Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/78

Rh insisted on coming up from below, in company with the kind Red Cross nurse, to find her new friends and warn them of the impending peril.

The pair were soon well up forward, at least as far as the promenade deck was now open to the passengers. In ordinary times it would have been possible to go along to the captain's cabin and the wheel room, and look down upon the lower deck.

Tom's eyes were not those of a cat to see well in the dark; but by this time he had grown a little accustomed to the semi-gloom. Besides, the clouds overhead chanced to lighten, as if in sympathy with his eager desire to see, and so it came that he suddenly discovered a dark object lying on the deck that moved a little even as he looked.

The girl too had been straining her eyes, and just as he noticed the object she whispered close to Tom's ear:

"Look! Oh, look there! Isn't that something moving, Tom?"

Before Tom could make any reply they both distinctly caught what sounded like a groan.

"Jack, is that you?" exclaimed Tom feverishly, still advancing as he spoke.

"Guess so, as far as I can tell," came the reply, that filled his chum's anxious heart with sudden relief.