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, h