first solo."

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Colonel Marker. "You talk as if you knew
all about the different machines. You have never worked around them,
have you?"

"Those of us that happen to be off duty at headquarters generally spend
our spare time around the machines, and, of course, we hear the talk
that goes on. I am sorry if I have said what I shouldn't, sir."

"Tut, tut!" from the colonel. "You have said nothing wrong. You may
be quite right. I have known of machines that had bad habits, plenty
of them. But if they let that lad take his solo in the machine it
must be all right."

Ten minutes later Colonel Marker was at the back of a hangar inspecting
a newly arrived scout machine of a much---discussed type when he heard
a shout from outside. A moment later a soldier came into the hangar
and reported a bad smash. The colonel walked to the door. There
across the meadow, was a wrecked airplane. Men were picking up the
still form of the pilot beside it. Parks, seeing the colonel,
pulled up in his runabout to take the colonel with him to the wreck.

"Looks bad, sir," said Parks. "They had orders not to let novices
go up in that machine. I hope the boy is not badly hurt."

"Was it the 'bad bus' that smashed?" asked the colonel.

"Yes, sir. That is what some of the boys called her. She is not a
really bad machine, but plays tricks."

"Did you see what she did this time?"

"Yes, sir. I was looking at her from the end hangar. I was some
distance away, but I happened to have my eye on her as she crocked."

"Did she side-slip?"

"That is just what she did do." Parks glanced at Colonel Marker
inquisitively. What was the colonel driving at?

"The reason I asked," said the colonel, "was on account of something
one of those Brighton boys remarked to me not more than ten minutes
before the smash. He said the 'bad bus'---as he called it---side-slipped
at times unexpectedly. Those youngsters do pick things up, don't they?"

Just then they reached the scene of the accident, and both of them
forgot the Brighton boys for the moment.

The machine was smashed badly and the young pilot had received a
broken leg in addition to a nasty shaking.

"I think I will let that plane go," said Parks as he and the colonel
drove toward the hangars. "I will just pile up the old thing and let
her sit in a corner until I need her worse than I do now. She has
played her last trick for a while. You were speaking