This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... Tom turned in his seat and looked back. The country was spread out below him like a map. He started to look for the soldiers he had seen a few minutes before, but another sight caught his eye and made him forget everything else. They had risen high above the wide plain, and the screen of timber which had cut off their view in one direction no longer served as a curtain for what lay behind it. And there, behind the woods, twenty or thirty huge black shapes hung in the air a few feet above the ground, and the fields around them were black with men! One glance was enough. Tom had seen many pictures of dirigible balloons; he knew what the black shapes were without asking. His sharp cry made the other three occupants of the car turn and follow the direction of his gaze. "That's what the man at the garage heard last night!" Tom cried. "A whole fleet of those balloons passed over his head. And that's how their soldiers got in behind our army so quickly and how their men appear at such unexpected places." Jack had allowed the car to lose headway and come to a stop. "What had we better do?" he asked. "Do!" exclaimed Tom. "There's nothing to do but get to Bradley as fast as we can and tell what we've seen. Our army doesn't seem to know anything about these balloons, and if the wires haven't all been cut they may be able to get word to them somehow from Bradley." CHAPTER VI ITHIN a few seconds they were over V V the top of the hill, and the strange scene they had been watching had completely disappeared. Jack made the big car purr, and Tom kept looking back, momentarily expecting to see one of the cigar-like black shapes soaring above the trees. As they sped along he was busily trying to think what course ought to be taken. His fear had vanished....