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Aces Up

by Covington Clarke · English · Gutenberg #30698 · 338,653 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Aces Up

Author: Covington Clarke


        
Release date: December 17, 2009 [eBook #30698]
                Most recently updated: January 5, 2021

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACES UP ***




Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net









ACES UP

By

Covington Clarke

THE REILLY & LEE CO.

CHICAGO--NEW YORK




ACES UP

COPYRIGHT 1929 BY THE REILLY & LEE CO.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.




  "By the shore of life and the
    gate of breath,
  There are more things waiting
    for men than death."




ACES UP




CHAPTER I

The New Instructor


1

Tex Yancey, called "The Flying Fool" by his comrades in the --th Pursuit
Squadron of the American Expeditionary Force, entered the mess hall with
lips pressed into a thin, mirthless grin that seemed entirely
inappropriate in one who was thirty minutes late to mess and must
therefore make out with what was left. The other members of the squadron
had finished their meal and were now engaged in the usual after-dinner
practice of spinning some tall yarns.

Yancey stalked slowly to his place at the long table, but instead of
seating himself stood with hands thrust deep into his pockets and with
his long, thin legs spread wide apart. For a full minute he stood there,
seeming to be mildly interested in the tale that Hank Porter was
telling. But those who knew Tex, as did the members of this squadron,
knew that the cynical smile on his thin lips was but the forerunner of
some mirthless thing from which only "The Flying Fool" would be able to
wring a laugh. His was such a grotesque sense of humor; a highly
impractical practical joke was his idea of a riotous time. Someone in
the squadron, who had once felt the sting of one of his pranks, had
called him a fool, and another member had responded, "Yeah, he's a fool,
all right--but a flyin' fool!" The tribute had become a nickname, and
Yancey rather reveled in it.

Just now his smile was masking some grim joke and his eyes held the mild
light of pity.

"Well, Hank," he drawled at last, when Porter had wound up his story,
"that yarn, as much as I get of it, would lead the average _hombre_
to pick you out as a sho' 'nuff flyer. I would myself. Me, I'm easy
fooled that way. I reckon all you buckaroos think you know somethin'
about flyin', eh?"

Standing a full six feet two, he looked down upon them, the look of pity
still in his eyes in strange conflict with the mirthless smile still on
his lips.

"What's eatin' you?" Porter growled. "We can't help it because you're
late for mess. Where've you been?"

Siddons and Hampden, not greatly interested in what they felt was some
new strained humor on Yancey's part, pushed back from the table and
started for the door, their objective being the French town of Is Sur
Tille.

Yancey waited until they were near the door before he answered Porter.

"Oh, I've just been over to Is Sur Tille havin' a look-see at this new
instructor that's comin' down here to teach us how to fly."

Siddons, with his hand upon the door, wheeled abruptly and studied
Yancey's face, trying to discover the jest hidden behind that baffling,
masking smile.

"Are you joking us?" he demanded from the doorway, but sufficiently
convinced to turn back.

The "Flying Fool" smiled sweetly. "Why, Siddons, I wouldn't kid you-all
about that sort o' thing," he drawled. "I saw him myself, in town,
ridin' in a car with the C.O.[A] Like as not the Major will bring him
in here this evenin' for a little chin-chin."

A suppressed growl arose from the other pilots.

"What is he coming here for?" young Edouard Fouche demanded, knowing the
answer but anxious to have it brought out in the open where it could be
attacked and vilified by all.

Yancey seated himself, tilted his chair back from the table and bestowed
another sweet smile upon a room filled with scowling faces. It was a
delicious moment--for Tex.

"Why, he's comin' here to teach you poor worms how to fly. It seems
that someone back in the States made a mistake in thinkin' we were
pilots. We're here by accident. Ha! Ha! That's what we are--just
accidents. Did you boys think we were sent over here to get all
messed up in this little old war? Tut, tut! We're here just to add
grandeur to the colorless scenery. Now be nice to this fellow when
he comes. Maybe after he has labored with us for a while we'll be
turned into ferry pilots and be sent to ferryin' planes up to the
regular guys. I'm so glad I horned in on this scrap; it's so well
planned and--and thrillin'."

More growls. Tex wasn't being at all funny. Indeed, if this ridiculous
story were true, then it was the last straw on the camel's back. Had
they not already suffered enough?

The squadron had been in France for two weeks, an interminable time to
the restless group of young airmen who, booted and belted and ready for
the fray, now found themselves suddenly faced with the prospect of still
more training and when as yet they had not the haziest notion of the
type of ship that was to be given them for mounts. One rumor had it that
they were to get American ships powered by a much-talked-of mystery
motor. Very well, but where were those ships? Another rumor, equally
persistent, was to the effect that they were to draw French Spads. Very
well again, but where were the Spads? Still other rumors included
Camels, Sopwiths, Nieuports and Pups. One rumor, uglier and more
maddening than all the others, was to the effect that the entire
squadron was to be used in observation work. Fancy that! A pursuit pilot
being given a slow-moving observation crate with a one-winged,
half-baked observer giving orders from the rear cockpit! It was enough
to make a man wish he had joined the Marines. What was the good of all
their combat training if they were to poke around over the front in
busses that were meat for any enemy plane that chanced to sight them? It
was enough to make a sane squadron go crazy, and the --th Pursuit
Squadron was known throughout the service as the wildest bunch of thrill
chasers ever collected and turned over to a distressed and despairing
squadron commander.

Some swivel-chair expert must have been dozing when the order went
through sending them to France. In wash-out records they were the grand
champions. They had left behind them a long train of cracked props,
broken wings, stripped landing gears--and a few wrecks so complete that
the drivers thereof had been sent home in six foot boxes draped with
flags. But whatever may be said against them, one thing was certain in
their minds and in the minds of all who knew them: They could fly! To
them, any old crate that could be influenced to leave the ground was a
ship, and they were willing to take it up at any time, at any place, and
regardless of air conditions. Perhaps their record had been less black
had they been given better ships.

A student, seeking a perfect cross-section of American youth, would have
found this squadron an interesting specimen. War drums, beating
throughout the land, had summoned them from the four points of the
compass. How they had ever been assembled at one field is a problem
known only to the white-collared dignitaries who sat in swivel chairs
and shuffled their service cards. The result of the shuffle caused many
a commander to tear his hair and declare that the cards had been stacked
against him.

No two members of the squadron came from the same town or city; no two
of them had the same outlook on life; no two members thoroughly
understood one another. A Texan, such as Yancey, from the wind-swept
Panhandle, may bunk with a world-travelled, well educated linguist, such
as Siddons, and may even learn to call him Wart, but he never thoroughly
understands him. A tide-water Virginian, such as Randolph Hampden, of
the bluest of blue blood, may sit at mess by the side of a Californian,
such as Hank Porter, but he will show no real interest in California
climate and will never be able to make the westerner understand that
Virginia is American history and not just a state. A nasal-voiced
Vermonter, such as Nathan Rodd, brought up among stern hills and by
sterner parents, will never fully understand a soft-voiced Louisianian,
such as Edouard Fouche, who has found the world a very pleasant place
with but few restrictions.

Leaving out the question of patriotism, the members had but three common
attributes: They had scornful disregard for any officer in the air
service who knew less of flying than they had learned through the medium
of hard knocks; they were determined from the very beginning to get to
France; and they were the most care-free, reckless, adventurous,
devil-may-care bunch of stem-winders that had ever plagued and
embarrassed the service by the simple procedure of being gathered into
one group.

It may be that the War Department, in despair, at last thought to be rid
of them by sending them overseas where their ability and proclivity for
stirring up trouble could be turned to good account against the enemy.
In any case, they were at last in France and from the moment of their
landing had been exceedingly voluble in their demands for planes. They
wanted action, not delay. And now that Yancey had brought word of this
last crushing indignity, they opened wide the spigots of wrath, all
talked at once, and the sum total of their comments contained no single
word that could be considered as complimentary to management of the war.
More instruction in flying! It was unthinkable. But then, perhaps this
grim joker, Yancey, was spoofing a bit.

"Come on, Wart," Hampden called to Siddons from the doorway. "Tex has
just been listening to old General Rumor. I'd like right much to see
this instructor before I get excited about it. Come on, let's go into
town. The night's young--and so am I."

"You'll get excited when you see him," Tex responded, sagely.

"Who is he?" Nathan Rodd asked, which was about as long a sentence as
Rodd ever spoke. He saved words as though they were so much gold.

"He's an English lieutenant," Tex answered. "Red-headed, freckle-faced,
and so runty that he'd have to set on a stepladder to see out of a
cockpit."

"A Limey!" chorused half a dozen incredulous, angry voices. "Whatdya
know about that!"

Tex nodded solemnly. He was enjoying the situation. Inwardly, he was as
furious as any of the others, but he had the happy faculty of being able
to enjoy mob distress. "Yeah, a Limey! Some gink in town told me he was
a famous ace. I forget his name. Never could remember names. But you
boys'll love him. Like as not he'll let some of us solo after a month or
so. Ain't the air service wonderful?"

More growls, and a half dozen muttered threats.

"Now boys, you-all be good, or Uncle Samuel'll send you back home and
let you work in the shipyards at twenty per day. I'm surprised and hurt
that you take this good news in this fashion. I should think you'd be
delighted to have a Limey show you how he shot down a few of--"

"Attention!" Hampden called from the doorway, a warning quality in his
voice.

The men looked up. There in the doorway stood Major Cowan, and by his
side was a neatly uniformed, diminutive member of the Royal Flying
Corps. The men scrambled hastily to their feet. Yancey upset his chair
with a clatter as he unwound his long, thin legs from around the rungs.

Major Cowan, always maddeningly correct in military courtesies, turned
upon Hampden with a withering look.

"Lieutenant," his voice had the edge of a razor but its cut was not so
smooth, "do you not know that attention is not called when at mess?"

"Yes, sir."

"You do, or you do not?"

"Double negatives bother me right much," Hampden replied, his eyes on
the English pilot and caring not a whit for court-martial now that he
saw in the flesh the proof of Yancey's report, "but I do know the rule."

"Then observe it," Major Cowan responded, testily. "Gentlemen, this is
Lieutenant McGee, of the British Royal Flying Corps, who has been
assigned to us as flying instructor."

Lieutenant McGee felt that the room was surcharged with hostility, and
he found himself in the position of one who is ashamed of the acts of
another. Major Cowan, altogether too brusque, failed utterly to impress
McGee, whose service in the Royal Flying Corps had been with a class of
men who thought more of deeds than of rank and who could enjoy a
care-free camaraderie without becoming careless of discipline.
Discipline, after all, is never deeper than love and respect, and McGee
felt somehow that Cowan was not a man to command either. McGee felt his
face coloring, and tried to dispel it with a smile.

"I am glad to meet you, gentlemen," he said, "and I want to correct the
Major's statement. I am not here as a flying instructor, in the strict
sense of the word, but to give you, first hand, some of our experiences
in formation flying, combat, and patrol work. I dare say you are all
well trained. In fact, I have heard some rather flattering reports
concerning you."

Yancey cast a sidelong glance at his neighbor; Siddons nudged Hank
Porter. Porter pressed his foot against Fouche's boot. Not a bad fellow,
this. Something like, eh?

Major Cowan was not one who could permit others to roll the sweets of
flattery under their tongues. He must qualify it with a touch of
vinegar.

"Lieutenant McGee is modest concerning his duties," he said. "In fact,
you will find all English officers becomingly modest."

"But I am not English!" McGee corrected. "I am an American--born in
America, and that's why I have been so happy about this assignment."

Several members of the squadron began edging nearer. Perhaps things were
not going to be so dreadful after all.

"Indeed?" Major Cowan lifted his eyebrows in surprise. The points of his
nicely trimmed moustache twitched nervously as he began to wonder just
how he should treat an American who happened to be wearing the uniform
and insignia of a lieutenant in the R.F.C.

"My parents were English," McGee decided to explain, "but I was born in
the States. When the war broke out, my brother, who was older by a few
years, came over and joined the balloon corps. I was too young to
enlist, but my parents were both dead and I came along with my brother,
remaining in London until--" he hesitated and cleared his voice of a
sudden huskiness, "until word came that my brother had been killed. His
balloon was shot down while he was up spotting artillery fire.
Naturally, I began to try to get in. I had to put over a fast one on the
examining board, but I made it. And here I am at last, with my own
countrymen. Top hole, isn't it?" His smile was so genuine and compelling
that none could doubt the sincerity of his pleasure. All barriers of
restraint were broken down. This chap actually courted conversation.

"Why don't you get repatriated, Lieutenant?" Yancey asked.

"The tactless fool!" Hampden thought, but dared not say. Of course the
Texas clown would rush in where angels feared to tread. Didn't the
fathead have any conception of pride of uniform and pride in a nation's
accomplishments? Hampden felt that he would like to hit Yancey with one
of the water carafes.

"What's that? Repatriated?" McGee repeated. "How can that be done?"

"Haven't you seen the General Order providing for it?" Tex continued,
despite Major Cowan's silencing frown.

"I'm afraid not," McGee replied. "I've been pretty busy--and I don't get
a great thrill out of G.O's. Tell me about it."

"Well--" Yancey began slowly, enjoying to the fullest the opportunity to
provide information uninterrupted, "as you know, a lot of Americans
joined the English and French air forces before we came in. Some of 'em,
just like you, maybe, had a sort of score to settle. But I reckon most
of 'em went in because it offered something unusual and a lot of
thrills. Huh! You tell 'em! Then when Uncle Sam got warm under the saddle
and came hornin' in, a lot of the boys who'd come over and joined up
began castin' homesick glances back in a westerly direction.
Natural-like, Uncle Samuel is willin' to welcome home all his prodigal
sons, if he can get 'em back, and he's specially forgivin' considerin'
that his army at the beginnin' of hostilities is just about one day's
bait on a real war-like front. As for flyers, he hasn't got enough of
'em, trained, to do observation work for an energetic battery of
heavies. So he makes medicine talk with Johnny Bull and with France, and
for once he comes out with all the buttons on his trousers. They agree
to release all the Americans servin' under their colors who express a
desire to get into O.D. under the Stars and Stripes. 'Repatriation' was
the flossy name they gave it, but I call it homesickness. A lot of the
wayward sons jumped at it quick, and we're 'way ahead on the game, any
way you look at it. Now take some of those boys in the Lafayette
Escadrille. Why, if they--"

Yancey's voice droned on, but McGee no longer heard what he was saying,
though to all appearances he was paying courteous attention. But as a
matter of fact his eyes were resting upon Lieutenant Siddons, and he was
cudgelling his brain in an effort to remember where he had seen him
before. The blond, curly hair; the rather square face and brow; the thin
lips, the calm, cold grey eyes; and the air of self-satisfied assurance,
all were part of a memory which was vivid enough but which refused to
come out of the back of the mind and associate itself with identifying
surroundings. Where had he seen that face? New York? No, not there. He
knew very few people in New York. Well, after all, perhaps it was only a
strong resemblance. But resembling whom? Surely no one of his
acquaintances looked like Siddons, at least none that he could remember.

McGee's gaze must have been a little too steady, at least enough to
prove discomfiting, for Siddons half turned away and began speaking in
whispers to Hampden. He talked out of the corner of his mouth, as one
who is ashamed of the words he utters, and McGee felt the stirrings of a
faint dislike for him.

Yancey reached the end of his monologue. The moment of silence that
followed brought McGee sharply back to the present. He smiled graciously
at the Texan.

"That's quite interesting," he said. "Strange I missed that order, and
stranger still that no one mentioned it to me. But we've been pretty
busy up in the Ypres salient--too busy to think much about what flag we
were fighting under. I've enjoyed being with the English, but of course
'there's no place like home'. I'm very happy to be assigned here, and I
am glad Major Cowan gave me this chance to meet you. The Major tells me
that you are to get several new Spads in the next two or three days.
Until that time, I won't disturb you. I'm driving back into town. Anyone
want a lift?"

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Hampden spoke up, "Siddons and I are going in.
Have you room?"

"Certainly. Glad to have you along. Major Cowan, how about you?"

"Sorry," the Major replied, dourly, "but I have to pay the price of
command by poring over a lot of detail work which would be spared me if
I had a more efficient staff."

Mullins, the peppery little Operations Officer, felt the full force of
the sting but he passed it off by winking wisely at Yancey. Why worry?
Cowan was always looking for work and for trouble. He was never so happy
as when bawling someone out.

McGee felt sorry for Mullins and sorrier still for Cowan. One with half
an eye could see that Cowan was about as popular with his command as
would be a case of smallpox. McGee had been trained in an atmosphere
where discipline was a matter of example rather than a matter of fear,
and as a result had always known a sort of good-fellowship which he felt
instinctively would be impossible with such a commander as Cowan.

"I'm sorry you can't come with us, Major," McGee said in a voice that
carried no conviction. "However, I must toddle along." He turned to
Siddons and Hampden. "Ready? Right-O!"

During the short motor trip into Is Sur Tille, McGee's curiosity finally
got the better of his natural dislike for admitting that his memory had
failed him. "I think I have met you somewhere before, Lieutenant," he
said to Siddons.

"Yes? I do not remember it," Siddons replied, with the air of one who is
making no great draft upon his own memory. He himself evidently sensed
the lack of courtesy, for he added, "New York, perhaps. Have you been
around New York much?"

"No, I haven't. Somewhere else--"

Lieutenant Hampden's mellow laugh interrupted.

"Siddons has the idea that one never meets anyone outside of New York,"
he said. "He's terribly provincial, Lieutenant. He thinks there are only
two places in the world--New York and everywhere else."

Siddons displayed no resentment at the taunt; he seemed quite well
satisfied with the opinion expressed. In fact, he appeared quite
satisfied with everything--especially with himself.

McGee wondered how a likeable chap, such as Hampden, could choose as
companion one so utterly different in manner, in ideas, and in speech.
But then, war brings together strange bedfellows and establishes new
standards. McGee dismissed the matter from his mind as the car swung
into the narrow streets of the darkened town.

"Where can I drop you?" he asked.

"Going by the café down on the main drag?" Hampden asked.

"Right."

"That will be fine. I hope to see you again soon, Lieutenant."

"Thanks. The Spads are due to arrive on Monday. That's three days. See
you then. Well, here we are," as the car swung in to the curb in front
of the café. The shutters were closed, no light came from any of the
stores or houses along the street, but from behind the closed door of
the café came the sound of voices and laughter mixed with the metallic
banging of a very old piano beating out tuneless accompaniment to a
bull-voiced singer roaring through the many verses of "Hinkey Dinkey
Parlez Vous".

    "The Yank Marine went over the top,
      _Parlez Vous_,
    The Yank Marine went over the top,
      _Parlez Vous_,
    The Yank Marine went over the top
    And gave old Fritz a whale of a pop,
      Hinkey Dinkey, _Parlez Vous_."

McGee smiled as he sat for a moment listening to the words. All his
service had been with the English, who of course had composed many songs
highly complimentary to themselves, and only in the last few days had he
come in contact with the forerunners of the mighty American army now
pouring into French harbors from every arriving boat.

"Quite a fellow--this Yank Marine," he said to Siddons.

Siddons nodded, rather stiffly. "So it seems. Though he hasn't been over
the top yet. Prophecy, I suppose." He stepped from the car to the curb
with the bearing of one accustomed to being delivered in a
chauffeur-driven car.

McGee was on the point of calling out, "When shall I call, sir?" but at
that moment noticed young Hampden's genuine smile and heard him voicing
words of appreciation for the lift.

"Don't mention it," McGee said. "It was a pleasure. Cheerio! old man!"

"There," he thought, sinking back in the tonneau. "I said 'old man'.
Singular case, and that lets Siddons out rather neatly. Hum. I'll bet a
cookie he knows more about flying than I do--or anyone else, for that
matter. Well, we'll see. I wonder what sort of outfit Buzz drew."

Lieutenant "Buzz" Larkin was closer to McGee than any person in the
world. Close bonds of friendship had been formed while they were in
training in Cadet Brigade Headquarters, at Hastings, England. During
their months of service together in the Royal Air Force, on exceedingly
hot fronts, those bonds of friendship had become bands of steel, holding
them together almost as firmly as blood ties. Both were Americans, but
the motives back of their entrance into the R.F.C. were as widely
divergent as possible. Larkin, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, had
never disclosed the real reason for his entrance into a foreign service.
Perhaps he sought adventure. McGee, however, made no secret of the
motives back of his entrance. When word reached him that his brother had
been killed while doing observation work in a captive balloon, young
McGee, not yet eighteen, employed a trick (which he thought justified)
to gain entrance to the Air Force. He felt that he must carry on an
unfinished work, and few will find fault with him if his actions were
motivated by a slight spirit of revenge. After all, blood is thicker
than water.

Whatever the motives of the two youths, once in the uniform of cadet
flyers, the spirit of service seized them. Side by side, encouraging,
entreating, helping and driving one another they plugged through their
training with their eyes fixed upon the coveted reward of every air
service cadet--a pair of silvered wings!

Together they had won their wings; together they had gone to the front;
together they had gone out on patrol, high above the lines, and met the
enemy. Thereafter, the fortune of one was the fortune of both. Each had
saved the other's life, the culminating tie in their friendship, if
indeed their friendship needed any further tie.

