odded towards one of the hangars, from the mouth of which
projected the propeller end of an aeroplane.

'I'm by way of flyin' that bus down to Farnton tomorrow,' he remarked.
'It's the new Shark-Gladas. Got a mouth like a tree.'

An idea flashed into my mind.

'You're going this morning,' I said.

'How did you know?' he exclaimed. 'I'm due to go today, but the grouse
up in Caithness wanted shootin' so badly that I decided to wangle
another day's leave. They can't expect a man to start for the south of
England when he's just off a frowsy journey.'

'All the same you're going to be a stout fellow and start in two hours'
time. And you're going to take me with you.'

He stared blankly, and then burst into a roar of laughter. 'You're the
man to go tiger-shootin' with. But what price my commandant? He's not a
bad chap, but a trifle shaggy about the fetlocks. He won't appreciate
the joke.'

'He needn't know. He mustn't know. This is an affair between you and me
till it's finished. I promise you I'll make it all square with the
Flying Corps. Get me down to Farnton before evening, and you'll have
done a good piece of work for the country.'

'Right-o! Let's have a tub and a bit of breakfast, and then I'm your
man. I'll tell them to get the bus ready.'

In Archie's bedroom I washed and shaved and borrowed a green tweed cap
and a brand-new Aquascutum. The latter covered the deficiencies of my
raiment, and when I commandeered a pair of gloves I felt almost
respectable. Gibbons, who seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades, cooked us
some bacon and an omelette, and as he ate Archie yarned. In the
battalion his conversation had been mostly of race-meetings and the
forsaken delights of town, but now he had forgotten all that, and, like
every good airman I have ever known, wallowed enthusiastically in
'shop'. I have a deep respect for the Flying Corps, but it is apt to
change its jargon every month, and its conversation is hard for the
layman to follow. He was desperately keen about the war, which he saw
wholly from the viewpoint of the air. Arras to him was over before the
infantry crossed the top, and the tough bit of the Somme was October,
not September. He calculated that the big air-fighting had not come
along yet, and all he hoped for was to be allowed out to France to have
his share in it. Like all good airmen, too, he was very modest about
himself. 'I've done a bit of steeple-chasin' and huntin' and I've good
hands for a hor