redible speed of 250 kilometers an hour, which his very powerful
machine makes possible. He never accepts a fair fight. Every man chases
as he can."

"Every man chases as he can." Quite so. To revert to that 25th of May,
the "very prudent" Guynemer, on his morning patrol, met three German
airplanes flying towards the French lines. They were two-seaters, less
nimble, no doubt, than one-seaters, but provided with so much more
dangerous arms. Naturally he could not think of attacking them, "not
feeling sure of victory," and "always avoiding a risky contest!" Yet he
pounced upon his three opponents, who promptly turned back. However, he
overtook one, began making evolutions around him, succeeded in getting
slightly below him, fired, and with his first volley succeeded in
bringing him down in flames north of Corbeny (northeast of Craonne).

The danger for a one-seater is to be surprised from behind. Just as
Guynemer veered round, he saw another machine flying after him. He again
fired upwards, and the airplane fell in flames, like the first, only a
few seconds having elapsed between the two fights. Guynemer then
returned to camp.

But he was excited by these two fights; his nerves were strained and his
will was tense. He soon started again. Towards noon a German machine
appeared above the camp itself. How had it been able to get there? This
is what the airmen down below were asking themselves. It was useless to
chase it, for it would take any of them longer to rise than the German
to escape. So they had to content themselves with looking up, some of
them searching the sky with binoculars. Everybody was back except
Guynemer, when somebody suddenly cried:

"Here comes Guynemer!"

"Then the Boche is done for."

Guynemer, in fact, was coming down upon his prey like lightning, and the
instant he was behind and slightly beneath him, he fired. Only one shot
from the machine-gun was heard, but the enemy airplane was already
spinning down, its engine going full speed, and was dashed into the
earth at Courlandon near Fismes. The pilot had been shot through the
head.

In the afternoon the very prudent Guynemer started for the third time,
and towards seven o'clock, above the Guignicourt market gardens (that is
to say, in the enemy lines), he brought down another machine in flames.

"Very prudent" is the last epithet one could have expected to see in
connection with the name of Guynemer. For he rarely came home without
bullet-h