Both had become aces, though in combat work McGee was easily the
superior. This, however, he constantly denied and was forever admiring
Larkin's work. Larkin, if inferior to McGee in a dog fight, was better
disciplined. He could go up in formation, keep his eye on his flight
commander, obey orders, and keep his head when he saw an enemy plane.
McGee, on the contrary, went as wild as a berserker the moment he laid
eyes on a plane bearing the black cross. Orders were forgotten and he
dived, throttle wide open, stick far forward, every thought gone from
his mind but the one compelling urge to get that other plane on the
inside of his ring sight. McGee had his personal faults, but he was a
faultless flyer. The same may be said of Larkin, for men in aerial
combat never make but one vital mistake. Those who become aces have no
great faults; those with great faults become mere tallies for the aces.
Now and then, of course, the grim scorer nods during the game and a
fault goes unpenalized, but as a rule it can be said that a man who can
become an ace may well be called a faultless flyer, for an ace is one
who has rolled up a score of five victories against those whose skill
was less than his own. Of course, there is the element of luck to be
considered, for luck and skill must go hand in hand when youths go
jousting in the clouds. But luck can only attend the skillful. With
skill wanting, luck soon deserts.

Beyond doubt both McGee and Larkin had enjoyed a full measure of luck,
and were still enjoying it. For example, wasn't it luck that had sent
them both down here on the French front to act as instructors to newly
arriving American squadrons? Wasn't it luck that they were still
billeted together in the lovely old chateau at the edge of town, and
could look forward to many, many more days together?

These latter thoughts were running through McGee's mind as his car swung
under the trees lining the drive that led up to the chateau. Why, but
for luck both of them might now be pushing up the daisies instead of
being happily, and comparatively safely ensconced in such comfortable
quarters. No more dawn patrols--for a while at least; no more soggy
breakfasts--with comrades missing who banteringly breakfasted with you
twenty-four short hours ago.

McGee's thoughts took unconscious vocal form as he stepped from the car.
"Lucky? I'll say we are!"

"What did you say, sir?" asked the driver.

The question snapped McGee back to earth.

"I was complimenting myself upon some very narrow escapes, Martins, but
I'll repeat--for your benefit. You are a very lucky boy."

Martins blinked. He held opposite views. "You think so, sir? I've gotta
different idea. I wanted to be a pilot, like you, sir, and here I am
toolin' this old bus around France with never a chance to get off the
ground unless I run off an embankment. And this old wreck is no bird."

"So you really wanted to be a pilot, Martins?"

"I sure did, sir."

"Um-m. That's why I said you were a very lucky young man. I know the
names of a lot of young fellows who wanted to become pilots--and did.
But they've gone West now and their names are on wooden crosses. Hoe
your own row, Martins, and thank the Lord for small favors."

"Yes, sir," aloud, and under his breath, "It's easy enough for them that
has wings."

"How's that, Martins?" McGee asked, rather enjoying himself.

Martins fidgeted with the gear shift. "I said I had always wanted a pair
of wings, sir."

"Well, be a good boy and maybe you'll get them--in the next world. Good
night, Martins."

"'Night--sir." Gurrr! went the clashing gears as the car got under way
with a lurch that spoke volumes for the driver. It was tough to be held
to the ground by a wingless motor.

McGee caught a gleam of light through the shutters of the upstairs
windows. So Larkin was back already? He took the front steps in a jump
and raced up the stairs in a manner most unbecoming to a First
Lieutenant with a score of victories to his credit.

"What kind of an outfit did you draw, Buzz?" he demanded as he burst
into the room.

Larkin was buried behind a Paris edition of the _Tribune_, his legs
sprawled out into the middle of the floor where the heel of one boot
balanced precariously on the toe of the other.

"Oh, so-so," never bothering to look from behind his paper. Phlegmatic
old Buzz, McGee thought, what was the use of getting excited over an
instructor's job?

"Are they good?" McGee asked.

"Um. Dunno." Still reading.

"Mine are great!" McGee enthused. "Stiff, crusty young C.O., who needs a
couple of crashes--one fatal, maybe--but the rest of them are fine.
Great bunch of pilots."

"Yeah?" Still reading, but doubtful. "See any of 'em fly?"

"No-o," slowly, "of course not."

"Um-m. Well, wait until they begin sticking the noses of those new Spads
in the ground, and then tell me about 'em. They've been trained on
settin' hens. Wait until they mount a hawk."

McGee jerked a pillow from the bed and sent it crashing through the
concealing paper. "Old killjoy! If a man gave you a diamond you'd try it
on glass to see if it was real."

Larkin began rearranging his crumpled paper. "Well, why not? If it
wasn't real I wouldn't want it. And I wish you'd keep your pillows out
of my theatrical news. I was just reading about a play at the _Folies
Bergeres_, called 'Zig Zag'. They say it's a scream. By the way,
Shrimp, how'd you like to fly to Paris to-morrow morning and give it the
once over?"

"Fine, but--"

"But nothing! We can see it to-morrow night and be back the next day.
That fine bunch of pilots of yours can't get off the ground until the
Spads get here--and maybe not then."

"See here!" McGee challenged stoutly. "I'll bet you anything you like
that those boys--"

"Will all be aces in a month," Larkin completed, knowing the extent and
warmth of McGee's habitual enthusiasm. "All right, Shrimp, so be it. But
what has that to do with the show? Want to go?"

"Sure. But what about passes? I don't know just who we are answerable to
down here, in the matter of privileges and so forth. I've been sort of
lost for the last few days."

Larkin shoved his hand into his inside blouse pocket and brought forth
two folded papers which he displayed proudly.

"Here are the passes--all jake! Marked official business and authorizing
fuel and supplies, if needed. I'm a great little fixer. And about that
question of not knowing who you are answerable to, don't forget that
it's little Johnny Bull--capital J and B. You're liable to get jerked
off this detail so quick you'll leave toothbrush and pajamas behind.
Every morning now when I wake up and remember that I don't have to go
out on dawn patrol I start pinching myself to see if I'm awake. Boy, in
this game it's here to-day and gone to-morrow. Wasn't it old Omar who
handed out that gag, 'Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, before
we too into the dust descend'?... Yeah? Well, he must have written that
for war pilots. The minute J.B. finds out how comfortable we are down
here we'll be recalled and sent to chasing Huns back across the line. In
fact, I think we're both asleep and having nice dreams."

"That reminds me," McGee said, drawing up a chair and sitting gingerly
on the edge after the manner of one about to indulge in confidential
disclosures. "Have you heard anything of this repatriation business?"

"Sure. Haven't you?"

"Not a word."

"Where have you been? It came down in a G.O."

McGee scratched his head. "So I've just learned, but it's the first I've
heard of it. Funny you didn't mention it to me."

Larkin eyed him curiously. "Well," slowly, "I knew you were English
and--"

"But I'm not, and you know it!" McGee flared.

"Calm, brother, calm! I mean, I knew your father and mother were
English, and so was your brother."

"But I was born in America. I'm just as much of an American as you are!"

"Calm, brother, calm! No one says you are not. But because of your
family nationality, I supposed you would want to finish out the string
with the R.F.C. and," he reached over and tousled McGee's mop of flaming
red hair, "I'm just fool enough to want to stick around where you
are--you little shrimp! So I thought I wouldn't bring up the subject."

McGee gave him a look of deep understanding and appreciation.

"Fact is," Larkin went on, "I just got a letter from Dad the other day
and he seems to be pretty hot under the collar because I haven't made
any move to get repatriated."

"Why haven't you?"

"You poor nut! I've just told you."

"No you haven't, Buzz. There is some reason deeper than that."

Larkin fingered his newspaper nervously and tried to simulate an
interest in some news note. He hated to display sentiment, yet the fates
had given him a double burden of it. As a matter of honest fact, he was
as sentimental as a woman, and was forever trying to hide the fact
behind a thin veneer of nonchalance and bluster.

"Did you see this communique from our old front?" he asked, trying to
shift the subject. "They're having some hot fighting up there."

"Yes, I know. Things look pretty dark for the English. But answer my
question: What is the real reason why you haven't thought of getting
transferred into the United States forces?"

"I didn't say I hadn't thought of it," Larkin avoided. "Maybe I didn't
want to trade horses in the middle of the stream."

"Any other reason?"

"Well, hang it all! a fellow builds up some pride in the uniform he
wears. A good many of our buddies have gone out for their last ride in
this uniform and--and it stands for a lot. Of course I am proud of my
own country, and sometimes I feel a little strange in this uniform now
that my own country is in the war, but it isn't a thing you can put on
or take off just as the spirit moves you. It becomes a part of you. Say!
What's eatin' you, anyway? Are you anxious to change uniforms?"

"Um-m. I'm not so sure. I like that bunch I met over there to-night."

"Yes, and they are all afoot. The truth is, our own country hasn't
enough combat planes to send out a patrol. They are developing some
mystery motor, I hear, but I'm not very keen about trying out any
mystery motors. Our Camels are mystery enough to suit me. When I'm up
against the ceiling with a fast flying Albatross or tri-plane Fokker on
my tail, I don't want any mysteries to handle. No, Red, for the time
being I guess I'm satisfied. Besides, they might chuck me in the
infantry, and I have a horror of having things drop on me from overhead.
Let's to bed, old topper, so we can hop off early in the morning. The
sooner we start the sooner we get to 'Gay Paree'. Besides, early to bed
and early to rise makes a man ready to challenge the skies. How's that
for impromptu poetry?"

"Rotten! Omar and Ben Franklin both in one evening!" McGee yawned as he
began pulling at a boot. "But it makes me sleepy. Go on, say me some
more pretty pieces. Or maybe you'd like to sing me to sleep."

[Footnote A: For definitions of military and aeronautical terms, as well
as certain slang peculiar to army life, see glossary at the back of the
book.]



CHAPTER II

A Pass to Paris


1

The following morning dawned with the quiet splendor and benediction
which April mornings bring to the rural province of Cote d'Or. By the
time the sun had climbed above the low hills to the east and was turning
the dew covered fields into limitless acres of flashing diamonds and
sapphires, McGee and Larkin had hurried through breakfast and were on
their way out to the hangars where the mechanics, following Larkin's
orders, would have the two Camels waiting on the line. As the car rolled
along the smooth highway leading to the flying field, McGee sank back in
the none too comfortable cushions and drank deep of the tonic of early
morning.

"Some day!" he said. Larkin merely nodded--the only reply needed when
Spring is in the air.

"It would be more fun to drive up to Paris," McGee offered.

Larkin looked at him in surprise. "Where'd you get that idea?"

"Well, nearly all of my impressions of France are from the air. It
stands for so many squares of green fields, of little rivers gleaming
like silver ribbons interlaced through squares of green and brown plush,
of torn up battlefronts where there is no life, no color--nothing but
desolation. But this seems like another world. Here are spring flowers,
the orchards are in bloom, and children are playing in the narrow
streets of the towns. Flying over it, you look down on all that. You see
it--and you don't see it. But in driving we would feel that we were a
part of it. There's a difference. It gives you a feeling that you are
better acquainted with the people, and you get a chance to smell
something besides the beastly old Clerget motors in those Camels. I'm
getting so I feel sick every time I smell burning oil. Let's drive up,
Buzz."

Larkin, being in a different frame of mind, shook his head.

"No, you're too blasted poetic about it already. Besides, we have
permission to fly up, not to drive. I suppose we could get the pass
changed, but why fool with your luck? And the quicker we get there the
more we see."

"All right, but on a day like this I could get more pleasure out of just
wandering through the countryside than in seeing all the cities of the
world rolled into one. Look!" he pointed to the flying field as the car
turned from the highway. "There are the Camels, warming up, and filling
this good, clean air with their sickening fumes. Bah! I hate it!"

"Say, have you got the pip? You talk like a farmer. Snap out of it!
We're headed for Gay Paree!"

The car had rolled to a stop at the edge of the field. McGee climbed out
slowly. "All right, big boy. You lead the way. And no contour chasing
to-day. I'm too liable to get absent-minded and try to reach out and
pick some daisies. Besides, this motor of mine has been trickier than
usual in the last few days despite the fact that the Ack Emma declares
she is top hole. So fly high and handsome. Know the way?"

Larkin was crawling into his flying suit and did not answer.

"Know the way?" McGee repeated.

"Sure. That's a fine question to ask a pilot bound for Paris. We land at
Le Bourget field, you know."

"No, I didn't know."

"Where'd you think you'd land--in the Champs Elysees?"

"I'm liable to land on a church steeple if that motor cuts out on me as
it did yesterday afternoon--for no reason at all. Remember, no contour
chasing and no dog-fighting. We're going to Paris."

Larkin grinned. Rarely did they go into the air together but what they
engaged in mimic warfare--dog-fighting--before their wheels again
touched the ground. It was the airman's game of tag, the winner being
that one who could get on the other's tail and stay there. It was a
thunderous, strut singing game wherein the pursued threw his plane into
fantastic gyrations in a frenzied, wild effort to shake off the pursuer
and get on his tail. It was a game in which McGee excelled. Although
Larkin recognized this fact, he was always the first to start the dog
fight and had never found McGee unwilling to play. As for contour
chasing--well, they had broken regulations times without number, and to
date had paid no penalty.

McGee, knowing what thoughts lurked behind Larkin's grin, wagged a
prudent finger under his nose.

"Mind your step, Buzz," he warned. "We are supposed to be sedate,
dignified, instruction-keeping instructors. Fly northwest to Auxerre,
then follow the railroad toward Sens and on to Melun. Then swing
straight north and come into Le Bourget from the east."

"All right. All set?"

"Yes. You lead off and I'll follow. Wait! On second thought I think I'll
lead and pick my own altitude. And if you start any funny business, I'll
leave you flat!"

They climbed into the waiting planes, whose motors were still warming
idly. Members of the ground crew took up their stations at the wing
tips. McGee was on the point of nodding to the crew to remove the wheel
chocks when he remembered that for the first time in his experience as a
pilot he had climbed into the cockpit without first casting an
appraising eye over braces, struts and turn buckles. He promptly cut the
motor and climbed from the plane, saying, half aloud; "I must be getting
balmy. It's the weather, I guess."

"How's that, sir?" asked the air mechanic.

"I say, it's balmy weather we're having."

"Oh! Yes, sir."

"You've checked her all over, Wilson?"

"Yes, sir. And fueled her according to Lieutenant Larkin's
instructions."

"Hum." McGee slowly walked around the plane, giving every functional
detail a critical look, nor was he the least hurried by the fact that
Larkin was displaying impatience. Satisfied at last, he climbed back
into the plane. A member of the ground crew took his place at the
propeller.

"Petrol off, sir?"

"Petrol off."

Whish! Whish! went the prop as the helper began pulling it over against
compression.

"Contact, sir!"

"Contact."

The motor caught, coughed, caught again and the prop whirled into an
indistinct blur. The sudden blast of wind sent clouds of dust eddying
toward the hangar, but ahead lay the cool, fresh, dew-washed green of
the field. McGee turned to look once more at the wind sock which, for
want of a breeze, hung limp along its staff. He nodded to the men at the
wheel chocks, waved his hand to Larkin and gave her the gun.

No pilot in the service could lift a Camel off the ground quicker than
could McGee, but this morning he taxied slowly forward and was getting
dangerously near the end of the field before he began to get the tail
up.

Larkin, watching him, chuckled. "Guess he wants to take a spin on the
ground," he commented to himself. "Fancy that bird wanting to go to
Paris by motor!" Then to show how little he thought of the ground he
advanced his throttle rapidly and took off on far less space than should
ever be attempted by one who knows, from experience, how suddenly a
crowded Clerget-motored Camel can sputter and incontinently die. And as
a parting defiance to his knowledge, Larkin pulled back his stick and
zoomed. Altitude was what McGee wanted, eh? Well, here was the way to
get altitude in a hurry.

McGee, glancing backward, saw the take-off and the zoom. "The poor
fish!" was his mental comment. "If he shows that kind of stuff to this
squadron they'll be needing a lot of replacements--or yelling for a new
instructor."

But the appreciative ground crew, watching, expressed a different view.
"Boy!" exclaimed an envious Ack Emma. "Can that baby fly! I'll tell the
world! Watch him out-climb McGee. Did you see how McGee took off? Like a
cadet doin' solo--afraid to lift her. And they say he's one of the best
aces in the R.F.C. Huh! I think he's got the pip! Ever since he first
touched his wheels to this 'drome he's been yellin' about his motor
bein' cranky. And it's all jake. She takes gas like a race horse takes
rein."

"Yeah," growled a mechanic by the name of Flynn, who by nature and
nationality stood ready to defend anyone bearing the name of McGee, "a
lot you know about those little teapots in them Camels. You was trained
on Jennies and--and Fords! What you know about a Clerget engine could be
written on the back of a postage stamp. Say, do you know why he took her
off so gentle? Well, I'll spread light in dark places, brother. He took
off slow because he _knew_ you didn't know nothin', see?"

"Say, listen--"

The quarrel went on, despite the fact that the two pilots constituting
the meatless bone of contention were rapidly becoming specks in the sky
to the northwest.

At five thousand feet McGee leveled off and swung slightly west. He
looked back and up. Larkin was five hundred feet above him and somewhat
behind, but at McGee's signal he dived down, taking up a position on the
left. In this manner they could point out objects below and engage in
the sign language which they had perfected through many hours spent in
the air together.

As they flew along McGee felt his spirits mounting. It was a good world
to live in and life was made especially sweet and interesting by the
soft unfolding greens of a land brought to bud and blossom by April's
sun and showers. In the beautiful panorama below there was nothing to
indicate that a few miles to the eastward mighty armies were striving
over a tortured strip of blasted land that for years to come would lie
fruitless and barren. Here all was peace, with never a hint--yes, far
below on the white ribbon of roadway a long, dark python was slowly
dragging itself forward. It was a familiar sight to Larkin and
McGee--troops moving up to the theatre of war. And over on another road
a long procession of humpbacked brown toads were plodding eastward.
Motor lorries, carrying munitions and supplies. Strange monsters, these,
to be coming from the green fields and woods of a seeming peaceful
countryside. Forward, ever forward they made their way. Never, it seemed
to McGee, had he seen roads choked with returning men and munitions. Was
the maw of the monster there to the eastward bottomless and insatiable?
Where were the roads that led men back to the land of living, green
things?

As they passed over a town, McGee saw Larkin point down. On the
outskirts of the village a great cross in a circlet of green marked the
location of a military hospital. Ah!... Yes, some came back. But even
then they must brand their pain-racked sanctuary with the mercy
imploring emblem of the Red Cross so that enemy planes, bent on
devastation, would mingle mercy with hope of victory and save their
bombs for those not yet carried into the long wards where white-robed
doctors and nurses battled with death and spoke words of hope to the
hopeless.

It was a sorry world! McGee, who but a few short minutes ago was
entranced by the beauty of the world, now felt a sudden, marked disgust.
He pulled his stick back sharply. He would climb out of it! He would get
up against the ceiling, where the world became a dim, faint blur or was
lost altogether in a kindly obliterating ground haze.

On McGee's part the action was nothing more than an unconscious reaction
to distressing thoughts. Larkin, however, on seeing the sudden climb,
grinned with delight. This climb for altitude was nothing more than the
prelude to a dive that would start them into a merry game of hare and
hound. So McGee had forgotten all about his doleful sermon against
dog-fighting? And so soon. Ha! Trust the freckled "Little Shrimp" to
feel blood racing through his veins when motors are singing sweetly.

Instead of following, Larkin decided to nose down and offer more
tantalizing bait.

McGee, seeing the dive, found it more than he could resist. Besides, a
merry little chase would serve to wash the brooding thoughts from his
mind. This was a morning for sport, for jest, for youth--for hazard!

Forward went the stick and he plunged down the backwash of Larkin's
diving plane, his motor roaring its cadenced challenge. This was
something like! Sky and ground were rushing toward each other. The
braces were screaming like banshees; the speed indicator hand was
mounting with a steady march that made one want to dive on and on and on
until--

Larkin, in the plane ahead, brought his stick backward as he made ready
to go over in a tight loop. McGee smiled and followed him over. When
they came out of the loop they were in the same relative
position--Larkin the hare, McGee the tenacious hound.

For the next few minutes the open-mouthed countrymen in the fields below
were treated to a series of aerial gymnastics which must have sent their
own pulses racing and which might well serve them for fireside narration
for years to come.

The two darting hawks Immelmanned, looped, barrel-rolled, side-slipped,
and then plunged into a dizzy circle in which they flew round and round
an imaginary axis, the radius of the circle growing ever shorter and
shorter. Every action of the leading plane was immediately matched by
the pursuer.

Larkin, realizing that his skill in manoeuvering was something less than
McGee's, decided to bring the contest to a close with a few thrills in
hedge hopping.

Of all sports that offer high hazard to thrill satiated war pilots, that
of hedge hopping, or contour chasing, occupies first place. This is
particularly true when the pilot is flying a Sopwith Camel powered by
the temperamental Clerget motor with its malfunctioning wind driven
gasoline pump. The sport had been repeatedly forbidden by all the allied
air commands, but these commands had to deal with irrepressible youth,
which has slight regard for doddering old mossbacks who think that a
plane should be handled as a wheel chair.

Larkin dived at the ground like a hawk that has sighted some napping
rodent, and so near did he come that by the time he had leveled off, his
wheels were almost touching the ground--and wheels must not touch when
one is screaming through space at the rate of a hundred and forty miles
per hour.

