ne from the beginning; and the Bleriot,
which requires the most delicate and sensitive handling, offers
excellent preliminary schooling for the Nieuport and Spad, the fast
and high-powered biplanes which are the _avions de chasse_ above the
French lines.

A spice of interest was added to the morning's thrills when an
American, not to be outdone by his French compatriot, wrecked a
machine so completely that it seemed incredible that he could have
escaped without serious injury. But he did, and then we witnessed the
amusing spectacle of an American, who had no French at all, explaining
through the interpreter just how the accident had happened. I saw his
_moniteur_, who knew no English, grin in a relieved kind of way when
the American crawled out from under the wreckage. The reception
committee whispered to me, "This is Pourquoi, the best bawler-out
we've got. 'Pourquoi?' is always his first broadside. Then he wades in
and you can hear him from one end of the field to the other.
_Attendez!_ this is going to be rich!"

Both of them started talking at once, the _moniteur_ in French and the
American in English. Then they turned to the interpreter, and any one
witnessing the conversation from a distance would have thought that he
was the culprit. The American had left the ground with the wind behind
him, a serious fault in an airman, and he knew it very well.

"Look here, Pete," he said; "tell him I know it was my fault. Tell him
I took a Steve Brody. I wanted to see if the old cuckoo had any pep in
'er. When I--"

"Pourquoi? Nom de Dieu! Qu'est-ce que je vous ai dit? Jamais faire
comme ca! Jamais monter avec le vent en arriere! Jamais! Jamais!"

The others listened in hilarious silence while the interpreter turned
first to one and then to the other. "Tell him I took a Steve Brody." I
wondered if he translated that literally. Steve took a chance, but it
is hardly to be expected that a Frenchman would know of that daring
gentleman's history. In this connection, I remember a little talk on
caution which was given to us, later, by an English-speaking
_moniteur_. It was after rather a serious accident, for which the
spirit of Steve Brody was again responsible.

"You Americans," he said, "when you go to the front you will get the
Boche; but let me tell you, they will kill many of you. Not one or
two; very many."

Accidents delayed the work of flying scarcely at all. As soon as a
machine was wrecked, Annamites appeared on