Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: TOM TURNED ON HIS SEARCHLIGHT AND SAW A GERMAN SOLDIER, HATLESS AND COATLESS. Frontispiece (Page 8)] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TOM SLADE MOTORCYCLE DISPATCH-BEARER BY PERCY K. FITZHUGH AUTHOR OF TOM SLADE, BOY SCOUT, TOM SLADE AT TEMPLE CAMP, TOM SLADE ON THE RIVER, TOM SLADE WITH THE COLORS, ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY R. EMMETT OWEN PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Preface vii I. For Service as Required 1 II. Aid and Comfort to the Enemy 8 III. The Old Compass 14 IV. The Old Familiar Faces 20 V. Getting Ready 25 VI. Over the Top 36 VII. A Shot 45 VIII. In the Woods 50 IX. The Mysterious Fugitive 57 X. The Jersey Snipe 62 XI. On Guard 68 XII. What's In a Name? 73 XIII. The Fountains of Destruction 79 XIV. Tom Uses His First Bullet 84 XV. The Gun Pit 89 XVI. Prisoners 97 XVII. Shades of Archibald Archer 105 XVIII. The Big Coup 111 XIX. Tom is Questioned 119 XX. The Major's Papers 127 XXI. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 133 XXII. "Uncle Sam" 140 XXIII. Up a Tree 150 XXIV. "To Him That Overcometh" 156 XXV. "What You Have to Do--" 162 XXVI. A Surprise 169 XXVII. Smoke and Fire 175 XXVIII. "Made in Germany" 184 XXIX. "Now You See It, Now You Don't" 194 XXX. He Disappears 205 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PREFACE It was good advice that Rudyard Kipling gave his "young British soldier" in regard to the latter's rifle: "She's human as you are--you treat her as sich And she'll fight for the young British soldier." Tommy Atkins' rifle was by no means the first inanimate or dumb thing to prove human and to deserve human treatment. Animals of all sorts have been given this quality. Jack London's dog, in _The Call of the Wild_, has human interest. So has the immortal _Black Beauty_.