Download the full version of the textbook now at textbookfull.

com

Intelligent Computing Proceedings of the 2020

Computing Conference Volume 1 Kohei Arai

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-
computing-proceedings-of-the-2020-computing-
conference-volume-1-kohei-arai/

Explore and download more textbook at https://textbookfull.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Intelligent Computing Proceedings of the 2020 Computing

Conference Volume 3 Kohei Arai

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-computing-proceedings-of-
the-2020-computing-conference-volume-3-kohei-arai/

textbookfull.com

Intelligent Computing Proceedings of the 2020 Computing

Conference Volume 2 Kohei Arai

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-computing-proceedings-of-
the-2020-computing-conference-volume-2-kohei-arai/

textbookfull.com

Intelligent Computing: Proceedings of the 2018 Computing

Conference, Volume 2 Kohei Arai

https://textbookfull.com/product/intelligent-computing-proceedings-of-
the-2018-computing-conference-volume-2-kohei-arai/

textbookfull.com

Fashion The Definitive Visual Guide Caryn Franklin

https://textbookfull.com/product/fashion-the-definitive-visual-guide-
caryn-franklin/

textbookfull.com
Domain Specific Languages in R Advanced Statistical
Programming 1st Edition Thomas Mailund

https://textbookfull.com/product/domain-specific-languages-in-r-
advanced-statistical-programming-1st-edition-thomas-mailund-2/

textbookfull.com

See Yourself in Cyber: Security Careers Beyond Hacking 1st

Edition Anonymous

https://textbookfull.com/product/see-yourself-in-cyber-security-
careers-beyond-hacking-1st-edition-anonymous/

textbookfull.com

The Practice of Surgical Pathology A Beginner s Guide to

the Diagnostic Process Diana Weedman Molavi

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-practice-of-surgical-pathology-a-
beginner-s-guide-to-the-diagnostic-process-diana-weedman-molavi/

textbookfull.com

Explorations in the History of Machines and Mechanisms

Proceedings of the Fifth IFToMM Symposium on the History
of Machines and Mechanisms 1st Edition Carlos López-Cajún
https://textbookfull.com/product/explorations-in-the-history-of-
machines-and-mechanisms-proceedings-of-the-fifth-iftomm-symposium-on-
the-history-of-machines-and-mechanisms-1st-edition-carlos-lopez-cajun/
textbookfull.com

Levinas, Kant and the Problematic of Temporality Adonis

Frangeskou

https://textbookfull.com/product/levinas-kant-and-the-problematic-of-
temporality-adonis-frangeskou/

textbookfull.com
Cognitive hack : the new battleground in cybersecurity...
the human mind 1st Edition Bone

https://textbookfull.com/product/cognitive-hack-the-new-battleground-
in-cybersecurity-the-human-mind-1st-edition-bone/

textbookfull.com
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 1228

Kohei Arai
Supriya Kapoor
Rahul Bhatia Editors

Intelligent
Computing
Proceedings of the 2020 Computing
Conference, Volume 1
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Volume 1228

Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland

Advisory Editors
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
Rafael Bello Perez, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computing,
Universidad Central de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
Emilio S. Corchado, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Hani Hagras, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering,
University of Essex, Colchester, UK
László T. Kóczy, Department of Automation, Széchenyi István University,
Gyor, Hungary
Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas
at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
Chin-Teng Lin, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chiao
Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Jie Lu, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,
University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Patricia Melin, Graduate Program of Computer Science, Tijuana Institute
of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico
Nadia Nedjah, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ngoc Thanh Nguyen , Faculty of Computer Science and Management,
Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland
Jun Wang, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications
on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent
Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer
and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment,
healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern
intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft comput-
ing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion
of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuro-
science, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems,
Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and
adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric
computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics
including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning para-
digms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent
agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust
management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.
The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are
primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They
cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and
applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short
publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad
dissemination of research results.
** Indexing: The books of this series are submitted to ISI Proceedings,
EI-Compendex, DBLP, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink **

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11156

Kohei Arai Supriya Kapoor
• •

Rahul Bhatia
Editors

Intelligent Computing
Proceedings of the 2020 Computing
Conference, Volume 1

123
Editors
Kohei Arai Supriya Kapoor
Saga University The Science and Information
Saga, Japan (SAI) Organization
Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
Rahul Bhatia
The Science and Information
(SAI) Organization
Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

ISSN 2194-5357 ISSN 2194-5365 (electronic)

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
ISBN 978-3-030-52248-3 ISBN 978-3-030-52249-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52249-0
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Editor’s Preface

On behalf of the Committee, we welcome you to the Computing Conference 2020.

The aim of this conference is to give a platform to researchers with fundamental
contributions and to be a premier venue for industry practitioners to share and
report on up-to-the-minute innovations and developments, to summarize the state
of the art and to exchange ideas and advances in all aspects of computer sciences
and its applications.
The aim of this conference is to give a platform to researchers with fundamental
contributions and to be a premier venue for industry practitioners to share and
report on up-to-the-minute innovations and developments, to summarize the state
of the art and to exchange ideas and advances in all aspects of computer sciences
and its applications.
For this edition of the conference, we received 514 submissions from 50+
countries around the world. These submissions underwent a double-blind peer
review process. Of those 514 submissions, 160 submissions (including 15 posters)
have been selected to be included in this proceedings. The published proceedings
has been divided into three volumes covering a wide range of conference tracks,
such as technology trends, computing, intelligent systems, machine vision, security,
communication, electronics and e-learning to name a few. In addition to the con-
tributed papers, the conference program included inspiring keynote talks. Their
talks were anticipated to pique the interest of the entire computing audience by their
thought-provoking claims which were streamed live during the conferences. Also,
the authors had very professionally presented their research papers which were
viewed by a large international audience online. All this digital content engaged
significant contemplation and discussions amongst all participants.
Deep appreciation goes to the keynote speakers for sharing their knowledge and
expertise with us and to all the authors who have spent the time and effort to
contribute significantly to this conference. We are also indebted to the Organizing
Committee for their great efforts in ensuring the successful implementation of the
conference. In particular, we would like to thank the Technical Committee for their
constructive and enlightening reviews on the manuscripts in the limited timescale.

v
vi Editor’s Preface

We hope that all the participants and the interested readers benefit scientifically
from this book and find it stimulating in the process. We are pleased to present the
proceedings of this conference as its published record.
Hope to see you in 2021, in our next Computing Conference, with the same
amplitude, focus and determination.

Kohei Arai
Contents

Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic

Computing Using IBM’s NS16e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Mark Barnell, Courtney Raymond, Matthew Wilson, Darrek Isereau,
Eric Cote, Dan Brown, and Chris Cicotta
Energy Efficient Resource Utilization: Architecture
for Enterprise Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dilawar Ali, Fawad Riasat Raja, and Muhammad Asjad Saleem
Performance Evaluation of MPI vs. Apache Spark for Condition
Based Maintenance Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tomasz Haupt, Bohumir Jelinek, Angela Card, and Gregory Henley
Comparison of Embedded Linux Development Tools for the WiiPiiDo
Distribution Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Diogo Duarte, Sérgio Silva, João M. Rodrigues, Salviano Pinto Soares,
and António Valente
FERA: A Framework for Critical Assessment of Execution
Monitoring Based Approaches for Finding Concurrency Bugs . . . . . . . 54
Jasmin Jahić, Thomas Bauer, Thomas Kuhn, Norbert Wehn,
and Pablo Oliveira Antonino
A Top-Down Three-Way Merge Algorithm for HTML/XML
Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Anastasios G. Bakaoukas and Nikolaos G. Bakaoukas
Traceability Framework for Requirement Artefacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Foziah Gazzawe, Russell Lock, and Christian Dawson
Haptic Data Accelerated Prediction via Multicore Implementation . . . . 110
Pasquale De Luca and Andrea Formisano

vii
viii Contents

Finding the Maximal Independent Sets of a Graph Including the

Maximum Using a Multivariable Continuous Polynomial Objective
Optimization Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Maher Heal and Jingpeng Li
Numerical Method of Synthesized Control for Solution of the Optimal
Control Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Askhat Diveev
Multidatabase Location Based Services (MLBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Romani Farid Ibrahim
wiseCIO: Web-Based Intelligent Services Engaging Cloud
Intelligence Outlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Sheldon Liang, Kimberly Lebby, and Peter McCarthy
A Flexible Hybrid Approach to Data Replication
in Distributed Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Syed Mohtashim Abbas Bokhari and Oliver Theel
A Heuristic for Efficient Reduction in Hidden Layer Combinations
for Feedforward Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Wei Hao Khoong
Personalized Recommender Systems with Multi-source Data . . . . . . . . . 219
Yili Wang, Tong Wu, Fei Ma, and Shengxin Zhu
Renormalization Approach to the Task of Determining the Number
of Topics in Topic Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Sergei Koltcov and Vera Ignatenko
Strategic Inference in Adversarial Encounters Using
Graph Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
D. Michael Franklin
Machine Learning for Offensive Security: Sandbox Classification
Using Decision Trees and Artificial Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Will Pearce, Nick Landers, and Nancy Fulda
Time Series Analysis of Financial Statements for Default Modelling . . . 281
Kirill Romanyuk and Yuri Ichkitidze
Fraud Detection Using Sequential Patterns from Credit
Card Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Addisson Salazar, Gonzalo Safont, and Luis Vergara
Retention Prediction in Sandbox Games with Bipartite
Tensor Factorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Rafet Sifa, Michael Fedell, Nathan Franklin, Diego Klabjan, Shiva Ram,
Arpan Venugopal, Simon Demediuk, and Anders Drachen
Contents ix

