tentimes the salvo of
bursting "Archies" all about him would make his nerves tighten a
bit. That morning he was at his best. He felt a calm confidence
in his machine that made flying her a real pleasure. It even added
spice to the flight to know they had to pass so dangerous a locality
before reaching the area which was their objective. Over that area
his observer was to hover sufficiently long to be able, on returning,
to concoct a reliable and intelligible summary of what had come within
his line of vision.

Carleton was soon busy with his glasses. A group of cars on a siding
near a station were carefully counted. A line of horse transport on
a country road was given considerable attention. Working parties
along a small waterway were spotted and located on the map. A score
of motor lorries, advertised by a floating dust cloud, scurried
along below, to duly come under Carleton's eye and be at once tabulated
by him for future reference. At one railway station a sufficient
amount of bustle caused Carleton to watch that locality carefully.

"That is odd," he mused. "New activity there this morning. Maybe the
Boches have planned an ammunition dump at that point. That is one
for the bombers."

Thus time passed. Archie was busy dodging his dangerous namesakes,
while Carleton focused his entire attention on gathering material
for his report.

Carleton did not watch the movements below, however, with more care
than Archie watched the sky on all sides for signs of enemy air-craft.
The American machine had been so long inside the enemy lines that a
German fighting plane might be expected at any moment. At last a
Boche plane did make its appearance, a mere brown speck, at first,
far ahead. Archie's signal to Carleton that trouble was ahead was
conveyed by giving the machine a slight rock as he started to climb.
Not much time was allowed for maneuvering. Carleton lost no time
in placing a disk on his Lewis gun, and as the German approached,
both observers opened up with a salvo. It was all over in a second.
Firing point blank, in that fraction of time spent in passing, both
had missed.

The excitement of that brief encounter, a mere matter of seconds
as the two swift planes swept out of each other's range, was hardly
past when the rattle of a machine-gun nearby and the _zipp!_ _zipp!_
as the bullets tore their way through the canvas, told of another
Boche machine at hand. Neither Archie nor Carleton could