to try to start up the engine. I hurried into the little canvaswalled room and gripped the metal starting handle, and tried to turn it again and again in vain. The sweat poured off my forehead, my arm ached, but I could do nothing. It would not move. I got back to the pilot, and told him. "All right!" he said. "I'll land her somehow !" We were getting near the aerodrome, on which, to my great relief, a machine was "taxying" towards the hangars. It was a relief to see that the aerodrome was clear, because, with no motive-power to take us off the ground again, or to swing us round in a hurry, we should be helpless if we were to land when some other machine was in the way, and we had to land at once. So, as we faced the wind, and I saw the pilot very wisely stop the other engine, I felt rather anxious, and hoped it was going to be all right. If "undershot," we might land on a shed or a hedge; if we "overshot," we might run into a ditch-there would be no means of preventing the calamity. The pilot must have perfect judgment, and must touch the ground at the right moment. we So I sat beside him, very tense and on the alert, longing to give my advice, but knowing it was best to keep silent, even if I thought he was wrong, lest I should confuse his judgment. Knowing he was probably feeling the strain of responsibility, since four other lives To the right we swung, and then to the left, as we did an "S" turn, to lessen our gliding distance. "Ripping, old man! We'll just-do-it- nicely. Hardly a bump!... Well! that was some landing!" The feat had been achieved, and we had landed with both propellers stopped. or Soon we were in the mess eating our "43-minute" hard-boiled eggs, drinking tea, and talking excitedly about the flight, our faces flushed with the wind, our hair dishevelled. Then the glow of pleasure is felt, when the flight is finished, the danger is over, and you can rest, feeling that the rest is well deserved. An evening report from a reconnaissance squadron informed us that the destroyers had been seen steaming into Ostend harbour. Our feelings can be imagined. Lost chances like that bite deep, and when I met the pilot many many months later on his return from a German prison camp, after the Armistice (for he had landed with engine failure behind the German lines), he said to me— "Oh, how I wished we had bombed those two destroyers! What a chance! What & chance!" This incident illustrates well the curious point of view of an air-bomber. If those destroyers had been British, and the pilot had ordered me to bomb them, I could have done so with equanimity. If at any time I had been sent at night to attack a British town I would have released my bombs with no feeling of horror; indeed I would not have had any feelings at all. At first sight that statement sounds brutal and incredible. Let me say that I could not stand on a beetle without a feeling of repugnance. It has made me feel sick to shoot an animal in pain. The idea of killing is repulsive to me. The explanation is that the airman dropping bombs does not drop them on human beings. He presses a lever when the metal bar of his bomb-sight crosses a certain portion of the "map" below him. It is merely a scientific operation. You never feel that there are human beings, soft oreatures of flesh and blood, below you. You are not conscious of the fear and misery, of the pain and death, you may be causing. You are entirely aloof. machine, whirling through the air with an awe-inspiring scream, and exploding with a cruel force as they strike the earth. It is as though I had pressed an electric switch, and had seen a lamp glow in response in some far distant signal station. If I had been taken to a scene of devastation, and had been shown a line of mutilated bodies, and had heard some one say "You did this!" I should have been overcome with remorse and sickness, and would have gone away in tears of shame and loathing. Yet in the air, when the handle has been thrust home for the last time, and the bombs are actually scattering their splinters of death, I would get back to my seat and laugh and say "That's done, Jimmy! Let's push home!" Once at Dunkerque I saw a street closed by a barrier, round which was a crowd of quiet people. There in the middle of it was a house which had been demolished by a German bomb during the night, and in the cellar lay thirty or forty dead or dying people. Men worked frantically at the crumbled wreckage. An ambulance drove through the barrier. Next to the driver sat an old man with the tears streaming down his cheeks. His wife lay dead in the back. I have knelt in the nose of the machine over my objective, and have pressed the bombhandle at the critical moment without ever having seen the bombs in the machine. After a certain time I have seen in the darkness below flash after flash leap up from the dim ground. In my mind those flashes have been caused by the movement of my handle. I have not thought of yellow bombs dropping out of the again!" I turned away with a feeling of horror, and said to my friend "I never want to bomb (To be continued.) ON PATROL.