Data Analytics of Student Learning Outcomes Using Abet

Course Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Hosam Hasan Alhakami, Baker Ahmed Al-Masabi,
and Tahani Mohammad Alsubait
Modelling the Currency Exchange Rates Using Support
Vector Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Ezgi Deniz Ülker and Sadik Ülker
Data Augmentation and Clustering for Vehicle Make/Model
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Mohamed Nafzi, Michael Brauckmann, and Tobias Glasmachers
A Hybrid Recommender System Combing Singular Value
Decomposition and Linear Mixed Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Tianyu Zuo, Shenxin Zhu, and Jian Lu
Data Market Implementation to Match Retail Customer Buying
Versus Social Media Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Anton Ivaschenko, Anastasia Stolbova, and Oleg Golovnin
A Study of Modeling Techniques for Prediction of Wine Quality . . . . . 373
Ashley Laughter and Safwan Omari
Quantifying Apparent Strain for Automatic Modelling, Simulation,
Compensation and Classification in Structural Health Monitoring . . . . . 400
Enoch A-iyeh
A New Approach to Supervised Data Analysis in Embedded Systems
Environments: A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Pamela E. Godoy-Trujillo, Paul D. Rosero-Montalvo,
Luis E. Suárez-Zambrano, Diego H. Peluffo-Ordoñez,
and E. J. Revelo-Fuelagán
Smart Cities: Using Gamification and Emotion Detection
to Improve Citizens Well Fair and Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Manuel Rodrigues, Ricardo Machado, Ricardo Costa,
and Sérgio Gonçalves
Towards a Smart Interface-Based Automated Learning Environment
Through Social Media for Disaster Management and Smart
Disaster Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Zair Bouzidi, Abdelmalek Boudries, and Mourad Amad
Is Social Media Still “Social”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Chan Eang Teng and Tang Mui Joo
Social Media: Influences and Impacts on Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Mui Joo Tang and Eang Teng Chan
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
x Contents

Cost of Dietary Data Acquisition with Smart Group Catering . . . . . . . . 502

Jiapeng Dong, Pengju Wang, and Weiqiang Sun
Social Engineering Defense Mechanisms: A Taxonomy and a Survey
of Employees’ Awareness Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Dalal N. Alharthi and Amelia C. Regan
How Information System Project Stakeholders Perceive
Project Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Iwona Kolasa and Dagmara Modrzejewska
Fuzzy Logic Based Adaptive Innovation Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Bushra Naeem, Bilal Shabbir, and Juliza Jamaludin
A Review of Age Estimation Research to Evaluate Its Inclusion
in Automated Child Pornography Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Lee MacLeod, David King, and Euan Dempster
A Comprehensive Survey and Analysis on Path Planning Algorithms
and Heuristic Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Bin Yan, Tianxiang Chen, Xiaohui Zhu, Yong Yue, Bing Xu, and Kai Shi
Computational Conformal Mapping in Education
and Engineering Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Maqsood A. Chaudhry
Pilot Study of ICT Compliance Index Model to Measure the Readiness
of Information System (IS) at Public Sector in Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Mohamad Nor Hassan and Aziz Deraman
Preliminary Experiments on the Use of Nonlinear Programming
for Indoor Localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Stefania Monica and Federico Bergenti
Improved Deterministic Broadcasting for Multiple Access Channels . . . 645
Bader A. Aldawsari and J. Haadi Jafarian
Equivalent Thermal Conductivity of Metallic-Wire
for On-Line Monitoring of Power Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
M. S. Al-Saud
A Novel Speed Estimation Algorithm for Mobile UE’s
in 5G mmWave Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Alawi Alattas, Yogachandran Rahulamathavan, and Ahmet Kondoz
In-App Activity Recognition from Wi-Fi Encrypted Traffic . . . . . . . . . . 685
Madushi H. Pathmaperuma, Yogachandran Rahulamathavan,
Safak Dogan, and Ahmet M. Kondoz
A Novel Routing Based on OLSR for NDN-MANET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Xian Guo, Shengya Yang, Laicheng Cao, Jing Wang, and Yongbo Jiang
Contents xi

A Comparative Study of Active and Passive Learning Approaches

in Hybrid Learning, Undergraduate, Educational Programs . . . . . . . . . 715
Khalid Baba, Nicolas Cheimanoff, and Nour-eddine El Faddouli
Mobile Learning Adoption at a Science Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726
Ruel Welch, Temitope Alade, and Lynn Nichol
Conceptualizing Technology-Enhanced Learning Constructs:
A Journey of Seeking Knowledge Using Literature-Based Discovery . . . 746
Amalia Rahmah, Harry B. Santoso, and Zainal A. Hasibuan
Random Sampling Effects on e-Learners Cluster Sizes Using
Clustering Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760
Muna Al Fanah
Jupyter-Notebook: A Digital Signal Processing Course Enriched
Through the Octave Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
Arturo Zúñiga-López, Carlos Avilés-Cruz, Andrés Ferreyra-Ramírez,
and Eduardo Rodríguez-Martínez
A Novel Yardstick of Learning Time Spent in a Programming
Language by Unpacking Bloom’s Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Alcides Bernardo Tello, Ying-Tien Wu, Tom Perry, and Xu Yu-Pei
Assessing and Development of Chemical Intelligence Through
e-Learning Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
E. V. Volkova
Injecting Challenge or Competition in a Learning Activity
for Kindergarten/Primary School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Bah Tee Eng, Insu Song, Chaw Suu Htet Nwe, and Tian Liang Yi

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning
and Neuromorphic Computing Using IBM’s
NS16e

Mark Barnell1(B) , Courtney Raymond1 , Matthew Wilson2 , Darrek Isereau2 ,

Eric Cote2 , Dan Brown2 , and Chris Cicotta2
1 Air Force Research Laboratory, Information Directorate, Rome, NY 13441, USA
[email protected]
2 SRC, Inc., 6225 Running Ridge Road, North Syracuse, NY 13212, USA

Abstract. The human brain can be viewed as an extremely power-efficient bio-

logical computer. As such, there have been many efforts to create brain-inspired
processing systems to enable advances in low-power data processing. An exam-
ple of brain-inspired processing architecture is the IBM TrueNorth Neurosynaptic
System, a Spiking Neural Network architecture for deploying ultra-low power
machine learning (ML) models and algorithms. For the first time ever, an advanced
scalable computing architecture was demonstrated using 16 TrueNorth neuro-
morphic processors containing in aggregate over 16 million neurons. This sys-
tem, called the NS16e, was used to demonstrate new ML techniques including
the exploitation of optical and radar sensor data simultaneously, while consum-
ing a fraction of the power compared to traditional Von Neumann computing
architectures. The number of applications that have requirements for computing
architectures that can operate in size, weight and power-constrained environments
continues to grow at an outstanding pace. These applications include proces-
sors for vehicles, homes, and real-time data exploitation needs for intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. This research included the successful
exploitation of optical and radar data using the NS16e system. Processing perfor-
mance was assessed, and the power utilization was analyzed. The NS16e system
never used more than 15 W, with the contribution from the 16 TrueNorth proces-
sors utilizing less than 5 W. The image processing throughput was 16,000 image
chips per second, corresponding to 1,066 image chips per second for each watt of
power consumed.

Keywords: Machine vision · High Performance Computing (HPC) · Artificial

Intelligence (AI) · Machine learning image processing · Deep Learning (DL) ·
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) · Spiking Neural Network (SNN) ·
Neuromorphic processors

Received and approved for public release by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on 11
June 2019, case number 88ABW-2019-2928. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recom-
mendations expressed in this material are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the
views of AFRL or its contractors. This work was partially funded under AFRL’s Neuromorphic
- Compute Architectures and Processing contract that started in September 2018 and continues
until June 2020.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

K. Arai et al. (Eds.): SAI 2020, AISC 1228, pp. 1–11, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52249-0_1
2 M. Barnell et al.

1 Background
Background and insight into the technical applicability of this research is discussed in
Sect. 1. Section 2 provides an overview of the hardware. Section 3 provides detail on
our technical approach. Section 4 provides a concise summary of our results. Section 5
addresses areas of future research, and conclusions are discussed in Sect. 6.
We are currently in a period where the interest and the pace of research and devel-
opment in ML and AI technological advances is high. In part, the progress is enabled
by increases in investment by government, industry, and academia.
Currently, ML algorithms, techniques, and methods are improving at an accelerated
pace, i.e., with methods to recognize objects and patterns outpacing human perfor-
mance. The communities’ interest is supported by the number of applications that can
use existing and emerging ML hardware and software technologies. These applications
are supported by the availability of large quantities of data, connectivity of information,
and new high-performance computing architectures. Such applications are now preva-
lent in many everyday devices. For example, data from low cost optical cameras and
radars provide automobiles the data needed to assist humans. These driver assistants
can identify road signs, pedestrians, and lane lines, while also controlling vehicle speed
and direction. Other devices include smart thermostats, autonomous home floor clean-
ers, robots that deliver towels to hotel guests, systems that track and improve athletic
performance, and devices that help medical professionals diagnose disease. These appli-
cations, and the availability of data collected on increasingly smaller devices, are driving
the need and interest in low-power neuromorphic chip architectures.
The wide applicability of information processing technologies has increased com-
petition and interest in computing hardware and software that can operate within the
memory, power, and cost constraints of the real world. This includes continued research
into computing systems that are structured like the human brain. The research includes
several decades of development, in-part pioneered by Carver Mead [1]. Current exam-
ples of the more advanced neuromorphic chips include SpiNNaker, Loihi, BrainScaleS-
1, NeuroGrid/Braindrop, DYNAP, ODIN and TrueNorth [2]. These systems improve
upon traditional computing architectures, such as the Von Neumann architecture, where
physical memory and logic are separated. In neuromorphic systems, the colocalization
of memory and computation, as well as reduced precision computing, increases energy
efficiencies, and provides a product that uses much less power than traditional compute
architectures.
IBM’s TrueNorth Neurosynaptic System represents an implementation of these
newly available specialized neuromorphic computing architectures [3]. The TrueNorth
NS1e, an evaluation board with a single TrueNorth chip, has the following technical
specifications: 1 million individually programmable neurons, 256 million individually
programmable synapses, and 4,096 parallel & distributed cores. Additionally, this chip
uses approximately 200 mW of total power, resulting in 20 mW/cm2 power density
[4–6].
 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing 3

The latest iteration of the TrueNorth Neurosynaptic System includes the NS16e, a
single board containing a tiled set of 16 TrueNorth processors, assembled in a four-by-
four grid. This state-of-the-art 16 chip computing architecture yields a 16 million neu-
ron processor, capable of implementing large, multi-processor models or parallelizing
smaller models, which can then process 16 times the data.
To demonstrate the processing capabilities of the TrueNorth, we developed multiple
classifiers. These classifiers were trained using optical satellite imagery from the United
States Geological Survey (USGS) [7]. Each image chip in the overall image was labeled
by identifying the existence or non-existence of a vehicle in the chip. The chips were
not centered and could include only a segment of a vehicle [8]. Figure 1 shows the raw
imagery is on the left and the processed imagery on the right. In this analysis, a single
TrueNorth chip was able to process one thousand, 32 × 32 pixel chips per second.