He glanced back. Sure enough, McGee was still on his tail. No hedge
hopping, eh? Huh! Trust The Shrimp to keep young, he thought. Fat chance
they had of getting old. Who ever heard of an old war pilot? Ha! That's
a good one! And here's a double row of tall poplars fringing the road
directly ahead. Hold her close to the ground and then zoom her at the
last minute ... landing gears just clearing the topmost branches ...
make it, and that's hedge hopping. Fail to make it--and that's bad news!

Larkin made it, a beautiful zoom that carried him over the trees by a
skillful margin. Then he swooped down again, skimming along the level
field on the other side of the road.

McGee's zoom was just as spectacular and as nicely timed, but as his
nose climbed above the first row of trees his motor died as suddenly as
though throttled by the strangling hands of some unseen genii. Sudden
though it was, McGee had sensed that he was crowding the motor too much
and had tried to ease her off and still clear the trees. It was too late
to relieve the choked motor but he did clear the first row of trees. He
was about to close his eyes against the inevitable crash into the
poplars on the other side of the road when he saw that two of the trees
had been felled, and that so recently that the woodsmen had not yet
worked them up. There was one clear chance left. If only he could slip
her over just far enough to clear the outstretched limbs of the tree to
the right.

At such a time seconds must be divided into hundredths, and action must
be instantaneous, instinctive, and without flaw. McGee felt one of the
spreading limbs brush against his right wing tip, felt the plane swerve
for a moment, then respond to rudder and aileron. It was a case where
one moment he was supremely thankful for flying speed, and the next, as
the ground of the level field was flashing under the wheels, wishing
that he had held to his resolution concerning hedge hopping.

The wheels struck hard. The plane bounded, high, and again the wheels
touched. Again the plane bounded, and this time came down with a shock
that left McGee amazed with the realization that the undercarriage was
intact and that he still had a chance to keep her off her nose if only
he could get the high-riding tail down.

Crash! Crack! The tail was down now ... and broken to splinters, like as
not. Never mind.... By some great mercy he was at last on three points
and rolling to a stop.

He suddenly felt very weak. A narrow squeeze, that! Stupid way for an
ace--and an instructor--to get washed out. Like a Warrior falling off
his horse while on the way home from a victorious field.

He saw Larkin bank his ship into a tight turn, set the plane down in a
perfect landing and come careening down the open field to stop within a
dozen paces of McGee's plane.

Larkin, white-faced, tight-lipped, crawled from his plane and came
forward on the double-quick. Not a word did he speak until he stood by
the side of Red's plane, his hands gripping the leather piping at the
edge of the cockpit until his knuckles were white.

"What happened, Red? Gee, you're white! All the freckles gone."

"Lucky I'm not gone!" McGee answered. "My knees are too shaky to crawl
out yet. It looked like _finis la guerre pour moi_ for a second."
He turned and blew a kiss at the gap in the trees. "Thanks, Mr.
Woodchopper, whoever you are. Buzz, never repeat that old poem about
'Woodman, spare that tree!' If he had spared those two--well! Take a
look at my tail skid, Old Timer. Is it broken off?"

"No. It's cracked and sort of cockeyed, but a piece of wire from that
fence over there will fix it all O.K. What happened?"

McGee fixed him with a baleful glare. "You should ask--with as much
experience as both of us have had with these tricky motors. I choked it
down, that's all. That same little fault has sent many a pilot home in a
wooden box. Go get me a piece of that wire. We'll fix the skid, somehow,
and when I get to Le Bourget I'll set her down on two points. And
listen! From here on in we do--"

"No contour chasing," Larkin completed, forcing a thin smile. "Seems I
heard that somewhere before. Crawl out, Shrimp. You said you wanted to
be out among the flowers and sweet things. Well, here's a sweet thing,
and this field is full of flowers. I brought you down low so you could
enjoy them."

"Yeah! I said I wanted to be among 'em--not pushing 'em up. Hurry over
and get that wire before I do something violent."


2

Thirty minutes later two chastened pilots took off from the level field,
with a half dozen curious French peasants for an audience, and laid a
straight course for Le Bourget. No more acrobatics and no more hedge
hopping. To an observer below they would have resembled two homing
pigeons flying rather close together and maintaining their positions
with a singleness of mind and purpose.

When they reached Le Bourget they circled the 'drome once, noted the
wind socks on the great hangars, and dropped as lightly to the field as
two tardy, truant schoolboys seeking to gain entrance without attracting
notice.

A newly arrived American squadron was stationed at the field, jubilant
over the fact that they were trying their skill on the fast climbing,
fast flying single-seater Spads. Five of these swift little hawks were
now on the line, making ready for a formation flight.

McGee and Larkin introduced themselves to the officer in command,
presented their passes and authority for refueling, and McGee requested
that his tail skid be repaired and his motor checked over.

"Let's stick around and watch this formation flight," McGee then said to
Larkin. "I want to see what these lads can do with a real ship."

"All right, but don't get goggle-eyed. I came up here to see Paris, and
I'm thirty minutes behind time now."

The take-off of the five Spads was good, and in order. McGee noticed
with considerable satisfaction that the flight commander knew his
business, and the four planes under his direction followed his signaled
orders with a precision that would have been creditable in any group of
pilots.

"Nice work!" Red said to an American captain who seemed not at all
impressed.

The captain was six feet tall, burdened by the weight of rank and the
ripe old age of twenty-four or twenty-five years, and was somewhat
skeptical of McGee's judgement. He wondered, vaguely, what this
youthful, freckle-faced, five-foot-six Royal Flying Corps lieutenant
could know about nice work. Why, he couldn't be a day over eighteen--in
fact, he might be less than that. A cadet who had just won his wings,
probably.

"Oh, fair," the captain admitted.

McGee, sensing what was running through the captain's mind, and having
no wish to set him right, winked at Larkin and said:

"Let's go, Buzz. It isn't often that two poor ferry pilots get a
twenty-four hour leave."

Later, as they were bounding cityward in a decrepit, ancient taxi driven
by a bearded, grizzled Frenchman who without make-up could assume a role
in a drama of pirates and freebooters, McGee said to Larkin:

"You know, Buzz, I think a lot of these American pilots are better
prepared for action right now than we were when we got our wings. And we
had hardly gotten ours sewed on when we were ordered to the front. These
fellows will give a good account of themselves."

"I think so, too. Do you remember how the Cadets of our class were sent
up for solo in rickety old planes held together by wire, tape and
chewing gum? Poor devils, they got washed out plenty fast! I've seen 'em
go up when the expression on their faces told that they had forgotten
everything they had learned. No wonder a lot of them took nose dives
into the hangars and hung their planes on smokestacks and church
steeples."

McGee frowned, remembering some of the friends who had tried for their
wings and drew crosses instead. Quickly he threw off the mood with a
laugh.

"Yes, and I was one of those 'poor devils' who forgot. I'll never forget
_that_! I had no more right being up in that old Avro than a hog
has with skates. But England needed pilots and needed them badly. I
guess it was a case of 'what goes up must come down' and the government
gave wings to the ones who came down alive. The others got angels'
wings."

"I suppose so. And before another month passes the need will be greater
than ever. Look what the Germans did to the British Fifth Army just last
month. I'll never know what stopped 'em. But they're not through. What
do you make of that long range gun that is shelling this very city?

"Um-m. Dunno. Seems to me that well directed reconnaissance flights
should be able to locate that gun."

"Maybe; but locate it or not, its purpose is to drive war workers out of
Paris, cripple the hub of supplies and make it more difficult for us to
coordinate the service of supplies through here when they make their
drive at Paris. It'll come within a month. Then we'll need every pilot
and every ship that can get its wheels off the ground. I'm tellin'
you--a month!"

"Think so?"

"I know so! America is going to have her big chance--and may the Lord
help us if she doesn't deliver! I don't know how many combat troops she
has landed, but I do know that her eyes, the air service, is in need of
ships. The French and English are willing to give them all the old, worn
out flying coffins that they can pick up out of junk heaps--old
two-seater Spads, old A.R.'s, 1-1/2 strutter Sopwiths, and crates like
that. If they can get new Spads, like those we saw 'em flying this
morning, or Nieuport 28's, or the Salmsons which their commander has
been trying to get, then all will be jake. Otherwise--" he shrugged his
shoulders expressively.

"Otherwise," McGee took advantage of the pause, "Otherwise they'll
deliver just the same, even if they have to fly Avros, Caudrons or table
tops. Buzz, these Americans over here have fight in their eyes. They've
got spirit."

"Yes, but spirit can't do much without equipment."

"Huh! Ever read any history?"

"What's on your mind now, little teacher? I read enough to pass my exams
in school."

"Then you've forgotten some things about American history, especially
about spirit and equipment. Where was the equipment at Valley Forge?
What about the troops under Washington that took the breastworks at
Yorktown without a single round of powder--just bayonets? What about the
war of 1812, when we had no army and the English thought we had no navy?
You don't remember those--"

"That's just what I do remember," Buzz interrupted, "and that's what I'm
howling about. We never have been prepared with anything except spirit.
Right now we have a lot of good pilots over here and the air service is
having to beg planes from the French and English. And here we are, sent
down to this front to act as instructors to a shipless squadron, at the
very time when the Germans are making ready for another big drive. It's
all wrong. Every minute is precious."

McGee had been looking out of the window of the swaying, lurching cab
that was now threading its way through hurrying traffic. "Forget it!" he
said. "Give Old Man Worry a swift kick. Here we are in Gay Paree. The
war's over for twenty-four hours!"


3

To all allied soldiers on leave of absence from the front, Paris
represented what McGee had voiced to Larkin--a place where the war was
over for the time limits of their passes. Forgotten, for a few brief
hours, were all the memories of military tedium, the roar of guns, the
mud of trenches, the flaming airplane plunging earthward out of
control--all these things were banished by the stimulating thought that
here was the world famous city with all its amusements, its arts, its
countless beauties, open to them for a few magic hours.

The fact that Paris was only a ghost of her former self made no
impression on war-weary troopers. What mattered it, to them, that the
priceless art treasures of the Louvre had been removed to the safety of
the southern interior? Was it their concern that the once mighty and
fearless Napoleon now lay blanketed by tons of sand bags placed over his
crypt to protect revered bones from enemy air raids or a chance hit by
the long range gun now shelling the city? What mattered it that famous
cafés and chefs were now reduced to the simplest of menus; what
difference did it make if the streets were darkened at night; who that
had never seen Paris in peace time could sense that she was a stricken
city hiding her sorrow and travail behind a mask of dogged, grim
determination?

Paris was Paris, to the medley of soldiers gathered there from the four
points of the compass, and it was the more to her credit that she could
still offer amusement to uniformed men and boys whose war-weary minds
found here relief from the drive of duty.

Everywhere the streets were swarming with men in uniform--French,
English, Australian, Canadian, New Zealanders, colored French Colonials,
a few Russians who, following the sudden collapse of their government,
were now soldiers lacking a flag, Scotch Highlanders in their gaudy
kilts, Japanese officers in spick uniforms not yet baptized in the mud
of the trenches--a varied, colorful parade of young men bent on one
great common objective.

At night, the common magnet was the theatre, and the _Folies
Bergeres_, featuring a humorous extravaganza, Zig Zag, in which was
starred a famous English comedian, drew its full quota of fun-seeking
youths.

It was this show that McGee and Larkin had come to see, and at the end
of the first act they were ready to add their praises to the chorus of
approval. During the intermission they strolled out into the flag
bedecked foyer to mingle with a crowd that was ninety per cent military
and which was in a highly appreciative frame of mind. One particularly
pleasing note had been added rather unexpectedly when one of the
feminine stars, in singing "Scotland Forever," had been interrupted by a
group of Highlanders who boosted onto the stage a red-headed,
bandy-legged, kilted Scotchman who had the voice of a nightingale. And
when, somewhat abashed, he took up the refrain, he was joined by a
thunderous chorus from the audience that made the listeners certain that
Scotland would never die so long as such fervor remained in the hearts
of her sons. The English soldiers, not to be outdone, had followed with
"God Save the King" and then, down the aisle with a flag torn from the
walls of the foyer stalked an American sergeant, holding aloft Old Glory
and leading his countrymen in the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner."

Trust a group of soldiers to take charge of a show and run it to suit
themselves. But they were pleased, beyond question, as was evidenced by
the buzzing conversations during the intermission.

"Great show, eh?"

"I'll tell the world!"

"Hey, Joe! You old son-of-a-gun! How'd you get down here? Thought you
were wiped out up at Wipers."

"Huh! Not me! They haven't made the shell that can get me. Look who's
over there with a nice cushy wound to keep him out of trouble. Old Dog
Face himself. Hey! Dog Face ... Come here!"

Such were the greetings of soldiers who hid their real feelings behind a
mask of flippancy.

McGee drew Larkin into an eddy of the milling throng where they could
the better watch what Red termed "the review of the nations." A
strapping big Anzac, with a cockily rosetted Rough Rider hat, strolled
arm in arm with a French Blue Devil from the Alpine Chasseurs. A kilted
Highlander, three years absent from his homeland and bearing four wound
stripes on his sleeve, was trying vainly to teach the words of "Scotland
Forever" to a Russian officer whose precise English did not encompass
the confusing Scotch burr. Mixed tongues, mixed customs, variety of
ideals; infantrymen, cavalrymen, artillerymen, war pilots; men with grey
at the temples and beardless youths; here and there a man on crutches,
here and there an empty sleeve, and many breasts upon which hung medals
awarded for intrepid courage; here grizzled old Frenchmen with backs
bowed by three years of warfare, and there fresh, clean young Americans
recently landed and a little amazed that they should be looked upon as
the hope of the staggering allies. Color, color, color! Confused
tongues, the buzz and babble of a thousand half-heard conversations, the
fragments of marching songs! Here was a cross section of the Allied
Armies, all of them with but one purpose. How could they fail!

The scene had a telling effect upon McGee and Larkin. Wordless, for a
few minutes, they stood watching the throng. It was McGee who spoke
first.

"Did you ever see anything like it, Buzz? Just look at the different
uniforms. There--look over there! A bunch of American Blue Jackets.
Wonder how they got here?"

"Humph! Wonder how all of us got here? That's what I've been thinking
about. This is just a moment snatched from the lives of all these
fellows. What went before? What homes did they come from, and who is
waiting for them? And what comes to them to-morrow? Gee!" He shook his
head, slowly. "It doesn't do to think about it. You want to find out
about them ... and you get to wishing they could all go on back home
to-morrow. Say, who started this talk, anyhow? Come on, let's go back
in."

"Wait a minute!" McGee seized his arm and turned him around. "There's
plenty of time before the curtain. Look, Buzz. See that black fellow
over there in French Colonial O.D.? Came from Algiers, I guess, or
Senegal, maybe. What brought him here, and what sort of stories will he
tell ... when he gets back home? Will he tell about what he did, or will
he talk about what he saw and what others did?"

"Dunno. Why?"

"Well, this has set me to thinking. We're all here on exactly the same
business. The uniform doesn't count so much, nor does the branch of the
service. It's just a question of getting the job done--a sort of 'Heave
Ho! All together, now!' Get me?"

"Yes--I guess so. What are you driving at?"

"This. See that American sergeant over there--the one who carried the
flag down the aisle and jumped up on the stage?"

"Yes. Big fellow, isn't he?"

"You said it! The biggest duck in this puddle, in more ways than one.
And I want to get into the uniform he is wearing. Understand, Buzz? Oh,
I'm proud enough of the one I'm wearing, but when he started the
national anthem, and they all came in on that chorus, 'Oh, say can you
see, by the dawn's early light,'--well, I felt cold shivers running up
and down my backbone. None of the other songs did that to me. Do you get
me, Buzz?"

"Sure. I felt it, too." He put both his hands on Red's shoulders,
holding him off at arm's length. "You want back under the old Stars and
Stripes, don't you? ... you little shrimp!"

"Yes," slowly, "and--yet--"

"I know how you feel. I'm with you, fellow, when you get ready to make
the change."

McGee's eyes lighted with surprise and joy. "Really, Buzz?"

"Surest thing you know!"

"And you don't think we'd feel like--like--"

"We'd feel like two Americans, _going home_. Shake, little feller!
There, I feel better already. Come on, let's go in; that's the curtain
bell."




CHAPTER III

Night Raiders


1

On the following Tuesday morning a group of two Spads and several
Nieuports were delivered to Major Cowan's pursuit squadron at Is Sur
Tille. A Lieutenant Smoot, one of the ferry pilots who had flown up one
of the Nieuports, sought to ease the pain caused by his own lowly
calling by taunting Tex Yancey--an extremely dangerous pastime, for Tex
had a ready tongue.

"When you buckoes have washed out these planes," he said, "the Old Man
will see the error of his way and send us up to do the real flying.
What's left of this gang will then be put to ferrying. Did any of you
ever see a Spad or Nieuport before?"

Yancey, standing well over six feet, looked down on him pityingly. "Did
you say your name was Smoot, or Snoot? Smoot, eh. Well, transportation
_to the rear_ is waitin' for you at headquarters. Don't let me keep
you waitin'. I'm surprised you're not pushin' a wheelbarrow in a labor
battalion, the way you set that Nieuport down a few minutes ago. Clear
out, soldier! This squadron is gettin' ready to do some plain and fancy
flyin'. I don't want you to have heart trouble."

"Humph! You'll have heart trouble the first time you try to land one of
those Spads. You'll think you have been trained on a peanut roaster.
Who's the Britisher over there snooping around with Cowan?"

"Name's McGee. But he's not a Limey; he's an American. I'm told he won a
coupla medals in the R.F.C., and has sixteen Huns to his credit. He
must be good--though he doesn't wear the medals to prove it. Not a bit
of swank."

"What's he doing here?"

"He's an instructor," Yancey replied without hesitation.

"Oh Ho! So you still need instruction? I heard that Cowan knows it all."

"Naw, he only knows half, and you know the other half. Too bad both sets
of brains wasn't put in one head. In that case somebody would have been
almost half-witted. Better toddle along, soldier. The animals are goin'
on a rampage in a minute."

"Yeah? Well, turn 'em loose. I'm something of a big game hunter myself.
What sort of a flyer is this instructor?"

"Dunno. We'll see in a minute, maybe. He's crawling in that Spad. Yep,
they're turnin' her around. Don't go now. You can learn a lot here."

During the next ten minutes the entire squadron, and the ferry pilots,
were given an excellent opportunity to form their own conclusions about
McGee's ability to fly. He took the Spad aloft, in test, and plunged
through a series of acrobatics that served to convince all watchers that
here was a man whose real element was the air. Ship and man were one.

The group on the ground watched, open-mouthed, despite the fact that
they themselves were flyers of no mean ability. But they had never flown
such ships as the Spads, and the prospect and possibilities made their
hearts race with feverish eagerness to take off in one of these trim
little hawks.

Yancey and Smoot had now joined the watching group around Major Cowan,
and as McGee rolled at the top of a loop, Yancey turned to the doubting
ferry pilot.

"Yes, I think he can fly. What do you think, brother? When you can do
stick work like that, you'll be sent up here to join us."

Major Cowan was equally envious, but he was not one to betray it. "A
very bad example," he commented, testily. "An excellent pilot,
doubtless, but reckless. His take-off, for instance. He zoomed too long.
I want to warn you against such a mistake."

The ferry pilot, Smoot, decided to take a chance. "The example seems
good enough, and if that fellow's flying is a mistake, I'm sure Brigade
would like to see a lot more mistakes like him."

"The commander of this squadron will answer to Brigade for the conduct
of this group, Lieutenant Smoot," Major Cowan retorted with such acidity
that the poor ferryman decided it was time to join his own group and
head for the base. But before taking his departure he relieved his mind
in the presence of Yancey, Siddons and Hampden, who had drawn away from
Cowan through a desire to watch the flying rather than listen to his
lectures on the art of flying.

"If you had a flyer like that one up there for a C.O.," Smoot said to
them, "you'd get somewhere in this little old war. But as it is, you
have my sympathy. Well, toodle-oo, _mes enfants_. Be careful with
those Spads. They were built for flyers."

"You be careful that you don't fall out of that motor cycle side car on
the way back," Yancey retorted. "They look like baby carriages, but
they're not."

As Smoot walked away, stung by this last retort, Yancey turned to
Hampden and Siddons. "How'd you like to have a flyer like that in this
outfit?" he asked.

"He's all right," Hampden replied. "A lot of the ferry pilots are crack
flyers--just a tough break in the game. It might have happened to you."

"I wasn't talkin' about _him_" Yancey replied and pointed to
McGee's plane, now banking in to a landing at the far end of the field.
"I meant that bird down there."

"Oh, McGee?"

"Yes."

Hampden laughed, skeptically. "Fine chance to get a flyer like that!"

"Oh, I dunno. Some American outfit will draw him. He and that other
fellow, Larkin, have asked to be repatriated."

"How do you know?"

"I was with 'em in town last night and they told me all about it. They
flew up to Paris day before yesterday, and on the way back they landed
at Chaumont and made a call on G.H.Q. They put their case before the
Chief of Staff and asked him to use his influence. They've made out
formal application. Both of them are tickled pink over the prospect.
McGee said he would like to get with this squadron."

