which operated the machine.

I was now ready. I had to risk the attentions of the snipers; it was
unavoidable. Little by little I raised the camera. It was now high
enough up, and ramming some sand against the tripod legs, I waited.

Had the Bosche seen it?

Three more minutes, then the mine. One minute went by; no shots! Another
minute went by. A bullet flew over my head. Immediately afterwards
another buried itself in the parapet, then another. Surely they would
hit it! Heavens how that last minute dragged! To be absolutely sure of
getting the mine from the very beginning, I decided to start exposing a
minute before time. It had to be done; reaching up, I started to expose.
Another and another bullet flew by.

Then the thing happened which I had been dreading. The Bosche opened a
machine-gun on me.

At that moment there was a violent convulsion of the ground, and with a
tremendous explosion the mine went up. It seemed as if the whole earth
in front of us had been lifted bodily hundreds of feet in the air.
Showers of bombs exploded, showing that it had been well under the
German position. Then with a mighty roar the earth and debris fell back
upon itself, forming a crater about 150 feet across. Would our men rush
the crater and occupy it? On that chance, I kept turning the handle.
The smoke subsided; nothing else happened.

The show was over. No, not quite; for as I hurriedly took down the
camera, I evidently put my head up a little too high. There was a crack,
and a shriek near my head, and my service cap was whisked off. The whole
thing happened like a flash of lightning. I dropped into the bottom of
the trench and picked up my cap. There, through the soft part of it,
just above the peak, were two holes where a bullet had passed through.
One inch nearer and it would have been through my head.

Can you realise what my thoughts were at that precise moment?

CHAPTER IX

FOURTEEN THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE GERMAN LINES

The First Kinematograph Film Taken of the Western Front--And
How I Took It Whilst Travelling Through the Air at Eighty
Miles an Hour--Under Shell-fire--Over Ypres--A Thrilling
Experience--And a Narrow Escape--A Five Thousand Foot Dive
Through Space.

"I feel confident I can manage it, and that the result will be both
instructive and unique, and provided the weather is clear and I get as
small a dose of 'Bosche' as possible, there is no reason why it
shouldn't b