Advanced Network Classification

USGS imagery was
Raw Imagery Processed Imagery Chipped,
Human-labeled and
preprocessed to train, test,
and validate our network
model.

14 Layer
Neural Network

Results Vehicle Detection

Accuracy of 97.6% 24,336 Total Chips
Probability of Detection 89.5%, Classified at 1,000 chips/sec
Probability of False Alarm 1.4% 3 Watts

Fig. 1. Electro-optical (EO) image processing using two-class network to detect car/no car in
scene using IBM’s neuromorphic compute architecture, called TrueNorth (using one chip)

Previous work was extended upon through the use of new networks and placement of
those networks on the TrueNorth chip. Additionally, results were captured, and analyses
were completed to assess the performance of these new network models. The overall
accuracy of the best model was 97.6%. Additional performance measures are provided
at the bottom of Fig. 1.

2 Hardware Overview

Development of the TrueNorth architecture dates to the DARPA Systems of Neuro-

morphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project beginning in 2008.
This project sought to develop revolutionary new neuromorphic processors and design
tools. Each TrueNorth chip is made of 5.4 billion transistors, and is fabricated using
4 M. Barnell et al.

a 28 nm low-power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process tech-

nology with complimentary pairs of logic functions. The True North chip is 4.3 cm2
using under 200 mW of power per chip.
The NS16e board is configured with 16 TrueNorth chips in a 4 × 4 chip configuration.
In aggregate, this board provides users with access to 16 million programmable neurons
and over 4 billion programmable synapses. The physical size of the NS16e board is
215 mm × 285 mm [9].
To expand on this configuration, four of these NS16e boards were emplaced in a
standard 7U space. Thereby, this new neuromorphic system occupies about 19 by 23 by
7 inches in a rack space. The four-board configuration, called the NS16e-4, results in a
neuromorphic computing system with 64 million neurons and 16 billion synapses.
Such a configuration enables users to extend upon the single chip research described
in Sect. 1, and implement inferencing algorithms and data processing in parallel. Addi-
tionally, the system uses a fraction of the processing power compared to traditional
computing hardware occupying the same physical footprint. The Air Force Research
Laboratory’s (AFRL’s) rack mounted neurosynaptic system, called BlueRaven, is shown
in Fig. 2.

BlueRaven NeurosynapƟc System

• Rack mounted
• Four NS16e boards with an
aggregate of 64 million
neurons and 16 billion
synapses
• Enabling parallelization
research and design
• Used to process 5000 x
5000 pixels of information
every 3 seconds.

Fig. 2. AFRL’s BlueRaven system – equivalent to 64 million neurons and 16 billion synapses

The BlueRaven High Performance Computer (HPC) also contains a 2U Penguin

Computing Relion 2904GT. The Penguin server is utilized for training network models
 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing 5

before being deployed to the neuromorphic hardware, as well as for data pre-processing.
Table 1 details Blue Raven’s specifications.

Table 1. BlueRaven system architecture configuration detail

Specification Description
Form Factor 2U Server + 2U NS16e Sled
NS16e 4× IBM NS16e PCIe Cards
Neurosynaptic Cores 262,144
Programmable Neurons 67,108,864
Programmable Synapses 17,179,869,184
PCIe NS16e Interface 4× PCIe Gen 2
Ethernet - Server 1x 1 Gbit
Ethernet – NS16e 1x 1 Gbit per NS16e
Training GPUs 2x NVIDIA Tesla P100
Volatile Memory 256 GB
CPUs 2× 10-Core E5-2630

3 Approach
The NS16e processing approach includes the use of deep convolutional Spiking Neural
Networks (SNN) to perform classification inferencing of the input imagery. The deep
networks were designed and trained using IBM’s Energy-efficient Deep Neuromorphic
Networks (EEDN) framework [4].
The neurosynaptic resource utilization of the classifiers were purposely designed to
operate within the constraints of the TrueNorth architecture. Specifically, they stayed
within the limits of the single TrueNorth’s 1 million neurons and 256 million synapses.
The benefit of this technical approach is that it immediately allowed us to populate
an NS16e board with up to sixteen parallel image classifier networks, eight to process
optical imagery and eight to process radar imagery. Specifically, the processing chain
is composed of a collection of 8 duplicates of the same EEDN network trained on a
classification task for each chosen dataset.

3.1 USGS Dataset

EO imagery happens to be a very applicable data set to use to exercise the BlueRaven
system. It is applicable because it is freely available, and is of favorable quality (i.e., high-
resolution). The quality of the data enabled us to easily identify targets in the imagery.
Additionally, the data could be easily chipped and labeled to provide the information
necessary for network model training and validation.
6 M. Barnell et al.

This overhead optical imagery includes all 3 color channels (red, green and blue).
The scene analyzed included 5000 × 5000 pixels at 1-foot resolution. From this larger
scene, image chips were extracted. Each image chip from the scene was 32 × 32 pixels.
There was no overlap between samples, thereby sampling the input scene with a receptive
field of 32 × 32 pixels and a stride of 32 pixels. This resulted in over 24,336 (156 ×
156) sub-regions.
The USGS EO data was used to successfully build TrueNorth-based classifiers that
contained up to six object and terrain classes (e.g., vehicle, asphalt, structure, water,
foliage, and grass). For this multi-processor neurosynaptic hardware demonstration, a
subset of the classes was utilized to construct a binary classifier, which detected the
presence or absence of a vehicle within the image chip.
The data set was divided up into a training and test/validation sets. The training
set contained 60% of the chips (14,602 image chips). The remaining 40% of the chips
(9,734) were used for test/validation. The multi-processor demonstration construct and
corresponding imagery is shown in Fig. 3.

Multi-Processor Neurosynaptic Demonstration

Optical Imagery

Binary classification of a vehicle/no vehicle within the image

Example Imagery and Demonstration Construct

Fig. 3. Example USGS tile and demonstration construct

3.2 Multi-chip Neurosynaptic Electro-Optical Classification

The content of the chip was defined during data curation/labeling. The label was in one
of two categories: no vehicle or a vehicle. Additionally, the chips were not chosen with
the targets of interest centered in the image chip. Because of this, many of the image
chips contained portions of a vehicle, e.g., a chip may contain an entire vehicle, fractions
of a vehicle, or even fractions of multiple vehicles.
The process of classifying the existence of a vehicle in the image starts with object
detection. Recognizing that a chip may contain a portion of a vehicle, an approach was
developed to help ensure detection of the vehicles of interest. This approach created
 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing 7

multiple 32 × 32 × 3 image centroids. These centroids were varied in both the X and Y
dimensions to increase the probability of getting more of the target in the image being
analyzed.
A block diagram showing the processing flow from USGS imagery to USGS imagery
with predicted labels is shown in Fig. 4. This includes NS16e implementations with 8
parallel classifier networks, 1 per each TrueNorth on half the board.

USGS USGS Image w/

5000x5000 Predicted Labels
Image Model

Model

Image Model ClassificaƟon

Sub-region Processor
Model

Image Model
Chipper
Model

Model

TrueNorth
USGS Model

Fig. 4. NS16e USGS block diagram

The copies of the EO network were placed in two full columns of the NS16e, or
eight TrueNorth processors in a 4 × 2 configuration, with one network copy on each
processor. As a note, the remainder of the board was leveraged to study processing with
additional radar imagery data.

3.3 Electro-Optical Classification Hardware Statistics

Analyses of the systems power consumption was completed. The TrueNorth system
operates at a rate of 1 kHz. This rate directly correlates to the number of image chips
that can be processed per second. The USGS/Radar network models were replicated
across 16 TrueNorth chips and resulted in a processing speed of 16,000 inferences
per second. At this rate and using 8 TrueNorth chips, the new compute and exploitation
architecture was able to process the full 5,000 × 5,000 pixel optical imagery with 24,336
image chips in 3 s.
8 M. Barnell et al.

The NS16e card’s power usage during inferencing is shown in Table 2. The total uti-
lization of the board was less than 14 W. The runtime analyses included the measurement
of periphery circuits and input/output (I/O) on the board.

Table 2. NS16e board power usage

Board power
Board Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)
Nominal Measured Computed
Interposer (Inclrding MMP) +12 0.528 6.336
16-chip board (Including TN chips) +12 0.622 7.462
Total 1.150 13.798

Table 3 details the power utilization of the TrueNorth chips without the boards
peripheral power use. The contribution from the TrueNorth accounted for approximately
5 W of the total 15 W.

Table 3. NS16e TrueNorth power usage

TrueNorth power only

Component Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)
Measured Measured Computed
TrueNorth Core VDD 0.980 4.74 4.636
TrueNorth I/O Drivers 1.816 0.04 0.063
TrueNorth I/O Pads 1.000 0.00 0.002
Total 4.701

Table 4 provides detail on the power utilization without loading on the system (idle).

4 Results

In Fig. 5, we see an example of predictions (yellow boxes) overlaid with ground truth
(green tiles). Over the entirety of our full-scene image, we report a classification accuracy
of 84.29% or 3,165 of 3,755 vehicles found. Our misclassification rate, meaning the
number of false positives or false negatives, is 35.39%. Of that, 15.71% of targets are
false negatives, i.e. target misses. This can be tuned by changing the chipping algorithm
used with a trade off in the inference speed of a tile.
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing 9

Table 4. Idle NS16e power usage

Board power
Board Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)
Nominal Measured Computed
Interposer (Including MMP) +12 0.518 6.216
16-chip board (Including TN chips) +12 0.605 7.265
TOTAL 1.123 13.481
TrueNorth power only
Component Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)
Measured Measured Computed
TrueNorth Core VDD 0.978 4.64 4.547
TrueNorth I/O Drivers 1.816 0.03 0.051
TrueNorth I/O Pads 0.998 0.00 0.001
TOTAL 4.599

Multi-Processor Neurosynaptic Demonstration

Legend
Target Positively Identified
Target Falsely Identified
Truth (Human Labeled Cars)

• Detected 3165 of 3755

(84.29%) of the Vehicles
• 8000 inferences per
second

Fig. 5. Example USGS tile results

5 Future Research

Neuromorphic research and development continue with companies such as Intel and
IBM. They are contributing to the communities’ interest in these low power processors.
As an example, the SpiNNaker system consists of many ARM cores and is highly
10 M. Barnell et al.

flexible since neurons are implemented at the software level, albeit somewhat more
energy intensive (each core consumes ~1 W) [10, 11].
As new SNN architectures continue to be developed, new algorithms and applica-
tions continue to surface. This includes technologies such as bioinspired vision systems
[12]. Additionally, Intel’s Loihi neuromorphic processor [13] is a new SNN neuromor-
phic architecture which enables a new set of capabilities on ultra-low power hardware.
Loihi also provides the opportunity for online learning. This makes the chip more flex-
ible as it allows various paradigms, such as supervisor/non-supervisor and reinforc-
ing/configurability. Additional research of these systems, data exploitation techniques,
and methods will continue to enable new low power and low-cost processing capabilities
with consumer interest and applicability.

