Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/34

Rh her side. No fellow ever had a finer mother, Tom."

"There's only one fly in the ointment, according to my mind," continued the other, frowning as he spoke.

"I can guess what you mean," said Jack. "You're still thinking of that scoundrel, Adolph Tuessig, and how he stole part of your father's design of his great invention. Tom, I wager the one hope in your heart is that fortune will send you across his path some day or other, when you can perhaps recover the lost paper, or at least repay him for his treachery."

"You've guessed it, Jack! I'd give anything to have just such a chance. Father is beginning to despair of ever getting his invention completed, with that part of his plans lost. He seems to be unable to remember just how the exact combination was to be effected; and the more he worries the deeper his confusion grows. Mother is quite anxious about him on that account."

"Stranger things than such a meeting have happened, Tom. Let's hope that just such a chance may come your way before that Tuessig is able to hand over his find to the German headquarters in the Wilhelmstrasse."

"Strange to say," mused Tom, "the detective my father employed has been unable to find a