The boys were just aching in spirit for even a word with the supposed sailor, safely out of range of the lynx-eyed Roque, but the latter, after the experience in Kiel, stuck closer than a burr to his charges. The face had passed from the mirror, and the owner of the smiling countenance sauntered through the street door of the café, mingling with many of his kind, smoking and chatting on the sidewalk.
“How will we make it?” tapped Billy on the table.
“Do not know,” was Henri’s answering tap.
Roque had paid the waiter for the dinner service, and was placidly puffing a long, black cigar.
“We might take a stroll,” suggested Billy.
“Something like you did at Kiel?”
The secret agent seemed to have amused himself with this sly dig, but it was lost upon his young companions, who were working their wits to invent a getaway.
“How would you like to go to the theater?”
“Bully idea!” This was Billy’s vote.
“Fine!” echoed Henri.
[245]
As the three passed out of the café, the boys brushed against the very man with whom they were eager to speak.
Billy was inspired at the moment to distinctly address Herr Roque regarding their return journey to the air camp:
“What time to-morrow do we leave for Hamburg, sir?”
Roque gave Billy a look of stern rebuke.
Billy was not worried about the answer he did not get in words. He saw a certain bystander uncover a fine set of teeth, and that was enough.
The play at the theater was a war drama, which was not at all like the real thing, but Billy was so delighted with the success of his stratagem at the café door that he was inclined to applaud at both the right and the wrong time.
Henri held his praise for his chum, when the two retired for the night.
“It looks like a case of ‘diamond cut diamond’ to me,” he observed, “for you can wager that they would never send a fool over here to buck against the like of Roque.”
“I bet they wouldn’t,” was Billy’s sleepy opinion.
The next evening the boys were back in the air camp at Hamburg.
“You have your hands full, lieutenant,” remarked Roque, with a wink and a nod at our Aviator Boys.

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