Air Service Boys Flying for France/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
HOW NEAL WON HIS DECORATION
Great was the astonishment and delight of Neal Kennedy on learning that his two former schoolmates were now on their way to the front to join the famous American escadrille that had for a long time been rendering such a good account of itself in the service of France.
"It's hard for me to believe I'm awake, fellows," he assured them, his eyes still kindling with eagerness as he surveyed their uniforms and military caps. "To think of you having spent all that time in Virginia learning to fly; and then finishing down at Pau, while I've been running an ambulance and carrying wounded poilus to the rear!"
"Don't say a word against your calling, Neal!" exclaimed Tom. "Why, it's great! Every day you fellows are risking your lives!"
Neal drew in a long breath.
"Thank you for saying that, Tom. You know, there are times when it galls a fellow to find himself just an ambulance driver—a fellow who, if he had his way, would be doing stunts in the air, and striking blows against the Kaiser. But, gee! that's foolish, and I suppose there is some honor about it. See here!"
He opened his coat and showed them a decoration which, modest fellow that he was, he had actually kept hidden out of sight.
"Why, that is the Croix de Guerre, and something anybody might be proud to wear! Do you mean to say they decorated you with it, Neal Kennedy?" gasped Jack, touching the emblem almost reverently, for he knew it was the hope of every French soldier to march home some day with such an embellishment on his breast.
"Oh, they seemed to think it was some sort of especial act of bravery, just because I drove my ambulance on the field while the shells were bursting around me and loaded up with some of the poor fellows, escaping by an inch when the Germans came rushing up. I just couldn't help it. I felt mean that day, as if I was being cheated out of all the fun."
"Shall we get aboard, and go along with you, Neal?" asked Tom, fearing lest by lingering there all of them were losing precious time.
"Sure thing, fellows," they were immediately told. "Plenty of room here on this seat Just chuck your stuff inside, and we'll be off. As luck has it, I know where the American fliers have their roost far back of the lines. To tell you the honest truth it's against rules, but I'll take you in and, more than that, sheer a bit out of my way just to drive you over toward Bar-le-Duc. It sounds mighty fine to hear good old United States spoken after all this foreign chatter."
This was good news to the chums. It certainly seemed that they were playing in great luck to run across first of all an old acquaintance in such a remarkable fashion, and then learn that he could drop them at the camp of the Lafayette Escadrille without any particular trouble.
They could not make fast time of it, such was the choked condition of the road. There was always a multitude of vehicles going and coming, together with marching troops, and even batteries on the move to the front to take their turn at engaging the foe.
The sounds beyond gradually increased in volume as the ambulance crept gradually closer to the region where French and German big guns answered each other, though many miles apart.
"We'll be there in time for supper, boys," the driver of the Red Cross ambulance kept assuring his two impatient passengers every now and then. "And let me tell you those fellows of the Lafayette Escadrille are a pretty lively bunch, all right. I've talked with some of them lately, and I've known a few of them who are gone—Chapman, Prince and Rockwell."
He glanced a bit anxiously toward Jack as he said this, but if he expected to see the other wince in the least he was mistaken.
"Oh! we've grown accustomed to that sort of talk, Neal," explained Jack quietly. "We know what chances we're taking, and have made up our minds to accept the worst. If either or both of us are brought down by the Boches it's no worse a fate than being shot to pieces with one of those big shells. And if Uncle Sam gets in this muddle that's the fate thousands of us will likely meet."
The sun sank lower, and night was not far distant. The big guns no longer fretted the air in the distance with their constant booming. The absence of the heavy reverberations was a relief to the tortured ears of the newcomers, as yet all unused to such a tremendous clamor.
Tom was using his binoculars as well as he could, considering the motion of the ambulance, the roadway being far from smooth, with more or less jostling much of the time.
"What interests you up there, Tom?" demanded his chum, noticing the other scanning the heavens in front of them.
"There are planes aloft, a number of them. But I imagine that is pretty nearly always the case when the weather permits. Some are so far away they look like dots. I suppose those are German Fokker and Gotha machines, of which we've heard so much, as they do their fighting with them against our Nieuports."
"Let me have a peep! I want to see my first Fokker; though I suppose in time I'll get my fill of seeing them, especially when the pilot is pelting me with lead from his machine-gun."
After a minute of focusing and staring, Jack continued:
"Yes, I guess those far-away ones must be, as you say, German craft hovering over their own lines, and mebbe having an occasional fight with some French or American flier who ventures across No Man's Land to engage them. But there's a machine heading this way now, and coming on fast, as if about to land."
"We are close to the camp," the ambulance driver assured him. "In fact it's just half a mile further on. When we've rounded that bend ahead maybe you'll get a whiff of genuine Yankee cooking in the bargain, for I hear the boys have succeeded in finding a chap from the States who used to be a chef in a Broadway lobster palace, and can do things up brown. I wish I had an invitation to join them some evening. I'm crazy for real food, cooked as we cook at home."
Jack felt sorry for Neal. He hoped the time would come some day when he could invite him to mess with the aviators, many of whom the other already knew to speak to.
"You see," continued their friend, the driver, still leaking information as new subjects occurred to him, "the escadrille doesn't hold out at their hangars exactly, but has quarters in an abandoned villa some little distance in the rear. It allows the boys a chance to enjoy some of the comforts of real living, so far as beds go, and rooms in which to sleep. I might also mention a cooking department, and a mess table at which they often entertain French officers high up in command. I don't know but what Joffre himself, and Petain, too, have been their guests when they chanced to be near by."
All this was deeply interesting, to Jack in particular. He was sure that the Americans were being treated royally by the French, who appreciated the work being accomplished daily by those from across the sea, and he longed to be in his place.
The bend of the road being presently reached, Tom and Jack saw a building that had once been a handsome and well-kept villa, though now showing some of the scars of war. How it chanced to have been left standing at all, with all that terrible fighting going on in the vicinity these many months, was more or less of a mystery. But the Americans had taken up their quarters under the villa roof, and made themselves at home, after the free-and-easy fashion of their kind.
Just then a car came from the opposite direction, and two young chaps in the full garb of aviators jumped out, to vanish inside the house. Jack noted that they had on fur-lined shoes and combinations, also close fitting leather flying hoods with goggles. He knew from this that they had just come from work, and possibly may have even been aboard that airplane which he had seen drawing nearer until it dipped below the desolate brim of the treeless landscape.
"I'll have to drop you here, boys," said Neal, offering his hand once more to each in turn. "And say, it's done me more good than I can tell you, just to meet you fellows away over here. Seems as if I could smell Bridgeton air once more."
"Look us up whenever you're passing this way, Neal," said Tom, warmly. "We'll always be glad to see you. And some day I'm going to try to get you an invitation to mess with us, if such things are permitted here. Don't forget now!"
"You take it from me I won't, boys," said the ambulance driver, who wore the highly prized decoration under his coat, instead of pinning it where every one could see it. "I've got something to look forward to now besides carrying wounded poillus to the hospitals in the rear. Wish you all the good luck going; and when you write home, boys, just mention meeting me, will you? So-long, fellows!"