"Follow me, gentlemen," he said with great dignity. "Your craft is ready." At the far side of the little town, Hal, Chester and the Germans came to the machine. No time was wasted in words. The Germans climbed in and Hal and Chester took their places. "Let her go!" shouted Chester, to the men on the ground. The huge airplane began to move. *CHAPTER XXI* *STUBBS’ SCOOP* To keep in proper touch with all the characters in this story, it will be necessary for a few moments to go back several days and give an account of the activities of Anthony Stubbs, war correspondent of the New York Gazette. Now when Stubbs left Hal and Chester in Soissons he had, as he had told the lads, laid what he considered all necessary plans to make sure that he would be apprised of the signing of the armistice between Germany and the allies ahead of any other of the war correspondents in Europe. Reaching Versailles, Stubbs took quarters in one of the largest hotels. Now it is a fact, that in many quarters, even in Europe, it was thought that General Foch and the German delegates had come together several days before they really met. Stubbs, in constant touch with his source of information, from time to time received so-called details of progress of the proceedings supposed to be in progress. The little man was greatly elated. There were a score or more other war correspondents in Versailles and Stubbs managed to worm from them the fact that they were without information regarding the armistice. Believing his own information absolutely true, he naturally felt that he was a step or so ahead of his rivals. On the night of November 9, Stubbs retired early. The little man slept literally with one eye open. He didn’t intend to miss anything. He came to himself with a start. The telephone bell in his room was jingling. "Wonder who wants me at this hour?" he muttered sleepily, and turned over, for the moment losing sight of the fact that this might be the particular call he was so anxious to get. The bell continued to jingle. "May as well answer it, I guess," said Stubbs. "It won’t stop till I do." He climbed out of bed, switched on the lights and put the receiver to his ear. "Hello," he said. "Stubbs?" came a voice over the wire. "Yes." "Admiral W— talking. The armistice was signed this morning at 11 o’clock." "What’s that?" Stubbs yelled into the ’phone, jumping up and down excitedly. "Hello! Hello!" But the voice on the other end of the wire was gone. In vain Stubbs rattled the hook. He could not recall the voice. "May be somebody trying to have some fun with me," muttered Stubbs. "I can’t take a chance on any such message as that. I must verify it. I’ll call the admiral and see if it were really he on the wire." It took him a good five minutes to get the connection, but at the end of that time a "hello" was wafted over the wire. "Admiral W—?" demanded Stubbs. "Yes."