6 Conclusions

The need for advanced processing algorithms and methods that operate on low-power
computing hardware continues to grow out an outstanding pace. This research has
enabled the demonstration of advanced image exploitation on the newly developed
NS16e neuromorphic hardware, i.e., a board with sixteen neurosynaptic chips on it.
Together, those chips never exceeded 5 W power utilization. The neuromorphic board
never exceeded 15 W power utilization.

References
1. Mead, C.: Neuromorphic electronic systems. Proc. IEEE 78(10), 1629–1636 (1990)
2. Rajendran, B., Sebastian, A., Schmuker, M., Srinivasa, N., Eleftheriou, E.: Low-power neu-
romorphic hardware for signal processing applications (2019). https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.
03690
3. Barnell, M., Raymond, C., Capraro, C., Isereau, D., Cicotta, C., Stokes, N.: High-performance
computing (HPC) and machine learning demonstrated in flight using Agile Condor®. In: IEEE
High Performance Extreme Computing Conference (HPEC), Waltham, MA (2018)
4. Esser, S.K., Merolla, P., Arthur, J.V., Cassidy, A.S., Appuswamy, R., Andreopoulos, A.,
et al.: CNNs for energy-efficient neuromorphic computing. In: Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, p. 201604850, September 2016. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.160485
0113
5. R.F. Service: The brain chip. In: Science, vol. 345, no. 6197, pp. 614–615 (2014)
6. Cassidy, A.S., Merolla, P., Arthur, J.V., Esser, S.K., Jackson, B., Alvarez-Icaza, R., Datta, P.,
Sawada, J., Wong, T.M., Feldman, V., Amir, A., Rubin, D.B.-D., Akopyan, F., McQuinn, E.,
Risk, W.P., Modha, D.S.: Cognitive computing building block: a versatile and efficient digital
neuron model for neurosynaptic cores. In: The 2013 International Joint Conference on Neural
Networks (IJCNN), pp. 1–10, 4–9 August 2013
7. U.S. Geological Survey: Landsat Data Access (2016). http://landsat.usgs.gov/Landsat_S
earch_and_Download.php
8. Raymond, C., Barnell, M., Capraro, C., Cote, E., Isereau, D.: Utilizing high-performance
embedded computing, agile condor®, for intelligent processing: an artificial intelligence
platform for remotely piloted aircraft. In: 2017 IEEE Intelligent Systems Conference, London,
UK (2017)
 Demonstrating Advanced Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing 11

9. Modha, D.S., Ananthanarayanan, R., Esser, S.K., Ndirango, A., et al.: Cognitive computing.
Commun. ACM 54(8), 62–71 (2011)
10. Furber, S.B., Galluppi, F., Temple, S., Plana, L.A.: The SpiNNaker project. Proc. IEEE 102(5),
652–665 (2014)
11. Schuman, C.D., Potok, T.E., Patton, R.M., Birdwell, J.D., Dean, M.E., Rose, G.S., Plank,
J.S.: A survey of neuromorphic computing and neural networks in hardware. CoRR
abs/1705.06963 (2017)
12. Dong, S., Zhu, L., Xu, D., Tian, Y., Huang, T.: An efficient coding method for spike camera
using inter-spike intervals. In: IEEE DCC, March 2019
13. Tang, G., Shah, A., Michmizos, K.P.: Spiking neural network on neuromorphic hardware for
energy-efficient unidimensional SLAM. CoRR abs/1903.02504. arXiv:1611.05141 (2019)
 Energy Efficient Resource Utilization:
Architecture for Enterprise Network
Towards Reliability with SleepAlert

Dilawar Ali1(B) , Fawad Riasat Raja2 , and Muhammad Asjad Saleem2

1 Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
[email protected]
2 University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Taxila, Pakistan

Abstract. Enterprise networks usually require all the computing machines to

remain accessible (switched-on) at all times regardless of the workload in order to
entertain user requests at any instant. This comes at the cost of excessive energy
utilization. Many solutions have been put forwarded, however, only few of them
are tested in a real-time environment, where the energy saving is achieved by com-
promising the systems’ reliability. Therefore, energy-efficient resource utilization
without compromising the system’s reliability is still a challenge. In this research,
a novel architecture, “Sleep Alert”, is proposed that not only avoids the exces-
sive energy utilization but also improves the system reliability by using Resource
Manager (RM) concept. In contrary to traditional approaches, Primary and Sec-
ondary Resource Managers i.e. RMP and RMS respectively are used to avoid the
single point of failure. The proposed architecture is tested on a network where
active users were accessing the distributed virtual storage and other applications
deployed on the desktop machines, those are connected with each other through
a peer-to-peer network. Experimental results show that the solution can save con-
siderable amount of energy while making sure that reliability is not compromised.
This solution is useful for small enterprise networks, where saving energy is a big
challenge besides reliability.

Keywords: Enterprise networks · Resource manager · Green computing · Sleep

proxy · Energy-efficient computing

1 Introduction
Efficient utilization of energy is one of the biggest challenges around the globe. The dif-
ference between demand and supply is always on rise. For high performance, computing
a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective energy solution satisfying power requirements and
minimizing environmental pollution will have a high impact. The biggest challenge in
enterprise networks is how to manage power consumption. Data centers utilize huge
amount of energy in order to ensure the availability of data when accessed remotely.
Major problem now a day is that energy is scarce, that is why renewable energy
i.e. producing energy by wind, water, solar light, geothermal and bio-energy is a hot
issue in research. It is of equal importance that how efficiently this limited energy would

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

K. Arai et al. (Eds.): SAI 2020, AISC 1228, pp. 12–27, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52249-0_2
 Energy Efficient Resource Utilization: Architecture for Enterprise Network 13

be utilized so an investment in green technology that leads to strengthen the economy

besides reducing the environment pollution be made. In US Department of Energy, office
of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is also working on energy efficiency
and renewable energy resources with an aim to reduce the dependence on imported oil
[1].
The number of internet users has increased 5 times from 2000 to 2009. Currently the
internet users are more than 2.4 billion [2]. Whereas Microsoft report shows, it will be
more than 4 billion in coming years. Some other sources say it will be more than 5 billion
by year 2020 [3]. More the number of users, more is the energy consumed, and an increase
amount of CO2 will be emitted The global Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) industry elucidate approximately 2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions,
number equivalent to aviation, which means rapid increase in environmental pollution.
The power deficiency issue and energy crisis are currently main topics of debate on
discussion forums and in professional conferences. It is considered a worldwide goal
to optimize energy consumption and minimize CO2 emissions in all critical sectors
of an economy [4]. Therefore, major concern is to reduce the utilization of energy in
enterprise networks using our prescribed scheme. A contribution to this scheme is to
widen the research area in Green computing, where main goal is not just to save the
operational energy of a product but also the overall energy, which is consumed from
product development till the completion of recycling process [4].
Data centers contain servers and storage systems, which operate and manage the
enterprise resource planning solutions. Major components of data center are environ-
mental controls (e.g., ventilation/air conditioning), redundant or backup power supplies,
multiple data communication connections and security devices (e.g. camera). Large data
centers are often considered as a major source of air pollution in the form of CO2. By
releasing plenty of heat, they raise global warming and consume as much energy as does
a small town [5]. In enterprise networks a machine (often a desktop) is usually in active
mode so as it remains available whenever accessed remotely. This reveals that some
machines having no load (i.e. idle one) may remain continuously in active state.
To cope with energy management issues, many hardware and software based solu-
tions have been put forward. Vendors have manufactured such devices e.g. Dynamic
Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) enabled devices, which will consume less energy
than the Non-DVFS enabled devices’. Many software solutions, too, have been proposed
which reduce energy consumption. The most prominent is the one that takes the machines
into sleep mode when they are idle. However, in the later scheme, there are a number of
issues e.g. reliability which will be addressed in next section.
This proposed architecture not only emphasizes on the shortcomings of existing
architectures which are identified in this research work but also cater most of the issues
occurred during real-time test environment. These include reliability of sleep proxy
architecture and overhead - where the proxy node sends a periodic signal to the proxy
server after every five minutes, notifying its presence on the network - as these have not
been addressed in the traditional approaches. The main benefit of proposed scheme is
no extra or costly hardware is required to implement the solution.
Sleep Alert, a cost effective solution, eliminates the concept of single point failure
and addition of any extra hardware to make the network reliable and energy efficient. This
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
several French pilots had been dropped. One of these had fallen in
the open space between the hostile lines. He was only wounded it
was seen, and desperate attempts were made by his comrades to
sally out and rescue him.
Three times did this happen, only to have the German guns open on
them with telling effect. Dozens of men had fallen solely through
their desire to save the gallant air pilot. Twice did Teutons venture
forth with the evident intention of making him a prisoner, only to
recoil before the blast of deadly machine-gun fire that blazed forth in
their faces.
Finally the Germans, as if furious at their losses, turned their
machine-guns on the wreckage of the French plane, and fairly
riddled both machine and pilot with balls.
Of course Tom easily picked out the big observation Caudron in
which, as he knew, Jack was doing duty just then. Once he thought
something serious had happened to it when he saw the plane rock
violently, as if about to collapse; but it immediately righted again.
Tom guessed it was one of those high explosive shells that were still
coming periodically from the Teuton rear that had passed so close as
to cause the motion.
His heart had jumped into his throat with a sudden fear, lest Jack’s
initial experience in hovering above a battlefield be also his last.
Then he felt a wave of relief pass over him when he saw that the
danger had passed; for the observation plane was moving
majestically onward as before, and just as steadily.
As the afternoon waned the battle gradually ceased. The Germans
had found out that their foes were of a mind to hold on to their
recent gains with a death-grip that nothing could shake off. The
French had taken their second wind, so to speak and were once
more “in the running.”
Then Jack and his companion came down again, making a safe
landing. Tom was on hand to greet his chum as the latter rather
unsteadily alighted; for being up in a rocking plane for hours is apt
to make any one feel a bit “groggy.”
“Well, how did you like it?” was Tom’s first question.
There was hardly any need of it, for with the removal of the muffler
and the goggles that adorned the close-fitting aviator’s hood, worn
when making an ascent near the clouds, it could be seen that Jack’s
face was radiant, while his eyes fairly sparkled with enthusiasm.
“Oh, it was great!” he exclaimed, as he fell upon Tom, and almost
hugged him.
Having made their way from the camp of the hangars to the villa
and changed their working clothes for something better suited to
lounging about, the two chums went on to compare notes. It was
found that in many things they had had just the same experience.
“Well,” said Jack, about the time the sun sank and the shadows
began to creep over the wretched landscape, “I’ve had my initial
bow to aerial warfare, and I want to say right now I’m more
infatuated with it than ever. Some day we’ll go up together, I trust,
Tom, and I hope it will be soon.”
 CHAPTER XX
BEHIND THE FRENCH LINES

