ven. Bets were freely made
by every man in my gun crew, with the odds of 5 to 1, that the Huns
would get it. Somehow I had an inspiration that she would navigate the
storm, and I took up all the offers in my battery against the bag--and
lost. Her mission of observation had been accomplished, but when she
got through the wires she floated to the wagon line, and the result of
her arrival here was disastrous in the extreme, as the German shells
followed the bag as assiduously as any bunch of schoolboys snowballing a
foe, and hundreds of splendid horses were mangled to a jelly by the
explosion amongst them.

When it got to the wagon line the crew on the truck commenced to pull it
down as rapidly as they could, but when half-way to the ground a flying
shell split the cable in twain as neatly as it could have been done with
a razor blade, and the bag floated away with the remaining two men out
over the German lines. When the descent had commenced two of the crew
had taken to their parachutes and got away safely.

Anti-aircraft guns now opened up on it from our lines in an endeavor to
destroy it and prevent it getting into the hands of the enemy, and
German airplanes and anti-aircraft guns were also firing at it, so that
it was a target for all concerned. This, perhaps, is about the only
incident in the entire war to date where both the British and the
Germans were equally bent upon the destruction of a common object.

The wind suddenly changed and a steady current of air in the other
direction brought it back over our own lines; then the two remaining men
seized the opportunity to leave the floater in their parachutes,
dropping to safety. A bevy of our planes then went after it, riddled it
with rifle bullets, causing the gas to escape, and it finally sank
majestically to the ground.

After the battle, I resumed my place at the gun and the usual day's
work. Two days later I was detailed to watch for airplanes and was
sitting crouched under a culvert, when the familiar humming struck my
ear. I could not at first locate it, and crawled out to have a better
look skyward, but still failed to place it. Presently the humming
stopped, and I thought it had departed, and seized the chance to go to
the cookhouse for a cup of tea. When almost there--Kr-kr-kr-p!
Kr-kr-kr-p! a slather of German guns had opened upon ours and the
fellows fled pell-mell from the gun pit and made for the culvert, taking
shelter underneath. They were there