ord of fifty-one British airplanes downed. Captain Ball was
desirous of wiping out this record and the audacious German at the
same time, and so flying over the German lines he dropped this
letter:

CAPTAIN IMMELMAN:

I challenge you to a man-to-man fight to take place this
afternoon at two o'clock. I will meet you over the German lines.
Have your anti-air craft guns withhold their fire, while we
decide which is the better man. The British guns will be silent.

BALL.

Presently thereafter this answer was dropped from a German airplane:

CAPTAIN BALL:

Your challenge is accepted. The guns will not interfere. I will
meet you promptly at two.

IMMELMAN.

The word spread far and wide along the trenches on both sides.
Tacitly all firing stopped as though the bugles had sung truce. Men
left cover and clambered up on the top to watch the duel. Punctually
both flyers rose from their lines and made their way down No Man's
Land. Let an eye witness tell the story:

From our trenches there were wild cheers for Ball. The Germans
yelled just as vigorously for Immelman.

The cheers from the trenches continued; the Germans increased in
volume; ours changed into cries of alarm.

Ball, thousands of feet above us and only a speck in the sky, was
doing the craziest things imaginable. He was below Immelman and
was apparently making no effort to get above him, thus gaining
the advantage of position. Rather he was swinging around, this
way and that, attempting, it seemed, to postpone the inevitable.

We saw the German's machine dip over preparatory to starting the
nose dive.

"He's gone now," sobbed a young soldier, at my side, for he knew
Immelman's gun would start its raking fire once it was being
driven straight down.

Then in a fraction of a second the tables were turned. Before
Immelman's plane could get into firing position, Ball drove his
machine into a loop, getting above his adversary and cutting
loose with his gun and smashing Immelman by a hail of bullets as
he swept by.

Immelman's airplane burst into flames and dropped. Ball, from
above, followed for a few hundred feet and then straightened out
and raced for home. He settled down, rose again, hurried back,