Once a German machine rose from its hangar far below and set out in pursuit of the speeding monoplane; it was quickly out-distanced, however, and soon abandoned the chase. Without any special incident the three young friends progressed until far ahead of them they could make out the faint outlines of the Vosges.
"There are the mountains," cried Jacques.
"Sure enough," exclaimed Earl. "Well we've had a pretty easy trip of it, haven't we? It has been a regular pleasure jaunt."
Closer and closer they came to the mountains. Presently it was possible to make out the different summits, all of them wrapped in a blue haze.
"Do you know where Flambeau is, Jacques?" queried Earl.
"We'll have to cross the firing line again, won't we?"
"Do you know where it runs here?" asked Leon. "If it should follow the top of some of these mountains we'd have to ascend much higher than we are now to be out of range, wouldn't we?"
"We certainly would. Keep your eyes open and see if you can see any signs of trenches; we ought to be pretty close now."
The foothills were below them now. The wooded slopes were cut and gashed by gullies and ravines and now and then a fertile valley appeared. The hills grew in size rapidly, however, and it was not long before the mountains themselves were underneath them. Once or twice a cloud wrapped them in its damp folds and it was with a feeling of relief when they emerged into the sunlight again.
"Whew, it's cold," exclaimed Leon slapping his hands together.
"My hands are cold too," said Jacques. "You have the best of me though for I can't warm them the way you are doing."
"Please don't try," laughed Earl. "I'd rather that you should have cold hands than we should all go spinning down to earth."
"Well I'll--" Jacques began when Leon suddenly interrupted him.
"There are the trenches," he exclaimed. "See them? They run right across that valley."
"That's right," agreed Jacques. "Let's see; we must be fairly close to our destination by now." He consulted his map.
"I hope so," exclaimed Earl. "I'm cold and hungry."
"Right over that next summit," said Jacques. "If our luck only holds out a few minutes longer we're all right."
They crossed the firing line which appeared very far away in the distant valley. They passed over the summit of the mountain Jacques had indicated and far below them they saw a tiny hamlet; a white church with its pointed steeple stood in the center of the little cluster of houses.