Two American Boys with the Allied ArmiesCrockett, Sherman
General
Two American Boys with the Allied Armies
Crockett, Sherman
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
“They’re going to take a look in the brush for the wounded Taube man,”
he told himself. “For one I hope they don’t run across him. Without
his chart he isn’t so very dangerous. I reckon the colonel is afraid
he may be able to draw a duplicate of the same from memory. A soldier
takes as few chances as he can of letting the other side get valuable
information. Yes, the colonel is right, I suppose.”
“The only favor we could ask would be in the line of making inquiries
about the one we’re looking for,” Jack was saying.
“What name did you tell me he was going under?” asked the soldier.
“I failed to pay much attention to that in the paper, for my eye had
meanwhile caught the signature below, which almost took my breath away.”
“My friend’s mother was named Bradford, and he chances to know his
brother was calling himself Frank Bradford, for reasons of his own.”
Jack had hardly spoken when he saw a look of sudden eagerness flash
over the rosy face of the Englishman. It gave him a thrill, for he
seemed to feel that it spelled new hope. Even Amos noticed that
lighting up of the colonel’s eyes, and the uplifting of the heavy
eyebrows.
“My word! now, that is a remarkable thing!” they heard him say, half to
himself.
“Are we to understand from that, sir, you can give us a clue that may
carry us to him whom we are so anxious to find?” demanded Jack, boldly,
believing it wise to strike while the iron was hot.
“I wonder if it could be the same party?” the officer went on to say.
“I was informed his name was Frank Bradford and that he owned up to
being an American. My word! but this is remarkable. Tell me, did your
brother ever serve his time as an air-pilot, young fellow?” turning to
Amos.
“Not before he left home,” returned the boy; “but he was always
intensely interested in aeronautics. If a chance ever came up, I’m sure
he would have made a mighty good birdman.”
“If this is the same Frank Bradford,” muttered the soldier, shaking his
head, “he has already jumped into the front rank of British aviators.
They censored his name in the newspaper accounts, but I chanced to hear
it from one who had met him on the field. It was after he made that
wonderfully daring trip of seventy miles up the Rhine country, dropping
bombs on many fortresses by the way, and striking a note of fear into
countless thousands of German hearts.”
“Oh, I read that story myself, and was thrilled with it,” cried Amos,
excitedly. “Little did I dream it could have been my own brother Frank
who was the reckless aviator of the Allies. Wait, I have his picture
here with me, taken some years ago; perhaps your friend may have
described this man to you so that you could recognize him.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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