High Adventure

, of a boom town in the Far West. Crude shelters of corrugated iron and rough pine boards faced

the old village, fragments of blackened wall, stone chimneys filled with accumulations of rubbish, garden-plots choked with

under their heavy packs. We were much better able than most of them to carry our belongings, to endure the fatigue of a long night march to billets or trenches; and we were w

aviators. But, hang it all! Of course, they couldn't be. Aviation is a young man's busin

stant booming of anti-aircraft guns. There were shouts in the street, "A Boche!" We hurried to the door of the café where we had been hiding. Officers were ordering the crowds off

. Some of them, seeing us at the door of the café, made pointed rema

vieux, not here," one of them said

s a Boche, not French, I can tell

y. Where are the French aviators? Soldiers forget that aerial frontiers must be guarded in two dimensions, and that it is always possible for an airman to penetrate far into enemy country. They do not see their own pilots on their long raids into German territory.

n their share of danger and death while in the trenches. To have their brief periods of rest behind the lines broke

. The German remained at a great heig

ng of tension, a tautness of muscles, a kind of ache in the throat. It set me to thinking of a conversation I had had with an old French pilot, several months before. It came apropos of nothing. Perhaps he thought that I was sizing him up, wondering how he could be content with an instructor's job while the war is i

talking abo

onally you will have six hours' flyi

Drew asked. "I don't suppose t

is a kind of standing joke. You think, now, that four hours a day over the lines is a light programme. For the first month or so you will go out on your own between times. After that, no. Of course, when they call for a voluntary

ot at all

o with the res

bridge. Walk. But sleep is the chief amusement. Eight hour

s are having it too soft. They ought t

's laziness. Let it go at that. Well, take it f

ew did all of the questioning, and thanks to his interest, I got

game after that: your skill against theirs. I couldn't do

ost never brought down by anti-aircraft fire. You are

ce on this sector, don't worry. I simply couldn't see them. The others w

you see, because very likely he will be a Frenchman, and if he isn't, if

several months' experience in Russia or the Balkans. They t

ng brought down will com

s comf

ve or six Germans in the most beautiful alignment. And they were all slanting up to dive on me. I was scared out of my life: went down full motor, then cut and fell into a vrille. Came out of that and had another look. T

l he saw the tracer bullets. Then the machine passed him about thirty metres away. And he kept going down: may have had motor trouble.

y, he can loaf on the job. He need never have a fight. At two hundred kilometres an hour, it won't take him very long to get out of danger. He stays out his two hours and comes in with some framed-up tale to account for his disappearance:

ham. What about Huston? i

likely Huston can't help it. Anyway,

lf by his bootlaces every time he crosses into Germany. But he sticks it. He has never p

t Talbott

erves. It's no job for th

tunities for research in the matter of personal bravery. Dunham and Miller agreed that it is a varying quality. S

me of the rest of us, only

e a coward, and that is more t

ploits of the Escadrille, written evidently by a very imaginative journalist; and from this the talk passed to the reputation of the Squadron in America, and the almost fabulous deeds credited to it by some newspaper correspondents. One pilot said that he had kept record of the number of German machines actually reported as having been brought down by members of the Corps. I don't remember the number

the journalistic history of the legendary Escadrille Lafayette. It is an account of a

declared war upon the rulers of Potsdam. For the first time in history, the Stars and Stripes of Old Glory were flung to the breeze over the camp, in France, of American fighting men. Inspired by the sight, and spurred to instant action by the ringi

vastly superior to their own in numbers. Heedless of the risk they swooped down upon their foe. Lieutenant A-- was attacked by four enemy planes at the same time. One he sent hurtling to the ground fifteen thousand feet below. He caused a second to retire disabled. Sergeant B-- accounted for another in a running fight which lasted for more than a quarter of an hour. Adjutant C--, although his biplane was riddled with bullet

counting them by more than half, we still had serious doubts of our ability to measure up to the standard set by our fellow Americans who had preceded us on active service. We

re "the police of the air," whose duty it is to patrol the lines, harass the enemy, attacking whenever possible, thus giving protection to their own corps-d'armée aircraft-which are only incidentally fighting machines-in their work of reconnaissance, photography, artillery direction, and the like. But we did not know how this general theory of combat is given practical application. When I think of the depths of our ignorance, to be filled in, day by day, with a little ad

ounded like impossible fictions. A few of them may have been, but not many. They were told simply, briefly, as a part of the day's work, by men who no longer thought of their adventures as being either very remarkable or ve

talking of these things the drone of motors overhead announced the departure of other patrols to battle-lines which were only five minutes distant by the route of the air. For when weather per

larger map, made of aeroplane photographs taken at a uniform altitude and so pieced together that the whole was a complete picture of our sector of front. We spent hours over this one. Every trench, every shell hole, every splintered tree or fragment of farmhouse wall stood out clearly. We could identify machine-gun posts an

phases of the struggle. With a series of these pictorial records, men will be able to find the trenches from which their fathers or grandfathers scrambled with their regiments to the attack, the wire entanglements which held up the advance at one point, the shell holes where they lay under

His bald head gleamed like the bottom of a yellow bowl. He said, "Beau temps, monsieur," put the candle on my table, and went out, closing the doo

ons sans Paroles." This was followed by a song, "Oh, movin' man, don't take ma baby grand." It was a strange combination, and to hear them, at

housand metres. J. B. and I were on high patrol. Owing to our inexperience, it was to be a purely defensive one between our observation balloons and the lines. We had still many qu

