faces raised towards this new yet familiar portent. And as we gazed the
green rays were borne beyond the cloud bank and were seen moving more
and more rapidly against the dark blue of the star-lit heavens. Moved as
by one impulse, we plunged into the snow and took a few steps, as though
to gain a nearer view of this strangely beautiful object. Almost
immediately it was above us and the thuttering roar of its machinery
came dully to our ears in waves and sharp gusts of sound. And we cried
"Oh!" involuntarily, for we could see the dark spread of the vans
plunging frantically in the air. I remember I stretched out my arms in
an impotent gesture of aid, for with the speed of a bird of prey the
dark mass lurched in a flat swaying parabola towards the earth, spinning
the while upon itself, and striking the deep bed of snow, burst into a
mass of blinding flame.

So sudden was the catastrophe that we stood there in the brilliantly
illuminated snow, rigid with stupefaction, staring at the intense glare.
A patrolman rushed up to us and asked in a scared way what it was.
Receiving no reply, he ran forward a few steps, throwing us into
temporary shadow, looked round uncertainly, and then struck with a fresh
idea, plunged into the road and made for the fire call-box at the
corner. And almost as though his presence had been the cause of the
fire, it dimmed, flickered, flared and went out, leaving us in darkness.
Slowly we moved towards it. The patrolman came back. We reached a black
hole in the snow and tripped over twisted snarls of wire. We heard the
patrolman asking urgently what had happened.

"It is finished, all finished," I said vaguely.

"Sure," he said, "but what was it anyhow?"

"I think," I replied, "that it was an aeroplane. It came down, you know,
and the gasoline caught fire, and...." I found a box of matches and
struck a light, but the wind blew it out.

And then other people began to arrive.

* * * * *

The following day was memorable to us, as I have hinted, for it revealed
to us the enterprise of a modern free and enlightened press. Bill said
no husband of her's should ever take assignments to interview people if
that was the way of it. But the day after that was memorable, to me
especially. The hue and cry was gone, our little happenings were
forgotten and some other home was besieged by the reporters. I had
started out on the frozen snow to go to the post-office with some
man