“We’re going out to make the attempt, anyhow,” resumed Tom, nodding.  “Four big bombing machines in the bunch, guarded by eight battleplanes; and we’ve the good fortune to be chosen as the crew of one.  I consider we’re lucky, Jack.”

“That’s right, Tom.  Though I don’t feel quite as keen for it as I would have been had I not received that letter from our lawyer, asking me to hurry back home if I could possibly make it.  Still, I’ll be in for a bad night, anyhow, and might just as well be working.”

“Are you worrying about your cousin?” demanded Tom suspiciously.

“To tell you the truth I am, more or less,” Jack confessed.  “I know him as a man utterly without principle.  When he knows that it is a race between us to see which one can get to America first, so as to win the prize my foolish uncle left in such a haphazard way, there’s absolutely nothing, I honestly believe, that Randolph wouldn’t attempt in order to keep me from getting there in advance of him.”

“Well, try to forget all that just now,” said Tom.  “I’ve a nice little surprise for you, Jack.  I suppose you know they’ve got a sort of ‘Y’ hut running back here a bit?”

“Heard some of the fellows talking about it, but, somehow, didn’t seem to take much stock in the news.  Fact is, I’ve temporarily lost my taste for those doughnuts and the girls who give their time to jollying up our fellows, as well as attending to their many wants in the line of letter writing and such things.”

“Perhaps,” insinuated Tom, with a mild grin, “a doughnut mightn’t go so badly now if the girl who offered it happened to answer to the name of Bessie?”

At that Jack suddenly began to show more interest.  A gleam came into his saddened eyes and a faint smile to his face.

“That’s an altogether different thing, Tom!” he exclaimed.  “Do you really mean that Bessie and Mrs. Gleason are so close as all that?”

“If you care to walk out with me you can be talking to them inside of fifteen minutes,” came the ready answer.  “And while about it, I might as well tell you that Nellie is there too.  Seems that she’s attached to a field hospital staff that’s keeping us close company, and, meeting the Gleasons, came over for the evening.  She’s been overworked lately, and needs some rest.  I promised to come back for a short while, and fetch you along.”

“Did—­er, Bessie ask you to look me up?” asked Jack confusedly.

“To be sure!  Twice at least.  And I had to promise solemnly I’d do it even if I had to take you by the collar and hustle you there.  But our time is limited, and we’d better be on our way, Jack.”

The other showed an astonishing return to his old form.  Apparently the mere fact that he was about to see the Gleasons again caused him to forget, temporarily at least, all about his fresh troubles.  They were soon hurrying along, now and then dropping flat as some shell shrieked overhead or burst with a crash not far away.