On the horizon, in the direction of the lines, there was a broad belt of blue sky. The wind was blowing into Germany. He came back yawning. "We

yawned symp

very pugnastic

men out at this time

should be late getting started. Ten minutes before patrol time we went out to the field. The canvas hangars billowed and flapped, and the wooden supports creaked

moke and oil; among these latter were the ones which J. B. and I were to fly. Being new pilots we were given used machines to begin with, and ours had already seen much ser

oved them in an almost personal way. Each machine had an Indian head, the symbol of the Lafayette Corps, painted on the sides of the fuselage. In addition, it bo

the wind-shields. In a moment every machine was turning over ralenti, with the purring sound of powerful engines which

d 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.

nsformation of a group of typical-looking Americans into monsters and de

ot know the rendezvous. I was already strapped in my machine and was about to

thousand over fi

odd

me start-lines, fall in behind-left. Remember stick close-patrol. If-get lost,

and taxied over to the starting-point, where the captain was superintending the send-off, and turned into the wind in my turn. As though conscious of his critical ey

, diving under me and climbing up again. It was fascinating to watch them doing stunts, to observe the constant changing of positions. Sometimes we seemed, all of us, to be hanging motionless, then rising and falling like small boats riding a heavy swell. Another glance would show one of them suspen

te as the mist, sunlight-filtered, closed around us. Emerging into the clear,

ng on

as, in fa?ry l

cate shades of rose and amethyst and gold. I saw the others risi

ill dusk on the ground and my first view was that of thousands of winking lights, the flashes of guns and of bursting shells. At tha

we crossed to the other side. The fort of Malmaison was a minute square, not as large as a postage-stamp. With thumb and forefinger I could have spanned the distance between Soissons and Laon. Clouds of smoke were rising from Allemant to Craonne, and these were constantly added to by

ing on one elbow out of the slime where he and his comrades wer

e is only a speck. When one speaks of the whole war, it's as if you said nothin

nd horror, is to have the sense of one's littleness even more painfully quickened. The b

on the work of identifying landmarks. It was useless. One might as well attempt to study Latin grammar at his

too, vanished as though it had melted into the air. Shutting my motor, I started down, swiftly, I thought; but I had not yet learned to fall vertically, and the others-I can say almost with truth-were miles below me. I passed long streamers of white smoke, crossing and recrossing in the air. I knew the meaning of these, machine-gun tracer bullets. The delicately penciled lines had not yet frayed out in the wind. I went on down

with an uneasy motion. Constantly searching the air, I gave no thought to my position with reference to the lines, nor to the possibility of anti-aircraft fire. Talbott had said: "Never fly in a straight line for more than fifteen seconds. Keep changing your direction constantly, but be careful not to fly in a regularly irreg

owed, two in front, and one behind, which I believed had wrecked my tail. They burst with a terrific rending sound in clouds of coal-black smoke. A few days before I had been watching without emo

let loose in war. In that moment one doesn't remember that men have loosed them. He is alone, and he sees the face of an utterly evil thing. Miller's advice was, "Think down to the gunners"; but this is

ern warfare as it touches the infantryman; but in one respect, at least, they are less

e may "waggle his flippers," or "flap his wings," to use the common expressions, and thus communicate with his comrades. Unfortunately for my ease of mind, there were

t to the right, then to the left. In order to let it settle, I should have to fly straight for some fixed point for at least half a minute. Under the circumstances I was not willing to do this. A compass which would point north immediately and always would be a heaven-sent blessing to the inexperienced pilot during his first few weeks at the front. Mine was sa

Miller. My love for concentric circles of red, white, and blue

e aerodrome. "Oh, man! you were fruit salad! Fruit salad

I was keeping my eyes open, and if he had been a Hun, the

his: Did y

moment, and th

he

passed ove

you would have been a sieve, i

oint to save fu

fidence returning in increasing waves. I began to use my head, and found that it was possible to make the German gunner

was wearing the other. He had also lighted the cork end of his cigarette. To one acqu

but I've just had the adventure of my life. I attacked a German. Great

was

e others dove.

"And I didn't know there was a German in sigh

only I didn't se

immensely. "Wh

kept straight on. I dove, but didn't open fire until I could have a nearer view of his black crosses. I wanted to be sure. I had no idea that I was going so much faster. The first thing I knew I w

come ho

e others just afterward. Now,

at had been seen by both Talbott and Porter. At

tics going into the subway. We saw them both when we were taking height again. T

y. Needn't worry about your

certainly protected

ff into Germany. Bill had to

ight have had it at his back. Then he came all the way in full view, instead of getting under his tail. Good thing the mitrailleur was firing at us. After that, when he had the chance of a lifetime,

at large, "Oh, movin' man, don't take ma baby grand!" I shall have only to close my eyes, and wait passively. First Tiffin will come with the lighted candle: "Beau temps, monsieur." I shall hear Talbott shouting, "Rendezvous two thousand over field. If-get lost-better-home." J.

ay exchange reminiscences. These need not be pretentious affairs. Let there be a strong odor of burnt castor oil and gasoline as you enter the door; a wide view from the verandas of earth and sky; maps on the walls; and on the roof

that, hearing the tale, a young man will long for another war. Then you must say to him, "But what about the shell fire? Tell us something of machines fal