rman in great haste and was ready for
whatever the next few minutes might bring.

For McGee those next minutes were filled with a thousand misgivings. The
ship was losing altitude rapidly, and the motor was pounding furiously,
but if it would only hold up he could make it.

When he flashed across the river at Mezy, with some eight hundred feet
to spare, he turned and waved a light-hearted O.K. to Larkin, and began
to look for some landing place free of shell craters.

It was not unlike looking for land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Barrage after barrage had marked the earth with the deep scarred pocks
of war. He must push on toward the rear with the last inch that could be
wrung from that motor and then land straight ahead, leaving the outcome
to Lady Luck. She had never deserted him completely--

That moment she deserted. The motor conked with a non-stuttering
finality. Now for a dead stick landing, straight ahead! If he could only
pancake her down just beyond that big hole, maybe she would stop
rolling--

He pancaked, but in doing so struck too hard. The undercarriage was
wiped out completely. He felt the bound, followed by a terrific up-fling
of the tail, and then a thousand stars went shooting before his eyes and
it seemed that a lightning bolt rived his brain. Then darkness--and an
infinite peace....

CHAPTER X

Medals and Chevrons

1

When McGee next opened his eyes, it was upon a world in which white
seemed to be the shockingly outstanding scheme of things. White walls, a
white painted fence, which he at last concluded must be the end of an
iron bed, and just beyond this, near at hand yet seemingly miles and
miles away, a woman in spotless white. He couldn't quite make out her
face, in fact all detail was lost in a dim haze that refused to be
cleared up by a blinking of the eyes. And there was such a roaring
sound, as of a mighty waterfall thundering down into an echoing canyon.

Oh, yes! His head. He tried to lift his left hand to feel of his head,
but the muscles failed to respond. Indeed, the arm seemed not only
lifeless, but to be clamped firmly across his chest by tight bonds. He
tried the right arm. It responded, and the hand came up to touch and
wonder at the large bundle of cloth that should be his head.

The woman in white moved toward him, quickly, and he was about to form a
question when she faded before his very eyes, and the thundering
waterfall left off its roaring as he