"Honest Injun, Lafe, I'm all right! Don't you forget to remember that!" "Well, then, get your clothes on. I want to talk to you private like." And Blaine sauntered off, lighting, a cigarette, while Erwin hastily put on his clothes. Going out soon, he encountered Blaine on the parade before the hangars where the starting of planes usually began. It promised to be a lovely day. Not a cloud was in the sky. Off to the east a lone airplane was, soaring high over No-Man Is-Land, doubtless one of the night scouts that are maintained along that portion of the front. Said Lafe: "Last night after the rest of you had gone to the clubroom, Byers sent for me and told me briefly what he wanted us to attempt today. You know those sausages the Boches got now, over back of that bluff you unearthed the day you came home after our last raid?" "Appincourte?" Orris blinked and nodded. "I ought to remember." "Well, the French have tried a time or two to get them, but the Boche planes have been too much for them so far. Kept them so busy fighting back, they had no time to do much bombing. And now word has come from headquarters that they must go. Must! See?" Erwin nodded. He took a deep breath, feeling already the lift in the pure morning air. Blaine continued: "Well, Anson was to have headed this raid, but he's been promoted also. He's an ensign now. I am in his place and they made you corporal under me for two reasons. One was on account of the stunts you did along with me; then for what you did after you went on your own hook and busted into that Boche communicating trench which made them try to Archie you and thus exposed to us what they had done in making themselves at home under Appincourte Bluff." "Yes, yes! Come to the point, Lafe! What is it you and I have got to do today, or whenever it comes off?" "Don't be so impatient. The second reason is because they now think you have nerve enough for most anything, and that we two, working together might succeed in puffing off this sausage business best in our own way." "You mean we are to bomb them where and when we please?" "No -- of course not! But Byers, who is the real head here, thinks you and I, taking as many other chaps along as we please, can force our way in our fighting planes to where these pesky gas keep hanging and spying on us, and literally blow them to dashed smithereens. See?" "But how? Their Archies will blow us to Hades and be gone before we reach anywhere near. It looks like a forlorn hope --" Blaine smiled, as he interrupted with: 'Like Balaklava, eh? Or old Pickett's third day charge at Gettysburg?" Erwin did not reply. Blaine continued: "If we go strong enough and swift and low enough, we'll got there; and, once there we'll do the bombing all righty!" "And in broad daylight, too?"