rple note of an organ."

We were haunted by it, too, for we were going to that very town. We
would see it long before our arrival--a cluster of quaint old houses
lying in the midst of pleasant fields, with roads curving toward it
from the north and south, as though they were glad to pass through so
delightful a place. Drew was for taking a leisurely route to the
eastward, so that we might look at some villages which lay some
distance off our course. I wanted to fly by compass in a direct line,
without following my map very closely. We had planned to fly together,
and were the more eager to do this because of an argument we had had
about the relative speed of our machines. He was certain that his was
the faster. I knew that, with mine, I could fly circles around him. As
we were not able to agree on the course, we decided to postpone the
race until we started on the homeward journey. Therefore, after we had
passed over the town, he waved his hand, bent off to the northeast,
and was soon out of sight.

I kept straight on, climbing steadily, until I was again at five
thousand feet. As before, my motor was running perfectly and I had
plenty of leisure to enjoy the always new sensation of flight and to
watch the wide expanse of magnificent country as it moved slowly past.
I let my mind lie fallow, and every now and then I would find it
hauling out fragments of old memories which I had forgotten that I
possessed.

I recalled, for the first time in many years, my earliest
interpretations of the meanings of all the phenomena of the heavens.
Two old janitor saints had charge of the floor of the skies. One of
them was a jolly old man who liked boys, and always kept the sky swept
clean and blue. The other took a sour delight in shirking his duties,
so that it might rain and spoil all our fun. Perhaps it was Drew's
sense of loneliness and helplessness so far from earth, which made me
think of winds and clouds in friendly human terms. However that may
be, these reveries, hardly worthy of a military airman, were abruptly
broken into.

All at once, I realized that, while my biplane was headed due north, I
was drifting north and west. This seemed strange. I puzzled over it
for some time, and then, brilliantly, in the manner of the novice,
deduced the reason: wind. I was being blown off my course, all the
while comfortably certain that I was flying in a direct line toward
R----. Our _moniteurs_ had often cautioned us against being