Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/200

Rh believe you heard me. In all that turmoil the compass must have been dislodged and dropped."

"There's no use of crying over spilt milk," his companion called out. "The question to settle is what we ought to do now about steering."

"I'll do the best I can with the lumbering old plane," said the pilot bravely, not one to be utterly discouraged by conditions that promised trouble.

For some little time the air service boys continued on through the clouds which surrounded them like a milky envelope, and which prevented their seeing even the moon above. Then there came a change, and once more they found themselves in the open.

An hour had passed since they lost track of their companions. Tom steered by reckoning alone. He kept the moon on his right whenever he could see it through the masses of clouds drifting near.

Then came a sudden shock as he discovered moving objects ahead that quickly took on the shape of cruising planes. There were three of them, all fashioned alike; and even as seen in the deceptive light of the declining moon Tom knew they could not be French machines.

In the first place, they were coming toward him, though possibly the pilots had not yet