ry and merged into the nothingness, miles away from our
objective. What became of the lost craft is a mystery which may be
cleared up to-morrow, or more probably in a month's time by
communication from the German Prisoners' Bureau, or maybe never. Thus
far we have heard nothing, so a forced landing on British ground is
unlikely. For the rest, the pilot and observer may be killed, wounded,
injured, or prisoners. All we know is that they flew into the Ewigkeit
and are "missing."

For these many weeks Pozieres has been but a name and a waste brick
pile; yet the site of the powdered village cannot be mistaken from the
air, for, slightly to the east, two huge mine-craters sentinel it, left
and right. From here to Le Sars, which straddles the road four miles
beyond, was our photographic objective. We were to cover either side of
the road twice, so I had arranged to use half the number of plates
during each there-and-back journey.

The R.F.C. camera used by us is so simple as to be called foolproof.
Eighteen plates are stacked in a changing-box over the shutter. You
slide the loading handle forward and backward, and the first plate falls
into position. Arrived over the spot to be spied upon, you take careful
sight and pull a string--and the camera has reproduced whatever is 9000
feet below it. Again you operate the loading handle; the exposed plate
is pushed into an empty changing-box underneath an extension, and plate
the second falls into readiness for exposure, while the indicator shows
2. And so on until the changing-box for bare plates is emptied and the
changing-box for used ones is filled. Whatever skill attaches to the
taking of aerial snapshots is in judging when the machine is flying dead
level and above the exact objective, and in repeating the process after
a properly timed interval.

A.-A. guns by the dozen hit out immediately we crossed the lines, for we
were their one target. No other craft were in sight, except a lone B.E.,
which was drifted by the wind as it spotted for artillery from the
British side of the trenches. Scores of black puffs, attended by
cavernous coughs, did their best to put the wind up us. They succeeded
to a certain extent, though not enough to hinder the work on hand.

Everything was in Archie's favour. We were at 7000 feet--an easy height
for A.-A. sighting--we were silhouetted against a cover of high clouds,
our ground speed was only some thirty miles an hour against the raging
wind,