machines were mixed up and confused,
like the spots that come before the eyes of some one afflicted with a
liver.

From this pickle of dots one slowly descended and the trained observers
standing at a point of vantage whooped for joy, for that which seemed a
slow descent was, in reality, moving twice as fast as the swiftest
express train and, moreover, they knew by certain signs that it was
falling in flames.

A gray destroyer, its three stacks belching black smoke, cut through the
sea and circled about the debris of the burning machine. A little boat
danced through the waves and a young man was hauled from the wreckage
uttering strange and bitter words of hate.

They took him down to the ward-room of the destroyer and propped him in
the commander's armchair. A businesslike doctor dabbed two ugly cuts in
his head with iodine and deftly encircled his brow with a bandage. A
navigating lieutenant passed him a whisky-and-soda.

"If you speak English, my gentle lad," said the commander, "honor us
with your rank, title, and official number."

"Von Mahl," snapped the young man, "Royal Prussian Lieutenant of the
Guard."

"You take our breath away," said the commander. "Will you explain why
you were flying a British machine carrying the Allied marks?"

"I shall explain nothing," boomed the youth.

He was not pleasant to look upon, for his head was closely shaven and
his forehead receded. Not to be outdone in modesty, his chin was also
of a retiring character.

"Before I hand you over to the wild men of the Royal Naval Air Service,
who, I understand, eat little things like you on toast, would you like
to make any statement which will save you from the ignominious end which
awaits all enterprising young heroes who come camouflaging as
enterprising young Britons?"

Von Mahl hesitated.

"I came--because I saw the machine--it had fallen in our lines--it was
an impulse."

He slipped his hand into his closely buttoned tunic and withdrew a thick
wad of canvas-backed paper which, unfolded, revealed itself as a staff
map of England.

This he spread on the ward-room table and the commander observed that at
certain places little red circles had been drawn.

"Uppingleigh, Colnburn, Exchester," said the destroyer captain; "but
these aren't places of military importance--they are German internment
camps."

"Exactly!" said von Mahl; "that is where I go."

In this he spoke the truth, for to one of these he went.

C