ively, while the picket
himself sat on the stone wall by the roadside, smoking the Bremen cigar
which his corporal had given him after dinner.

The night was thick with stars. They were all so bright that at first he
did not notice the comet which sailed slowly toward him from the
northwest, seemingly following the line of the German intrenchments from
Amiens, St.-Quentin, and Laon toward Rheims and Epernay. But the comet
was there, dropping a long yellow beam of light upon the sleeping hosts
that were beleaguering the outer ring of the French fortifications.
Suddenly the repose of Biedenkopf's retrospections was abruptly
disconcerted by the distant pounding of hoofs far down the road from
Verdun. He sprang off the wall, took up his rifle, crossed the road,
hastily adjusted "Gretchen's" bridle, leaped into the saddle, and
awaited the night rider, whoever he might be. At a distance of three
hundred feet he cried: "Halt!" The rider drew rein, hastily gave the
countersign, and Biedenkopf, recognizing the aide-de-camp, saluted and
drew aside.

"There goes a lucky fellow," he said aloud. "Nothing to do but ride up
and down the roads, stopping wherever he sees a pleasant inn or a pretty
face, spending money like water, and never risking a hair of his head."

It never occurred to him that maybe his was the luck. And while the
aide-de-camp galloped on and the sound of his horse's hoofs grew fainter
and fainter down the road toward the village, the comet came sailing
swiftly on overhead, deluging the fortifications with a blinding
orange-yellow light. It could not have been more than a mile away when
Biedenkopf saw it. Instantly his trained eye recognized the fact that
this strange round object shooting through the air was no wandering
celestial body.

"_Ein Flieger!_" he cried hoarsely, staring at it in astonishment,
knowing full well that no dirigible or aeroplane of German manufacture
bore any resemblance to this extraordinary voyager of the air.

A hundred yards down the road his field telephone was attached to a
poplar, and casting one furtive look at the Flying Ring he galloped to
the tree and rang up the corporal of the guard. But at the very instant
that his call was answered a series of terrific detonations shook the
earth and set the wires roaring in the receiver, so that he could hear
nothing. One--two--three--four of them, followed by a distant answering
boom in the west.

And then the whole sky seemed full of