. Once again I thought it would peter out
before we were within gliding distance of British territory, and I
therefore made ready to burn the machine--the last duty of an airman let
in for the catastrophe of a landing among enemies. But the engine kept
alive, obstinately and unevenly. V. held down the nose of the machine
still farther, so as to gain the lines in the quickest possible time.

Soon we were treated to a display by the family ghost of the clan
Archibald, otherwise an immense pillar of grey-white smoky substance
that appeared very suddenly to windward of us. It stretched up
vertically from the ground to a height about level with ours, which was
then only five and a half thousand feet. We watched it curiously as it
stood in an unbending rigidity similar to that of a giant waxwork, cold,
unnatural, stupidly implacable, half unbelievable, and wholly
ridiculous. At the top it sprayed round, like a stick of asparagus. For
two or three months similar apparitions had been exhibited to us at rare
intervals, nearly always in the same neighbourhood. At first sight the
pillars of smoke seemed not to disperse, but after an interval they
apparently faded away as mysteriously as they had appeared. What was
meant to be their particular branch of frightfulness I cannot say. One
rumour was that they were an experiment in aerial gassing, and another
that they were of some phosphorous compound. All I know is that they
entertained us from time to time, with no apparent damage.

Archie quickly distracted our attention from the phantom pillar. We had
been drifted to just south of Lille, possibly the hottest spot on the
whole western front as regards anti-aircraft fire. Seeing one machine
four to five thousand feet below its companions, the gunners very
naturally concentrated on it. A spasmodic chorus of barking coughs
drowned the almost equally spasmodic roar of the engine. V. dodged
steeply and then raced, full out, for the lines. A sight of the dirty
brown jig-saw of trenches heartened us greatly. A few minutes later we
were within gliding distance of the British front. When we realised that
even if the engine lost all life we could reach safety, nothing else
seemed to matter, not even the storm of shell-bursts.

Suddenly the machine quivered, swung to the left, and nearly put itself
in a flat spin. A large splinter of H.E. had sliced away part of the
rudder. V. banked to prevent an uncontrolled side-slip, righted the bus
as f