The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-09-23

finding their way, as a haze of light from
the ~searchlights can be seen twenty or
thirty miles off, the captain writes. AS
they draw nearer they see a maze of
fifteen or sixteen s"earchlights moving
restlessly over the town, looking for
some machines whose engine has been
heard. Suddenly, they see the red flash
of a bursting bomb and then another and
another. At once chains of brilliant
emerald-colored balls of fire pour up
wards in ceaseless lines, filling the sky
with green bubbles of light. The ma
chimes is not picked up, however, and
gradually, the lights and shell-fire die
away.
Nov they are drawing nearer, and
the observer crawls through a little door
into the nose of the machine, examines
his bomb=handle, and adjust the bomb
dropping sight. AS he kneels, a heavily
muffled figure, in his little wooden
cockpit, ten thousand feet over nothing.
that his surroundings seem to him per-
fectly normal; he is entirely at his ease.
Below. he sees the black line of the
canal, which he is using as a guide, He
turns the pilot to the left with a wave
VI HIS lldtluy dlid tllSil dSdiIl 10 llC flSit,
and stops him with an uplifted arm.
"Ahead he can see the dark mass Of
the town, and to the left the long lines
of the docks. Far to the left lies the
dark line Of the Belgian coast, and over
Ostende and Zeebruggee move the sem
tinel searchlights. Bruges lies dark and
dim, %snatching a brief rest from its
tumultuous night.
"The observer waves his hand, and
the roar Of the engines dies away into
silence, as the machine dives toward its
target. He unstraps his bomb handle
and leans far over the front, looking
down to the shining water of the dock,
absorbed in following the course of the
little metal bar of the sight. 1t touches
the docks and crosses them. With a
quick gesture, he guides the pilot to the
left, and the bar sweeps around and
crosses the section of the quay he wishes
to attack.
"He checks the pilot and holds his
bomb-lever in readiness. Hundreds of
Germans stand waiting at their guns,
machine guns, searchlights, and green
ball machines, but he thinks of nothing
save the passage of the metal bar across
the black mass between the two shining
strips of water.
Suddenly his sight registers the
range. He pushes the lever forward
slowly, pulls it back again, and again
it forward, and again and again.
From behind there comes the click and
CHATTER of fourteen dropping bombs.
He shouts to the pilot to turn, and
one huge wing climbs toward the stars {
as the machine sweeps round and away
from the weller of shells and search
lights that the explosion of the bombs
will bring.
Gazing downward, the observer sees
at the edge of the quay a red squirt of
flame which slowly dies away. Two
follow: in the water where lie
destroyers and submarines, and then
more and more burst on the sheds in
the middle. A white sheet of flame
bursts from one shed, and fading slowly
leaves a red glare. An ammunition
has been blown up. The other
burst across the wharves and
crowded basins, leaving huge clouds of
smoke where they have wrought
destruction.
simultaneously with the bursting of
The first bomb, hundreds of green balls
come streaming in swaying curves from
the ground, and pour upwards past the
wings on both sides. Like a handful of
ribbons the searchlights have been
thrown up and fill the sky with wands
Of light which wave a strange pattern
all around the machine. Gun-fire flashes
around the town, and close to the ma
chine now bursts the clamorous bar
rage.
at is an awe-inspiring din, but through
t the observer has heard the thud of
he bursting bombs below. He scramb1es
pack to the pilot and laughs. Search
lights sweep to and fro, fantastic strings
# green balls bubble upwards, and the
lash of the shells seems to fill the whole
ky.
"The machine roars on homewards
Trough a malstrom of flame and fire.
The attack has been pressed home, and
IN the docks of Bruges the ammunition
beds are shattered and in flames, and !