e. Being in the business of spying she practiced
deceit, with the deliberate intent of seeming to be what, emphatically,
she was not. She counterfeited chronic invalidism and she performed
competently.

She was an observation balloon of the pattern privily chosen by the
German General Staff, before the beginning of the war, for the use of
the German Signal Corps. On this particular date and occasion she
operated at a point of the highest strategic importance, that point
being the center of the German battle lines along the River Aisne.

She had been stationed here now for more than a week--that is to say,
ever since her predecessor was destroyed in a ball of flaming fumes as a
result of having a bomb flung through the flimsy cloth envelope by a
coursing and accurate aviator of the enemy. No doubt she would continue
to be stationed here until some such mischance befell her too.

On observation balloons, in time of war, no casualty insurance is
available at any rate of premium. I believe those who ride in them are
also regarded as unsuitable risks. This was highly interesting to hear
and, for our journalistic purposes, very valuable to know; but, speaking
personally, I may say that the thing which most nearly concerned me for
the moment was this: I had just been invited to take a trip aloft in
this wabbly great wienerwurst, with its painted silk cuticle and its
gaseous vitals--and had, on impulse, accepted.

I was informed at the time, and have since been reinformed more than
once, that I am probably the only civilian spectator who has enjoyed
such a privilege during the present European war. Assuredly, to date
and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I am the only civilian who
has been so favored by the Germans. Well, I trust I am not hoggish.
Possessing, as it does, this air of uniqueness, the distinction is worth
much to me personally. I would not take anything for the experience;
but I do not think I shall take it again, even if the chance should come
my way, which very probably it will not.

It was mid-afternoon; and all day, since early breakfast, we had been
working our way in automobiles toward this destination. Already my
brain chambered more impressions, all jumbled together in a mass, than I
could possibly hope to get sorted out and graded up and classified in a
month of trying. Yet, in a way, the day had been disappointing; for, as
I may have set forth before, the nearer we came to the actual