, climbing,
circling and all the time firing "_ticka--ticka--ticka--ticka!_" through
his propellers.

The fight is going badly for the bold fighting machine, when suddenly
like a hawk, Tam o' the Scoots sweeps upon his prey. One of the enemy
side-slips, dives and streaks to the earth, leaving a cloud of smoke to
mark his unsubstantial path. As for the others, they bank over and go
home. One falls in spirals within the enemy's lines. Rescuer and rescued
land together. The fighting-machine pilot is Lieutenant Burnley; the
observer, shot through the hand, but cheerful, is Captain Forsyn.

"Did ye no' feel a sense o' gratitude to the Almighty when you kent it
were Tam sittin' aloft like a wee angel?"

"I thought it was a bombing machine that had come back," said Burnley
untruthfully.

"Did ye hear that, sir-rs?" asked Tam wrathfully. "For a grown officer
an' gentleman haulding the certeeficate of the Royal Flying Coorp, to
think ma machine were a bomber! Did ye no' look oop an' see me? Did ye
no' look thankfully at yeer obsairvor, when, wi' a hooricane roar, the
Terror of the Air-r hurtled across the sky--'Saved!' ye said to yersel';
'saved--an' by Tam! What can I do to shaw ma appreciation of the hero's
devotion? Why!' ye said to yersel', soodenly, 'Why! A'll gi' him a box
o' seegairs sent to me by ma rich uncle fra' Glasgae--!'"

"You can have two cigars, Tam--I'll see you to the devil before I give
you any more--I only had fifty in the first place."

"Two's no' many," said Tam calmly, "but A've na doot A'll enjoy them wi'
ma educated palate better than you, sir-r--seegairs are for men an' no'
for bairns, an' ye'd save yersel' an awfu' feelin' o' seekness if ye
gave me a'."

Tam lived with the men--he had the rank of sergeant, but he was as much
Tam to the private mechanic as he was to the officers. His pay was good
and sufficient. He had shocked that section of the Corps Comforts
Committee which devoted its energies to the collection and dispatch of
literature, by requesting that a special effort be made to keep him
supplied "wi' th' latest bluids." A member of the Committee with a
sneaking regard for this type of literature took it upon himself to
ransack London for penny dreadfuls, and Tam received a generous stock
with regularity.

"A'm no' so fond o' th' new style," he said; "the detective stoory is
verra guid in its way for hame consumption, but A' prefair the mair
preemative discreeptions, of how that gra