Roy Norton

“ Villalon and Lepard took the oars and I the tiller. The moon had gone and clouds obscured the greater portion of the skies. I had to bend low to descry the dark and silent shore lines. Around a point where cottages clustered we nearly struck a reef, and once, later, smashed against a snag when we drew too close to the shore. When the dull lights of the acid house stared at us we slowly made our way to the place where a clump of heavy overhanging brush and foliage would serve to hide our boat. We pulled it up for security and threw ourselves own to wait for the light to grow a little stronger. ”

“ Villalon rested on his oars and stared, as did Lepard and I. Here was the goal of our mission, the outlying building of the powder plant, squatted there as if doing sentry duty and guarding aggression from the lake. We rowed back to our landing that night with a well defined plan calculated to allay or disarm suspicion as to our identity and purpose. We decided that we must so enter the social life of the lake as to render our presence unnoteworthy. Nothing other than a campaign of exasperating slowness was feasible. ”

“ We saw him rejoin her on the veranda, make his adieu, and in a few minutes we were on the lake headed toward our hotel with the water curling away from the launch's bow. We were silent that night, knowing that on the morrow the success or failure of our mission would be known and that perhaps the fate of France herself was dependent thereon.
"Ah! Our country seemed so far away! It was as if we could stare out to the dim horizon line where the hills cut the moonlit sky and fancy that a way beyond she waited and watched tor our return. ”

“ A man who can find his way through a camp on the blackest night or unerringly head toward the oasis in the desert becomes lost when he is thrown into unaccustomed surroundings. The most efficient General I have ever known, a man whose judgment in battle was unerring and swift, made a faux pas at his first presidential reception that nearly caused him disgrace. He blundered as badly as did Lepard, Villalon, and I when we were detached for special duty in America. ”

“ The following day there was a regatta on the lake from which we dared not be absent. To win a paltry cup those Americans raced motorboats costing a soldier's lifetime pay, and the waters were alive with craft of every kind. We were invited, among others, to make up a launch party, and in a roomy boat turned through the maze, where Lepard caught sight of Lucile and waved a familiar greeting. I heard an exclamation and thought some man in her boat had called. ”

“ In front of each of these small fortresses was a grassy slope, and on a rack by each barricade were white suits and rubber shoes for three workmen.
"Villalon whispered to us in explanation. 'The work is so hazardous that but three men are allowed in each place. Their clothing is changed, that there may be no metal about them when they enter. They are working with a fearfully high explosive. When we get there we must be careful, and if we gain access to one of the houses must remove our shoes; for the scrape of a heel upon the floor might blow us all to fragments." ”

“ The men who worked in that terrifying place where danger was a constant companion were sober, industrious, and carefully selected. Mind you, I do not say that we who had come so far to gain much would have hesitated at anything save bribery; so I tell you we tried to find some man whose tongue, in hospitality's glow, would wag freely, some other who was prone to be loquacious, or yet another who had a willingness to betray for some injury, fancied or real. ”

“ We have learned that this explosive is manufactured in a plant standing in a Government reservation and guarded by the employees, assisted by a squad of soldiers. Although accessible, no outsider has been able to enter it. We want plans or photographs of the machinery employed, a knowledge of the process, and an analysis of the ingredients. I am told by General Rodet that Captain Villalon, being the best equipped man in France for the quest, should go, and with him you, his comrades, who are adroit and brave. ”

“ MADEMOISELLE LUCILE
By ROY NORTON
A REAL soldier may not stray far afield and be sure of himself." Colonel Dunois said as we resumed our walk after a sun-tanned young officer had halted us at the corner of the Rue Beaux Arts and Rue Bonaparte and inquired the way to the Boulevard Saint Michel. ”