Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/44

Rh the other dejectedly. "I'm always ready to do things on impulse, but you have a reason back of you every time you act. He's gone for good now, anyhow, so nothing can be done. But it roiles me to think of our seeing him just when—Oh, Tom!"

"What's struck you now?" demanded the other, seeing Jack's face lighten up all of a sudden.

"Why should Adolph Tuessig be coming down to this steamer if he hadn't meant to go aboard?" continued Jack, again showing excitement. "Seeing us frightened him off, apparently, but then he may come back again later, and sneak aboard."

Tom looked serious, as though digesting the suggestion advanced by his chum.

"Well, there might be some truth in that idea, Jack," he finally remarked.

The two youths went aboard the steamer. The passengers were looking rather subdued, and while there were affecting leave-takings, little of the customary merriment connected with these sailings for Europe was manifested.

The reason was not difficult to understand, for even the neutral gray color of the once jet black steamship told of perils of the sea entirely foreign to such ordinary things as gales and floating icebergs. Vessels went into that