the
wind which was following them on the outward run, and ultimately were
forced to earth owing to the exhaustion of the fuel supply during the
homeward trip; the increased task imposed upon the motor, which had to
battle hard to make headway, caused the fuel consumption per mile to
exceed calculations.

Then the venturesome airman cannot neglect another factor which is
adverse to his success. Hostile airmen lie in wait, and a fleet of
aeroplanes is kept ready for instant service. They permit the invader
to penetrate well into their territory and then ascend behind him to
cut off his retreat. True, the invader has the advantage of being on the
wing, while the ether is wide and deep, without any defined channels
of communication. But nine times out of ten the adventurous scout is
trapped. His chances of escape are slender, because his antagonists
dispose themselves strategically in the air. The invader outpaces one,
but in so doing comes within range of another. He is so harassed that he
either has to give fight, or, finding his retreat hopelessly cut off,
he makes a determined dash, trusting to his high speed to carry him
to safety. In these driving tactics the French and British airmen have
proved themselves adepts, more particularly the latter, as the chase
appeals to their sporting instincts. There is nothing so exhilarating as
a quarry who displays a determination to run the gauntlet.

The roving Teuton scout was considerably in evidence in the early days
of the war, but two or three weeks' experience emphasised the sad fact
that, in aerial strategy, he was hopelessly outmatched by his opponents.
His advantage of speed was nullified by the superior tactical and
strategical acumen of his antagonists, the result being that the German
airman, who has merely been trained along certain lines, who is in
many cases nothing more than a cog-wheel in a machine, and who is
proverbially slow-witted, has concluded that he is no match for the
airmen of the Allies. He found from bitter experience that nothing
afforded the Anglo-French military aviators such keen delight as to lie
in wait for a "rover," and then to swoop into the air to round him up.

The proportion of these individual scouts who were either brought down,
or only just succeeded in reaching safety within their own lines, and
who were able to exhibit serious wounds as evidence of the severity of
the aerial tussle, or the narrowness of the escape, has unnerved the