The Cordova daily times., 1917-03-09
DEATH |S OTHER FELLOW WITH
 Av|ATORS
(By United Press)

other fellow. He is always hot on your trail and every now and then he gets you in a corner. Then you're it.
 Get the major to tell you how he was carried over the German lines and back again all in one night" said the young lieutenant, as he tugged at the end of tiny wire cable, in the little basket under the sausage" high in the wintry sky. But the major was too modest. He said:
 "Oh, all right. I'll tell you about it after dinner tonight" He did not like to talk about his own exploit, though he mentioned several of his men who had been the heroes of ad- ventures in the clouds. But did get to read the official report of the in cident, and this was the story:
 Shortly after midnight one night, the major, after carrying out certain experiments at about a mile high, sig, nailed that he was ready to come down. The winch on the big lorry in the road began to grind and at 12:17 a. m. the sausage was swaying just out of reach of the landing squad. Then, by "an error of judgment" as the report puts it, the winch turned revolution too far. The metallic V, where the balloons short cord was spliced to the wire cable parted like piece of sewing thread.
 With bound that jerked the basket this way and that like a ball on the end of an elastic string, the balloon went skying.
 At 12:12 a. m., the balloon was a mile high. The major had not used his parachute, to which the harness about him was still attached, because the wind at mile. and below, was away from the German lines, which ran some two miles away. Instead he pulled at the valve cord to let the gas in the sausage out.
 Still "valving," to use the vernacu- lar of the game, the officer, at 12:27 a. m. found himself at above 10000 feet, or about two miles above the earth. It was bitter cold and getting colder every instant.
 At 12:40 a. m, he passed the 15,0O0 foot mark. Though he had been keep ing the valve wide open all the time, the balloon still scared.
 How he looked downward. There were lights below, lights which flared up for minute then went out; great, white balls of light hanging in the air and Illuminating the countryside beneath them.
 The major, in his sausage, was crossing the line" He knew in an instant what had happened. He had risen to a high cross current of air and was being swept over the German trenches into German territory.
 It was too late to jump now. If he tried the parachute and landed safe ly 1t would be only to be taken pris- oner by the enemy.
 So cold that his marrow seemed frozen, he now set about to tear up his maps. notes and everything that might help the Germans. Leaning out of the basket and peering down he could no longer see the flares sent up to light the trenches. The indicator showed that he was falling now, rath- CT rapidly. Making sure that he had destroyed all papers, he waited.
 Still falling, the major threw out some ballast to check the rapid des- cent. One faint hope still was left him: he might be blown back across his own lines again by the air cur rents nearer the ground
 So much as he could he husbanded his ballast and his gas, jockeying the national race, his prize for winning be- ing his freedom. If he lost the best he could hope for was prisoner of war for the duration of hostilities. There could be no half way.
 At mile high, the balloon was still dropping. though slowly. No lights were visible anywhere. The sky was murky and there were no stars to serve as guides. It was to be a fight in the dark, hit or miss without see ing what he was doing. The absence of trench flares looked bad. He must have drifted far behind the German lines.
 After a time the faint outlines of fields, houses, trees and haystacks began to loom up and presently, with fairly hard bump, the basket struck the earth, bounding up again some 200 feet. After few of these bounds the officer, calculating the right mo ment as best he could in the dark pulled the rip cord to let out the gas
 The rip cord broke at the point where it entered the balloon!
 Suddenly the balloon came to hal just above the ground. There were voices beneath. There was a momen of suspense, then the major heard 1T good English:
 Lively there! Get into those ropes you blighters." A squad of Britisl Tommies soon had the sausage an chored. It had been blown back owe