After that wonderful day the two air service boys saw no more of
real action for some little time. The French had achieved the main
object they had in view. They were once more in possession of a
further strip of the enemy trenches, and had held tenaciously to
them despite all fierce counter-attacks.
This meant that still more precious French territory had been
redeemed, even though to regain it it had virtually to be baptized
with the blood of patriots and martyrs.
Tom and Jack heard a good deal of this talk as they met with the
French officers who occasionally strolled over to the headquarters of
the Lafayette Escadrille. It was not said with boasting, but was said
proudly. Those heroic men who had laid their lives on the altar of
their country’s freedom would never be forgotten so long as France
lived.
The boys wandered about considerably behind the French front
when there was nothing afoot. They found much to excite their keen
interest. It was, in the first place, perfectly amazing, as well as
appalling, to see what a desert that once fair land had become, after
the tidal wave of modern warfare had swept across it.
“Why!” Jack was wont to exclaim, “it must be heaps worse than the
Sahara; for there the sand always was and always will be, while here
there once nestled lovely little French villages, and every bit of the
ground, they tell us, was taken up with gardens, fields and
orchards.”
“Yes, everything is gone,” Tom would continue, looking around at the
desolate picture, with some crows the only living thing in sight.
“Now, let’s talk of something more cheerful.”
“About—well, Bessie, for instance?” suggested Jack, with a sly grin.
Tom had to laugh at his chum’s way of bringing the subject around
to something he had evidently been thinking about lately.
“You’re still wondering whether you’ll ever run across that pretty
little Gleason girl, I see,” he remarked.
“Well, I took quite an interest in her, as you happen to know,”
admitted Jack candidly. “But it was partly on account of her having
such a hard time of it with that guardian of hers. I didn’t like
Potzfeldt’s looks for a red cent; and from certain things Bessie
dropped I hang to the belief that he has some dark scheme up his
sleeve, which will sooner or later involve the girl.”
“Well, of course we couldn’t do anything when on shipboard to try to
take her away from him,” said Tom. “Bessie told you he was her
legally appointed guardian, so far as she knew; and was moreover
some sort of relative—an uncle by marriage, or a second cousin of
her mother’s. I don’t remember what.”
“I can’t just explain it, Tom, but somehow I feel it in my bones that
one of these fine days I’m fated to come across that pair again.”
“Well, if, as we believe, Mr. Potzfeldt was trying to get into Germany
some way or other,” chuckled Tom, “that may mean you’ll meet
Bessie as a prisoner of war. From all we’ve heard about the way the
Germans are treating their prisoners you’re facing a dismal outlook,
my boy. I prophesy that you’ll look a whole lot thinner after you’ve
been fed on black bread and water for three months.”
“Say, Tom, what about Adolph Tuessig and your father’s stolen
paper?” went on Jack, after a pause.
“I don’t know,” was the reply and Tom heaved a sigh. “I wish I could
learn something—for dad’s sake.”
So they chatted as they walked, and observed all that was to be
seen around them, showing the horrors of modern warfare.
All the same the two young aviators had their busy times. These
strolls were only allowable when the weather was bad for flying, and
a period of dullness descended on the enterprising escadrille. It
might be the fog was too heavy, or else a driving wind made flying
too full of peril to send up many machines.
On other occasions the chums took part in numerous tasks. Each in
turn served as photographer, accompanying a pilot over the German
lines, guarded by a flotilla of fighting planes that hovered above
them in a fashion to make Jack compare the situation to an old hen
and her chickens.
“Only in this case,” he hastily added, “it’s the nimble little chicks that
are watching over the clumsy old hen, so as to keep the German
hawks from making a meal off her.”
Whatever they attempted to do was done well. Many times did they
receive a word of commendation from the French commander of
that sector, when he had seen the splendid fruits of their snapshots;
for both youths were expert photographers.
They had now been in almost every type of machine along the front.
Even the small and active Nieuport had been used with satisfactory
results, though of course both of them had served aboard one at
Pau, and knew how to handle such a plane perfectly.
On his part Tom often found his thoughts roving to the subject of his
father’s recent loss, and wondering if the fortunes of war would ever
again bring him in contact with the treacherous Adolph Tuessig.
He would sit while taking a sun-bath, and allow his fancy to imagine
a meeting with the thief somewhere, perhaps even far back of the
German lines.
“Wouldn’t it be just grand,” Tom would tell himself at such times, “if
only I could swoop down on him like that hawk Jack was speaking
about, and carry the rascal back to the French lines with me? Then
I’d soon learn if, as I sometimes find myself hoping, Adolph Tuessig
still carries that precious paper on his person.”
It seemed like a wild and improbable dream, that could never come
true. Even the sanguine Tom admitted to himself that there was
hardly one chance in a thousand of such a meeting taking place.
Still, strange things sometimes happen.
One night they learned that a squadron of “bombers” was scheduled
to set out long before daylight. Their destination was a certain
German city where it was known heavy reserves of troops, lately
drawn from the Russian front, were being held until they were
needed to take the place of war-weary men who had been fighting
for long weeks day after day, and would soon need a rest.
“I wish we were going along with the boys,” sighed Jack, as they
planned to stay up and watch the departure in the moonlight. “I’d
like to say I’d been off on one of those raids we’ve heard so much
about. The fact is, Tom, so far I haven’t had a first chance to bring
down an enemy machine, or even engage in a serious fight.”
“Well, if we did go,” his chum told him, “I hardly think it would be in
Nieuport fighting planes. We’re still lacking a little in skill and
experience.”
“But we could manage a heavy Caudron, you know, and already
we’ve learned how to manipulate the bombs that are to be cut loose.
Besides, it would be mighty fine for us to be together, Tom. I’m
getting a bit tired of trying to talk with a jolly Frenchman who can’t
manage much United States, while I’m a pretty lame duck with my
French.”
Tom smiled. He too felt the same way, and would have liked nothing
better than an opportunity to go up with his comrade. Not for the
sake of talking, however, since it is next to impossible to hold any
connected conversation in the air while the motor is droning, or
thumping madly, so close to one’s ears, and with their warm hoods
covering a good portion of the head.
“Perhaps another time, Jack, we may manage to go along,” he told
the drooping one. “I mean to speak to the captain about it. He has
considerable influence at aviation headquarters, you know, and may
be able to put in a good word for us. As you say it would be
experience for us both; and we want to learn everything there is to
know about this game.”
“Well, don’t forget, and speak soon. I understand they mean to push
this bombing business for a while now, in the hope of breaking up
certain big plans they’ve learned the Crown Prince is thinking of
putting through.”
They waited up to see the bombarding unit depart in the moonlight.
This came to pass about eleven o’clock that night, so as to have the
full benefit of the moon. They had a long journey ahead of them,
and the machines were slow and cumbersome when compared to
the fleet Nieuports.
Each machine, the chums noticed, carried two men, the pilot and
the observer. The latter’s duties were especially to release the deadly
bombs that were strung under the frame, when the proper time
arrived. He was also in position to use the rapid-fire gun with which
each plane was armed.
After the squadron had vanished the boys stood and listened to the
sounds growing fainter in the distance. Some shooting followed, the
Germans trying to pot them as they crossed over the lines, but
without success, since they had already attained considerable
altitude, and the firing was done at random.
Perhaps in the gray of early dawn they would return to the camp,
the men tired, and almost frozen; but with glowing accounts of the
immense damage they had managed to inflict on the concentration
camps of the enemy.
Such is the life of an army aviator in war times.
 CHAPTER XXI
OFF WITH A BOMBING UNIT

“I’m bringing you good news, Jack!”

