The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-25

the door of his fiat, and the next
moment his man brought him seal
ed note. He opened 1t and read
slowly the cipher it contained Inen
he wrote a word or two at the DOT
Aom of the slip, inclosed it in an en-
.v.lope. dropped some wax on the
seal. His man. took. out the reply to
flap, and stamped st with: his pseciai
the door and the messenger fastened
away.
After an idle morning and a good
lunch. Henshaw took a taxi to Wa
terloo Station and made his way IN
to the upstairsa tea-room. Here,
awaiting. him at a quiet table, ne
found Akehurst, his chief. The con-
trast between the two men was 'strik-
ing. ~Akehurst was thin, drawn, rest
less-eyed Hensfaw, blond. broad
shouldered, quiet-moying, seemed as
though he had no nerves.
Akehurst slipped his tea. Tnen ne
asked Henshaw abruptly:
s.You learnt to fly the year before
last. didn't you? Was it biplane or
uonoplane?''
"I went through a biplane course
nit Hendon," was the answer: And
I'VE done "a faAr amount Of cross
country flying since,"
ssHave you flown at night?"
Eyes, a number of times
.aThen listen," said Akehurst,
clearing a space on the table ror
some notes he took from his pocket.
~Soon after the beginning of the war
the Germans, realizing that we could
reach their airstations at Dusseldorf
and Cologne with our bomb-dropplng
zeroplanes established big factory
and testing plant up in Schleswig-
a rrwr~ >v<<<e< T,o ha0 W.
ing very rapidly. and is now an I'm
mense centre of activity They're
building most of the big twin-engin-
ed bfplanes there, as we'll as the new
single-seated machines with the l5O-
h. d. and 200-h- p. motors"
while Akehurst paused for mo-
ment to sort his notes. Henshaw
said:
.swe. take it, want to use our new
muiti-engined machines in raiding
this German factory 2"
Akehurst nodded.
ssBut the difficulty is" he explain
ed, .sthat we can'tsmark on our maps
the exact position of this air sta
ton The place is not far Inland
that we know. If we could fix defin-
itely where these buildings are, It
would be possible to assemble and
offensive seaplane car
riers, cruisers, torpedo-destroyers
and submarines-and arrive: before
dawn orsA Hh6Ethg offEthe l&chleswig
coast .Theno fffe seaplanes FWould be
lowered from their parent ships, and
would rise from the surface of the
water and fly inland, knocking these
factories about pretty severely. But
we can't act on haphaz4rd Informal
tion Our aviators must know just
where to fly"
Henshaw smiled slowly, taking q
cigarerette from his case.
Ma MHfnthert Scramble into Ger
aaay 1sk5 xsSH fhas' for on
my sins, I look rather like one of
them. and that 7 can talk their Ian
gtage fluently. But the pitcher may
so' too often to the we'll can't
keep on doing it,
Ns.Yet,,D said Akehurst quietly, sit's
to the Johannisthal aerodrome. near
Berlin, that I'm asking you to go;
and not 6niyt s9 the zero drome. but
.s ss;,7 inf a ~ s. n mas you
TELL me the worst. pleaded Hen
shaw. with an affection of intoler-
able suspense.
N"On the Western front, a little
WILLIE a6Os SAho <11>OAAaAS~s ~ -
the newest type of German biplanes
asssingle-seaters built for speed, came
into our possession unchanged. We
have several specimens of the iden-
LITIGATION papers carried by German
aviators. And we've quite a>convinc-
ing assortment Of their flying equip
n1ent.. We know also what the sig
nal is--made with colored light
from rocket pistol-when a Ger
man aviator is about to descend a
night at one of their military aero
dromes."
A smile appeared on Henshaw'l
face--a smile of interest and appre
citation
1 see" he said. Quite notion
Akehurst commanded silence viii
a wave of the hand.
This biplane is ready on the Eas
Coast they're fitting it with a large
tank. to make certain you've enough
fuel. A set of imitation papers i
being prepared, and you'll have |
complete German flying kit. Ant
there'll be the pistol for you, an,
the right number Of lights, when yol
reach Johannisthal. All you've to d.
lis to go to the air-station where tn
machine is, get used to 1T in, flight
and then wait for the right weather
You'll want It fairly calm I'm told
and with some clouds If pOssfille TT