he told the pilots as they came in, "not a
tale of what can't be done. Get back over the lines. This fog will pass.
This is not a job for an hour. Headquarters wants information. Get it!"

To McGee, he said, with something of a sting in his voice, "Considering
the chances Siddons used to take, I'd think this squadron--his own
group--would be equal to this task."

It was a lash. Furious, yet realizing the justice of the taunt, McGee
again took off, determined not to come back until he could bring some
real news of the battle's progress.

3

That was the longest, hardest day ever put in by American aviators. They
had little trouble in gaining and holding air supremacy, but they had a
most difficult time, when the fog finally lifted, in getting any
accurate information.

The advance had been so rapid, and so successful, that the Hindenburg
Line had been carried by the soldiers in the first few hours of battle.
But in pressing forward, in the fog, they had been unable to keep in
close liaison. Instead of being a well-knit whole, they were little more
than a storming, victory-drunk mob. They stopped at nothing--and nothing
could stop them. As for displaying their white muslin panels to
airplanes so that their positions might be known--poof! They were too
busy to fool around with panels and those dizzy air birds who never did
anything but fly around and look for panels. Panels be hanged! This was
a day for doughboys and the bayonet!

4

That night, after mess, the members of the squadron sat around in glum
silence. The success of the day, with reference to gains, was great
indeed, but Cowan was riding with whip and spur. He seemed not at all
pleased with the work of his own group. Added to this, word had gone
around of the dramatic happenings of the previous night, with the result
that Siddons, the most disliked man in the squadron, had suddenly become
their mourned hero. Even now they counted him as dead, for one precious
day had already slipped away and nothing in the world could save him.
The success of the day seemed as nothing by the side of this tragic
fact. Not the least distressing thought was the fact that they had
treated him as one who had never earned the right to a full fellowship
with them. And now they knew, too late, that he was a man of surpassing
courage. They even learned, from Cowan, how Siddons, working with the
French, had plotted trapping von Herzmann that day when the squadron was
attacked