hout Germany.

Walking back to Command Headquarters, von Zeiglemann expressed his
private views to his confidant.

"If Tam can scare this money-bag back to Frankfurt, he will render us a
service."

"He asked me where I thought he would be safe--he is thinking of asking
for a transfer to the eastern front," said Zeiglemann's assistant.

"And you said--"

"I told him that the only safe place was a British prison camp."

"Please the good God he reaches there," said Zeiglemann piously, "but he
will be a fortunate man if he ever lands alive from a fight with Tam. Do
not, I command you, allow him to go up alone. We must guard the
swine--keep him in the formation."

Von Zeiglemann went up in his roaring little single-seater and ranged
the air behind the German lines, seeking Tam. By sheer luck he was
brought down by a chance Archie shell and fell with a sprained ankle in
the German support-trenches, facing Armentiers.

"A warning to me to leave Mahl to fight his own quarrels," he said as he
limped from the car which had been sent to bring him in.

There comes to every man to whom has been interpreted the meaning of
fear a moment of exquisite doubt in his own courage, a bewildering
collapse of faith that begins in uneasy fears and ends in blind panic.

Von Mahl had courage--an airman can not be denied that quality whatever
his nationality may be--but it was a mechanical valor based upon an
honest belief in the superiority of the average German over all--friends
or rivals.

He had come to the flying service from the Corps of the Guard; to the
Corps of the Guard from the atmosphere of High Finance, wherein men
reduce all values to the denomination of the mark and appraise all
virtues by the currency of the country in which that virtue is found.

His supreme confidence in the mark evaporated under the iron rule of a
colonel who owned three lakes and a range of mountains and an adjutant
who had four surnames and used them all at once.

His confidence in the superiority of German arms, somewhat shaken at
Verdun, revived after his introduction to the flying service, attained
to its zenith at the moment when he incurred the prejudices of Tam, and
from that moment steadily declined.

The deterioration of morale in a soldier is a difficult process to
reduce to description. It may be said that it has its beginnings in
respect for your enemy and reaches its culminating point in contempt for
your comrades. Before you reach