The Boy Allies on the Firing Line Part 42

"I thought I was right," said Chester to himself. "But I was beginning to doubt it."

"What is it?" demanded Hal. "What is that building?"

"That," said Chester calmly, "is an aeroplane station. We shall now go in and get one."

"Oh, we will, eh? And I suppose they give one to every strange officer who happens along?"

"No, they don't," said Chester. "But, among other things in General Strauss's desk, I found several orders upon this place, each one calling upon the commandant to furnish bearer with one plane."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" demanded Hal.

"I wanted to save it as a surprise," said Chester.

As they approached nearer, it became apparent that the structure was a long, low shed. A hundred yards away, they were challenged by a sentry.

"I have an order for the commandant," called Chester.

"Approach," said the sentry.

A moment later, the commandant, being summoned by the sentry, arrived.

"What can I do for you, gentlemen?" he asked.

Without a word, Chester pulled one of the orders he had appropriated from General Strauss's desk from his pocket and pa.s.sed it to the commandant. The latter glanced at it quickly, and then bowed.

"You shall have the machine in five minutes," he said, and left them.

True to his word, five minutes later a large-winged biplane stood before them.

"You will have to run this thing," Chester whispered to Hal.

"Well, it won't be the first time," Hal whispered back.

Hal took the aviator's seat and Chester also took his place. Then the latter whistled to Marquis, who came bounding up and sprang in and sat down calmly between Chester's feet.

"Surely you are not going to take that dog," protested the commandant.

"Yes," said Chester. "He is one of the dispatch dogs taken from the French. We are going to make use of him with a false dispatch."

"I see," exclaimed the commandant. "A good idea."

"Isn't it?" said Chester.

"All ready?" demanded the commandant of Hal.

"All ready," was the lad's reply.

"Let her go, then," the commandant ordered the two men who had appeared to give the aeroplane a start.

A moment later and the machine was speeding along the ground.

"Good luck," called the commandant.

Chester waved his hand in reply.

Now Hal touched the elevating lever, and the aeroplane left the ground, and, soaring high in the air, sped on its way.

"Which way, Chester?" Hal called back over his shoulder.

"Due east," replied Chester, "but first rise as high as you can."

Hal obeyed this command, and soon the two boys and a dog were thousands of feet above the earth.

"What's your alt.i.tude?" called Chester.

Hal told him.

"Good!" said Chester. "Keep her there, and now head due east."

Quickly Hal brought the big aircraft about, and pointed her nose in a direction that eventually, barring accidents and the misfortunes of war, would land them in the heart of Poland, where the mighty armies of Russia were rus.h.i.+ng upon the German legions.

"I know we shall get through safely," called Chester, as they sped along. "Some way I feel it."

"And so do I," Hal called back.

They were right, and before another night had fallen these two young American boys placed in the hands of the Grand Duke Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the mighty hordes of the Czar, the paper which had so strangely fallen into their hands--the paper which, later on, brought about more than one serious check to German arms.

But here ends the story of the Boy Allies along the Marne. Their further adventures will be told in a succeeding volume, ent.i.tled, "The Boy Allies With the Cossacks; or a Wild Dash Over the Carpathian Mountains."