iers, to sit in the long room and thaw out; visiting officers from
other parts of the front dropped in for a meal, sure of a welcome and
a warm fire. As compared with the trenches, or even with the gunboats
on the canal, the station represented cheer, warmth; even, after the
working daylight hours, society.

There were several buildings. Outside near the bridge was the wireless
building, where an operator sat all the time with his receivers over
his ears. Not far from the main group was the great hangar of the
airship, and to that we went first. The hangar had been a machine shop
with a travelling crane. It had been partially cleared but the crane
still towered at one end. High above it, reached by a ladder, was a
door.

The young captain of the airship pointed up to it.

"My apartments!" he said.

"Do you mean to say that you sleep here?" I asked. For the building
was bitterly cold; one end had been knocked out to admit the airship,
and the wall had been replaced by great curtains of sailcloth to keep
out the wind.

"Of course," he replied. "I am always within call. There are sentries
also to guard the ship. It would be very easy to put it out of
commission."

The construction of the great balloon was explained to me carefully.
It was made of layer after layer of gold-beater's skin and contained
two ballonets--a small ship compared to the Zeppelins, and non-rigid
in type.

Underneath the great cigar-shaped bag hangs an aluminum car which
carries a crew of three men. The pilot sits in front at a wheel that
resembles the driving wheel of an automobile. Just behind him is the
observer, who also controls the wireless. The engineer is the third
man.

The wireless puzzled me. "Do you mean that when you go out on scouting
expeditions you can communicate with the station here?" I asked.

"It is quite possible. But when the airship goes out a wireless van
accompanies it, following along the roads. Messages are picked up by
the van and by a telephone connection sent to the various batteries."

It may be well to mention again the airship chart system by which the
entire region is numbered and lettered in small squares. Black lines
drawn across the detail map of the neighbourhood divide it into
lettered squares, A, B, C, and so forth, and these lettered squares
are again subdivided into four small squares, 1, 2, 3, 4. Thus the
direction B 4, or N 2, is a very specific one in directing the fire of
a battery.

"Did y