It was just two days after Jack had expressed himself as “just dying
for active service of some sort,” that Tom burst in upon him with
these words.
Jack was finishing dressing for an ascent, as he had been detailed to
accompany the grizzled old sergeant on a little observation trip. He
looked up with a glad light on his now tanned face.
“A letter from mother, is it?” he demanded, extending his hand.
“Mail isn’t in yet for to-day,” the other told him. “Guess again.”
“You don’t mean to tell me you’ve met Bessie—Oh, shucks! that
would be an impossibility, seeing that this is the fighting front, where
no women save Red Cross nurses are allowed to visit. Then it must
be we’re to accompany the next bombing raiders who are starting
out!”
“Your last shot struck the target plumb center, Jack!”
“Bully for that!” ejaculated the other, immediately commencing to cut
a few pigeon wings in the exuberance of his joy. “Now we’ll have a
break in the dull monotony, won’t we, Tom?”
“I hope that may be the only break we will have,” he was told. “Yes.
I was called over to the General’s headquarters, and he informed me
that our captain had spoken a good word for us. He also assured me
we really deserved some favor on account of the good work we had
been doing ever since coming to the front.”
“Then we’re really going, are we?”
“As sure as anything can be in these queer times.”
“When does it come off?” pursued the impatient Jack. “I hope right
away, because I’ll be counting the hours, yes, even the minutes,
until we’re shooting off over the lines of the Crown Prince, and
headed, perhaps for Berlin.”
Tom laughed.
“Oh! I don’t believe for a minute they’re thinking of any such big
game as that. This is going to be much nearer home.”
“But there was a fellow, a Frenchman, in the bargain, who did drop
a bomb on old Berlin not so very long ago, Tom,” expostulated Jack
earnestly.
“Not a bomb,” the other informed him. “It was some sort of placard,
telling the German people that a live French aviator had succeeded
in reaching their capital. He was on his way to the Russian front,
where I believe he finally succeeded in landing. It was partly to send
dispatches across country; but more in the line of bravado. They
wished to let those smug Berlinese know that their old capital wasn’t
so isolated, as they had been believing.”
“Huh!” grunted Jack, “I’ve always said that if Berlin could be bombed
just as Paris and London have been, all that stuff would stop. But
when do we go?”
“To-night!”
“And our objective?”
“We are bound up the Rhine to drop some tons of high explosives on
munition factories that have been turning out a tremendous amount
of supplies for the Crown Prince’s army here at Verdun. The French
commander believes that if only we can score some big hits there, it
will cripple the assault that is preparing.”
Jack heaved a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad to hear that. Of course I’m enlisted in this war, to see it
through, whether Uncle Sam later on gets into the mess or not, but
I’d hate to know that I had to drop those terrible bombs on a
sleeping German town, where peaceful and innocent people would
likely be the ones to suffer most.”
“That’s just why the British keep on refusing to pay back each raid
on London. They have their faults, we know, but somehow there’s a
spirit of national pride about their love of a square game. They fight
fairly and stubbornly, those British. The Germans once made all
manner of fun of them, but they have a deep respect for both the
French and British these days. It’s been pounded into them with
hard knocks.”
It was then afternoon. Jack considered, and then came to a
decision.
“Guess I’ll have to call my appointment with Sergeant Jean off for
to-day,” he said, as he commenced to change his clothes again.
“With such a long and tiresome trip ahead I’d better save myself all I
can.”
The night promised to favor them, a fact Jack rejoiced to see, for he
kept fearing lest something should crop up to cause the general to
call the expedition off.
“The moon is nearly at its full, Tom,” he remarked, as they waited to
hear the ever welcome summons to supper; “and while it may be a
bit hazy, as it was night before last at the time they started, that will
only be in our favor. I guess we’ll get away all right.”
“There’s not a doubt about it,” he was assured by Tom, who had not
allowed himself to worry about that in the least. “By the way, I saw
the old sergeant gripping your hand as you came away. He took it in
the right spirit, of course, when you told him why you had to beg
off?”
“Oh, yes. And, Tom, he’s to be one of the party. Think of his going
up this afternoon, just as if it was all in the day’s work; when to-
night he’ll have to be in his plane for many hours, and cruise far up
the Rhine and back.”
“He’s a hardened old vet!” laughed Tom. “Was he wishing you good
luck, Jack?”
“Sure thing. He also told me to say this to you: ‘Success on this trip
will be the making of you as a warplane pilot.’ And I guess it will put
us in line for promotion besides. Before long we may take our place
with the rest of the boys, and frequently meet a Boche in combat
away up near the clouds.”
Nothing was said at the supper-table about the bombing trip, so
Jack reasoned that it had not been scattered broadcast. But Tom
decided that others besides their captain might be told, as the secret
would certainly not be passed on. One and all were glad that a
chance had finally come for Jack and Tom to do “something worth
while,” knowing how they had been lamenting the enforced idleness.
Of course a bombing raid was “tame stuff” to those active members
of the fighting escadrille. Aboard one of those heavy and
cumbersome big machines, that made such slow progress compared
with the speedy Nieuports, going a couple of hundred miles in a
night, dumping the load of explosives on some object far below, and
then returning to their base, was a mere matter of form. The danger
connected with such an expedition could not for a moment be
compared with what the fighting pilots risked every day they went
up to perform their hazardous duties.
Nevertheless they did not by any means, scorn those who carried
out the raiding expeditions. Their work was just as important, if not
so exciting, as any other, since every munition dump, or factory,
which they could successfully fire, meant hundreds of French lives
saved in the end.
As there was to be no rest for them later in the night the chums
retired to their room very early and lay down to snatch a few hours
sleep. Tom had an alarm clock and set it so as to be sure they would
awake on time.
It turned out that Tom was even better than the clock; or else that
he was afraid to risk it, for he had shaken his companion, and told
him to get up, before the alarm went off. Tom stifled the clock under
the bed clothes, so as to prevent its noise from arousing the rest of
the unit, by this time enjoying their initial sleep of the night.
When they got outside, however, they found a number of their
fellows bent on riding over to the camp hangars, to see them fairly
on their way. They made the short trip by means of a big car, one of
many that had been commandeered for the service of the Americans
and a few other aviators near by.
The busy mechanicians had the machines in line, and all tuned up
for the trip, even to the bombs adjusted beneath the body of each
big plane. Already the French pilots were around, and seeing that
everything was in proper trim.
Every man was so bundled up that he might have passed
unrecognized by his dearest friend so far as features went. Jack,
however, had a means of identifying the old sergeant, and his last
word of greeting received a buoyant reply that came straight from
the heart, as Jean wished them “bon voyage, and a safe return my
children;” that being a really French way of speaking, often used
even by high commanders in addressing their armies.
After considerable delay from one cause and another, the word was
given to start. In rapid succession did the great planes commence
their flight. Exceeding care had to be exercised on account of the
terrible missiles they were carrying for an unfortunate collision might
have caused immense damage.
“Some adventure, believe me!” was Jack’s comment.
“You bet!” returned Tom, laconically.
Presently Tom and Jack found themselves mounting upward in
spirals, and following the tail-light of the plane that was to serve
them as a pilot.
 CHAPTER XXII
WRECKING A MUNITION PLANT

Higher they went, since it was necessary that they pass over the
German lines at an altitude such as would insure them safety from
any furious burst of shrapnel fire from the watchful enemy below.
Had it been a dark night doubtless numberless searchlights would
have been brought into play, striving to pick out the machines whose
drumming reached the ears of the wakeful enemy below. But when
the moon reigned in the heavens it was useless to depend on such
artificial light.
Finally Tom saw they had reached the altitude agreed on as the
working basis. He could detect ahead of him one or more of the big
planes taking flight toward the north. There lay the land of the
Teuton, as yet wholly free from invasion, save through just such
desperate means as this night expedition.
Far below they could see a myriad of dots of lights. These might be
the fires of the hostile armies, for the weather still remained cold. In
the nights particularly a blaze was acceptable to such of the fighting
men as had to remain out of the trenches and back of the lines.
Tom could also see colored lights, which he guessed were rockets.
The Germans were sending up signals. He wondered if their starting
out was known, or suspected, and whether some sort of
bombardment was in store for the raiders as they passed over the
Teuton front.
After the recent raid that was said to have been so very successful it
seemed reasonable to believe that the German High Command
would expect a repetition while the moon still gave a favorable light.
Tom quickly learned that his guess had been a good one. From
below came a jumble of sounds faintly heard, along with the regular
pulsations of his powerful motor. Then just under them shrapnel
began to burst in great quantities. But the French knew just how
high the enemy anti-aircraft guns were capable of sending their
missiles, for seldom did a shell come dangerously close to the raiding
machines.
They were just out of range, and that peril seemed to be put at rest.
Presently, from the indications, they knew they were beyond the
hostile lines, and doubtless passing over the country that lay
between Verdun and the border of Lorraine.
In the lead was the head pilot, a man who possessed a wonderful
ability to take an expedition like this out, find his objective, perhaps
one hundred and fifty miles away, and come back, after dropping
tons of high explosives.
Those who followed were strung out in two diverging lines, just as
wild geese always fly, forming the letter V. In moving in this
formation the danger of collision was more or less done away with.
Besides, every pilot knew just where his location in the line was, and
could keep watch of those ahead, while looking for the signals
agreed upon.
All communications had to be carried on with flares, since sounds
were utterly out of the question. As a rule it was the duty of the
observer to discover such signals, and pass them on to the rear
unless, as in the case of the two chums, they brought up the line,
being the very last unit of the eleven machines in the bombing
squadron.
Now and then the moon would hide behind banks of fleecy clouds,
but only to reappear again a little later, to shine with undiminished
light. Jack wondered whether a storm might come along while they
were aloft. He had been in several small flurries of the kind, but that
was in the broad light of day. To be caught when on a night journey
would be a new experience for both of them.
After a while he made out that they were now above some river, and
had apparently altered their course, as if the pilot meant to follow
the stream.
Jack was not puzzled at all by this fact. In company with his chum
he had studied a chart of the country of Lorraine and the Rhine
district beyond. He knew that the Mosel River flowed in an almost
northeasterly direction, with numerous bends, to empty finally into
the Rhine on the border of Hessen Nassau, one of the German
provinces.
When presently they glimpsed many lights below Jack knew they
were passing over the fortified city of Metz, once a French
possession, but taken by Germany, just as Strassburg in Alsace had
also been taken when they won the war in 1870.
“They must have been great war times too,” he reasoned. “But not
as bad as now, not by a long shot!”
Still the raiders kept steadily on. They were fired at frequently, but
without being injured, since they maintained their safe altitude.
Another glow of lights, much modified, told them where Treves lay.
Jack understood that they had passed beyond the line of the
captured province of Lorraine, and were speeding above genuine
German territory. It gave him something akin to satisfaction to know
that no matter where they dropped those big bombs now they were
bound to do damage more or less to the enemy country.
Still they moved forward. The head pilot changed the course as
frequently as he saw fit, but often they were out of sight of the
twisting river below; though a little later on they would again cross
it.
An hour passed. Jack figured that possibly they had covered a
distance approximately seventy miles. When another thirty minutes
had gone he believed that they would be at the junction of the
Mosel with the world-famous Rhine. Here stands a typical German
city, Ehrenbreitstein. He was eager to glimpse the lights of this
place, because it would indicate that two-thirds of their dash into the
heart of Germany had been successfully accomplished.
In due time all this came about, and as the two air service boys
looked far down they could just manage to discover the gleaming
silver thread which they knew must be the Rhine, of which they had
read and heard so much.
At this point their course took an abrupt change. Up to then the
general direction had been due northeast, but now it headed toward
the north. They were still passing over Rhenish Prussia, where, as
they knew, a regular bee-hive of industries connected with war work
was located. Indeed, there were few parts of Germany at that time
where the population, such as had been left when the able men
went to the front, was not engaged in making munitions, or some
industry connected with the successful carrying out of the war.
Soon Jack caught the signal that told him they were now on the
border of the busy bee-hive where no work but that on army
contracts was being done. Far below them lay the great buildings
given up to such purposes, and which it must be their aim to try to
destroy.
Besides the high explosives intended to shatter walls and wreck
buildings when they fell, the raiders also carried a supply of lighter
missiles. These were meant to scatter liquid fire broadcast, and start
innumerable conflagrations that it would be impossible for human
skill to extinguish. Thus they took pattern of the German fire-bombs
which had so often been rained down on London.
Suddenly began a most remarkable exhibition of bombardment, with
those immense bat-like planes hovering far above the munition plant
and discharging their terrible freight as fast as they could find
themselves at the proper angle to insure a possible hit.
Bang! Boom! Bang!
While the explosions came but faintly to the ears of those a mile
above, the observers saw most thrilling things taking place below
them.
There were fires blazing in half a dozen different sections. These
sufficed to light up the entire plant, so that the remainder of the
bombs could be let loose with greater accuracy, and accomplish still
more damage.
Tom continued to guide the plane, following the one ahead in ever
widening circles.
On his part Jack kept releasing such of the bombs as had not been
let go. While unable to more than surmise where these landed, still
the youth felt confident that they had given a good account of
themselves.
At last it was over, and the “home” signal was given. Both young
aviators were more than glad to see it, for they had become fairly
sickened with the sight below, and with realizing what a terrible
panic must prevail among the workers in the raided munition works.
The return voyage was started. Things went well for some time and
then there came a change. The breeze increased and made it much
more difficult to keep up the regular formation. Suddenly the plane
which was serving Jack as a guide seemed to be swallowed up in a
cloud, for he could no longer discern it ahead.
“Gee, that’s strange!” he muttered. “What became of it?”
As they had not ascended it became apparent that the clouds were
scurrying along at a much lower level than before. This seemed to
indicate that a storm was gathering in the levels closer to the earth.
Tom sent his machine higher, hoping to get above the clouds and
perhaps find others of the raiding force. Not another airship was in
sight, and even in this higher level the clouds gathered about them.
The two air service boys were lost in the upper air currents.
 CHAPTER XXIII
LOST IN A SEA OF CLOUDS

