Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/48

Rh a time when no one dreamed of making a pleasure voyage.

Again the two chums sought the outer air. It was even more disagreeable than earlier in the evening, and they could not stay very long. A raw wind whistled down the broad North River, as the Hudson is called at New York City, and seemed to bring with it reminders of fields of ice that were still lingering far up toward the border of the Catskills.

"We'd better give it up as a bad job," suggested Tom after awhile, "and keep in where it's warm. Either he's safe aboard by this time, or else he doesn't mean to sail on this boat, now that he knows we're going."

"Yes," admitted even the sanguine Jack, "he may take a notion we'll give him away to the British authorities, and cause his arrest as a German spy. Though I've no doubt he's clever enough to have a false passport that describes him as a Swede, or perhaps a Swiss going home to do his bit in guarding the Alpine frontier against the Huns. But we can keep our eyes open all the time, Tom, while we're aboard."

When the other passengers learned the nature of their mission many of them expressed the most intense interest in the two chums. More than one mature man declared he stood ready to take off his hat to such brave lads, and wished them all manner of good luck.