"Bully for him!" Hampden enthused. "Maybe we don't look so bad, if
fellows like that are willing to throw in with us, eh, Tex?"

Siddons was coldly skeptical. "You have the weirdest imagination. Why
should he want to be with us?"

"Dunno. Ask him."

"I shall," Siddons answered as he moved over toward the point where he
estimated McGee's taxiing plane would come to a stop.

"Big stiff!" Yancey said under his breath. "He'll ask him, all right,
and right out in meetin'. He never believes anything he hears until he
has asked a thousand questions about it. What do you see in that fellow
to like, Hamp?"

"He's all right, Tex. He was pretty decent to me while I was acting as
Supply during that time Cowan grounded me. Came around to help me with
the paper work and put in a good word for me."

"Yeah, he's always chummy with Supply and Operations--but only because
he thinks he can get some favors that way. I despise him."

"Oh, come now! You mustn't feel that way. We are all in the same boat,
and we'd as well be chummy."

"Huh! If you ever get in the same boat with that fellow he will do the
steerin' while you do the rowin'. He gives me a pain!"


2

Two weeks later orders came down concentrating several pursuit,
observation and bombing groups in the neighborhoods of Commercy and
Nancy. The members of the squadrons to which McGee and Larkin had been
detailed were feverish with excitement. Operations and armament officers
were busy with the duties incident to making all planes ready for
combat. This could mean but one thing--Action!

Three nights after the move McGee and Larkin sat at a late dinner in one
of the little cafés on the main street of the small French town. They
were discussing the progress of their work and each was heatedly
contending that his own group was superior in every way.

"Just come over and watch my flight do formation work," Larkin urged.
"They'll open your eyes."

"Humph! You'd better open your own eyes! I have watched you. We were up
in the sun this morning--five thousand feet above you--and watched you
for half an hour. A fine bunch you have! We could have smothered you
like a blanket. Have you ever shown them anything about looking in the
sun for enemy planes?"

Larkin's face evidenced his chagrin. "Are you kidding me?"

"Not much! We kept right along above you, but in the sun. I'll admit
they did good work, but oh, how blind! Boy, we're not too far back to
get jumped on. There have been fights farther back from the lines than
this. You know Fritz dearly loves to raid 'dromes where new squadrons
are in training. Believe me, their spy system is perfect. I'd be willing
to wager my right eye that they know these groups are stationed in this
area, how long they have been in France, and just what types of planes
we are using. They've the best spy system in the world. You know how
many times they have raided green squadrons. They figure it puts the
wind up a bunch of inexperienced men. So keep your eye peeled. And if
you want to see something pretty, come over and watch my gang. They're
ready for combat work right now--except Siddons."

Larkin looked up in surprise. "I thought you told me he knew more about
the planes and about flying than any of the others."

"He does. But he can't--or won't--keep in formation. He cuts out, and
goes joy-riding."

"Seems to me I remember someone else who used to do that same little
stunt," Larkin said, smiling reminiscently.

McGee flushed. "Yes, I suppose I did, but not in training. I never cut
formation until--"

"Until you saw something that looked like meat. Don't try to kid me,
Red. You've dragged me into too many dog fights. Do you think I have
forgotten the day we were out having a look-see, five of us, and spotted
five Albatrosses below? Bingo! Down you went like a shot, and the rest
of us had to follow to keep you from being made into mincemeat. Talk
about being blind! All the time a bigger flock of Fokkers were in the
sun above us and they came down like 'wolves on the fold.' Fellow, you
had your little faults. Don't be too hard on Siddons."

"Cutting formation to get in a fight and cutting to go joy-riding are
two different things. If it were anyone else but Siddons I'd ask Cowan
to ground him."

"You like him?"

"Emphatically, NO! And he knows it. That's why I hesitate to make an
example of him. He would think that I was satisfying a grudge. Besides,
he has some sort of a drag with someone. Cowan thinks he is a great
flyer. He is, too. Knows more about both the technical and practical
side of the game than any of the others. That's what's wrong with him.
He is so self-satisfied, so arrogant, and so cocksure of every word he
utters and every movement he makes. He is the coldest fish I ever met.
He reminds me of someone--but I can't remember who it is. Sometimes I
think he is--Listen! What's that?"

McGee's question went unanswered as the shrill blasts of the air raid
siren shattered the peace of the village with its frenzied warning. It
moaned, deep-throated, then became panic-stricken and wailed tremulously
in the higher registers. It was a warning to all to seek the comparative
safety of the _abris_ which the town had constructed against just
such an emergency.

The café emptied quickly, but even the quickest followed on the heels of
McGee and Larkin who, once outside, ran briskly down the street toward
the house where they were billeted. They halted at the drive entrance to
gaze upward as great searchlights began playing upon the dark inverted
bowl of the heavens. The long, shifting beams of light were accusing
fingers seeking to point out the unwelcome, stealthy nocturnal sky
prowlers.

"Listen!" McGee gripped Larkin's arm.

Sure enough, from the east, and high above, came the sound of German
motors, a sound unmistakable by anyone who had once heard their
unsynchronized drone. It rose and fell, rose and fell, like the hurried
snoring of a giant made restless by nightmare. The sound was drawing
nearer. Doubtless it had been heard by the soldiers manning the
searchlights for the beams now swept restlessly across the eastern sky.
To the eastward, two or three kilometers, an anti-aircraft battery
opened fire, and from aloft came the dull _pouf!_ of the exploding
shells. Vain, futile effort! It was only the angry thundering of
admitted helplessness. One chance in a million! The motors droned on,
coming nearer and nearer. Excited townspeople, in wooden sabots,
clattered down the streets seeking shelter; fear-stricken mothers and
fathers spoke sharply to their little broods as they hustled them along.

"Buzz," Red said, "it's dollars to doughnuts they're coming here to lay
some eggs on our 'drome--just to put the wind up these boys. Remember
what I told you a few minutes ago."

Larkin was more hopeful. "I guess not," he said. "Headed for some supply
base or ammunition dump farther in, would be my guess. But if they are
coming here, there's little we can do about it. It's up to the
anti-aircraft boys."

"Hum-m," McGee mused. "I wonder."

A motor cycle, with side car, running without lights, came popping down
the street. Without hesitation McGee ran out into the middle of the
street, waving his arms and shouting wildly. The motor cycle swerved
sharply, missed the dancing, gesticulating figure and skidded to a stop.

"Say, what's eatin' you, soldier?" demanded the irate American motor
cycle orderly.

For answer McGee sprang into the side car and barked a few crisp, sharp
orders that brooked no hesitation. The responsive little motor roared
its staccato eagerness as the machine lurched forward, leaving Larkin
speechless and wondering.

"What do you know about that?" he mused. "Now what can that little
shrimp be up--" he hesitated, struck by the same thought, he felt sure,
that had plunged McGee into such sudden action. Then he began shouting
for the driver of their motor car.

"Martins! Martins! Oh, Martins!" Blast the fellow, doubtless he was
already in some place of security. "Martins! Oh, Martins!"

A door flew open, letting out a beam of light as Martins came out, clad
only in his underclothes and yawning prodigiously.

"Did you call, sir?" he asked, blinking foolishly as he studied the
flashing rays of the sky-searching lights.

"Yes! Get the car! Snappy, now!"

"Yes, sir. Just as soon as I can get on some clothes."

"Hang the clothes! Get the car--and set the road afire between here and
the 'drome. Move! Don't stand there blinking like a blooming owl."

Martins sped around the house, a white-clad figure racing bare-footed
for the car and muttering under his breath every time his flying feet
struck bits of gravel and sharp stones. The sound of the airplane motors
was now much nearer; the siren was still screaming its fright;
anti-aircraft guns were futilely belching steel into the air, and the
searchlights were getting jumpy in their haste to locate the intruders
and hold them in a beam of light.


3

Martins, with Larkin seated at his side, hurled the car through the
narrow streets and out to the airdrome with a daring recklessness known
only to war-trained chauffeurs who could push a car faster without
lights than most people would care to ride in broad daylight. But their
speed was slow compared to that made by the surprised motor cycle
orderly who had thundered off with McGee, and when Larkin sprang from
the car as it screeched to a stop at the edge of the 'drome his ear
caught the sound of a Clerget motor pounding under an advanced throttle
as it lifted a plane from the ground at the far end of the dark field.
An excited, buzzing group of pilots and mechanics were huddled together
on the tarmac near the circus tent that served as a hangar, and still
more men were emerging hastily from the humpbacked, black steel
elephants that served them as quarters.

Larkin ran toward the group near the hangar entrance,

"Where's McGee?" he shouted, knowing the answer but hoping for some word
that would give the lie to what his ears told him. He knew that the
plane which had now swung back over the field and was roaring directly
above as it battled for altitude was none other than McGee's balky
little Camel. But no one answered him; they merely stared, as men who
have just witnessed a feat of daring too noble for words, or as girls
who face an impending tragedy and are too horror-stricken for action.

"Where's McGee?" Larkin shouted again. "Don't stand there like a bunch
of yaps! You'll be getting a setting of high explosive eggs here in a
minute. Don't you hear that siren? Those Boche planes? Where's McGee, I
asked you?"

Yancey stepped from the group and pointed up.

"I reckon that's him up yonder," he said in the slow drawl that was
doubly maddening at such a moment. "He blew in here a few minutes ago
like a Texas Panhandle twister, ordered the greaseballs to roll his
plane on the line, and was off before she was good and warm. I reckon--"

Larkin did not wait to learn what Yancey reckoned. He dashed toward the
hangar, shouting orders as he ran.

Major Cowan stepped from the hangar, barring the way. "Just a minute,
Lieutenant! What is it you want?"

"What do I want? I want a plane on the line--quick!"

"No! Lieutenant McGee took off before we knew what it was all about. It
is madness. You can't have--"

He stopped speaking to listen. From high above, and a little to the
east, came the throbbing sound of German motors that in a few more
seconds would be over the airdrome. Indeed, they might be circling now,
getting their bearing and making sure of location. At that moment one of
the large motor mounted searchlights near the hangar began combing the
sky.

"Go tell those saps to cut that light!" Larkin shouted, hoping that the
Major would be stampeded into action that would provide the slenderest
chance for him to get the mechanics to roll a Spad to the line before
Cowan could know what was happening. "Better cut it! If the others can't
find 'em, this one can't. It will only serve as a path of light for one
of those babies up there to slide down and leave you some presents you
don't want."

Major Cowan was not one to go legging it about on errands. Besides,
searchlights were provided for just such uses. Then too, he rather
suspected Larkin's motives, and Larkin realized this.

"Please let me have one of those Spads, Major," he pleaded. "Can't you
understand--McGee and I are buddies. With two of us up there we might
turn 'em back."

"No! It is too hazardous. This squadron is still in training. We are not
trained as night flyers, and certainly are not prepared to give combat
to a flight of bombers."

Larkin's anger smashed through his long training. All rank faded from
his mind.

"Not trained, eh? Major Cowan, that freckle-faced kid up there is a
night flying fool--and I'm his twin brother. Get out of my way. Oh,
greaseballs! Hey, you Ack Emmas! Roll out one of those Spads and--"

"Lieutenant!" Cowan barked. "You forget yourself. If you want to do
night fighting go over to your own group and use your own plane! You
forget yourself. I am still in command here!"

From aloft came the momentary stutter of two machine guns. Ah! McGee
testing and warming his guns as he climbed. Oh, the fool! The precious,
daring fool!

Larkin sat down on the tarmac, _ker plunk!_ Let 'em raid. What
mattered it? He rather hoped one of them would be accurate enough to
plant a bomb on the top of Cowan's head.

"Yes, you are in command," he said, rather limply, "but why didn't you
stop McGee? And since you are in command, in Heaven's name tell that
light crew to cut that light. It would be just their fool, blundering
luck to spot McGee and hold him for the Archies."




CHAPTER IV

Victory


1

McGee, holding up the nose of his Camel at an angle that gave the motor
every ounce it would stand, was thinking the same alarming thought that
had just run through Larkin's mind. It would be just his luck to be
spotted by the searchlight crew and held in its beam. If so, would they
recognize him? Would they see the ringed cockades on his wings, or would
eager anti-aircraft gunners start blazing away? Even if they recognized
the plane, his whole plan would be knocked into a cocked hat should that
telltale streamer of light point him out to the enemy planes above who
must now be looking sharp. Darkness was both his ally and his foe.

McGee was too experienced to have any mistaken notions about the hazard
of his endeavor. He knew what he was up against. In the first place, any
bombing plane was a formidable foe, and he could not know how many were
coming on this mission. All bombers were heavily armed, and had the
advantage of having at least one man free to repel attack with twin
machine guns. Many of the heavier German bombing planes carried crews of
four or five men, though these were used in attack on highly important
bases and would hardly be sent on a mission of this nature. Such
machines were quite slow and not capable of being manoeuvered quickly,
but their very size added to their invulnerability and their heavy
armament made them a thing to be avoided by any single fighter mounted
in a pursuit plane. Many pursuit pilots had learned the bitter lesson
attached to a thoughtless, poorly planned attack upon a bomber or
two-seater observation bus. They looked like an appetizing meal--but one
must have a strong stomach if he finishes the feast.

McGee knew, also, that the oncoming raiders might be pursuit planes
converted into bombers by the simple expedient of attaching bomb
releases carrying lighter pellets of destruction which could be released
by the pilot. This was not an unusual procedure, especially when the
success of the venture might hinge upon speed. Such planes could strike
swiftly, more easily avoid Archie fire, and having struck their blow
could outdistance any antagonist with the nerve to storm through the
night sky in pursuit.

So, as McGee climbed he realized that he was facing the unknown. The
prospect of a raid had been his challenge; the size and strength of his
enemy was unknown. So be it, he thought, and warmed his guns with a
short burst as he continued climbing. Their quick chatter served to
reassure him and for the moment he quite forgot how useless they would
be should he chance to go crashing into one of the bombers. He felt that
all would be well if only those saps on the ground would cut that
searchlight. Didn't they know that it would simply serve as a guide to
the plane whose mission it would be to dive at the field and release
ground flares to mark the target for the bombers? Of course they
wouldn't think of that. Green! And with a lot to learn.

Two or three times the beam of light flashed perilously near him, and
once his plane was near enough to the edge of the beam for the glass on
his instrument board to reflect the rays. Then, a moment later, the
glaring one-eyed monster dimmed, glowed red, and darkness leaped in from
all sides. But only for a moment. Other lights, from more distant
points, were still combing the sky. These concerned Red not so much as
the one near the hangar. Strangely, as is the way with men at war, he
cared not so much what wrath might be called down on other places if
only his own nest remained unviolated. Indeed, he found himself
entertaining the hope that the raiders might become confused and drop
their trophies in somebody else's back yard.

Then, as suddenly as a magician produces an object out of the thin air,
one of the distant searchlights fixed upon one of the enemy planes. It
was a single seater, McGee noted, and though somewhat southeast of the
position he had expected, it was already pointing its nose down on a
long dive that would undoubtedly carry it to a good position over the
'drome for dropping flares.

McGee knew the tactics. This was the plane whose job it was to spot the
target for the bombers and then zoom away. Then the vultures would come
droning over the illuminated field and drop their eggs.

Red kicked his left rudder and came around on a sharp climbing bank. By
skill, or by luck, the light crew still held their beam on the
black-crossed plane and in a twinkling two other lights were centered on
it.

McGee made a quick estimate of distance and of the other's flying speed.
Then he nosed over, slightly, on a full throttle, and drove along a line
which he thought would intersect the dive of the enemy. He could hardly
hope to get him in the ring sights; it was a matter of pointing the
plane in what he thought was the correct line of fire and let drive with
both guns.

The wind was beginning to scream and tear at the struts of the
hard-pushed Camel. Speed was everything now. If that diving German plane
once dropped its flares, the others, somewhere in the darkness above,
would sow destruction on the field.

The distance was yet too great for anything like effective fire, but
McGee decided to take a chance. After all, the whole thing was chance.
He had one chance in a thousand to thwart their plans, very slim chances
for bagging one of them, and some excellent chances to get bagged!

"Very well," he found himself saying in answer to these swift thoughts.
"Carry on!"

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Both his guns began their scolding chatter. Too far
to the right--and below. He ruddered left and pulled her nose up a
trifle. There! Again the guns spewed out their vengeful chorus.

At this second burst the German plane seemed to yaw off, then righted
itself, leveled off and flew straight at McGee.

Red felt a momentary elation that the enemy had at least been made
conscious of the attack and was, for the moment, forced to abandon his
objective. Two beams of light still held him mercilessly. Doubtless they
served to blind him and this advantaged McGee who, unseen in the
darkness, kept his Vickers going. Some of the bullets must have gone
home for the German swerved suddenly and began a series of acrobatics in
an effort to escape the lights. But disturbed as he was, he evidently
kept his mission in mind for he continued to lose altitude and thus draw
nearer the field where he could drop his flares.

McGee decided to nose over and then zoom up under his belly--by far the
most vulnerable point of attack but one in which the moment of fire is
brief indeed, for Camels will not long hang by their "props."

Just as McGee dived the enemy swerved quickly and also began a dive. His
diving angle was sharp; his speed tremendous. Doubtless he had
determined to carry out his mission and get away from an exceedingly hot
spot as quickly as possible. By the fortunes of war his diving angle cut
directly across McGee's path. Close--almost too close! A brief burst
spat from McGee's Vickers in that heart-chilling moment when collision
seemed inevitable, but McGee pulled sharply back on his stick and
zoomed. Whew! It was no cinch, this fighting a light-blinded enemy.

McGee glanced back. The lights had lost the plane as suddenly as they
had found it. Night had swallowed it. Now there was an unseen enemy that
might--

Ah! McGee sucked in his breath sharply. A tiny tongue of flame was
shooting through the sky. For a second it was little more than the flame
of a match, but in a few seconds it developed into greedy, licking
flames that turned the German plane into a flaming rocket. The pilot,
manfully seeking escape from such a death, began side slipping in a vain
effort to create an upward draft that would keep the flames from
incinerating him in his seat. For the briefest moment he did a first
class job of it, and McGee, who a minute before had been hungry for
victory, felt first a wave of admiration for a skillful job of flying
and next a surge of pity that it must be of no avail. Even now the plane
was wobbling out of control ... then it nosed over and plunged
earthward, a flaming meteor.

Fascinated, McGee watched the plunge, climbing a little as he circled.
He was three times an ace with two for good measure, seventeen victories
in the air, but this was his first night flamer. It was far more
spectacular than he could have imagined ... and somehow a little more
unnerving. A moment ago that doomed creature had been a man courageous
enough to undertake any hazard his country demanded. Enemy or no, he was
a man of courage and in his own country was a patriot.

McGee felt very weak, and not at all elated. After all, he knew there
were no national boundaries to valor or patriotism, and however sweet
the victory it must always carry the wormwood of regret that the
vanquished will see no more red dawnings and go out on no more dawn
patrols. That plunging, flaming plane was as a lighted match dropped
into a deep well--the deep well of oblivion.

The plane struck the earth some three or four hundred yards to the west
of the 'drome. The flames, leaping afresh, lighted up the entire
vicinity. McGee, looking down, could see the dim outline of the hangar
tent and the running figures that were racing toward the burning plane.
He smiled, rather grimly, and his eyes searched the heavens above him.
The vultures had their target now!

At that moment one of the restless searchlights singled out one of the
bombers, high above him, and two other streams of light leaped to the
same spot. Another plane was caught in the beam. The anti-aircraft now
had their target, and they lost no time. There came two or three of the
sharp barks so characteristic of anti-aircraft guns, and coincident with
the sound the bursting shells bloomed into great white roses perilously
near the leading plane. It rocked, noticeably, and shifted its course.
Then, seemingly, all the Archies in the countryside, within range and
out of range, began filling that section of the sky with magically
appearing roses that in their blooming sent steel balls and flying
fragments searching the sky.

The upper air was quickly converted into an inferno of bursting shells
and whining missiles of jagged steel. The enemy bombers, due to the
delay caused by McGee's unexpected attack upon the plane whose mission
it had been to drop the ground flares, had now worked themselves into a
rather awkward formation and were faced with the responsibility of
making instant decision whether they should now release their bombs in a
somewhat hit or miss fashion or run for it and individually select some
other spot for depositing their T.N.T. hate as they made their way
homeward.

The embarrassment of their position was but little greater than that of
McGee's. The burning plane offered sufficient light for landing, but it
was also lighting up the hangars and the field, and he momentarily
expected the enemy to let go with their bombs. It would not be pleasant
down there when those whistling messengers began to arrive. His present
position was equally unhealthy, even though he had considerably reduced
his altitude. Any minute--yes, any second--some searchlight crew might
pick him up, and there is never any telling what an excited
anti-aircraft battery crew might do.

McGee made the decision which is always reached by an airman who finds
himself in unhealthy surroundings: he would simply high-tail it away
from there until "the shouting and the tumult" subsided. He swung into
the dark sky to the north and then dived down until he felt that any
less altitude would be extremely likely to bring him afoul of some
church steeple or factory smokestack.

One of the German pilots decided to take a chance and release his bombs.
Their reverberating detonations were terrifying enough, but aside from
the ugly holes they made in the open field, some five hundred yards away
from the 'drome, they accomplished nothing in the balance of warfare.
The other planes, finding the welcome a bit too warm, took up a zig-zag
course toward the Fatherland, but in a general course that would take
them back over Nancy, where they could find a larger target for their
bombs.

