nd lurid indeed was the subsequent talk if an
outsider choked the carburettor, taxied the bus on the switch, or
otherwise did something likely to reduce the efficiency of engine or
aeroplane. On the whole, however, the period of waiting was dull, so
that we welcomed comic relief provided by the affair of the Jabberwocks.

The first three machines delivered from the Rafborough depot
disappointed us in one particular. The movable mounting for the
observer's gun in the rear cockpit was a weird contraption like a giant
catapult. It occupied a great deal of room, was stiff-moving, reduced
the speed by about five miles an hour owing to head resistance, refused
to be slewed round sideways for sighting at an angle, and constantly
collided with the observer's head. We called it the Christmas Tree, the
Heath Robinson, the Jabberwock, the Ruddy Limit, and names unprintable.
The next three buses were fitted with Scarff mountings, which were as
satisfactory as the Jabberwocks were unsatisfactory.

Then, late in the evening, one of the new craft was crashed beyond
repair. At early dawn a pilot and his observer left their beds, walked
through the rain to the aerodrome, and sneaked to the flight shed. They
returned two hours later, hungry, dirty, and flushed with suppressed
joy. After breakfast we found that the crashed bus had lost a Scarff
mounting, and the bus manned by the early risers had found one. The
gargoyle shape of a discarded Jabberwock sprawled on the floor.

At lunch-time another pilot disappeared with his observer and an air of
determination. When the shed was opened for the afternoon's work the
Jabberwock had been replaced on the machine of the early risers, and the
commandeered Scarff was affixed neatly to the machine of the
quick-lunchers. While the two couples slanged each other a third pilot
and observer sought out the flight-commander, and explained why they
were entitled to the disputed mounting. The pilot, the observer pointed
out, was the senior pilot of the three; the observer, the pilot pointed
out, was the senior observer. Was it not right, therefore, that they
should be given preferential treatment? The flight-commander agreed, and
by the time the early-risers and quick-lunchers had settled their
quarrel by the spin of a coin, the Scarff had found a fourth and
permanent home.

The two remaining Jabberwocks became an obsession with their unwilling
owners, who hinted darkly at mutiny when told that no more