New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-08-16

When darkness comes you realize
that, at any rate. he won't be back tina
night, and you hope for a telephone
call from him telling of his where
abouts.
II the night passes without sign OF
word from him, he Is reported as miss
Ing and then you watch for his cns
ualty to appear in the war office lists
One day, perhaps a month later. Il
message is dropped over the line by
the German flying corps with n list OF
pilots captured or killed by the Huns
and then. for the first time, you know
definitely why it was your comrade
failed to return the day he last went
over the line with his squadron.
was still musing over this melan-
choly phase of the scouts life when
an orderly told me there wa a beauti-
full battle going on in the air, and he
volunteered to help me outside the
hospital that ! might witness it, and
readily accepted his assistance.
That afternoon l saw one of the
earnest fights l Yer expect to witness.
There We're six of our machines
against perhaps sixteen Huns. From
the type of the British machines l knew
that they might possibly be from my
own aerOdrOme. Two of our machines
had been apparently picked out by
six of the Huns and were bearing the
brunt of the fight. The contest seemed
to me to be so unequal that victory for
our men was hardly to be thought of,
and yet ut one time they so completely
outmaneuvered the Huns that
thought their superior skill might save
the day for them, despite the fact that
they were so hopelessly ou~tnumbered.
one thing | was sure of: they would
never give in.
OF course, 1t would have been a com
paratively simple matter for our men,
when they saw how things were going
against them, to have turned their
noses down. landed behind the Ger
man lines and given themselves up as
prisoners, but that is not the way of
the II. +. &.
A battle of this kind seldom lasts
many minutes, although every second
seems like IN hour to those who par
ticipate in it, and even OnlOokers suf-
fer more thrills in the course of the
struggle than they would ordinarily
experience in a lifetime. 1t is appar-
ent even to n novice that the losers
fate Is death.
OF course, the Germans around the
were all watching and roofing
for their comrades, but the English,
too, had n sympathizer in that group
who made no effort to stifle his admira-
ton for the bravery his countrymen
displaying.
The end came suddenly. Four ma
chimes crashed to earth almost stimuli
ta~neously. 1t was an even break-two
Of theirs and two of ours. The others
returned to their respective
ines.
The wound in my mouth made it i'm
for me to speak. but by means
n pencil and paper | requested one
If the German officers to find out for
ne who the English officers were who
been shot down.
a little later he returned and handed
n photograph taken from the body
II of the victims. 1t was n picture
If Paul Raney of Toronto, and myself.
aiken together! Poor Raney! He was
he best friend | had and n of the
and gamest men who ever fought
n France.
1t was he, I learned long after, who,
'hcn | was reported missing, had
over all my belongings and ,
them back, to England with a
igned memorandum-which is now in
ny possession. Poor fellow, he little |
then that but a day or two
ater he would be engaged in his last 5
eroic battle with me a helpless on {
,
The same German officer who A,
me the photograph also drew q
map for me of the exac spot where
fancy was buried I'm Flanders. n
1t carefully all through my {
Ibsequent adventures and finally n
Ii over to his father and mother Il
hen visited them in Toronto to per-
,rm the hardest and saddest duty q
ave ever been called upon to execute l
to confirm to them In person the Il
dings of poor Paul's death. I
The other British pilot who fell was 4
so from my squadron and a a a
lew well-Lieutenant Keith of Aus /.
ALA. ! had given him a picture OF v
yself only a few hours before I start n
on my " disastrous flight. He Il
as n of the star pilots of our squad v
IN and had been In many a desperate 81
before. but this time the odds II
ere too great for him. He put up a II
onderful fight and he gave as much Of
he took. II
The next two days passed without "
cident and I was then taken to the m
telligence department of the German W
ing corps, which was located about T
hour from the hospital. There I was b.
'pt two days. during which time they Il
1t a thousand and one questions to h
e. While I was there I turned over OF
them the message I had written In
e hospital and asked them to have OF
e of their flyers drop it on our side &C
the line. til
They asked me where I would like to of
1t dropped. thinking perhaps 1 se
mid give my strdrome away, but