what happens, don't touch me or anything except the grips for your hands
that you'll find there. She's apt to rock and kick like a broncho
sometimes but you can't fall out, because you'll be strapped in.
Remember, now, don't touch me and don't touch any levers or anything
else you see."

CHAPTER XII

THE MONOPLANE

Looking down from above, as he was doing, it was hard for Frank to keep
his bearings at all. Naturally, everything looked very different. He had
been used to looking up at houses, and had had them in one plane. Now
everything was flat before him. In the day time the resemblance of the
country as he now saw it to a map might have helped him. But at night,
even on a clear night, things were blurred. Fences and roads ran
together confusedly. And this night was not clear. The day had been
fair, but now clouds were coming up.

"We'll have some rain, hang it!" said Greene. "The firing seems to bring
it. At least that's what they say. Wonder if it's true? I suppose it
might."

"I should think it might be a good thing," said Frank. "It'll make it
harder for them to see us, won't it! And that ought to help us."

"Yes, but it'll make it a good deal harder for us to see what we're
after, too. Cuts both ways, you see. Still I don't mind as long as we
don't have fog or wind, and I think I'd rather have the wind. You know
where you're at with wind, anyway. In a fog--Lord! You've no idea what a
thing fog is until you've tried to make a landing in it."

With the motor muffled down, they were able to talk easily. In the
earlier days of aeroplanes the motor made so much noise that anything
like a sustained conversation was impossible. But now the motor only
purred gently in their ears, just like that of a motor car. For military
purposes the silence thus obtained more than made up for the slight
sacrifice of power. The more old-fashioned 'planes, many of which were
still in use, advertised their presence to an enemy as soon as they came
at all near. But this new type, largely used by the British and the
French, as Frank knew, had to be seen before they were in any danger,
so silently do they wing their flight.

"Talking about fog," Greene went on, talking as indifferent as if they
had been on solid ground, "I had a nasty experience just before Kaiser
Bill started this trouble. Went up at Sheerness, for an experimental
flight in this same 'plane. First time I'd had her out, and I didn't
know her very well. And