midnight
These were men whose names had become household words over in America , heroes of the masses , whose pictures always evoked storms of applause whenever shown on the screen in the motion picture houses . Tom owed the fact of his having been selected to guide one of the bombers , instead of a fighting machine , to the fact that one man had fallen sick , and was thus placed out of the running . In casting around for an efficient substitute they had picked Tom . The start was made an hour before midnight . This was done in order to lead the Boche to believe that the night would pass without unusual occurrences . Quietly , every man who had been called to duty presented himself at his special station equipped for work . The hostlers , under the supervision of the officer in command at the aviation field , had seen to it that every detail had been looked after .