McGee, looking back, could see the searchlights sweeping eastward in
their efforts to keep the fleeing planes spotted. But their luck had
already been great indeed, and now they were again feverishly searching
the black and seemingly empty sky.

"Good time to tool this baby home," McGee thought as he swung around and
headed for the 'drome, its location still well marked for him by the
flickering flames of the fallen ship.

"Poor old Nancy!" he said aloud as he realized that the thwarted bombers
would likely spew out their hate on that sorely tried city. "I'm sorry
to wish this off on you, but you are used to it and these lads are not.
Talk about luck! I wonder what good angel is perched on my shoulder."

Back over the 'drome he signaled with his Very light pistol for landing
lights, his take-off having been too sudden to permit of thinking of
ground flares. He circled the field, waiting for the lights. No
response. He signaled again. Still no response.

"Too much excitement, I guess," he mused. Then he flew low over the
remains of the burning plane, around which had gathered a large
group--large enough, McGee thought, to include every man of the squadron
from the C.O. down to the lowliest greaseball.

"Humph! A fine target you'd make!" Red snorted, and felt like throwing
his Very pistol into the group. "Well, here goes! I've made darker
landings than this. And if I crack up--" he smiled as a grim Irish bull
flashed through his mind--"it will be a good lesson to the ground crew.
Nothing like Irish humor at a time like this."


2

If one who stands less than five feet six and is freckled of face and
red of hair can command hauteur and dignity, then it can be said that a
few minutes later McGee, with hauteur and dignity, strode into the
excited, gabbling group that surrounded the burning German plane. For a
moment none of them recognized him. With hands on hips, arms akimbo, he
stood watching them. He was still just a little too mad to trust his
tongue.

Major Cowan was the first to notice him. "Ah! Lieutenant McGee! I am--"

"No sir, I am Lieutenant McGee's ghost. McGee got his neck broken over
there just now--trying to make a landing in the dark. Your ground crew
were exceedingly helpful to him, Major. So nice of them to obey his
signals so promptly."

For once Cowan was at a disadvantage. "Gad, man! Did you signal?"

"Oh, yes. I waved my hand. Rather original idea, don't you think?
Perhaps you weren't expecting me to come back."

"Frankly, Lieutenant, I wasn't." The look on Cowan's face was one of
genuine admiration. "You have done a courageous thing, Lieutenant--and I
thought it foolhardy. I said as much to Lieutenant Larkin, and I
apologize to you, here, in the presence of all these men who witnessed
your courage."

All the others thereupon surged around McGee, pumping his hand
vigorously and clapping him on the back.

McGee's anger faded. It was a thing that never stayed long with him.

"Is Larkin here?" he asked.

"He was," Cowan answered. "Came a few minutes after you took off, but
when I refused him a ship he got mad as a hornet, bawled out the light
crew and--and me, and then jumped back in his car and rode off. Rather
tempestuous fellow."

"If he had stayed here," McGee said, regretfully, "my Camel wouldn't now
be standing over yonder on its nose with its undercarriage wiped off.
He'd at least think of landing lights." He pushed his way through the
crowd toward the burning embers of the twisted, broken and charred
plane. "Pilot burned to a crisp, I suppose," he mused half aloud.

Hampden, who was standing nearest, answered:

"No, the poor devil jumped. Landed over there by the road. They carried
him over to the hospital tent. Not a--a whole bone in his body." His
voice seemed choked. "It's a--a fearful way to go."

"A sporting way, I would say," Siddons spoke up. "Even in the last
moment he rather cheated you, McGee. He escaped the flames, anyhow."

McGee looked at Siddons searchingly. In those cold grey eyes and in the
half-taunting smile there was none of the sympathy or natural, normal
emotion that had so choked Hampden's voice.

"He did not cheat me, Lieutenant Siddons," McGee said, his voice edged
by his dislike of the man. "I am only one of the small factors in this
unfortunate game. Duty may be pursued without wanting to see others
suffer. He was a brave man. I salute him." He turned to Cowan. "Major
Cowan, if your crew had attempted to extinguish these flames we might
have added a great deal to our knowledge of the progress the enemy is
making. I could not recognize this plane in the air. I think it is a new
type."

"By Jove! I never thought of it."

McGee turned away to conceal an expression which he could not control,
and as he did so he heard Yancey growl to Hampden:

"What a first-rate kitchen police in a Home Guard outfit that bimbo
would make!"

As McGee walked back toward the hangar, Hampden and Siddons joined him.
He felt Hampden give his elbow a congratulatory squeeze. Then Siddons
said:

"Are you going over to have a look at your fallen adversary,
Lieutenant?"

"Oh, I say, Siddons!" Hampden exclaimed, pained and surprised.

"I am going to make out my report," McGee answered, simply. "I wonder if
you would like to give me a confirmation, Lieutenant Siddons?"

The question took Siddons off his feet. "Why--er--do you really want me
to?"

"Not especially; I just had a feeling that you would be pleased to have
your name brought in it somehow."

Several of the pilots followed McGee into the hut used for headquarters,
but Siddons was not among them. Whatever his feelings, following the
little instructor's pointed rebuke, he concealed them behind the cool
indifference which marked all of his actions. At the door to
headquarters he turned down the gravel walk that ran in front of the row
of huts used as quarters and was soon lost to sight in the darkness.


3

McGee's report of his victory was characteristically laconic. Not a word
did he employ that was not necessary to the report. No fuss, no
feathers, no mock heroics. He had engaged an E.A. (enemy aircraft) and
had sent it down in flames. Reading the report, one would find little
enough to lift it out of the usual run of reports. Another meeting;
another victory. No more, no less. Only in the last paragraph did he
depart from his usual method of reporting. He wrote:

"My Camel carried no ground flares. Twice signaled for landing lights
with no response. Circled field. Entire personnel was gathered around
burning E.A. and making no effort to extinguish fire, which by this time
had nearly consumed plane. Forced to land in dark. Wiped out landing
gear and shattered prop.

"Recommendation: That all commands advise ground crews that a live pilot
is of more importance than a dead enemy."

Having finished, he looked up at those who had followed him into
headquarters. They were gathered in little groups, excitedly discussing
the victory, which had actually been the first encounter they had
witnessed. Fortunately, the victory had been on their side and they were
considerably bucked. It seemed dead easy. Why, one man had gone aloft,
bagged a plane, thwarted the plans of the enemy and was back on the
ground before you could tell about it. The war was looking up! And this
instructor was no slouch. What this squadron wouldn't do to the enemy
when an over-cautious Chief of Air Service said "Let's go!"

Hearing their comments, McGee smiled. He knew, better than they, the
great element of luck in his victory.

The enemy, whose aim it had been to thoroughly frighten and subdue this
green squadron, had succeeded instead in greatly increasing their
confidence in themselves. The enemy had come to sow destruction; they
had actually planted a seed that sprang instantly from the ground,
bearing the bold and sturdy flower of self-confidence. Old dogs of war
had been unleashed, and now a new pack was yelping on the trail.

"Where is Major Cowan?" McGee asked.

"Over at the hospital tent," someone answered.

"Oh, I see. Perhaps it's just as well. He might not care to sign a
confirmation after reading my recommendation. Which one of you will give
me a confirmation?"

As one man they surged forward.

"Just a minute!" Red laughed. "I said which one. On second thought I
guess I'd better leave that to the C.O. First victory from his squadron,
you know."

"His squadron nothing!" Yancey growled. "You don't belong to us--yet."

"No, but I'm here by assignment; I wouldn't want to hurt anyone's
feelings." He chuckled. "I'm afraid, though, that the last paragraph in
this report has a sort of stinger in it."

"Let's see it," Hampden urged.

McGee handed him the report. Hampden read it, whistled softly and passed
it to Yancey, who read quite as slowly as he talked. A look of
disappointment spread over his face.

"It's a report, I reckon," he said slowly, "but it's about as satisfyin'
as a mess of potato chips would be to a hungry cowhand. It's as thin as
skimmed milk. Say, who won this fight? You or the other fellow?"

"I believe that report will give me the credit," McGee answered.

"Maybe. And that last paragraph will win somebody a bawlin' out. Cowan
will ask you to change that. Looks like inefficiency on somebody's
part."

"Perhaps it is. It goes as it stands. After all, it goes through
channels to the Royal Flying Corps, you know. I'm flying their ship and
still under their orders."

"Well, when I get my first one," Yancey replied, "believe me, they'll
get the full details, and when they get through readin' it they'll think
I'm the bimbo what invented flyin'. Those white-collared babies at
Headquarters have to get all their thrills secondhand, and this thing of
yours is about as thrillin' as the minutes of a Sunday School Meeting."

At that moment Mullins, the peppery little Operations Officer, entered
the room, his face a mass of wrinkling smiles. He walked over to the
desk where McGee was seated and from his pockets dumped out a double
handful of articles, such as army men had learned to list under the
broad heading--"Souvenirs." There was a wrist watch, a German automatic
pistol, a silver match box, a leather cigarette case, a belt buckle
bearing the famous "Gott Mit Uns" and a number of German paper marks.

For a moment McGee sat staring at them, then slowly pushed his chair
back from the table as he looked up at the smiling Mullins.

"What's this--stuff?" he asked.

"Souvenirs, of course! From your latest victory. Cowan and I decided to
go over to the hospital and run through the chap's pockets to see if we
could find anything that should be sent back to Intelligence. Darned if
Siddons wasn't there ahead of us, getting ready to fill his pockets with
_your_ souvenirs. I told him to wait until he bagged his own game.
So there you are--cups, belts and badges!"

McGee gathered up the articles, one by one, and handed them back to
Mullins.

"Take them back," he ordered, somewhat firmly.

"What!" Mullins' jaw dropped. "You don't want 'em?"

"No."

"Not even _one_--for luck?"

"No. I've never carried anything that belonged to the _other_
fellow, for luck. Take them back."

Yancey stepped forward, but he was still behind the soft-voiced Edouard
Fouche, who said:

"I'll take them, then. I'm not so high-minded about it."

Tex Yancey pawed Fouche aside as a bear might sweep aside an annoying
puppy. "Out of the way, little fellow. We'll divide these spoils of
war--or we'll draw for 'em. Everyone to draw straws."

"Wait!" McGee interposed himself between Mullins, Yancey, and the
indignant Fouche. "If you boys want souvenirs, go out and get them for
yourself. Mullins told Siddons to wait until he bagged his own game.
That goes here, too. Take 'em back, Mullins. A man of courage has a
right to his personal belongings--even after he is dead. Take them back
and let them be buried with him. By the way," he turned back to the desk
and picked up his report, "I want a confirmation from Major Cowan. Where
is he?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Mullins replied. "He just jumped in a side
car and went streaking off to Wing, looking like he thought the war had
been won. And he took with him a nice little plum for Intelligence. We
found an order in that pilot's pocket that should have been left
behind."

"Indeed? What was it?" McGee asked.

"It was in German, of course," Mullins continued, "and Cowan is as
rotten in German as I am. But Siddons is a shark at it. Speaks half a
dozen languages, you know, and--"

"No, I didn't know," McGee answered, cryptically.

"Yeah, reads it like English. That order was to the effect that their
high command had received information that several air units were
located in this sector, and ours, in particular, was placed to a T. It
was an order for a bombing group to come over and give us an initiation.
'Highly important! Highly important!' Cowan said, and busted off for
Wing. To watch him you'd think he had brought down the plane. It's
strange, though, how those square-heads find out every move that is made
on this side of the line."

"They have a wonderful spy system," McGee said. "We learned that well
enough up on the English front, where we had reason to feel sure of the
loyalty of every soldier. But the leaks get through. Cowan was right,
the order was highly important. The Intelligence Department do some
clever work with the bits of information gathered from first one place
and another. It's somewhat like piecing an old-fashioned pattern quilt.
A piece here, a piece there, all seemingly unrelated but in the end
presenting a distinct pattern. Yes, it's important, I dare say."

Mullins sighed, heavily. "Well then, I suppose Cowan will come back here
with a chest on him like a Brigadier!"

Yancey laughed, picked up McGee's report and handed it to Mullins. "Read
that--especially the last paragraph. When Cowan reads that I can see his
chest droppin' like a toy balloon that meets up with a pin. I sure want
to be hangin' around when it is presented to him. This war has its
compensations. Boys, make yourselves comfortable and await the comin' of
the mighty. It's worth stayin' up all night to see."




CHAPTER V

Orders for the Front


1

McGee's victory had a most salutary effect upon the personnel of the
squadron. They lost sight of the fact that he had been highly favored by
luck in the encounter and that but for luck, coupled with skill, the
balance might well have been in the enemy's favor. They began to look
upon victory as a luscious fruit that would always be served to their
table--defeats were the bitterberries that the enemy must eat.

This attitude was greatly strengthened by another fortunate victory of a
squadron stationed at Toul. This squadron, while it boasted some
splendid flyers, was quite green and had much to learn. But, despite
this, they too had been victors in their first encounter with the enemy,
and in a manner quite as dramatic as had been McGee's victory. And it
was more widely heralded because the victor was wearing an American
uniform and the victory could be properly called the first score for the
Americans. It came about in this fashion:

A Spring day dawned, cold and foggy, and three members of the squadron
at Toul had gone on patrol. Their ardor was soon dampened by the chill
fog and they returned to their base. Shortly after their return the
alert was sounded and the report came that German planes were coming
over, concealed by the ceiling of fog. In a few moments their motors
could be heard above the town. That minute two Americans left the
ground, climbing rapidly toward the ceiling of fog. Just as they neared
it, two German planes came nosing down. They were barely clear of the
blinding fog cloud when they were attacked by the American pilots. So
swift was the attack, and so accurate the fire, that both German planes
were forced down and the two American pilots were back on the ground in
less than five minutes from the time of their take-off.

Luck? Yes, Luck and Skill--the two things that must walk hand in hand
with every war pilot. But there was no one to be found in all of Toul
who even hinted of luck. Had not the fight taken place in full view of
the townspeople? Had they not witnessed the daring and skill of these
Americans? Luck? Ask the citizens of Toul. Ah, _mais non,
Messieurs!_ they would tell you. The German planes dived--so. Whoosh!
Out of the cloud they came. And there were those precious Americans,
waiting for them--and in just the right place. Is not that skill,
Monsieur? Then, _taka-taka-taka-taka_ went their guns. Only a
minute so. _Voila!_ The Boche are both out of control. Ah, that is
not luck, Monsieur.

All along the front American squadrons accepted the verdict as evidence
of superior flying ability, but McGee and Larkin, with the knowledge
bought by bitter experience, knew that perhaps in the very next
encounter the balance would be in favor of the other fellow. They knew,
too, that over-confidence is an ally singing a siren song. They worked
hard to dispel this over-confidence that had laid hold of the group, but
their words of warning fell on deaf ears.

This spirit of eager confidence was not peculiar to the air groups near
the front; it was a part of the entire American Expeditionary Force.
Where was this bloomin' war that seemed so difficult to win? asked the
American doughboy. Bring it on! Trot it out! Let's get it over and get
out of this _Parlez vous_ land. Just give them a crack at Fritz!
Say! In no time at all they'd have Old Bill himself trussed up in chains
and carried back to the little old U.S.A., and exhibited around the
country at two-bits a peek. Guess that wouldn't be a nifty way to help
pay for the war! And as for the Crown Prince--well, over a hundred
thousand American doughboys had promised to bring his ears back to a
hundred thousand sweet-hearts--just a little souvenir to show what an
American could do when he got going.


2

This same boastful confidence was present among the pilots with whom
McGee and Larkin were daily associated, but fortunately it was somewhat
counterbalanced by the long-delayed orders sending the squadron to the
front. April slipped away and May came. Still no orders. It was
maddening! Yancey, Fouche, Hampden, Hank Porter, Rodd--in fact all
members of the command, save Siddons, fretted and fumed and voiced their
opinions of a stupid G.H.Q., that failed to appreciate just what a whale
of a squadron this was.

Siddons accepted the delay in the same cool, indifferent manner with
which he met all the vexations of the army. It was as water on a duck's
back; he seemed not to care a hoot whether he ever engaged an enemy.
Then in May, with alarming suddenness and force, the German Crown Prince
began his great drive at Paris. His ears, it seemed, were yet intact,
and those Americans who had so earnestly hoped to get them were soon to
discover that the possessor thereof was all too safely ensconced behind
an advancing horde of German infantrymen who were driving forward in a
relentless, unhalting advance that struck terror to the very heart of
war-weary France. In three days the enemy forces swept from the Aisne
southward across the Vesle and the Ourcq. Their most advanced position
came to rest on the Marne.

For the second time the German army was on the banks of the Marne.
"Papa" Joffre had hurled them back from this river in the first year of
the war; now Marshal Foch must do as well--or France was doomed.

But Foch was handicapped. He had an army bled white by four years of
dreadful warfare. The French soldiers, no less valiant than when the war
began, found themselves too weak in numbers to stem the tide of an
advance conducted by an ambition crazed Crown Prince determined to reach
Paris regardless of the cost to him in human sacrifice.

Sullenly the French fell back, fighting like demons, contesting every
inch of the way, but none the less retreating. In this hour of peril
France turned her eyes upon the newly arrived and partially trained
Americans, and in those eyes, now almost hopeless, was a look of mute,
desperate appeal. It must be now or never!

All the roads leading back from the front were choked with refugees too
weary, too heartbroken, too barren of hope to do anything but hurry
their children before them and strain at their hand drawn, heavy carts
piled high with the household belongings which they hoped to save. Old
men, old women, the lame, the halt, the blind; dogs, cats, goats, with
here and there a dogcart, all struggling to the rear. Many came
empty-handed, facing they knew not what, and looking with pity upon the
French troops who were moving forward to battle the enemy unto death.

"Ah," said the refugees, shrugging their shoulders, "_finis la
guerre!_ These poor Poilus of ours, they cannot stop the Boche. They
are too tired, too worn with war. If only we had new blood. If only the
Americans would come now. But no, perhaps it is now too late."

Behind them, all too close, rumbled and roared the angry guns--guns of
the enemy furrowing fields and leveling houses and villages; guns of the
French in savage defiance protesting every inch of advance and holding
on with a rapidly failing strength. Help must come now, quickly.

And help came. Two American divisions, ready for action, were summoned
by Foch to move forward with all possible speed. The 2nd Division came
hurrying from their rest billets near Chaumont-en-Vexin, northwest of
Paris; the 3rd Division came thundering by train and camion from
Chateau-Villain, southeast of Paris. Two converging lines of fresh,
eager warriors came marching, marching, the light of battle in their
eyes and with rollicking, boisterous songs on their lips. At quick rout
step they came. This was no parade; this was a new giant coming up to
test its strength. And all up and down the brown columns the giant was
singing as it came....

    "Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
        _Parlez vous_,
    Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
        _Parlez vous_,
    Mademoiselle from Armentieres
    Hasn't been kissed for forty years,
        Hinkey Dinkey _Parlez vous_!"

Slush, slog! Slush, slog! went the heavy hobnailed shoes slithering
through the mud and water of the roads. Mile after mile, hour after
hour. At the end of each weary hour a short rest, an easing of the
shoulders from the cutting pack straps. Ten minutes only did they rest.
Then down the long columns rang the sharp commands, "Fall in. Fall in!
... Com-pan-ee ... Atten-shun! Forward, March!" A few minutes in
cadenced marching and then the command, "Rout step--March!" Again the
confident, boisterous giant took up its song:

    "Good-bye Ma, good-bye Pa,
    Good-bye mule with your old he-haw.
    I may not know what the war's about
    But I bet by Gosh I soon find out!
    O, my sweetheart, don't you fear,
    I'll bring you a king for a souvenir.
    I'll bring you a Turk, and the Kaiser too,
    And that's about all one feller can do."

Marching, singing, jesting, they pressed on until their advance guard
met the plodding, cheerless, downcast refugees. The French peasants
halted in their tracks, staring, unable to believe their eyes. Here, in
the flesh, by thousands upon thousands, was the answer to their prayers.
Perhaps it was not too late, after all. Here was new strength, new
courage.

Old men danced with joy, embracing their wives and children, embracing
one another, and tears of joy coursed down their wan, lined faces.

"_Les Americains!_" they shouted. "_Vive l' Amerique! Nous
sauveurs sont arrivee!_" (The Americans! Long live America! Our
saviors have arrived.)

The cry spread; it ran up and down the roads and bypaths; it became a
magic sentence restoring courage throughout all France.

As for the resolute Americans, they merely plodded on, questioning one
another as to what all the shouting was about. Oh, so that was it? Sure
they were here, but why get excited about it? ... The Boche is breaking
through, eh? As you were, Papa, and keep your shirt on! And as for that
old lady over there by that cart, crying so softly--say! somebody who
can parley this language go over there and tell that old lady not to cry
any more. Tell her we'll fix it up, toot sweet. O-o-o! La, la! Pipe the
pretty mademoiselle over there driving that dogcart. Ain't she the
pippin though! Say--

"Fall in! Fall in!... Com-pan-ee, At-ten-shun! Forward, March!"

    "Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
        _Parlez vous_.
    Mademoiselle from Armentieres..."

A new giant was going in, a giant that did not yet know its own
strength, a somewhat clownish giant, singing as it came.


