The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-05-10

often happened, there were no witnesses and moth
ing to confirm his from a1 official point OF
view. In the afternoon he went up again, and,
by no means discouraged with his mornings ex-
perience, he went to look for the enemy In the
neighborhood of the reservoir.
He was not long in appearing. Soulief soon saw
in his path an albatross bplane with three MI
traflleuses. Following his usual tactics, Soulier
dropped from the altitude in which he was fly
ing, always very high, and swiftly pursued the
enemy. The albatross sought to escape from at
tack, but was overtaken by light charge and
fell, spreading itself out on the earth and taking
fire. The deed was DONE but again the pilot look
ed about him for spectators who might supply the
confirmation necessary to his official recognition.
Unfortunately again there was no one who had
seen his triumph 80.
soulier, however, hardly had time to indulge
In bitter reflections before a new danger and a
new opportunity presented itself.
Some kilometers further on he perceived mag
nificent observation balloon, lighted by the rays
of the setting sun. .+
Where the Drachens are there are also the
bursts of shrapnel and toward the middle of these
clouds of black smoke Soulier guided his machine,
carrying it through the marvellous evolutions Of
which he is master. Again fate was against him,
for as he fired his twentieth cartridge his mi
trailleuse stopped and there was nothing Tor the
pilot to do but to return to his own camp.
Turning with the object of making for home
quarters, Soulier saw himself beset by new enc
mics.
Two thousand meters above his head four en-.
envy airplanes circled.
One of them came on at full speed and at 200
meters opened fire on him.
1t is at such moments as these that the aero.
batic flyer finds himself at the height of his glory
With every nerve taut, with every bit of skill
in play, he turns, twists and circles his
way out of such difficulties, and when he
comes through them successfully tastes for
moment glory almost unknown to other men,
A slide down the wing loop then all the ga
NUT of beautifully executed maneuvers-whose
most valuable quality is their faculty of keeping
the enemy crossing where the machine will be in
the next secondhand Soulier had succeeded in
showing his heels to the enemy Then, guiding
himself with hand and repairing his mtrail-
leuSe with the other, while at the same time he
continued his series of acrobatics Sollier winged
his way to the French lines, succeeding in throw
ing off the first one and then another of his adj
versaries.
To complete his mischance his motor weakened
He had only one resource-to do the death drop.
He let himself fall in spirals, and the Bosches
believing that he had been sent down, beat their
wings as If in dance of JOY
Then suddenly the dead" French aviator right
ed himself began to arm anew his mitrailleuse,
and with last shot at his enemy regained his
lines, able at last to say "alone."
The tolls and dangers of this terrible day had
counted for nothing, however, on the official rec
ord Of the young aviator, but the following day,
although his activities were by no means so con-
tnuous, was to bring him the substantial recogni.
ton that every war aviator longs for
By the same bright star as that of the day be-
fore he started on morning flight, passing rapid
~ over the enemy trenches. Presently perceiving
d. f. W. scout machine, he attacked it vigor-
ously.
In these single combats in which only two ma
chimes take part the fight is usually very soon
over. In three minutes the enemy had been beat
en-, the machine fell in flames and the two ayia-
tors were crushed on the ground On this occa.
sion observers in balloon and some infantry
troops had been able to follow the duel and re-
ported Official confirmation so eagerly desired.
That very night at the Bonne-M farm in q
friendly ceremony the new ace was baptized IN
champagne -