l upon France! And yet ... and yet....

* * * * *

There were countless eyes turned skyward as a thousand bells rang out
the hour of ten; and countless ears heard faintly the sound of gunfire
from the north.

My work had brought me into contact with high officials of the French
Government; I was privileged to stand with a group of them where a
high-roofed building gave a vantage point for observation. With them I
saw the menacing specks on the horizon; I saw them come on with deadly
deliberation--come on and on in an ever-growing armada that filled the
sky.

Wireless had brought the report of their flight high over Germany; it
was bringing now the story of disaster from the northern front. A
heavy air-force had been concentrated there; and now the steady stream
of radio messages came on flimsy sheets to the group about me, while
they clustered to read the incredible words. They cursed and glared at
one another, those French officials, as if daring their fellows to
believe the truth; then, silent and white of face, they reached numbly
for each following sheet that messengers brought--until they knew at
last that the air-force of France was no more....

The roar of the approaching host was deafening in our ears. Red--red
as blood!--and each unit grew to enormous proportions. Armored
cruisers of the air--dreadnaughts!--they came as a complete surprise.

"But the city is ringed with anti-aircraft batteries," a uniformed man
was whispering. "They will bring the brutes down."

The northern edge of the city flamed to a roaring wall of fire; the
batteries went into action in a single, crashing harmony that sang
triumphantly in our ears. A few of the red shapes fell, but for each
of these a hundred others swept down in deadly, directed flight.

A glass was in my hand; my eyes strained through it to see the silvery
cylinders that fell from the speeding ships. I saw the red cruisers
sweep upward before the inferno of exploding bombs raged toward them
from below. And where the roar of batteries had been was only
silence.

* * * * *

The fleet was over the city. We waited for the rain of bombs that must
come; we saw the red cloud move swiftly to continue the annihilation
of batteries that still could fire; we saw the armada pass on and lose
itself among cloud-banks in the west.

Only a dozen planes remained, high-hung in the upper air. We stared in
wondermen