Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/192

Rh hostile lines, and doubtless passing over the country that lay between Verdun and the border of Lorraine.

In the lead was the head pilot, a man who possessed a wonderful ability to take an expedition like this out, find his objective, perhaps one hundred and fifty miles away, and come back, after dropping tons of high explosives.

Those who followed were strung out in two diverging lines, just as wild geese always fly, forming the letter V. In moving in this formation the danger of collision was more or less done away with. Besides, every pilot knew just where his location in the line was, and could keep watch of those ahead, while looking for the signals agreed upon.

All communications had to be carried on with flares, since sounds were utterly out of the question. As a rule it was the duty of the observer to discover such signals, and pass them on to the rear unless, as in the case of the two chums, they brought up the line, being the very last unit of the eleven machines in the bombing squadron.

Now and then the moon would hide behind banks of fleecy clouds, but only to reappear again a little later, to shine with undiminished light Jack wondered whether a storm might come along while they were aloft. He had