldn't it be just grand," Tom would tell himself at such times, "if only I could swoop down on him like that hawk Jack was speaking about, and carry the rascal back to the French lines with me? Then I'd soon learn if, as I sometimes find myself hoping, Adolph Tuessig still carries that precious paper on his person."

It seemed like a wild and improbable dream, that could never come true. Even the sanguine Tom admitted to himself that there was hardly one chance in a thousand of such a meeting taking place. Still, strange things sometimes happen.

One night they learned that a squadron of "bombers" was scheduled to set out long