In addition, it bore the personal mark
of its pilot,--a triangle, a diamond, a straight band, or an
initial,--painted large so that it could be easily seen and recognized
in the air.

The mechanicians were getting the motors _en route_, arming the
machine guns, and giving a final polish to the glass of the
wind-shields. In a moment every machine was turning over _ralenti_,
with the purring sound of powerful engines which gives a voice to
one's feeling of excitement just before patrol time. There was no more
yawning, no languid movement.

Rodman was buttoning himself into a combination suit which appeared to
add another six inches to his six feet two. Barry, who was leading the
low patrol, wore a woolen helmet which left only his eyes uncovered.
I had not before noticed how they blazed and snapped. All his energy
seemed to be concentrated in them. Porter wore a leather face-mask,
with a lozenge-shaped breathing-hole, and slanted openings covered
with yellow glass for eyes. He was the most fiendish-looking demon of
them all. I was glad to turn from him to the Duke, who wore a
_passe-montagne_ of white silk which fitted him like a bonnet. As he
sat in his machine, adjusting his goggles, he might have passed for a
dear old lady preparing to read a chapter from the Book of Daniel. The
fur of Dunham's helmet had frayed out, so that it fitted around the
sides of his face and under the chin like a beard, the kind worn by
old-fashioned sailors.

The strain of waiting patiently for the start was trying. The sudden
transformation of a group of typical-looking Americans into monsters
and devotional old ladies gave a moment of diversion which helped to
relieve it.

I heard Talbott shouting his parting instructions and remembered that
I did not know the rendezvous. I was already strapped in my machine
and was about to loosen the fastenings, when he came over and climbed
on the step of the car.

"Rendezvous two thousand over field!" he yelled.

I nodded.

"Know me--Big T--wings--fuselage. I'll--turning right. You and others
left. When--see me start--lines, fall in behind--left. Remember stick
close--patrol. If--get lost, better--home. Compass southwest. Look
carefully--landmarks going out. Got--straight?"

I nodded again to show that I understood. Machines of both patrols
were rolling across the field, a mechanician running along beside each
one. I joined the long line, and taxied over to the starting-point,
where the cap