nd through it nothing looked familiar. I
knew the direction of our lines by the position of the sun, but I was
in a suspicious mood. My motor, which I had praised to the heavens to
the other pilots, had let me down at a critical moment. The sun might
be ready to play some fantastic trick. I had to steer by it, although
I was uneasy until I came within sight of our observation balloons. I
identified them as French by sailing close to one of them so that I
could see the tricolor pennant floating out from a cord on the bag.

Then, being safe, I put my old Spad through every antic we two had
ever done together. The observers in the balloons must have thought me
crazy, a pilot running amuck from aerial shell shock. I had discovered
a new meaning for that "grand and glorious feeling" which is so often
the subject of Briggs's cartoons.

Looking at my watch I received the same old start of surprise upon
learning how much of wisdom one may accumulate in a half-hour of
aerial adventure. I had still an hour and a half to get through with
before I could go home with a clear conscience. Therefore, taking
height again, I went cautiously, gingerly, watchfully, toward the
lines.

X

"MAIS OUI, MON VIEUX!"

The "grand and glorious feeling" is one of the finest compensations
for this uncertain life in the air. One has it every time he turns
from the lines toward--home! It comes in richer glow, if hazardous
work has been done, after moments of strain, uncertainty, when the
result of a combat sways back and forth; and it gushes up like a
fountain, when, after making a forced landing in what appears to be
enemy territory, you find yourself among friends.

Late this afternoon we started, four of us, with Davis as leader, to
make the usual two-hour sortie over the lines. No Germans were
sighted, and after an uneventful half-hour, Davis, who is always
springing these surprises, decided to stalk them in their lairs. The
clouds were at the right altitude for this, and there were gaps in
them over which we could hover, examining roads, railroads, villages,
cantonments. The danger of attack was negligible. We could easily
escape any large hostile patrol by dodging into the clouds. But the
wind was unfavorable for such a reconnaissance. It was blowing into
Germany. We would have it dead against us on the journey home.

We played about for a half-hour, blown by a strong wind farther in