ther 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' a