3

Those three days of the Crown Prince's drive on the Marne were dark days
for France. The French people listened eagerly for word from the
front--and prayed as they had never prayed before, while every American
unit, wherever billeted in France, waited impatiently for orders that
would send them in for their first baptism of fire.

McGee and Larkin, though supposed to be instructors and therefore
unmoved by the battle lust that had laid heavy hands on every pilot in
France, found themselves itching for action. They could smell battle
afar off; they knew the need of air supremacy at such a time. On the
flying field, and at squadron headquarters, they tried to cheer up the
depressed and sullen pilots who were chafing under the restraint of
inaction. But alone, in the home of Madame Beauchamp, they freely
expressed their feelings.

"I can't see why this squadron is not ordered up," McGee said to Larkin
one night as they sat alone in their room. "They are better trained than
we were when we hopped across the channel. Remember that day, Buzz?"

"Yes indeed! That was our big day; it's exactly the same big day these
chaps are waiting for. There must be a great need of planes. I
understand the German Army has crashed through to the Marne. If they
pass there--" he shrugged his shoulders expressively.

They sat for a moment in silence, thinking the same gloomy thoughts that
were so staggering to all the people of the allied nations.

"What if the squadron should be sent up?" Larkin asked at last. "Just
where would we get off?"

McGee shook his head. "Don't know, I'm sure. It's strange how we've
received no word on our applications for repatriation. I guess we are
stuck for the rest of the war. Instructors! Bah! I'm developing an itch
for action."

"So am I," Larkin agreed. "When we were first sent back from the front,
I'll admit I was glad enough to come. I was fed up. But I'm fed up here
now. And what can _we_ do about it?"

"Well, for one thing I can go to bed," McGee replied yawning. "To-morrow
is another day." He began unwinding one of his wrapped puttees. "Ever
notice how much longer these blasted things are when you are sleepy?" he
asked.

Just as he had finished with one, and had rolled it into a neat ball, a
motor cycle came popping into the yard. Buzz looked at Red inquiringly.

"Wonder what that is?" he asked.

The downstairs front door opened; heavy hobnail shoes sounded on the
stairs.

"Dunno," McGee answered, looking at the puttee roll in his hand. "But
I'll wager it's something that will force me to put this thing on again.
I never got an order from headquarters in my life when I hadn't just
finished taking off my putts."

A heavy knock on the door.

"Come in."

An orderly entered, saluted smartly, and handed McGee a folded paper. "A
note from Major Cowan, sir. He said there would be no answer."

"Very well. Thank you, Rawlins. For a moment I thought it might be
orders for the front."

"No chance, sir. We're the goats of the air service. The war will be
over before we get a chance. I say they'd as well kept us at home where
we could get real food and sleep in real beds instead of these blasted
hay mows us enlisted men sleep in."

"Right you are, Rawlins. I'll speak to the Commanding General about it
to-morrow. In the meantime, carry on, Rawlins."

"Yes, sir." A smart salute, a stiff about face, and he was gone. They
could hear him grumbling as he went down the stairs.

McGee looked at the folded paper. On it, in Cowan's hand, was written;
To Lieutenants McGee and Larkin.

"What is it?" Larkin asked, impatiently.

McGee unfolded the sheet. Scrawled across it were these electrifying
words:

"Just finished talking over the phone to Wing. They inform me that
orders have been received approving your application for repatriation.
The order will come down in the morning. Congratulations. Cowan."

Red slapped Larkin on the back with sufficient force to start him
coughing and then began tousling his hair.

"There, you old killjoy!" he was shouting. "Now stop your worrying. What
do you think of that?"

Larkin began a clownish Highland fling that eloquently spoke his
thoughts. At last he came to rest, snapped his heels together, saluted
smartly and said:

"Lieutenant Red McGee, U.S.A., I believe. How do you like that--you
little shrimp?"

"Maybe we'll be buck privates, for all you know."

"No, same rank," Larkin answered. "But believe me, I'm free to confess
now that I'd rather be a buck in Uncle Sam's little old army than a
brass hat in any other. Boy, shake!"


4

Sometime after midnight, at least an hour after sleep had at last
overcome McGee's and Larkin's joyous excitement, a sleep-shattering
motor cycle again came pop-popping to their door. The dispatch bearer
hammered lustily on the barred front door until admitted by the
sleepy-eyed, white robed, grumbling Madame Beauchamp, and then clattered
up the stairs, two steps at a time. He pounded heavily on the door of
the sleeping pilots.

McGee fumbled around on the table at the side of the bed, found the
candle stub, and as the flaring match dispelled the shadows, called,
"Come in! Don't beat the door down!"

Rawlins fairly burst into the room. "Major Cowan's compliments, sir, and
he directs you to report to the squadron at once."

"Good heavens! At this hour? What's up, Rawlins?"

Rawlins smiled expansively. "Orders for the front, sir. They're taking
down the hangar tents now, and trucks will be here in the next hour for
baggage and equipment. All the ships are to be on the line, checked and
inspected an hour before dawn. The C.O. said to make it snappy. He said
a truck would come after your luggage. It's a madhouse over at
headquarters, sir."

Both pilots sprang from the bed.

"Do you know where my orderly sleeps, Rawlins?" McGee asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Go bounce him out and send him up here, _tout suite_! Tell Major
Cowan we'll be over on the double quick. By the way, Rawlins, do you
know where we're going?"

"No, sir. Secret orders, I understand. But I don't care a whoop just so
long as it's to the front."

"Right you are. Toddle along, Rawlins. Buzz, light that other candle
over there. I can't even find my shoe by this light."

An hour later, with all personal equipment packed and ready for the
baggage truck, McGee and Larkin reported to Cowan, who was standing
outside headquarters, issuing orders with the rapidity of a machine gun.

"All set, sir," McGee said, "and thanks for the note of congratulations.
In the nick of time, wasn't it? Otherwise we would have been left
behind."

"I suppose so," the Major replied. "Fact is, I don't know your status
now, and I don't know how to dispose of your case. I called Wing and was
told that your assignment hadn't come down. The personnel of this
squadron is complete. Here's a pretty pickle! Guess I'd better pass the
buck and send you back to Wing."

McGee's face fell. For once words failed him. He turned his eyes on
Larkin, appealingly.

Larkin entered the breach manfully. "Major Cowan," he began, "when we
made application to get back under our own flag, we did it hoping we'd
go to the front--not to the rear. This sudden order comes because pilots
are needed. The better trained they are, the better our chances for
victory. I'm not boasting, sir, but McGee and I have been in action. We
can be a help."

"Yes, yes. Of course. I'd like to have you in my squadron, well enough,
but what about the red tape?"

"Wait until it catches up with us. Don't go looking for red tape to
fetter us," Larkin replied.

"Hum-m!" Cowan mused. He knew, none better, that here before him stood
two excellent pilots with a wealth of combat experience. If he sent them
back, doubtless some other squadron would draw them, and that squadron
commander would be the gainer, he the loser. Still, he had no authority
for taking them along. An assignment order would doubtless reach them
within twenty-four or forty-eight hours. Still and all, he considered,
much can happen in that time--especially to an untried squadron going
into action. Such pilots as these were scarce, and many were the
commanders who would seek them. "Well," he said at last, "just what
would you do in my place?"

It was a fair question, and one seldom heard from the lips of a
commanding officer. Coming from Cowan, it was doubly surprising, and
effectively blocked all pleas founded on sentiment and sympathy.

Now Larkin was stumped, but McGee was ready to take up the gage.

"Major Cowan, I have been in the service long enough to know that the
wise army man always gets out from under. Pass the buck. It's the grand
old game. But I see a way out. If I were in your position I would direct
the issue of an order sending us back. But," he added as Cowan evidenced
surprise, "I'd manage to have that order mislaid in the excitement."

Cowan nervously paced back and forth. Suddenly he wheeled in decision.
"No," he said, "I won't pass the buck; I won't shift the responsibility.
Passing the buck in training may be all very well, but a commander who
does so in action is not fitted for command. We are on the eve of
action. Report to Lieutenant Mullins, gentlemen, and tell him I said you
were to go along. See that your ships are ready at four a.m." He turned
and walked rapidly toward a group of ground men who were loading a
truck.

Larkin's eyes became wide with astonishment. "Well what do you know
about that! Say, that bird is going to make a real C.O."

"I think he is one now," McGee answered. "Action does that to
men--sometimes."




CHAPTER VI

The Squadron Takes Wing


1

Only a war pilot can visualize the confusion and excitement incident to
moving a squadron base up to the front. There is work enough for all
even when such a move is foreseen and planned for days in advance, but
when a moving order comes down in the dead of night--as is so frequently
the case--then rank is forgotten. Pilots, Commanders, Supply and
Operations officers, air mechanics, flight leaders, in fact everyone,
from the C.O. down to the lowliest greaseball, pitches in with a gusto
sufficient to produce a miracle. For it is little short of the
miraculous to carry out an order, received at midnight, calling for a
movement at dawn. In fact, one inexperienced in army ways would declare
that it couldn't be done. But Great Headquarters considers only what
must be done, issues orders accordingly, and such is the magic of
discipline and proper spirit that lo! the thing _is_ done. The
impossible becomes possible--and the ordinary!

And so it was with Major Cowan's squadron. The hour they had so long
awaited had come at last. So great was their zeal that with the first
hint of dawn in the east the planes were all on the field, properly
outfitted, finally checked, and ready to go. Even the planes seemed to
be huddled together, poised like vibrant butterflies, eager to take
wing.

McGee and Larkin well knew, from experience, the varied, conflicting
emotions felt by the members of the squadron. Standing near the barren
spot where the large hangar tent had been, they watched the various
members making their last minute preparations. Occasionally they
gathered in groups, all talking at once, and in hurriedly passing one
another they would slap each other on the back with a force greater than
needed in friendly greeting. It was the fevered reaction of nerves! They
had waited for this hour, yes, and at last they were going up to the
front; but every man of them knew that some of them would never come
back. There was a grim gateman up there where the guns roared, waiting
to take his toll.

"They think they are going right in," Larkin said to Red, as he watched
a pilot by the name of Carpenter make the last of at least a dozen
inspections of his two machine guns. "We haven't the foggiest notion
where we are going, but I'll wager we won't see action for several
days."

"I think you are wrong there," McGee replied. "There's a tremendous push
up on the Marne. My guess would be that we will go somewhere in the
neighborhood of Epernay--probably to take over a sector patrolled by a
French squadron so that they can be used on the more active front around
Chateau-Thierry or up around Rheims. Hullo! There goes the siren and
here comes the Major. We will know soon enough now."

"I'll wager you a dinner it's another soft spot--no action," Larkin
said.

"Done! You are through with soft spots now."

Major Cowan's quick walk spoke volumes. The pilots shouted derisively at
the sound of the siren, a distressingly noisy contrivance designed to
arouse sleepy pilots and turn them out for dawn patrol.

"Fall in! Fall in!" Mullins began shouting. "You act like a bunch of
sheep! Line up there!"

"Call the roll of officers," Cowan ordered.

A staff sergeant, who had kept his wits sufficiently to rescue the roll
from another headquarters non-com who was packing everything in one of
the trucks, came hurrying forward with the roll. The names were droned
off. The "Here!" that responded to each name was a full commentary on
the mental attitude of the respondent. Yancey, for instance, fairly
shouted his, while Rodd hesitated, seeming to search for an even smaller
word. Carpenter's "here," was little more than a whisper, as might come
from one who was making an admission which he wished circumstances had
ordered otherwise. And the rotund little McWilliams answered in a manner
that convinced McGee that Mac was really wishing he were not here.

McGee and Larkin, not yet carried on the roll, stood to one side,
conscious of the fact that they were still wearing uniforms of the Royal
Flying Corps. They felt like two lost sheep.

"Look at their faces," Red whispered to Larkin. "Faces tell a lot.
They're keen to go, all right, but take Carpenter and McWilliams, for
instance. Scared stiff. They're expecting to meet an entire Hun Circus
between here and--and wherever we are going."

The roll call ended.

"Gentlemen," Major Cowan began, his voice crisp and business-like, "we
have been ordered up to La Ferte sous Jouarre, due southwest of the
Chateau-Thierry salient."

The exclamation of surprise forced him to pause. McGee gave Larkin a dig
in the ribs. "I win," he said. "That's no soft spot."

"But," Major Cowan continued, "for some reason Brigade has seen fit to
divide the journey into two parts. Possibly to permit our trucks to
reach there ahead of us, but more probably because it lacks faith in our
ability to make the change without scattering our ships all along the
line of flight. For my part, I have no such fear. I think I know the
ability of this pursuit group." He hesitated, to let this sink in. And
it was well that he did. Yancey gasped, and began coughing to cover it
up. Hank Porter stepped on Hampden's boot with great force. Hampden in
turn nudged Siddons, who alone of all the group displayed no emotion.
Never before had these men heard Cowan indulge in compliment. Something
had come over him. His moustache actually looked a little more like a
_man's_ moustache. In fact, Yancey thought, the blasted thing was
almost military.

"However," Cowan continued, "we will fly to a field just south of
Epernay to-day. To-morrow morning we will take off and continue a
course, almost parallel with the present lines, to La Ferte sous
Jouarre. Our destination has been kept confidential until this moment.
From necessity, of course, I have gone over the maps and our course with
the flight leaders. They know the way. In case one of them should be
forced down, that flight will double up with one of the others. You have
little to worry about. Keep your head and remember where you are going.
If forced down, proceed to La Ferte sous Jouarre, on the Paris-Metz
road, at the earliest moment. But," he added, slowly, "as I said before,
I expect to see us arrive there together, and in order. That is all,
gentlemen. Yonder comes the sun. To your ships now, and look sharp as
you take off. Remember, this is no joy-ride. Hold your positions."

The pilots broke into a run for their ships, slapping one another on the
shoulder as they ran.

"Luck, old war horse."

"Same to you, big feller."

"Hey, Yancey! If you're leading B Flight, give her the gun and high-tail
it. The war's waiting!"

"S'long, Hank. Luck, feller."

"Get a waddle on, Mac. The war's lookin' up, eh?"

"I hope to spit in your mess kit."

Laughing, bantering, shouting, they climbed into their planes. The
helpers stood at the wings, ready to take out the chocks when the motors
had warmed; the mechanics took their places at the props. How envious
they were! The little wasps that they had so carefully groomed were
going forward to the battle zone, and every mechanic offered up prayer
that his ship would function perfectly and make good the hope which
Cowan had expressed.

A prop went over, _whish_! The first motor caught and roared.
Another ... another ... bedlam now. No longer any shouting, only a
waving of hands, a few last minute adjustments as the motors warmed and
sent a mighty dust cloud whirling back to obliterate the spot where the
hangar had stood.

Straight ahead, a fiery red ball rose over a slate-colored hedge. A long
flight of ravens crossed directly before the rising sun. Huh! Clumsy
fellows. And slow. Better come over and take some lessons from some real
birds.

Cowan's plane moved forward slowly, roared into life and fairly sprang
into the fiery eye of the sun. Numbers two and three followed, skimming
the dew drenched grass like swallows over a lake. Then four and five. By
George, this was something like! This was worth waiting for!

The falconer of war had unhooded his new brood of hawks and they mounted
up, free of bells and jesses.


2

The flight to the airdrome some six kilometers south of Epernay was made
without incident. That is, it was thought to be without incident until
Yancey, leading B Flight, reported to Cowan that Siddons had been forced
down by some trouble over Vitry. Cowan was evidently displeased. He had
hoped for a perfect score.

"What was the matter?" he demanded, the ends of his moustache twitching
nervously.

"Don't know, sir. He kept droppin' back. I swung alongside but I
couldn't savvy his signals. He kept pointin' back at his tail. I
couldn't see anything wrong, but there's a big 'drome at Vitry and he
signaled me that he was goin' down. I hung around to watch his landin'
and then hustled back to my flight."

"Fuel up, fly back there and see what's wrong," Cowan ordered. "I've a
sneaky suspicion that he wasn't as bad off as he made out."

As Yancey turned toward his ship, McGee came up, smiling with pleasure
over the success of the flight.

"Just a minute, Yancey!" Cowan called. "I've changed my mind. You
needn't go back."

He drew McGee to one side. "Do you remember passing over the French
'drome outside of Vitry?" he asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Your plane is in good order?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Yancey tells me that Siddons was forced down there. I want you to
refuel, go back there and see what the trouble was. I have my own
ideas."

"Yes?" McGee queried.

"That fellow hates formation flying like the devil hates holy water,"
Cowan answered. "He's a joy-rider. He knows how anxious I am to effect
this move without a hitch, and he also knows there'll be no passes into
Epernay to-night. I've a hunch Vitry looked good to him. I want you to
find out."

"Very well, sir."

"I'm sending you," Cowan explained, smiling faintly, "because it doesn't
make so much difference if you get lost, since you are merely 'also
along', and also because I don't expect you to get lost. Report to me
upon your return."

"Yes, sir."


3

The mission was not particularly pleasing to McGee. Chasing around after
Siddons was not his idea of a riotous time.

It was some fifty-five kilometers back to Vitry, but with a good tail
wind he made it in quick time. The French major in command of the
squadron stationed there was exceedingly gracious. Yes, the American had
landed, he told McGee, but he had taken off again within the hour. The
trouble? Well, he complained that his rudder was jamming, but the
mechanics could not find anything wrong. He had said, also, that his
motor was running too hot. Perhaps, the major suggested, with an
understanding smile, this one had rather fly alone, _hein_? So many
of them would--and especially by way of Paris, or other good towns. Yes,
he had given his destination--La Ferte sous Jouarre, but is not that on
a direct line for Paris, Monsieur? These youthful ones, would they never
learn that this was a serious business? But no, Monsieur, they are
young, and how can you make one fear discipline who daily faces death?
Poof! It was the grave problem.

McGee left Vitry with his own conclusions. So Siddons had pulled a
forced landing in order to go for a joy-ride. Now he was off having a
fine time and would claim that his delay at Vitry was so long that he
thought it best to head for La Ferte. Well, they would have him there.
He had not reckoned that Cowan would send someone back.


4

Upon McGee's return to the squadron, Cowan was too busy to see him, nor
did he send for him until after mess that night. When McGee arrived at
the Major's temporary quarters he found him in company with Mullins, the
Operations officer, and both were bending over a large map spread out on
the table.

Cowan looked up with the quick, exasperated nervousness which he always
displayed when interrupted.

"Well!" he barked, crisply.

"You sent for me, sir?"

"Yes, yes. I had forgotten. What about Siddons?"

McGee had decided to shield Siddons to the extent of not reporting the
fact that the mechanics at Vitry had found nothing wrong with the plane.
A squealer gains no friends in the Army.

"I don't know where he is, Major. He landed at Vitry, complaining of a
jamming rudder and heating engine. He took off again in an hour. He
hasn't showed up yet. Perhaps he thought it best to go on to La Ferte."

"Humph!" Cowan retorted, the pointed ends of his moustache twitching.
"Maybe he did! He needs grounding. I'd send him to Observation if the
Chief of Air hadn't ordered us to quit using observation work for
punishment. They crack up those crates too fast. And Siddons is just the
kind to do that sort of trick. He's a good flyer, certainly, but--what
would you do with him, McGee?"

"Oh, I say now--"

"Rats! Mullins, how would you handle him? He's a cold fish, you know."

Mullins gulped. He was not accustomed to having Cowan ask his opinion
about anything. However, here was a golden opportunity.

"Cold or hot, I'd let that bird cool off a little more on the ground.
He's been joy-riding ever since we drew ships. We'll go into action
soon, don't you think?"

"Doubtless."

"Keep him out of the first patrol. He'll come whining to you and he'll
sit up and be nice from then on."

"Hum-m!" Cowan again bent over the maps.

"Anything else, Major?" McGee asked.

"No ... Yes, wait!" he called as McGee reached the door. "You have had a
lot of combat experience, Lieutenant. I don't mind telling you that the
load of responsibility gets heavier as we approach action." He turned
away from the table, walked to the window, and stood gazing out into the
utter blackness of the night. "I wonder," he mused, his voice subdued,
"if any of you truly appreciate the weight of the responsibility."

Mullins glanced at McGee, wonderingly. Both were thinking the same
thoughts. Here was a man, who, until the last forty-eight hours, had
always been quite sufficient unto himself. Now a sudden change had come
over him. One of two things was certain: either he was breaking, and
would soon be taken from command for inefficiency; or he was a strong
man indeed, strong enough to admit weaknesses, unblushingly seek aid,
and make use of all available knowledge.

Mullins, in his own mind, decided it was the former; McGee, in his mind,
was confident that it was the latter, and he warmed to him.

"No matter," Cowan himself made reply to his unanswered question as he
turned from the window with much of his old self-confidence.
"Responsibility is a thing which command imposes--and which I accept.
However, that does not prevent me from profiting by the experience of
others, as I expect to do in your case, McGee."

"If I can help--"

"You can. A recent report from General Mitchell declares that casualties
from all causes have been as high as eighty per cent per month in
squadrons at the front. That's pretty stiff! Fortunately, the General
points out, the enemy losses have been as great, or even greater. I
don't want to leave a stone unturned that may help us to decrease that
percentage in this pursuit group--and _increase_ it among the
enemy! Here, take a look at this map, McGee."

