Mr. Standfast

he Wings

akfast, Archie,' I said, '

ders, and had left us before the Somme to join the Flying Corps. I had heard that he had got his wings and had done well before Arras, and was now training pilots at home.

amused glances a

of life, sir?' he i

nted by the p

e snug in my little log hut, for that old image Gibbons won't blab. Or, tell you what, I've got an aunt who

rime I had committed, and I didn't propose to enlighten him much. But as we swung up the moorland road I let him know that I was serving the Govern

stunt. When I was at Misieux the French started out to camouflage the caravans where they keep their pigeo

ty on the far confines of the place. The hour was half past four, and the world was still asleep. Archie

rnton tomorrow,' he remarked. 'It's the n

lashed in

g this morni

ss wanted shootin' so badly that I decided to wangle another day's leave. They can't

ut fellow and start in two hours' time

to go tiger-shootin' with. But what price my commandant? He's not a bad c

inished. I promise you I'll make it all square with the Flying Corps. Get me down t

of breakfast, and then I'm your man.

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 calculat

mpare with him, for he hadn't made up his mind about Lensch. The Frenchman Guynemer he ranked hi

pilot's seat, while I squeezed in behind in the observer's place. The aerodrome was waking up, but I saw no officers about. We were scarce

ad,' I said. 'These l

urf I looked back and saw several figures running in our direction. The n

ce of light. The air was cold and my hands numbed, but I never felt them. As we throbbed and tore southward, sometimes bumping in eddies, sometimes swimming evenly in a stream of motionless ether, my head and heart grew as light as a boy's. I forgot all about the vexations of my job and saw only its joyful comedy. I didn't think that anything on earth could worry me again. Far to the left was a wedge of silver and beside it a cluster of toy houses. That must be Edinburgh, where reposed my portmanteau, and where

ellous element was this air, which took one far above the fatigues of humanity! Archie had done well to change. Peter had been the wise man. I felt a tremendous pity for my old friend hobbling about a German prison-yard, when he had once flown a hawk. I reflecte

s, and we bumped in perfectly calm patches of air. We dived and then climbed, but the confounded thing kept sputtering. Archie passed back a slip of paper on which he had scribbled: 'Engine conked. Must land at Micklegill. Very sorry.' So we dropped to a lower elevation where we cou

rchie achieved a clever descent in the lee of a belt of firs, and got out full of imprecations against the Gladas engine. 'I'll go up to the camp and report,' he said, 'and send mec

, as merry as a sand-boy, and lit a pipe. I was possessed by a boyish spirit of casual

in coming. Archie app

in five minutes if you don't leg it. I lied like billy-o and said I had never heard of you, but they're comin' to see for themselves. For God's sake get off ... You'd better keep in

back to town. I'll make for Bradfield, for this place is a bit conspicu

lown and men's cries. I struck a road, crossed it, and passed a ridge from which I had a view of Bradfield six miles off. And as I ran I began to reflect that this kind of chase could not last long. They were bound to

if I had gone off my head. As I plodded on the rattle of machine-guns was added, and over the ridge before me I saw the dust and fumes of bursting shel

f I did not look down

er lines there seemed the better part of two brigades, and the first trench was stiff with bayonets. My first thought was that Home Forces had gone dotty, for this kind of show could have no sort of traini

t, and troops had been turned out to make a war film. It occurred to me that if I were mixed up in t

slow, purposeful lope that I had seen in my own fellows at Arras. Smoke grenades burst among them, and now and then some resourceful mountebank would roll over. Alto

e that seems all right to his sitter. I should have thought the spectacle enough to get any cinema audience off their feet, but the man on the scaffolding near me judged differently. He made his megaphone boom like the swan-song of a dying buffalo. He wanted to change something and didn't know h

a torrent. For a moment I saw a red face and a loud-checked suit, and the rest was silence. He

good appearance as a movie-merchant. Two waves had gone over the top, and the cinema-men, working like beavers, had filmed the lot. But there was still a

ept my man into a shell-hole had reduced him to impotence. The troops seemed to be mainly in charge of N.C.O.s (I could imagine that the officers

it was part of the show, and the obedient cameras clicked at everything that came into their orbit. My aim was to deploy the troops on too narrow a front so that they were

s I had produced chaos. The flanks spread out, in spite of all the shepherding of the N.C.O.s, and the fringe engulfed the photographers. The cameras on their little platforms went do

was swept on and came to anchor in the enemy trenches, where I found, as I expected, my profane and breathless predecesso

permit. Unhappily I was far too great an object of interest to that nursery of heroes. Every boy scout is an amateur detective and hungry for knowledge. I was followed by several, wh

tone wall stood several bicycles. I

' said one boy sharply. 'He

said. 'Mr Emmott's my very

ve come downhill from the aerodrome and in all likelihood were the pursuers I had avoided. The exhilaration which I had won in the air and which had carried me into the tomfoolery of the past half-hour was ebbing. I had the hunted feeling once mor

wn the road when a boy scout, pedal

o see you,' he panted. 'Yo

,' I said. 'I'll pay my re

e faithful messenger. 'He's in an awful tem

le. I coasted down a long hill to a bridge which spanned a small discoloured stream that flowed in a wooded glen. There was nobody for the moment on the hill behind me, so I slipped into the covert, shoved the bicycle und

downs to the market-gardens round the city. I thanked Heaven I had got rid of the aquascutum, for the August afternoon w

an effective disguise. Indeed I very soon began to wonder if I should get even as far as the streets. For at the moment when I had got a lift on the back of a fishmonger's cart and was screened by its flapping canvas, two figur

lanes and the purlieus of great factories. As soon as I saw the streets well crowded I got out and walked. In my old clothes I must have appeared like so

oo, and put on the brake with a sharpness which caused him to skid and all but come to grief under the wheels of a wool-wagon. That gave me time to efface mys

put the top stone on my depression. The reaction from the wild burnout of the forenoon had left me very cold about the feet. I was getting into the under-world again and there was no chance of a second

urrying of people back from the mills. The crowd gave me a momentary sense of security,

low in mechanic's c

at o' yours here.' And to my amazeme

ght enough if you do what I tell you. There's a peeler ove

se through smelly courts into a tanyard and then by a narrow lane to the back-quarters of a factory. Twice we doubled back, and once we climbed a wall and followed the bank of a blue-black stream with a filthy scum on it

all parlour and looked at me long and quiz

's my business to put my services at y

ut his watch and showed a white-

riotism. One of them pinched your watch, and when he saw what was inside it he reported to me. We soon picked u

stions asked. They're looking for me in

he night train goes at eleven-thirty.... You'll find cigars in the cupboard and there's this

t. Then my host returned and bade me ascend to his bedroom. 'You're Private Henry Tomkins of the 12th Glouce

a lock which, when well oiled, curled over my forehead. My hands were hard and rough and only needed some grubbiness and hacking about the nails to pass muster. With my cap on the side of my head, a pack on my back, a service rifle in my hands, and my pock

me and Heaven knew how many others by means of a little purple-and-white cross in a watch-case. I remember we talked about the topics that used to be popular at Biggleswick-the big political things that begin with capital letters. He took Amos's view of the soundness of the British working-man, but he sa

thes as soon as you reach London. Private Tomkins will frank you out

riage. I had been lucky in my escape, for at the station entrance and on the platform I had noticed several men with the unmistakable look of pla