ssed right through the
observer's cockpit, and grazed two kneecaps belonging to a friend of
mine. He was left with nothing worse than two cuts and mild shell-shock.

Scottie, another observer (now a prisoner, poor chap), leaned forward to
look at his map while on a reconnaissance. A dainty morsel from an
Archie shell hurtled through the air and grazed the back of his neck. He
finished the reconnaissance, made out his report, and got the scratch
dressed at the hospital. Next day he resumed work; and he was delighted
to find himself in the Roll of Honour, under the heading "Wounded." I
once heard him explain to a new observer that when flying a close study
of the map was a guarantee against losing one's way, one's head--and
one's neck.

The Archibald family tree has several branches. Whenever the founder of
the family went on the burst he broke out in the form of white puffs,
like those thrown from the funnel of a liner when it begins to slow
down. The white bursts still seek us out, but the modern Boche A.-A.
gunner specialises more in the black variety. The white bursts contain
shrapnel, which is cast outwards and upwards; the black ones contain
high explosive, which spreads all around.

H.E. has a lesser radius of solid frightfulness than shrapnel, but if it
does hit a machine the damage is greater. For vocal frightfulness the
black beat the white hollow. If the Titans ever had an epidemic of
whooping-cough, and a score of them chorused the symptoms in unison, I
should imagine the noise was like the bursting of a black Archie shell.

Then there is the green branch of the family. This is something of a
problem. One theory is that the green bursts are for ranging purposes
only, another that they contain a special brand of H.E., and a third
declares them to be gas shells. All three suggestions may be partly
true, for there is certainly more than one brand of green Archie.

First cousin to Archie is the onion, otherwise the flaming rocket. It is
fired in a long stream of what look like short rectangles of compressed
flame at machines that have been enticed down to a height of 4000 to
6000 feet. It is most impressive as a firework display. There are also
colourless phosphorous rockets that describe a wide parabola in their
flight.

Within the past month or two we have been entertained at rare intervals
by the family ghost. This fascinating and mysterious being appears very
suddenly in the form of a pillar of white smo