He stepped to the table and with a pencil drew a circle around a spot
south of Epernay. "We are here," he said. "The lines are here." He moved
the pencil to the northwest of Epernay, where the heavy black lines
indicating the front crossed the Marne. "Notice that the lines swing
southwest through Comblizy and la Chapelle, then northwest again, back
to the Marne, and on to Chateau-Thierry. To-morrow we are to go here."
He circled a spot just south of La Ferte sous Jouarre. "See anything
peculiar in this situation?" He studied closely the faces of the two
junior officers. Mullins offered no reply.

"I think it peculiar that we have come up here, miles out of our way to
the north, when our destination is considerably southwest of us," McGee
offered.

"Exactly!" Cowan replied, approvingly. "But there is a reason for it--to
mislead the enemy. Their Intelligence Department seems to learn of every
move we make, and sometimes learns of it in _advance_ of that move.
That's the real reason we are here."

"I don't get it," Mullins said, shaking his head.

"The order sending us here came down in the regular way," Cowan
explained, "but the order that takes us to La Ferte, to-morrow morning,
was highly confidential. I did not disclose it until the moment of our
departure, and only then so that anyone forced down would know our
destination. There is to be a considerable concentration of air forces
on the apex of the salient between la Chapelle, this side of
Chateau-Thierry, and Villers-Cotterets, on the other side. It is the
beginning of a movement of concentration to drive the enemy back beyond
the Vesle. Hence the secrecy, and the effort to mislead the enemy as to
our movements."

McGee smiled, somewhat skeptically.

"What's wrong with that?" Cowan challenged.

"The enemy isn't so easily misled, Major," McGee answered. "We learned
that lesson on the English front, and learned it through bitter
experience. If the Hun doesn't know right now where we are going, he
will know of our arrival twenty-four hours after we get there. If he
fails to foresee our concentration at this point, he is thick-headed and
slow-witted indeed. I, for one, do not consider him slow-witted. About
the only secret we keep from him is the order that is never issued."

Cowan frowned. "I suppose you are right. But how does all this
information leak through?"

"If I knew that, Major, I'd be too valuable to be a pursuit pilot. If we
knew where the leaks were we could plug them by making use of several
good firing squads."

"You are right," Cowan agreed, and again bent over the map, studying it
with minutest care. "See here," he said at last. "If we flew a true
course from here to La Ferte we would parallel the front for several
miles. Here, just south of la Chapelle, we'd be within three miles of
the line. That's pretty close for a green squadron, don't you think?"

"We'll be closer than that in the next few days--by exactly three
miles!" Mullins answered. "Personally, I'd like to have a look-see at
the jolly old Hun."

"I don't think you need worry, Major," McGee offered. "It isn't likely
that we will run into any of them, and if we should we would so
outnumber them that they would establish some new records in
high-tailing it home."

"You think so?" Cowan seemed so unduly disturbed over so remote a
prospect that McGee found himself again doubting the Major's courage.

"I do. Why, look at our strength! The Boche prefers to have the
numerical superiority on his side."

"But you'd take up combat formation, of course?"

"Yes, and in echelon, one flight above another by a margin of three
thousand feet. Then, if the beggar wants to jump on that sort of buzz
saw, let him come--and welcome."

"There will be time enough to welcome him when we reach our new
base--all present or accounted for," Cowan replied. "You have no
objection to flying in the top flight with me to-morrow?"

"Why, no sir. Of course not. I'll be honored."

"Bosh! No flattery, Lieutenant. I don't expect it--especially from you."

Seemingly quite exasperated, Cowan turned away, walked quickly to the
window and again stood looking out into the night. Mullins winked at
McGee and made a quivering motion with his hand, indicating that he
thought Cowan was suffering from a case of nerves.

The Major turned from the window and stared at Mullins with a cold, but
studious eye. It made the Operations officer exceedingly uncomfortable.

"You forget, Lieutenant Mullins, that a window facing a dark courtyard
provides a most excellent mirror. Nerves, eh? Well, we shall see. If a
commander seeks counsel, some are likely to think him a fool. If he does
not, he _is_ a fool. When I said to McGee, 'no flattery' I meant
just that. Furthermore, I don't mind telling both of you that I know the
regard in which I am held by some--perhaps all--of the members of this
squadron. I even know my nickname, 'Old Fuss-Budget'. Humph! A hard
master always wins the name of 'old' something or other. I don't care a
hoot about that. I don't care a hoot about the opinions of any man in
this group if only the result of their training shows a balance in favor
of our country. Am I right or wrong?"

McGee and Mullins were too surprised to offer reply. This was quite the
longest speech Cowan had ever made in their presence; certainly it was
the most frank.

"Well," Cowan continued, "I have applied the goad whenever and wherever
I thought it needed. I have been goaded in turn, and took it without
whimpering. I wonder, Lieutenant," he turned to McGee, "if you remember
the report you made on that Hun you shot down over our 'drome?"

"Why--yes, sir, I do."

"And the recommendation you tacked on to it?"

"Yes, sir." Pretty warm, this, McGee thought.

"Then you will recall that it did not reflect any too much credit on me,
as the man responsible for any failure on the part of any member of this
command. But I did not ask you to change the dotting of an I or the
crossing of a T. Nor did you hear a word out of me when I received my
bawling out. The army is like that. From enlisted man to Commanding
General, every fellow thinks he is the only one with a prod in his side.
The truth is, the greater the rank, the higher the responsibility, and
the sharper the gaff. I often wish for the quiet, untroubled mind of a
buck private--and I thank Heaven that I am only a Major. Which reminds
me that I am one, and had better cut out conversation and fall to work."

His expression changed instantly; he became again the nervous,
irascible, driving commander.

"As for wanting you in the top flight," he plunged into his quick manner
of speaking, "it is because I want someone there whose eyes are trained
at picking up enemy planes. Doubtless I will get severely reprimanded
for bringing you along, so I had as well get the greatest possible good
out of your experience. You will inform Lieutenant Larkin that he is to
go in B Flight, with Yancey."

"Very well, sir. But if you really fear any trouble, Larkin will be more
effective in the top flight. Altitude means a lot--and I always feel
safer when he is sticking around close to me."

"No, I want him with Yancey. We might get separated, and if I draw an
ace for myself, I should give Yancey as good a card."

McGee smiled at the pun. "Very well, sir, but while speaking of aces,
it's always best to have 'em up. And the higher up the better. Larkin is
a great pilot when he has plenty of altitude--right where a lot of the
others fall down. Take him with you and let me go with Yancey."

"Oh, very well. I started in to ask for advice and I had as well take
it. That will be all to-night, Lieutenant. No, wait! One other thing:
Say nothing to anyone about Siddons going off joy-riding. Let them think
he is still at Vitry. I want to handle him my own way, without stirring
up any comment. If they find out he cut formation on a trumped up
hokus-pokus, they would think I should ground him."

Mullins' jaw dropped in surprise and astonishment. "Aren't you going to
ground him?" he asked.

"I am not! I'm going to see that he draws some hot stuff. I've a nice
little mission all figured out for him."

A glint in Cowan's eyes testified that he was again the self-sufficient
commander, confident of his decisions and determined upon his course of
action.





CHAPTER VII

Von Herzmann Strikes


1

At dawn the following morning, well behind the German lines in the
vicinity of Roncheres, Count von Herzmann's famous Circus was making
feverish haste to take the air. Von Herzmann himself was coolly
instructing the pilots in the purposes of their coming expedition. His
elation was great indeed, and his entire manner, as well as the pleased
smile that played over his youthful, handsome face, indicated that he
was confident of victory. Confidence, however, was no new trait in von
Herzmann. He always possessed it, but it stopped just short of blind
egotism. Perhaps therein could be found the reason for his fame and his
success. He was no blundering, egobefuddled braggart riding for a fall;
he was a splendid pilot, a careful tactician, fearless when fearlessness
was needed and cautious when caution would bring greater reward than
blind valor. In short, his fame rested securely upon ability. He was one
of the idols of his countrymen, and he was a scourge both feared and
respected by the allied air forces. The ships of his Circus were painted
in whatever gaudy colors proved appealing to the pilots thereof, but the
fuselage of each bore the famous insignia of the Circus--the defiant
German eagle with its blood red feet and talons supported on a scroll
bearing the legend, _Gott Mit Uns_. And indeed it did seem that
this Circus was providentially watched over.

For more than a year the watchword of the French and English had been,
"Get von Herzmann." It was an easy phrase to coin, but extremely
difficult to execute. Many a French and English pilot had gone gunning
for him, but most of these were now in their graves. Those who escaped
were a little less enthusiastic in their next search for this skilled
airman who had run up a total of more than two score victories.

Von Herzmann, in addition to being a skilled pilot, was as elusive as a
ghost. He was here, there, everywhere. Wherever there was a heavy drive
or a sturdy, sullen defensive, there could be found Count von Herzmann.
The Allies, making use of this knowledge, had sent out many bombing
expeditions to blast the nest of this troublesome Circus from the face
of the earth, but their deadly bombs fell upon deserted, decoy hangars.

As is always the case, those who exhibit a certain degree of excellence
find ready help at the hand of admirers who wish them still further
success and acclaim. It was so in von Herzmann's case. The German army
could ill afford to lose one who was so brilliant in his operations and
so firmly established as one of the popular national idols. The German
Intelligence Department gave him all possible assistance, thereby not
only saving his precious neck but furnishing still more glamorous
stories for a populace that was daily becoming more disheartened and
weary with war.

On this morning at Roncheres, von Herzmann was again preparing to shake
another plum into his lap. Military Intelligence had received word late
the previous evening that an American Pursuit Squadron would on the
following morning leave from a 'drome south of Epernay and proceed to a
new base south of La Ferte sous Jouarre. Doubtless they would parallel
the line south of la Chapelle. What could be simpler than to send forth
von Herzmann with the full strength of his justly famous Circus to
intercept these untried Americans? Here was a ripe plum indeed--to be
had for the picking!

Von Herzmann was particularly well pleased. He smiled as he climbed
jauntily into his gaudy green and gold Fokker tri-plane. So the stupid
Americans had thought to lead the German High Command astray by such a
clumsy movement? Ha! They forgot that a good spy system is like wheels
within wheels. But they would learn--in time.

Smiling, he examined his twin Spandau machine guns. Then he glanced
along the line of ships making up the first flight. Yes, they were
ready, awaiting his signal, their idling motors purring like so many
contented cats. The smiling, blond von Herzmann lifted his hand in
signal. The purring sound changed to the deafening roar of a hundred
infuriated jungle cats. The leading plane raced along the green field,
and a moment later the first flight of von Herzmann's great Circus
leaped into the air, climbed rapidly, and laid a course for a cloud bank
hanging over the lines above Comblizy.

How often the youthful, clever von Herzmann had made use of shielding
cloud banks, or lacking clouds had placed himself above his adversary,
squarely in the blinding sun. One of the two, or both perhaps, would
serve him again this morning.

His smile grew broader as he neared the front. It was thrilling, this
hunting business, and it was made decidedly easier when Intelligence
cooperated fully, as they had done in this instance. He knew the
strength of his quarry, their lack of experience, and the report had
included the statement that two of the planes were piloted by
instructors fresh from the English front, flying English Camels. Two
hated Englanders, eh? _Gott strafe_ England! He would single them
out and take care of them, one at a time. The rest of his command would
scatter the others like quails, and the survivors, not well acquainted
with the terrain, would have a nice problem in finding their way to La
Ferte. _Himmel!_ but it was a pleasing prospect.


2

Major Cowan's squadron had been slightly delayed in starting by two
malfunctioning Nieuports. A precious half hour was spent in correcting
the difficulty and the sun had changed from a dull red ball to a
blinding white disk racing up the eastern sky wall by the time the
flights had gained proper altitude and laid a true course for La Ferte
sous Jouarre.

The top flight, with Cowan leading, had climbed to twelve thousand feet.
B Flight, under Yancey, was some three thousand feet under him and
somewhat in advance. This gave the top flight a greater protective power
and insured the bottom flight against any surprise attack. Not only were
the flights in echelon, but the planes of each unit were also echeloned,
each plane being slightly above the one directly ahead. It was a
formidable formation, capable of being readily manoeuvered and with each
pilot insured the best possible vision.

A few white, vapory clouds hung high over the trenches toward Comblizy,
and still heavier banks were to be seen to the south of la Chapelle,
hanging over the Surmelin Valley. In all other directions the sky
presented that fathomless blue so well known to all pilots who ascend
above ten thousand feet. The open space between these apparently
unmoving cloud banks was some three or four miles in width.

Larkin, in the top flight with Major Cowan, had taken up position as the
hindermost plane in the group and had, therefore, the greatest altitude.
As a rule, he never was satisfied with his altitude until he had pushed
his plane somewhere near the limit of its climbing ability. He was a
splendid pilot at great altitude, and he had learned from experience
that many pilots capable of doing good work at the lower levels flounder
around like fish out of water when above twelve thousand feet. This
being equally true of friend and foe, Larkin always felt better when he
was high enough not to have any worry about someone coming down on him.
He preferred having his enemies below rather than above.

This morning, however, he took no thought of the matter. Before taking
off Major Cowan had said no more than, "Look sharp when we get south of
la Chapelle; head on a pivot, you know." Shucks! Slim chance for any
excitement with a group like this. Even if they sighted a small enemy
patrol they would have to go merrily on their way and leave the game to
someone else. However, a war pilot with skill enough to become such an
ace as Larkin needs little caution about "looking sharp." It is habit
with him, and those who fail to develop the habit are only a few hours
or days removed from sudden disaster.

There was little enough to see. They were flying westward. Again and
again Larkin turned his head around, closed one eye and placing a thumb
close to his open eye squinted into the blinding sun. Many times, by the
employment of that little trick, he had been able to momentarily diffuse
the sun's rays sufficiently to catch the faintest blurred outline of
enemy planes sitting in the sun and waiting for the proper moment to
dive.

This morning the sun seemed unusually bright and blinding. Somewhat
ahead, and to the south, three large French observation planes were
coming up toward the lines at la Chapelle. They were just about even,
vertically, with the cloud bank over the Surmelin Valley. They would
pass almost directly under the bottom flight, led by Yancey.

Larkin watched them, somewhat idly. Photographic mission, probably.
Then, with little or no interest in them, his eye ran along the two
converging lines of planes that made up Yancey's flight. That moment he
noticed McGee's plane cut out of position and zoom up at an angle too
steep to be maintained. Then McGee's plane levelled off and was hurled
through a series of quick acrobatics. It meant but one thing--manoeuver!

Larkin jerked his head around and squinted into the sun. Not a thing
there--at least nothing he could see--and as soon as the stabbing
streaks of light left his eyes he glanced toward the cloud bank over the
Marne. Nothing there. The three French observation busses, far below,
were going gaily on their way. But McGee was still climbing and
stunting. Larkin knew that this was no idle exhibition. McGee didn't fly
that way. He was trying to draw their attention to something.

Larkin looked ahead at Cowan's plane. That moment the Major dipped his
plane twice. Now what in the world did he mean by that? Larkin wondered.
Merely that he had noticed McGee and was on the alert? Or did he mean
that he too had seen the enemy? Enemy! Where was the enemy?

Again Larkin turned his head to try the sun. Nothing there ... yes, by
George! there was a blur of black spots. But it was such a fleeting view
that he could not be sure, and tried again. Blast the sun! It made him
blind as a bat!

He closed his eyes to cut out the dancing sparks and pin wheels. He
opened them again, and on turning for one more trial at the sun his eye
fell upon the cloud bank to the north. Talk about being blind! Blind as
a bat was right!

There, dark, dim and shadowy against the cloud were more German planes
than he had ever before seen in one group, and their angle of direction
left no question as to their purpose.

Again he tried the sun. Yes, there they were! No question about it now.
They were coming down, and in so doing were no longer completely within
the eye of the sun. Pretty slick! A group behind to cut off retreat and
another group coming out of the clouds at an angle that would intercept
the line of flight. And that cloud was fairly raining German planes!

"Well!" Larkin exclaimed aloud. "Here's a howdy-do!"

The planes to the eastward were looming up with surprising speed, and no
one could say when the ones behind and above would open up their
murderous guns. What would Cowan do? What would any of these green
pilots do in such a dog fight? Larkin looked down at McGee. He was still
climbing for all he was worth. Cowan, if he saw anything, was too
paralyzed for action. But perhaps he had not seen. Air eyes come through
experience, Larkin knew, and something must be done right now.

In the moment that he determined upon a course of action he saw another
group of planes come streaming out of the cloud to the south. Curtains!
The whole sky was full of planes. Then, as they swerved sharply, he saw
the sunlight play on the allied cockade. And how they came! Spads,
French Spads! Going up to the front, perhaps, as a covering flight for
the observation crates far below. But now they were swinging into this
grand and unexpected melee.

Larkin grinned. "Here _is_ a howdy-do--sure 'nuff!" he repeated and
went into a tight, climbing turn that brought him squarely around,
facing the planes streaming down out of the sun. Taps for Mr. Larkin, he
thought, but he would at least give them pause, and by so doing not only
provide Cowan with a chance to wake up and manoeuver, but it would give
the oncoming Spads the one thing they needed--time!

The lightning-like movements and happenings of an aerial dog fight
cannot be followed or seen by any one man. Fortunate indeed is that
pilot who can keep track of what is going on around him. One moment he
may have a single adversary; the next he is the target for two or more
planes. If he shakes them off, or by marksmanship reduces the odds, he
may check in for mess that evening; failing to do so, a squadron
commander will that night requisition a new pilot.

As Larkin came around on the quickly executed turn he was only faintly
conscious of the fact that a considerable group of Fokker tri-planes
were sweeping down on him. He gave no thought to the number. His eye was
fixed upon a bright green and gold plane in the lead. As he pulled up
the nose of his Camel and thumbed the trigger release for his first
burst, he sensed the strange exultation that comes to that man who,
facing death in a forlorn hope and knowing there is no escape, accepts
all chances and sells his life as dearly as possible.

The diving green and gold plane flashed across his ring sights as the
Lewis gun poured forth its first burst. Square into the oncoming plane
the tracers poured. Larkin, seeing that he was on, held his nose up
until he knew he was about to stall.

The green plane dipped, dived under him, and Larkin noticed another
plane flash past him, bent on other game. Then splinters flew from one
of his struts and a bullet smacked against the instrument board.

He had lost flying speed on his zoom to get at the green plane. To
regain speed, and give life to his laboring motor, he dived sharply.

At the beginning of this dive a glance told him that the green plane had
suffered an injury vital enough to cause it to lose all interest in any
return to the attack.

During the first flashing seconds of the attack Larkin's mind had been
occupied only with the thought of hurling himself at the oncoming planes
in the forlorn hope of diverting their course of action for a few brief
but precious minutes. Suddenly, now, the fleeing green and gold plane
awakened memory. Green and gold! Could that be the plane of the renowned
von Herzmann, who from the beginning of his fame had advertised himself
as the man who always flew a brightly painted green and gold plane?

Another Fokker dived at Larkin, his Spandaus rattling. His aim was wild
and he overshot Larkin's steep dive. But in that dive, which brought him
all too close, Larkin caught sight of the insignia on the plane--a
German eagle perched on a lettered scroll. It was von Herzmann's Circus!

Larkin's heart leaped. He kicked his left rudder savagely and wheeled
left, thundering after the green and gold plane that was streaking
homeward. Get that plane, get that plane! ran through his mind. All else
faded. The presence of other planes, and his original plan, all were
lost sight of in the pulse-quickening realization that he had crippled
the plane of the famous ace in that first burst. Now to get him and
bring him down! Von Herzmann was not one to cut and run unless there was
an urgent reason for it. He was trying to tool a crippled plane back
across the lines. Larkin, determined to make the most of this golden
opportunity, forthwith lost sight of all else.

Ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka! Crash! Splinters flew from Larkin's cowling and
two gashes suddenly appeared in the fabric of his left wing. So! The
crippled eagle had loyal kingbirds for protectors, and they had plunged,
pecking, at the Camel pursuing their leader.

Larkin dived clear of the streaming bullets, zoomed upward into a half
loop and rolled into position to fire at the leading attacker. The
German was slow and Larkin poured a stream of lead into the cockpit. He
saw the pilot stiffen, as one who has received a sudden shock or
surprise, and then slump down. The plane thundered on for a moment, then
nosed down, out of control.

Ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka! Larkin saw tracers zipping past the nose of the
plane. He side-slipped, out of the line of fire, and glanced back. Two
more kingbirds coming to the relief of the fleeing eagle.

Ta-ka-ta-ka--the Spandaus again began their monotonous, metallic
stutter. Into the cockpit of Larkin's plane streamed a half dozen deadly
pellets. Two of them pinged against the instrument board, another passed
completely through the cockpit, just in front of his stomach. He felt
suddenly cold at the nearness of death as he zoomed steeply into a
quivering stall and slipped off into a spin.

He was conscious of the fact that both the Fokkers were thundering after
him. Then a Camel, with the speed of a thunderbolt, flashed across his
line of vision. He could see the Lewis gun quivering with little excited
jumps as it poured out lead. Good old McGee! He always turned up when
needed most.

