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280 as a reprimand. You can’t tell about my Colonel, though; may have been his way of getting me out of danger.”

Claude glanced up at him, shocked at such an idea.

The young man in the berth smiled with listless compassion. “Oh, I don’t mean Bosch planes! There are dangers and dangers. You’ll find you got bloody little information about this war, where they trained you. They don’t communicate any details of importance. Going?”

Claude hadn’t intended to, but at this suggestion he pulled back the door.

“One moment,” called the aviator. “Can’t you keep that long-legged ass who bunks under you quiet?”

“Fanning? He’s a good kid. What’s the matter with him?”

“His general ignorance and his insufferably familiar tone,” snapped the other as he turned over.

Claude found Fanning and the Virginian playing checkers, and told them that the mysterious air-man was a fellow countryman. Both seemed disappointed.

“Pshaw!” exclaimed Lieutenant Bird.

“He can’t put on airs with me, after that,” Fanning declared. “Crystal Lake! Why it’s no town at all!”

All the same, Claude wanted to find out how a youth from Crystal Lake ever became a member of the Royal Flying Corps. Already, from among the hundreds of strangers, half-a-dozen stood out as men he was determined to know better. Taking them altogether the men were a fine sight as they lounged about the decks in the sunlight, the petty rivalries and jealousies of camp days forgotten. Their youth seemed to flow together, like their brown uniforms. Seen in the mass like this, Claude thought, they were rather noble looking fellows. In so many of the faces there was a look of fine