fog, which still
hung over the aerodrome, I had misjudged our position. We found we
were much nearer the end of the ground than I had imagined. In front
of us there loomed suddenly a boundary wall, against which it seemed
probable we should dash ourselves. There were no brakes on the machine;
no way of checking it from the driving seat. Our position seemed
critical.

It was now that I shouted to my friend, telling him to jump out of the
machine as best he could, and catch hold of the wooden framework
behind the planes, allowing the machine to drag him along the ground,
and so using the weight of his body as a brake. This, with great
dexterity, he managed to do, and we came to a standstill not more than
a foot or so from the wall. This proved a chastening experience; we
pictured our aeroplane dashed against the wall, and reduced to a mass
of wreckage. Very cautiously we lifted round the tail of the machine.
It was impossible to switch off the motor and have a rest, because, if
we had stopped it, we should not have been able to start it again
without our gear, which was away on the other side of the ground.

Now, having got the machine into position for a return trip across the
aerodrome, I accelerated the engine, and we started off back. For
about twenty minutes, without further incident, we ran to and fro; and
now I felt that I had the machine well in control--on the ground at
any rate. And so the next thing was to rise from the ground into the
air. I told my friend my intention, calling to him above the noise of
the motor; and I admired him for the calm way in which he received my
news. I should not have been surprised if he had demanded that I
should slow up the machine and let him scramble out. In those days it
was thought dangerous to go up even with a skilled and more or less
experienced pilot. How much greater, therefore, must have seemed the
risk of making a trial flight with me--a complete novice in the
control of a machine. But my friend nodded and sat still in his seat.
So I accelerated the motor and raised very slightly our rear elevating
plane. And then we felt we were off the ground! There was no longer
any sensation of our contact with the earth--no jolting, no vibration.
In a moment or so, it seemed, the monoplane was passing through the
air at a height of about 30 feet. This, to our inexperienced eyes,
appeared a very great altitude; and I made up my mind at once to
descend. This manoeuvre, that of mak