Larkin neutralized the stick, then ruddered hard left against the spin,
and thus stopped the tail spin. Then, gaining speed by a quick dive, he
looped with a suddenness that brought the Camel squarely on the tail of
the remaining pursuer who was diving steeply. Both guns began jumping
with delight as Larkin thumbed the releases. What luck! Square in the
ring sight! The telltale tracers poked their white fingers into the
vitals of the Fokker tri-plane. A serpent-like tongue of red licked out,
fluttering for a moment like a wind blown candle flame, and then leaped
afresh in an enveloping burst of flame and smoke.

Two!

He glanced around. McGee was in a merry game with the other kingbird.
Round and round they plunged in steep spirals, each trying to get a
glimpse of the other across the sights. A tight, breath-taking game, but
one which cannot last long. The circle becomes too small, the pace too
swift. It was a game in which, Larkin knew, the tri-plane Fokker could
excel the Camel, granting that the pilots were of equal skill.

Larkin jockeyed for position, but in that moment when his eye was taken
from the mad game of ring-around-the-rosy, McGee demonstrated that the
skill was not equally placed. The Fokker was now spinning down,
obviously out of control, and McGee was following, filling it with
enough lead to sink it. It spun earthward, sickening in its erratic
gyrations.

McGee pulled up on his stick, banked sharply, bringing himself alongside
Larkin. They waved to each other, exultantly. Larkin, who a few minutes
ago had decided that his luck had played out its string, swallowed his
heart, murmured "Whew!" and surveyed the field.

The green and gold plane of von Herzmann was now a rapidly diminishing
speck against the cloud bank toward la Chapelle, streaking for the
Fatherland. The others, lacking a leader, and facing unequal chances
with the timely and unexpected appearance of the French Spads, were
withdrawing from the action with all the speed they could get out of
their wonderful motors. And that was speed enough.

The French Spads had come out of a cloud bank just in time to upset the
well laid plans of the German ace, and that worthy, never expecting such
a dare-devil, self-sacrificing move as made by Larkin, had for once been
taken by surprise. He had been damaged enough to force immediate
retirement. The celerity with which his group abandoned the project and
followed in his wake gave glowing tribute to the true value and
leadership of that youth who flew the green and gold plane. With him as
leader, they would have taken a toll, despite the unexpected arrival of
the Spads. But with von Herzmann, their idol and their pride, forced
from the fight by a hated Englander flying a dinky little Camel--well,
the Fatherland could be served some other day.

But von Herzmann had been right in his boast that he would scatter the
Americans like quails. As the French Spads pursued the fleeing Fokkers,
which were numerically strong enough to make a too vigorous pursuit
unwise and unhealthy, Major Cowan took up the task of gathering his
brood. He flew around, bringing them together, signaling instructions to
take up positions, and pointing westward along the line of flight. Three
of his brood, however, were crushed and crumpled fledglings on the
ground far below. Carpenter, and fat, jolly little McWilliams, had
collided while engaging an enemy. Their crumpled wings had locked fast
in an embrace that spun them down dizzily to a crashing, splintering
death. And Nathan Rodd, he who spared his words, had also been a bit too
provident or tardy with his fire and had been sent down out of control.
Cowan had avenged Rodd a second later, sending his attacker down
spinning and thereby gaining his first victory.

The score, in that far flung encounter, stood one in favor of Cowan's
squadron, but it was a heavy-hearted group of pilots who at last took up
formation and headed westward. Their faces had a new, grim look. Flying
was not all a matter of shooting the other fellow down. Those who had
witnessed the sickening crash of Carpenter and McWilliams learned at a
tragic cost that one must be all eyes. The gateman, who controls the
airways of the skies, was taking his toll, and every one of the group
that flew westward toward La Ferte, leaving three comrades behind, now
more soberly considered the alarming casualty figures of eighty per cent
per month--and wondered!

A month! It is such a little while.




CHAPTER VIII

McGee Makes a Discovery


1

Three nights later, while members of the squadron were engaged in the
usual after mess gab fest, an orderly entered with a summons for McGee
and Larkin to report to Major Cowan. Larkin had just that day secured a
misfitting regulation issue uniform from the Supply Officer, Robinson,
and the group had been having a great deal of fun at his expense. Yancey
now saw another chance.

"Old Fuss Budget is goin' to have you shot for impersonatin' an officer
in that scarecrow riggin'," he taunted. "You should have kept your old
uniform on, like McGee."

"Huh! Robinson didn't have one small enough for McGee," Larkin retorted.
"They only have men's sizes in the American Army. What's wrong with this
uniform?"

"Uniform?" Yancey repeated. "Oh, I thought it was a horse blanket."

Larkin thumbed his nose at Yancey as he passed through the door with
McGee. He knew the Major would have a long wait if he stayed to get
ahead of Yancey.

Major Cowan appeared to be in an unusually happy frame of mind.

"I've good news for you," he announced as they entered the headquarters
hut. "In losing Carpenter, McWilliams and Rodd, we have gained you two.
And instead of the bawling out I expected, I was congratulated for
unusual foresight. The order assigning you to this squadron will be down
to-morrow. I hope you are as well pleased as I am."

"Of course we are," McGee answered for both. "We wouldn't feel so much
at home anywhere else. I'm sorry, of course, to come as a replacement
for any one of those other chaps. They were fine fellows."

"Of course," Cowan responded, heartily. "Their loss demonstrates the
value of experience. There was no reason at all for the collision
between Carpenter and McWilliams. They simply forgot there was anyone
else in the air. A tough break."

"Any break is a tough one when you don't come back," Larkin said.

The Major seemed to see him now for the first time. "Where in creation
did you get that gunny sack you're wearing?" he demanded.

Larkin grinned, foolishly. "From Lieutenant Robinson, sir."

"What's it supposed to be?"

"A uniform, sir."

"Thanks. I didn't know." He turned to McGee, who still wore his British
uniform. "Didn't Robinson have any more masquerade costumes?"

"Not my size, sir."

"Oh, you go in for size? I see Larkin doesn't. Why don't you get
uniforms?"

"We haven't had a chance, sir," Larkin answered. "There is no tailor
around here, so I chinned Robinson out of this enlisted man's issue.
Perhaps," he offered, smiling, "the Major will give us a pass to Paris
to have uniforms made."

"The Major will not! We've some real work ahead. But--"

The door opened and Siddons entered.

"But don't put that thing back on in the morning," Cowan completed.
"Your British uniform is at least presentable."

"You sent for me, sir?" Siddons spoke from the doorway, his voice having
the quality of one who is extremely bored--especially bored with being
sent for.

"I did." Cowan's voice was crisp. The ends of his moustache began
twitching jerkily. "I suppose you wonder why I have said nothing to you
about your failure to rejoin the squadron the other day after you cut
out at Vitry?"

"Why, no sir," Siddons responded, perfectly at ease. "You said that if
any of us developed trouble that delayed us, to come on here at the
earliest possible moment. I was here when you arrived."

"So you were." Cowan was making a stern effort to control his temper.
"And it is true that I gave you orders to come on here should delaying
trouble develop. But," he shot a quick, silencing look at McGee, "I
conducted a little investigation into your landing at Vitry, Lieutenant,
and I discovered that you took off again within an hour."

Siddons started, almost imperceptibly. His face colored, for a moment,
but he quickly assumed his habitual nonchalance. It goaded Cowan to an
inward fury, but he controlled himself well.

"I suppose you can think of some reason why I shouldn't ground you,"
Cowan said.

"Why, no sir. No reason at all."

"Then I can!" the Major snapped. "You like joy-riding, eh? Like to tour
France, eh? Very well, I'm going to give you a bit of it to do."

He turned and walked over to a large wall map. "Take a look at this--all
three of you," he said. "This is a detailed map of our sector. G 2
believes that the Germans are planning to strike north of here, perhaps
just south of Soissons. One of their reasons for this suspicion is that
information has reached G 2 to the effect that Count von Herzmann's
Circus has pulled out from Roncheres. Where is he now? That's the
question! The Intelligence sharks at Great Headquarters believe that if
we can locate his new base we will know something more about the plans
of the enemy. As a result, every squadron along this front has been
ordered to make an effort to locate his new position. Personally, I am
of the opinion that Larkin winged him the other morning, and as a result
his Circus has been withdrawn, pending his recovery."

Larkin shook his head regretfully. "I wish I could think so, Major. I'd
like to boast that I had given von Herzmann a little lead poisoning. But
I don't think so. The tracers showed that my burst was going into his
motor. I winged that, all right, but he didn't fly like a wounded man."

"Modest enough," Cowan approved. "It seems that G 2 thinks the same
thing. They have reason to believe that he is in the neighborhood of
this point here,"--he put a finger on the map--"where the railroad
between Soissons and Chateau-Thierry crosses the Ourcq."

He turned now directly to Siddons, his eyes cold and piercing.
"Lieutenant Siddons, you seem to be a most excellent map flyer. You find
your way here alone, and you tour this part of France with admirable
ease. To-morrow morning, if the visibility is good, you will take off at
dawn, cross the line above Bouresches, push on toward Bonnes and as far
inland as the railroad crossing on the Ourcq--if possible. Is that
clear?"

"Perfectly, sir." Siddons was as unconcerned and unruffled as though he
had received an order to fly to Paris.

"You will get the greatest possible altitude before crossing the line,
and you are to avoid combat. Your mission is to bring us information, if
possible, concerning the location of enemy 'dromes--and especially von
Herzmann's base. Am I clear?"

"Perfectly, sir."

One could not but admire the cool confidence of the fellow. His
complacency was not what Cowan had expected.

"If you think the risk is too great, alone," Cowan said, after watching
his face for any hint of quailing, "I will send two other planes with
you. They might help reduce the odds in case of unavoidable combat."

"Oh, that's not necessary," Siddons replied. "In fact, one plane has a
better chance to escape combat, especially if there are some clouds to
duck into. Anything else, sir?"

Cowan made a clicking sound with his tongue. The fellow wasn't human; he
was an iceberg!

"That is all. And I wish you luck."

"Thank you, Major. And thanks for the mission." He gave McGee and Larkin
the pitying look of one who has just drawn the grand prize in an open
competition, and without another word turned quickly and passed through
the door.

Cowan's face had a baffled look. "Well," he finally said, "he acts like
a gamecock, anyhow."

"Do you realize the danger of the mission?" McGee asked.

"It's not for me to consider that angle," the Major replied. "G 2 wants
information, and I am under orders to help supply it. Danger? Yes.
That's war. If we lose--well, I'd rather not discuss it."

At that moment the door opened. There, framed against the night, stood
Nathan Rodd! In salute he brought a gauze-wrapped hand to his head, a
head so thickly swathed in bandages that only his face was showing and
his service cap sat perched at a ridiculous angle.

"Lieutenant Rodd reports for duty, sir," he said.

Cowan, McGee and Larkin had stood transfixed, as men might who thought
they were seeing a ghost. But Rodd's words, concise and strikingly
characteristic of the taciturn Vermonter, snapped them into action. This
was no ghost!

"Rodd!" Major Cowan exclaimed, and rushed across the room to grip Rodd's
unbandaged left hand. "You here?"

Rodd considered it unnecessary to waste words on so stupid a question.
He merely offered his hand, when the Major released it, to McGee and
Larkin, who were pounding him on the back in great glee.

"We thought you were dead," Cowan said.

"So did I--until I woke up," Rodd answered.

Cowan, noting the pallor of his face, pressed him into a chair. "Tell us
about it," he urged. "Were you badly hurt? What happened? Didn't you
crack up--"

Rodd lifted his good hand in protest. "One question at a time, Major.
That German found my motor and it conked. I regained control just in
time to level off, but not in time to miss a tree. After that I don't
know what happened. Came to, flat on my back, fifty feet away from my
plane. It was burning. That's all there is to it."

"All there is to it!" Cowan snorted. "You're not sending a telegram.
Words won't cost you anything. Where have you been since then?"

"Hospital. Waiting for a chance to skip out."

"You mean--you ran away from the hospital?"

Rodd nodded.

"You are crazy, man! Why did you leave?"

"I don't like hospitals."

"But you are hurt! Is your head badly injured?"

"Cut."

"And your hand?"

"Cut."

Cowan could not escape laughing. McGee and Larkin joined in.

"I'm not laughing at your injury, Lieutenant," Cowan explained, "but at
your way of telling it. If that should happen to Yancey he'd write a
book about it. Of course, I'm delighted to see you alive. I had the good
fortune to wipe out the one that shot you down. He went down spinning."

"See him crash?" Rodd asked.

"No. Things were pretty thick. I didn't have time to watch."

"Didn't kill him," Rodd announced.

"What!"

"He made a better landing than I did. He was trying to bring me to when
some Frenchies came running up and nabbed him. Decent fellow. The
Frenchies treated him pretty rough. Put the screws to him, I guess."

"See here," Cowan leaned forward in his chair, "either tell all this
story, or back you go to the hospital. You say the French questioned
him?"

"French Intelligence did. Pretty game fellow, they said."

"But he talked?"

"Had to. That was von Herzmann's Circus."

"We know that. Anything else?"

"Yes. He said they knew all about our plans, and were out gunning for
us."

Cowan's face colored, but with confusion more than anger.

"Anything else?" he asked crisply.

"Well--the Frogs found out something else, but," he cast a quick,
furtive glance at McGee and Larkin, "but I guess I've talked enough.
Someone is talking too much, that's certain."

Cowan had seen the glance, and the inference irritated him. "These
officers have proved their loyalty by service, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir," was Rodd's meatless reply.

McGee felt genuinely hurt, but at the same time he recognized the fact
that Rodd's statement was all too true.

"Rodd is quite right, Major," he said, and arose from his chair. "If he
has any real information, it belongs to you alone--or to G 2. If you've
nothing further, Larkin and I will be going."

"No, nothing further."

"No orders for to-morrow morning?"

"No."

"May I speak to you a moment--privately?"

"Certainly."

They moved over near the door.

"You gave Siddons a mission I would like to have, Major. Any objections
if I take a little joy-ride in the morning?"

Cowan's eyes narrowed. "Where?" he asked.

"Over the lines. I'd like to do a little looking for myself."

"With Larkin?"

"No, sir. Alone. Don't even want Larkin to know I'm going. I think I
know where to locate von Herzmann's Circus."

"What are you driving at, Lieutenant?"

"Major, if I told you half of what I think I know, you'd call me crazy."

"Hm-m! Well, I can't give you permission to go--but I will not be
looking for you before noon." His sly wink told Red all that he wanted
to know.

"Yes, sir. Good night, Major. Good night, Rodd. The gang will be mighty
glad to see you back, old hoss! Come on, Buzz, let's go to bed."

Outside the door Larkin's fuming rage exploded. "Say, what did that
tongue-tied sap Rodd mean by that dirty dig? If his head wasn't already
in a sling, I'd--"

"Calm yourself, brother!" Red laughed. "If you had landed on your head
from as high a point as he did, and then found out it was all brought
about through a leak, you'd be suspicious of everyone too."

"Maybe so," Larkin answered, somewhat mollified. "What were you buzzing
old Fuss Budget about?"

"I'll tell you that to-morrow night--maybe."

"Humph!" Larkin snorted. "I guess Rodd's disease is catching. You're
tongue-tied too!"

Without reply Red led the way across the flying field to their hut.
Entering, he began fumbling around in the dark for a candle stub. Larkin
took up the search, by the aid of flickering matches, but the candle was
nowhere to be found.

"It's a fine war!" Larkin growled, as he began undressing in the dark.
"All the letters from the States bear the postmark, 'Food Will Win The
War.' I guess the Army is trying to save on candles, too."


2

Before sunup the following morning McGee awoke and began quietly
dressing. He did not want to awaken Larkin. When he had finished
dressing he tiptoed cautiously across the floor, opened the creaking
door ever so slowly and closed it with the same care.

Dawn was just streaking the east. A few birds were offering their first
roundelays; the grass and trees were wet with a light rain that had
fallen during the night, and to the northeast the distant guns were
rumbling their morning song of hate--evil dispositioned giants, guttural
in their wrath when dawn awoke them to a new day of devastation. Two or
three sleepy-eyed air mechanics were making their way toward the
hangars.

McGee stood for a moment outside the hut, studying the sky, which was a
patchwork of clouds scattered across grey splotches that would turn to
blue with the coming of the sun. Evidently the sky had been quite
overcast during the night, but the clouds were broken now, though by no
means dispersed.

It was an ideal morning for crossing the lines. Convenient cloud banks
were excellent havens in case of surprise, and Archie fire was less
accurate when the gunners had to contend with a ship that plunged into
concealing clouds and out again at the most unexpected places. Of
course, those same clouds offered concealment for enemy planes, but a
pilot crossing the lines alone is considerably advantaged by such a sky
as McGee was now studying approvingly.

As McGee started toward the hangars he saw that some of the ground crew
were wheeling out Siddons' Nieuport. Well, the Major had stuck to his
resolution and the order had gone through.

"Where's Lieutenant Siddons going?" McGee asked the Ack Emma who was
making a careful check of the plane.

"Don't know, sir. Got orders last night to have her ready."

"Did Sergeant Williams get orders for my plane?"

"Yes, sir. Are you and Siddons goin' over on patrol, Lieutenant?"

"I can't answer for Siddons," McGee evaded. "You'd better ask him."

"Huh! A lot of good it would do. Honest, Lieutenant, that fellow talks
less to us than a cigar store Indian talks to the customers--and that's
less than nothin'. He thinks we're worms!"

McGee was about to offer his sympathies when another crew, under
Sergeant Williams, came rolling the Camel out to the line. McGee began
checking it over with the same minute care which had doubtless gone a
long way toward making him an ace. He left inspection to no man. His air
mechanic, knowing this, was equally careful in his work. This diminutive
lieutenant was as mild as an April morning so long as all was well, but
when something went wrong he could say more than a six foot
Major-General.

"All set, Sergeant?" McGee asked, finishing his inspection.

"All set, sir. I just put a new valve in that wind driven gas pump. The
guy that invented that trick should have been tapped for the simples.
Why don't you hang this thing on a church steeple, Lieutenant, and get
one of those Spads?"

"Well, I rather dislike entering a church from the steeple, and I'm sort
of partial to this old crate. She's tricky on the ground, but I'm used
to her ways and she's a Lulu upstairs."

He swung into the cockpit and the Sergeant stood at the prop.

"Switch off?"

"Switch off!"

The sergeant pulled over the propeller two times.

"Contact, sir."

"Contact."

The motor caught, and after it had idled a few minutes McGee began
revving it up.

Just then he noticed Siddons come from around the corner of the hangar,
carrying what appeared to be a canvas covered pillow. Seeing McGee's
plane on the line he stopped in surprise, then proceeded to his plane,
where he fitted the pillow into the seat, patting it in place as a woman
pats a divan pillow. Then he came across to the side of McGee's plane.

"Did you get orders, too?" he shouted.

McGee cut the gun. "No," he answered truthfully. Satisfied that this
would not end the questioning, he added, "The Ack Emma has made some
repairs. I'm going to give her a test."

"Oh, I see. Thought maybe I was going to have the pleasure of your
company--and your help. Nice morning for my little jaunt, isn't it?"

"Bully!" McGee looked at him closely to discover any hint of fear. It
simply wasn't there, and Red was forced to the mental admission that he
had never seen such a cool, confident manner displayed by any pilot
going over for the first time. "Good luck!" he called, and again began
revving his motor.

Siddons turned back to his own plane, and with the most casual
inspection, and with no comment to the mechanic, crawled into his
cushion padded seat.

McGee, satisfied with the sound of his own motor, nodded to the wing
boys to remove the chocks, and taxied to a quick take-off. At two or
three hundred feet he turned, came back across the 'drome and headed in
the general direction of Paris, climbing steadily and maintaining the
direction until to the watching ground crew he became lost to view.

Then McGee swung north and began working back eastward. He passed to the
west of La Ferte, and having gained an altitude of fifteen thousand
feet, headed directly for the front, intending to cross the line to the
north of Belleau and proceed toward Fere-en-Tardenois. Then, if fortune
favored him, he could decide upon a deeper thrust into enemy territory.

The cloud strata was exceptionally deep and yet ragged enough to provide
frequent glimpses at the world below. The one great danger lay in the
fact that he might any minute come unexpectedly upon a German pursuit
group. It was probable, however, that on such a morning they would be
operating at a lesser altitude.

The trenches, as he crossed the line, were only faintly discernible, the
detail obscured by the blue ground haze so common to the eyes of the
pilot operating at high altitudes. But the strip of barren land on each
side of the trenches gave visible evidence of the grimness of the
struggle far below, and here and there along the line, miniature geysers
spouted fan-shaped eruptions of earth with a grotesque, unexpected
suddenness. Then a second later a new pock-mark on the face of an
already over-tortured earth showed where the shell had exploded.

It was fascinating to watch. Nerve-racking and ear-splitting as it must
be to the mud-splashed creatures in the trenches below, from on high the
land within the neighborhood of the zig-zag trenches took on the
appearance of a pot of boiling mush--here a crater, there a crater,
springing into being with an amazing suddenness that lured the observer
into the game of guessing when the next crater would appear.

McGee was engaged in exactly such mental speculation when he was brought
to the realization of his own nearness to war by the plane-rocking
explosion of a well-placed Archie. Then two other giant black roses
bloomed directly in his path. Now he was presented with his own guessing
game. Where would the next one be?

He swerved sharply left and dived toward a

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