When Tom Raymond realized that he and Jack were really separated
from the rest of the squadron his first act was to throttle down his
motor, that it might be possible for him to speak to his companion. If
they were in actual danger it was better to share the responsibility,
and not try to shoulder it all himself.
“We’ve lost the rest of the boys, Jack!” he yelled out.
“Yes, I noticed that,” came the answer. “What can we do about it?”
“Only one thing that I can see. Have to go on by ourselves! But—”
and the pilot paused significantly.
“That means steering by the compass,” remarked the other.
“No other way, since I wouldn’t know the conformation of the
ground below, even if it were daylight and I could see fairly well.
Why! what under the sun can this mean?”
“What?” demanded Jack, showing signs of excitement now, as he
realized that his companion was turning this way and that in evident
dismay.
“I’m afraid we’ve met with a loss! I only hope it won’t turn out to be
a calamity!”
“Loss of what?” cried the observer. “Gas tank sprung a leak?”
“Perhaps it has for all I know, with all that shrapnel flying around us.
But our compass is gone!”
“Gone!” shouted the astounded Jack.
“Just what it has!” Tom declared. “I don’t see how it could have
happened, for I had it as secure as ever it could be, right here where
I could watch it if the time came for steering by the needle.”
“Great guns! Look again! It may have been misplaced. And yet it
was there as we started. I tested it to make sure it was correct. But
how could we have lost our compass?”
“I can think of only one way. You remember when we found
ourselves in that pocket, with shells bursting all around us?”
“Yes, of course. When we had to start up in a hurry to get out of
range.”
“It must have happened then,” went on Tom disconsolately. “We
were tossed about like a ship caught in a storm at sea. I called out
to you to keep your seat firmly, though I don’t believe you heard me.
In all that turmoil the compass must have been dislodged and
dropped.”
“There’s no use of crying over spilt milk,” his companion called out.
“The question to settle is what we ought to do now about steering.”
“I’ll do the best I can with the lumbering old plane,” said the pilot
bravely, not one to be utterly discouraged by conditions that
promised trouble.
For some little time the air service boys continued on through the
clouds which surrounded them like a milky envelope, and which
prevented their seeing even the moon above. Then there came a
change, and once more they found themselves in the open.
An hour had passed since they lost track of their companions. Tom
steered by reckoning alone. He kept the moon on his right whenever
he could see it through the masses of clouds drifting near.
Then came a sudden shock as he discovered moving objects ahead
that quickly took on the shape of cruising planes. There were three
of them, all fashioned alike; and even as seen in the deceptive light
of the declining moon Tom knew they could not be French machines.
In the first place, they were coming toward him, though possibly the
pilots had not yet discovered the presence of the heavy bombing
machine near by. Then again, these planes were of a lighter build,
and capable of much greater speed than the big two-seated
Caudron.
Of course they were German Fokkers, sent up to intercept the
returning expedition.
“Looks as if we were in for it,” thought Tom. “Three of ’em, too!”
To fight those three experienced airmen at that dizzy height was
hopeless, although if it became the last resort Tom and Jack would
undoubtedly resort to the rapid-fire gun and try to stand them off.
It was a time for quick thinking and instant action; and no sooner
had Tom made his alarming discovery than he changed his course
and headed directly for a bank of clouds that chanced to be close by.
Once enveloped in the cloud, there was little chance of their running
into the enemy except through sheer accident. To avoid this Tom
quickly altered his course, suiting his action to the meager
knowledge he possessed of the dimensions of the cloud-belt into
which he had so recklessly plunged.
It would be much like searching a haystack for a lost needle, he
believed, and that the three Germans could only scatter, and grope
their way along. He hoped they might chance to collide in the cloud
pack, and have all possible trouble, even to spattering one another
with a hail of missiles from their mounted guns.
This was all very well, but Tom did not like the situation at all. He
could not tell which way he was heading, since all view was cut off,
and the loss of the compass badly felt.
Consequently they might be actually going back into the heart of the
hostile country for all they knew, with a pretty good chance of being
made prisoners of war.
More time passed. Unable to stand it any longer Tom decided to
drop down to a lower level, and try to get free from that stifling
enveloping cloud that wrapped them in its dense folds. True, other
perils might await them there, but it seemed the best move.
Both young aviators breathed easier when they finally left the cloud
above them, and were once more able to see something besides
that opaque mass around them. Far below they could catch faint
glimpses of lights, as though they were passing over some town, or
perhaps a railroad center where troops and supplies were being
loaded for the fighting front.
But where were they? Tom confessed to himself that he could not
tell. He again got the sinking moon on his right, so that he felt
positive they must be headed in a direction generally correct.
Nevertheless, since he could not have told the Mosel River from any
other, even if seen by daylight, there was a strong probability that
although they were lucky, and finally reached the French lines, they
might land fifty miles away from the aviation hangars of the
Lafayette Escadrille.
Not that such a thing would give them much cause for anxiety, since
news of their safe arrival would be flashed to their headquarters, to
relieve the tension that was sure to result from their absence from
the squadron. And later on they could ascend again, and make the
home port easily enough.
It was while Tom was telling himself all this that he felt a movement
on the part of his chum. This he recognized as the signal, and knew
that Jack had something of importance to say, and wished him to
ease up the pounding motor so he might be heard.
“Something else gone wrong, Tom!” called Jack.
“You’ve been testing our supply of gas, have you?” shouted the pilot.
“Getting low, I suppose.”
“It’s been leaking in a trickling stream right along,” came from the
other in tones of deepest disgust. “I’ve found a tiny hole that must
have been made by a splinter from shrapnel or a bullet from that
German pilot’s gun. If only I’d thought to look before, we might have
fixed it and saved a couple of gallons.”
This was serious news indeed. With possibly fifty or seventy miles of
hostile territory to cover, and daybreak close at hand, they were in a
bad fix.
“How much have we still got?” asked Tom.
“Don’t know, exactly, but hardly a gallon at the best; and still oozing
out of that hole not as large as a shingle nail would make.”
Quickly Tom reviewed the desperate situation in his mind. He knew
they had no chance whatever of making the French lines unless in
some way they managed to renew their supply of gasolene or petrol.
That, of course, could only be done by landing, and commandeering
a supply at some house where, by accident, the owner had a spare
gallon or two.
Meanwhile they could possibly plug up the hole in the tank, and if
through good luck they were enabled to rise again, finally get back
of the French lines.
“Can you reach that hole in the tank, and keep your finger on it,
Jack, so as to conserve our last gallon of fuel?” he called out.
“I guess I can. What are you going to do about it? One gallon won’t
take us all the way home.”
“I wish it would, but I know better,” was the reply. “Listen, Jack! We
must keep moving along until dawn comes. Then, if the coast seems
clear, we’ve got to drop down and make a landing.”
“Oh! If we do that it’s all up with us, and we’ll be bound for a
German prison camp on our first outing trip.”
“I hope not,” the pilot replied instantly. “My object is to try to run
across a supply of gasolene and commandeer it. It’s a toss-up
whether we can find any, with the country drained so well by the
military authorities. It’s also hit and miss whether we run smack into
a bunch of Boches as soon as we land. But there seems to be no
other way.”
“Well, I haven’t any better suggestion to offer, so go ahead. Give
your orders, and I’ll obey.”
 CHAPTER XXIV
IN GREAT LUCK

