?" said Tam, "'Fritz Fokker' doon? Puir laddie! He were a gay
fichter--who straffit him?"

"You did--he was the man you shot down yesterday."

Tam's eyes were bright with excitement.

"Ye're fulin' me noo?" he asked eagerly. "It wisna me that straffit him?
Puir auld Freetz! It were a bonnie an' a carefu' shot that got him. He
wis above me, d'ye ken? 'Ah naw!' says I. 'Ye'll no try that tailbitin'
trick on Tam,' says I; 'naw, Freetz--!' An' I maneuvered to miss him. I
put a drum into him at close range an' the puir feller side-slippit an'
nose-dived. Noo was it Freetz, then? Weel, weel!"

"We want you to take a wreath over--he'll be buried at Ludezeel."

"With the verra greatest pleasure," said Tam heartily, "and if ye'll no
mind, Captain, A'd like to compose a wee vairse to pit in the box."

For two hours Tam struggled heroically with his composition. At the end
of that time he produced with awkward and unusual diffidence a poem
written in his sprawling hand and addressed:

Dedication to Mr. von Sidlits
By Tam of the Scoots

"I'll read you the poem, Captain Blackie, sir-r," said Tam nervously,
and after much coughing he read:

"A graund an' nooble clood
Was the flyin' hero's shrood
Who dies at half-past seven
And he verra well desairves
The place that God resairves
For the men who die in Heaven.

"A've signed it, 'Kind regards an' deepest sympathy wi' a' his loved
ains,'" said Tam. "A' didna say A' killit him--it would no be delicate."

The wreath in a tin box, firmly corded and attached to a little
parachute, was placed in the fuselage of a small Morane--his own machine
being in the hands of the mechanics--and Tam climbed into the seat. In
five minutes he was pushing up at the steep angle which represented the
extreme angle at which a man can fly. Tam never employed a lesser one.

He had learnt just what an aeroplane could do, and it was exactly all
that he called for. Soon he was above the lines and was heading for
Ludezeel. Archies blazed and banged at him, leaving a trail of puff
balls to mark his course; an enemy scout came out of the clouds to
engage him and was avoided, for the corps made it a point of honor not
to fight when engaged on such a mission as was Tam's.

Evidently the enemy scout realized the business of this lone British
flyer and must have signaled his views to the earth, for the
anti-aircraft batteries suddenly ceased fire, and when, approa