Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/6



"Now then, good luck to you, Tom! Tell me how it feels to look down on the world from the clouds."

"Oh, I expect to have a high old time, Jack—three thousand feet of it, in fact. And my nerves seem to be as steady as ever."

"You're a lucky boy, all right, to get this chance to try for altitude after being in the harness at the aviation field for only two months."

"But my instructor tells me I was born for the life of a birdman, Jack."

"I know you've talked, read, and dreamed of little else these two years back. And now, Tom, at last the germ has caught me almost as fiercely in its grip."

"Yes, old boy, it means the pair of us working tooth and nail now, learning to fly, so when the time comes, we can take our places for Uncle Sam in the great game. And it isn't going to be so very far off now, with that fearful war raging across the sea."

"Well, look out for yourself, Tom. I'm going