that point you have passed well beyond
the stage when you had any belief in yourself.

Von Mahl had arrived at the level of descent when he detached himself
from his comrades and sat brooding, his knuckles to his teeth, reviewing
his abilities and counting over all the acts of injustice to which he
had been subjected.

Von Zeiglemann, watching him, ordered him fourteen days' leave, and the
young officer accepted the privilege somewhat reluctantly.

There was a dear fascination in the danger, he imagined. He had twice
crossed fire with Tam and now knew him, his machine, and his tactics
almost intimately.

Von Mahl left for Brussels en route for Frankfurt and two days later
occurred one of those odd accidents of war which have so often been
witnessed.

Tam was detailed to make one of a strong raiding party which had as its
objective a town just over the Belgian-German frontier. It was carried
out successfully and the party was on its way home when Tam, who was one
of the fighting escort, was violently engaged by two machines, both of
which he forced down. In the course of a combat he was compelled to come
to within a thousand feet of the ground and was on the point of climbing
when, immediately beneath him, a long military railway train emerged
from a tunnel. Tam carried no bombs, but he had two excellent machine
guns, and he swooped joyously to the fray.

A few feet from the ground he flattened and, running in the opposite
direction to that which the train was taking, he loosed a torrent of
fire into the side of the carriages.

Von Mahl, looking from the window of a first-class carriage, saw in a
flash the machine and its pilot--then the windows splintered to a
thousand pieces and he dropped white and palpitating to the floor.

He came to Frankfurt to find his relations had gone to Karlsruhe, and
followed them. The night he arrived Karlsruhe was bombed by a French
squadron.... von Mahl saw only a score of flying and vengeful Tams. He
came back to the front broken in spirit and courage. "The only place you
can be safe is an English internment camp."

He chewed his knuckles with fierce intentness and thought the matter
over.

"A'm delayin' ma seventh warnin'," said Tam, "for A'm no' so sure that
McMahl is aboot. A've no' seen the wee chiel for a gay lang time."

"Honestly, Tam," said young Craig (the last of the Craigs, his two
brothers having been shot down over Lille), "do you really think you
scare Fritz?