Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-13
NIGHT AV|ATORS
DREAD SEARCHL|GHTS
They Are More Dreaded by Fly
ers Than Are High Ex-
plosives.

How many people who have seen night
after night the great white beams of the
scarchliahts move slowly across the dark
sky have wondered what are the sensations
of an airman at the other end Of themf
Scarchlights are cruel things, and are
moro nerve-racking to the airman than
high-explosives OF the chains of luminous
"greenballs-" They seem so alive, ~
though they had volition of their own,
and were great arms stretched out across
the night, sweeping the darkness with an
eager, Unsuitable desire to find their
quarry.
The harassed airman, haunted by
some white pencil of light which splits
the skies right beside the outstretched
wings OF his machine, pictures no group of
keen-eyed men moving the great steel
drum OF the searchlight to and fro, busily
adjusting taps and turning brass wheels;
but he sees q malignant personality
cold, remorseless enemy waving slowly
through the darkness like the tentacle OF
an octopus, which, once it touches Its
victim, Erasps him and drags him down.
Perhaps he is flying placidly over the
enemy territory in an area which he knows
has been hitherto undefended; his engines
roar on an unchecked diapason; he is
not very high and is not keeping a very
particular lookout, for ahead of him he
can see the lights of his destination,
and for the time he has no anxiety.
Suddenly he sees Immediately in front of
him beam of light moving up and down,
UP and down. He turns in immediate
action and looks over the side into the
depths Of the night to the dim country
lying below and see a little ahead of him
the cold white eye and the long piercing
- r.o--Ll,uE< ,tnevr1Ncf aI
place. II lies between him and his des :
tination, and he must pass over 1t.
Nearer and nearer il moves towards
him, weaving its way in wide sweeps
acroes the sky until It flashes over him,
and for a moment the machine is lit up
and he is conscious of a great pool of
intensely brilliant light, in which he seems
70 swim, and then it passes beyond him
but remains very near the machine, with
its suspicious thoroughly arousedi
The pilot throttlcs his engine and turns
slightly as he glides silently down the
night. The beam is, as it were, puzzled,
and moves slowly behind him as he glideS
farther and farther on, and soon he has
left it a long distance behind him. He
passes over the searchlight station and
begins 10 draw away from it. He feels
he is nearly free and looks at his height
indicator and finds he is dangerously low.
His hand moves to the throttle lever and
he presses il slowly forward
The roar of the engine sounds again In
his ears and the nose of the machine comes
up as it flies once more under its own
power-and the white beam OF light
in moment wheels over towards HIM.
He goes on and on, getting farther away
from tho cruel eye, but the blue-white
ribbon of light, ever growing fainter, still
feels rernorselessly for him, and he can
see it, now on his lett, now on his right,
now ahead Of him, stretching up from be
low the nose. 1t Is an exacung time AT
last holooks over the side to sec he has
left the source OF his trouble sufficiently
fer behind to feel no longer any anxiety
about it, as he is out Of effective range
of the beam
He goes on, ight-hearted again for the
moment, feeling as mouse must do when
it has been cornered by a cat and has been
playfully tapped few times by a heavy
paw, and has then, by a sudden move OF
strategy, managed TO escape to the safety
of its hole-London Mail.