Page:Air Service Boys over the Rhine.djvu/40

30 not sent some word to his son, was the object of Tom's quest.

"I've tried and tried, from this end, to get in touch with him," explained Tom; "but something seems to happen to my messages. I know they leave here all right, but after that they are lost. Now I have an idea that there is so much going on in Paris—so much necessary war work—that the ordinary lines of communication are choked. But if I could go to the capital in person I could soon find out whether my father was at the address he gave."

"And you want, do you, to go together?" asked the kindly French captain, smiling at Tom and Jack.

"We'd like to go," said Tom.

"And go you shall. I will write the necessary order. You have done well, and I understand you have some days of leave coming. To them I shall add more. But come back to me," he added, as he filled out the pass form. "Come back. We need you Americans now more than ever!"

"We'll come back," promised Tom. "All I want to go to Paris for is to find out about my father."

"Ah, I envy you," said the captain softly. "Both in the possession of a father, who must be proud to have such a son as you, and also