is
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