-IX. A.D. 400. A LONG low ship from the Orkneys' sailed, Three score sailormen singing as they baled We have a luck-charm Carved on the tiller, Cut in the fore-room Gods will protect us Carved in the mast we The Runes of Yggdrasil! But the Earl called down from the kicking tiller-head, "Six hands lay along to me! Tumble out the hawsers there, Skallagrim the Red! For a battle with a Berserk sea;, Sing a song of work, of a well-stayed mast, Of clinch and rivet and pine, Of a bull's-hide sail we can carry to the last Never mind the Runes on the bending tree Or the charms on the tiller that I hold, EXPERIENCES OF A WAR BABY. BY ONE. CHAPTER VIII.-BATTLE. marked the grave of some had we seen the wrecker As the whole world now props. They must have knows, noon on Wednesday, 31st May 1916, found the Grand Fleet in the eastern half of the North Sea, steering an easterly course. The day was fine and warm, a great change for the better after a stormy winter. The sea was absolutely calm, and the haze rendered the visibility low, though occasionally there were clear intervals when the visibility rose to about twelve miles. To all appearances we were having a very quiet and peaceful voyage. In the gun-room of the Penultimate there was not a murmur of war. The general opinion of those officers who worried about the reasons for our operations was, that we were engaged in one of the periodical " "sweeps of the North Sea. We had indulged in a number of these "stunts," all precisely similar, without seeing any ships other than a few Dutch fishing smacks. Occasionally we would steam through wreckage, floating timber, &c., evidence of Von Tirpitz's campaign against the shipping of the world. On one such occasion we steamed for half an hour through a mass of logs of wood, all preoisely similar in shape and size, and probably intended for railway sleepers or pit I was one of the afternoon watch-keepers, and at 12.30 P.M. made my way up to a hut above the fore-bridge, where I kept my watch at sea. As the weather was warm and the watch was not long, I took no extra clothes with me, a fact which I much regretted later. My duty was to look out for submarines, and report any suspicious objects in the water to the officer of the watch. In the hut, as well as myself, were eight men, of whom I was in charge. The early part of the watch was uneventful. The sea was so calm that the slightest ripple could be seen. I was beginning to feel the soothing effects of lunch, when I was galvanised into life by a report from the look-out man at my side "Suspicious objio' in the water two points on the port bow, sir." I searched the face of the waters on the bearing he had given, and sighted the "objic"." There was an undoubted swirl for the swirl was visible. Even so, it was undoubtedly my duty to report the fact to the officer of the watch, so that he might deal with the matter as he thought best. Especially was this the case, as another ship had reported the presence of submarines a few hours earlier. in the water, though no cause argument, and appeared very pleased. By applying my ear to the voice - pipe through which I reported, I could catch snatches of their conversation, though the look-out was not as bright as it should be. At first I could hear nothing but one officer repeating, "Der Tag, der Tag,' in 8 most cheerful tone, which made me wonder for his sanity. Then I heard more conversation, in which the words "Galatea" and "enemy cruisers appeared. Finally, some one read the signal aloud, from which it appeared that the light oruiser Galatea had reported that she was in touch with a squadron of cruisers, probably hostile. "Suspicious object in the water two points on the port bow, sir," I reported down my voice-pipe. "Very good," replied the O.O.W., and through my look. out slit I could see him searching for the supposed enemy with his glasses. I resumed my search, and in a few seconds sighted the cause of the disturbance. The water was very calm and clear, so that, at the height my hut was above sea-level, I could see some feet below the surface. About fifty yards ahead of the ship I saw a large fish swim lazily across our bow and disappear. Luckily, the officer of the watch did not see him, and continued to look for the submarine, with visions of D.S.O.'s and promotion looming large in his mind. His disappointment was a heartrending sight. At 2 P.M. there came 8 commotion on the bridge. A signal was shown to the officer of the watch, which apparently gave him much satisfaction, and shortly afterwards the captain and navigator arrived. The bridge was not far below me, and I watched the scene through my look-out slit. They were all engaged in an This, indeed, was news. In all probability we should find that the birds had flown before we got our chance, but at any rate this sweep would not be entirely blank. I told my look-outs what I had heard, which keyed them up to a greater pitch of watchfulness. We turned to the southward at once, and began to work up our speed. Ahead of us we could see the battle oruisers, about ten miles distant, flying along at high speed. Signals reporting the presence of the enemy came in with greater frequency, and from what I could gather from my voice-pipe, there was a hope that we might be in at the death, and even fire a shot or two. At four o'clock the ship's company went to action stations, as a preparation for any circumstances, The offi |