“You must remember that the sky above us is a pretty large place, and at any rate we’re a drawing power.  We’re always pulling something out of the ether.”

“And our biggest catch is coming now!  Look, Weber, look I If that isn’t one of Herr Zeppelin’s railroad trains of the air then I’ll eat it when it gets here!”

“You’re right, Mr. Scott.  There the monster comes.  It can’t be anything but a Zeppelin!  They must have one of their big sheds not far east of us.”

“We’ll hear its rattling soon.  Like the others it will surely see our flag and make for it.  But if they take a notion to shoot up the wood, as the men on that biplane did, we’d better hunt holes.  A Zeppelin can carry a lot of soldiers.”

The Zeppelin was not moving fast.  It had none of the quick graceful movements of the aeroplanes, but came on slowly like some huge monster of the air, looking about for prey.  It turned southeast for a moment or two, then some one on board saw the flag and coming back it lumbered toward the tree.

“Ugly things,” said John.  “Lannes and I blew up one once, and I wish I had the same chance against that fellow up there.  But they’re in the same puzzled state that the other fellows were.  Men on both platforms are examining the flag through glasses, and the flag doesn’t give a rap for them.  It’s standing out in the wind, now, straight and stiff.  It seems to know that old Noah’s ark can’t make it out.”

The huge Zeppelin drew its length along the grove, coming as close to the trees as it dared, then passed above, and after some circling lumbered away to the south.

“Good-bye, old Mr. Curiosity,” exclaimed John.  “You weren’t invited here, and I don’t care whether you ever come again.  Besides, you’re nothing but a big bluff, anyway.  There’s our flag, still standing straight out in the wind, so you can see every stripe on it, and yet you haven’t, despite your visit, the remotest idea why it was put there!”

Weber smiled.

“They’ve all gone away as ignorant as they were when they came,” he said, “but we must be due for a French visitor or two.  After so long a run of Germans we should have Frenchmen soon.”

“I begin to believe with you that Lannes will arrive some time or other.  He flies fast and far and in time he must see our signal.”

“I’ve never doubted it.  Meanwhile I think I’ll take a little luncheon, and I’d advise you to do the same.  We haven’t had such a bad time here, saving those random rifle shots from the biplane.”

“Not at all.  It’s like watching a play, and you certainly have a clear field for observation, when you look up at the heavens.  The stage is always in full view.”

John was feeling uncommonly good.  Their concealment while they watched the scouts and messengers from the skies coming to see the meaning of the flag had been easy and restful.  Much of his long and painful tension had relaxed.  The hum of distant artillery was in his ears as ever, like a moaning of the wind, but he was growing so used to it that he would now have noticed its absence rather than its presence.  So he ate his share of bread and sausage with a good appetite, meanwhile keeping a watchful eye upon the heavens which burned in the same brilliant blue.