left, pushing the rudder bar with my right foot, then
with my left. Panic was in control. We must have dropped three thousand
feet before a sudden calmness came over me and I found this aerial
monster as gentle to manage as a perfectly bitted horse.

"But there was Jack, huddled on the floor at my feet with part of his
head gone. I remember leaning down and trying to pull him out of his
cramped position, and then came an eternity of stargazing. I wondered
why the stars didn't run into each other and crash. I leaned across the
fuselage and turned a pet-cock; a little spray of petrol came out with
the escaping air; the hands of two dials on the left side of the
cock-pit began turning slowly anti-clockwise; I forgot them and looked
at the stars. Later I pressed a button on the dashboard and looked out
at my starboard engine; a small dial was lit up. I looked at the port
engine, a similar dial was lit up. I took my right hand from the wheel
and pulled the throttle slightly back; again I star-gazed as if in a
dream and without any volition I closed the pet-cock which I had
previously opened.

"This was my first time in a Handley-Page, and I knew nothing of
pressures or temperatures. How long I flew I don't know; what direction
I should have flown I did not know at that time. Occasionally I glanced
at the compass and as well as I can remember the needle pointed west
generally, but I gave it no thought. Finally I pulled back the throttle
and began to glide. I leaned over the next seat and pulled two levers.
Remember that at this time I had never heard of shutters for the
radiators. Down I came into heavier and heavier atmosphere. I was calm
and happy. I never even gave the ground a thought, never even glanced at
it. I remember taking from a rack on my left a stubby revolver with a
huge bore, pointing it over the side and pulling the trigger, and I
watched a green light go slowly down and searchlights that were blinking
up at me went out. A few seconds later a knob on the dashboard seemed to
rivet my attention; it was a small knob exactly like an electric-light
switch. I began to play with this. To do this I had to lean forward and
stretch out my left arm; this action brought my face around to the
right, and as I played with the knob I saw a light blinking on my right
wing tip. I remember laughing at this.

"The plane took a sudden dip and I sat up. Just off to my right and very
little below me were lights on the ground in th