With wildly throbbing hearts both Tom and Jack peered downward
as they once more resumed their voyage on a level. Dawn had come
to the earth below. They could make out the character of the
ground, and see a road which ran in a zigzag fashion. Tom noticed
this in particular because it was probable that a house would be
discovered close to a thoroughfare; and they must come upon such
a place if they hoped to secure the necessary supply of gasolene.
It was a slender hope that was held out to them. Tom knew how
precious the explosive liquid had become in all Germany and Austria,
so that few if any private cars were running, the Government having
commandeered every available gallon. Still, there might be a chance
of their coming on some car, whether connected with the military
forces or not, and transferring the contents of its tank to their own.
The country seemed none too thickly populated. There were patches
of forest, too, something hard to find in Northern France, where for
almost three years the ravages of modern warfare had told heavily
on woods and orchards.
Tom changed his plans. Instead of looking for a house he meant to
find a car either on that road or else laid up somewhere, from which
they might get the gasolene so necessary for their deliverance.
Looking ahead he saw something moving. A second glance told him
it was what he was most desirous of discovering. It was a car, and
heading in the same general direction as themselves.
Tom instantly made up his mind that his course was clear. He would
drop down with a rush, and chase after that fleeing car. It would be
easy enough to overtake it, and perhaps if they used the rapid-fire
gun a few rounds the driver would draw up and surrender.
No sooner had he conceived this rather desperate plan then he
commenced once more to volplane toward the earth. He had a
glimpse of a man’s face thrust out from the side of the car, which
had started on at wild speed, as if the driver realized that the
monster plane was swooping particularly at him, with some object in
view.
“Be ready to use the gun, Jack!” yelled the pilot. “When I give the
sign fire at his rear tires if you can. That man has what we want,
and we’ve just got to take it from him. Understand?”
“Sure!” shouted Jack, changing his position in order to be ready to
carry out his orders.
The car was bouncing along the road at a mad rate, but this seemed
nothing in comparison with the speed with which the plane came on.
Tom slowed up when he believed they were close enough. He left
the rest to his comrade, knowing full well that Jack had shown
considerable proficiency in using the rapid-fire gun when they were
training at the French military field, and while engaging that Boche
pilot more recently.
It was not an easy target—that moving car, plunging from side to
side of the winding road, partly through accident, or it might be from
fear on the part of the driver that he was about to be bombarded.
Keeping his gun low enough not to spatter the upper part of the car,
Jack fired. With the “chatter” of the gun the bullets commenced to
splash like hail around the rear tires of the speeding car. Jack kept
shooting low. He was in deadly fear lest by some mischance he
puncture the petrol tank of the automobile. And even though they
wrecked the car of what avail would their victory be if in the end
they found only an empty reservoir?
Tom could see ahead a short distance. He kept a keen lookout, for
after they had stopped the car it would be necessary for them to
make a successful landing; and he knew full well what difficulties
must then confront him as the pilot. Any sort of accident, and it
would be all over with them. Either they would be killed, or at the
best find themselves prisoners of the Boches.
Jack now began to get his range better. All the while they were
hovering about the height of an ordinary house above the fleeing
car, and keeping somewhat in the rear. It was certainly the queerest
pursuit that any one could well imagine, and no wonder the man
who was trying his best to escape believed his last hour had come.
Then one of the missiles accomplished its work, and a tire went flat.
The car zigzagged worse than ever, and its speed was cut down. The
pilot managed to guide the machine, however, and keep it on the
road until the speed was very low; and then it went into the ditch
with a crash.
The car was a wreck. As to the condition of the driver the air service
boys at first knew little, as they could only catch a fleeting glimpse
of him as they shot past. But he seemed to be doubled up in the
wreckage as though more or less severely injured.
Tom had seen the very place he needed for making his landing. It
was an open field, and pasture land at that, so he hoped to find it
fairly level.
Being accomplished at landing, Tom succeeded in bringing the big
Caudron down without the slightest accident. Then both young
aviators jumped out, though Jack immediately fell forward on his
face, his cramped limbs doubling up under him.
“We must hurry!” Tom cried, even while running back toward the
stalled car. “Someone may come along the road, perhaps troops in
the bargain, and then we would be in a fine pickle.”
“Do you think he was killed, Tom?” gasped Jack, a bit awed by the
tragic result of his gunfire.
“Hardly as bad as that! He’s slowed down a lot before the crash
came, you noticed. But I certainly do hope he’s got a couple of
gallons of stuff in that tank of his.”
“And as for me,” mumbled the other tagging just behind his leader,
“I’m praying that I didn’t puncture the tank, with all my shooting. I
kept the fire low on purpose.”
“We’ll soon know, for here’s the car close at hand!” snapped Tom.
It gave both of them a strange feeling to see the wrecked car at the
side of the road, and realize that they were wholly responsible for it.
But since coming to the front they had been in contact with so many
things associated with war’s horrors that the young American
aviators had by degrees come to steel their hearts against any
display of weakness.
Jack hurried around to the rear. His one thought was to learn
whether his fears could be well grounded. If by any ill luck he had
managed to hit the tank containing the liquid of which they stood in
such need, of what avail would all this chase be?
Tom on his part turned to take a look at the man inside. There
would be no time to spare to try to mend his wounds, but something
seemed to draw him forward as with invisible cords. Afterwards Tom
often asked himself how he could have attempted to struggle
against this magnet that was causing him to pay attention to the
man, when by rights all his thoughts should have been given to
securing what they had come after.
He heard Jack give a yell of delight, and caught the words:
“It’s all right, Tom! Never hurt the tank in the least! And, say, I
guess we’re in great luck, because there are fully three gallons in it!”
Tom heard these exclamations, but they seemed to beat in his ears
faintly. There was a reason for his attention being riveted in another
quarter.
A strange thing had come to pass. He had arrived at the front of the
wrecked car and leaned over the better to see within. After striking a
small tree and cutting it clean off the heavy car had itself doubled
up, so that it could never again be of any use save for the scrap
heap. Such a blow was likely to give the occupant a severe jolt. Tom
anticipated finding that the man had received bruises in plenty, and
perhaps might also be suffering from a broken arm.
He thought he heard a perceptible groan as he came up, though the
outcries from Jack rather put a damper on all other sounds. The
leather covers had broken loose from the shock of the collision, and
were flapping in the breeze. Tom put out his hand to drag them
aside so that he might have an unobstructed view of the interior.
Just then a white face was protruded from within. Tom started as
though he could not believe his eyes. It was uncanny—such a
meeting, and under dramatic conditions at that!
For the face was that of the one man in all Germany whom he
wanted to run across—no other than Adolph Tuessig, the spy who
had robbed his father of his priceless invention, the secret of an
airplane stabilizer!
 CHAPTER XXV
MENTIONED FOR PROMOTION—CONCLUSION

Tom rubbed his eyes as though he thought he must be dreaming;

but when he looked again he saw the same evil face and mocking
eyes. Fancy what Adolph Tuessig on his part must have thought on
discovering who it was to whom he owed his latest misfortune!
“What! You?” he gasped in bewilderment.
Tom grasped the true significance of the great good fortune that had
come to him. It transcended his wildest dreams. There could have
been but one chance in a billion of those two meeting as they did;
and yet a strange fate had indeed brought it to pass.
“I’ve come for that paper you stole from my father, Adolph Tuessig!”
Tom exclaimed.
At hearing these words Jack came bustling around from the rear of
the car, his eyes wide open, and round with wonder.
“Well I never!” he managed to gasp.
The man who had been so strangely brought to bay seemed in a
half daze. He stared at Tom as though unable to grasp the thing that
had happened.
“Hand that paper over unless you want to give me the trouble of
searching you!” ordered Tom firmly. “If I have to, I’ll tear every stitch
of your clothing off, to see if it’s hidden under the lining somewhere.
Do you hear what I’m saying?”
By degrees comprehension took the place of bewilderment on the
man’s face. He evidently realized that it was of little use trying to
escape such a determined pursuer who could follow him even into
the heart of hostile territory, and aboard an airplane at that. His
courage deserted him, and he was ready to raise the white flag of
surrender.
“I—I—haven’t got—” he stammered.
“No nonsense, Tuessig! I want what you stole from my father. Hand
it over, or I’ll—” and Tom made a threatening gesture.
Adolph Tuessig shrank back. Evidently he was a coward at heart.
“Yes, I have it here, so there is no need of your doing me any more
bodily harm,” he cried and gave a deep groan. “I’m bruised all over
as it is, and may have received my death blow from this smash-up
you drove me into.”
“The paper first,” Tom continued sternly. “After I have it in my hands
I’ll take a look at your hurts, and do anything I can to relieve your
pain. Make haste, for we have yet far to go to get back home safely.”
The man commenced to fumble at a secret inside pocket. Tom
watched him closely, and kept his automatic pistol always in sight,
lest the treacherous Tuessig think to get the better of him. Tom had
a poor opinion of the man, it must be remembered. He believed that
any one who would do the work of a German spy in a neutral
country, and who could steal into a private house and rob a safe,
would not be above any rank treachery.
“There is the paper I took from your father, boy!” said the groaning
man, as he held something out to Tom.
One look convinced the youth he had actually succeeded in securing
the important part of his father’s precious invention. He sighed with
happiness as his fingers closed over the paper, which he instantly
transferred to a safe pocket.
“It was never any good to me, as it proved,” continued Adolph
Tuessig. “In the interest of the Fatherland I hoped to get my hands
on the rest of the design, sooner or later, and on that account kept
carrying this around with me, for it was useless to give it over to my
superiors, only to be reprimanded for failure. I am glad to be rid of
it, for ever since that night I have run into hard luck.”
His continued groans made Tom fear the other might be injured
more seriously than up to that moment he had believed was the
case.
“Jack, see if you can find some way to transfer that gas to our tank,”
he said at his chum. “I’ll take a look at this man’s hurts. Just at
present there seems to be nothing in the way of danger around us,
and we can spare a few minutes in the cause of humanity.”
“You’re treating him a hundred times better than he deserves,”
mumbled Jack. “If the tables were turned, and it was Tuessig who
had you down, he’d never lift a finger to give you first-aid. But that’s
you, Tom, every time! I’ll manage somehow to get this stuff aboard
our plane, never fear.”
So Tom hastened to look Adolph Tuessig over, being as gentle as the
need of time would permit. He was soon satisfied that the other’s
injuries, while they might be exceedingly painful, were by no means
mortal.
“You’re going to come out of this fairly well,” he told the man after
completing his hasty but thorough examination. “There will be plenty
of black and blue marks on your body, and your nose may never
again be quite as shapely as it was, for I am sorry to tell you it is
broken; but you’ve got lots to be thankful for. It might have been
your neck, Adolph Tuessig.”
Jack called out just then to explain that he had managed to get the
contents of the tank into a can that had been thrown out of the car
at the time of the collision; and in which it could be readily
transported to the airplane.
So they left the man, still grunting and groaning and looking very
miserable. Tom concluded he need have no further occasion to
harbor ill feeling against such a wretch, who had been so thoroughly
repaid for all the mischief he had done in the Raymond family.
The air service boys soon had the gasolene aboard and were ready
to start. Jack ran ahead to examine the character of the ground, and
reported it excellent. Indeed, once the start had been given to the