them as
they mount higher and higher into the morning sky, on their
way to meet their prey. But we may await their return. We
may watch them as they descend to their flying-field,
dropping down to earth, one by one. We may learn, then, of
their adventures on that flight of death: how, far back of
the German lines, they encountered a formidable
battle-squadron of the enemy, vastly superior to their own
in numbers. Heedless of the risk they swooped down upon
their foe. Lieutenant A---- was attacked by four enemy
planes at the same time. One he sent hurtling to the ground
fifteen thousand feet below. He caused a second to retire
disabled. Sergeant B---- accounted for another in a running
fight which lasted for more than a quarter of an hour.
Adjutant C----, although his biplane was riddled with
bullets, succeeded, by a clever ruse, in decoying two
pursuers, bent on his destruction, to the vicinity of a
cloud where several of his comrades were lying in wait for
further victims. A moment later both Germans were seen to
fall earthward, spinning like leaves in that last terrible
dive of death. "These boys are Yankee aviators. They form
the vanguard of America's aerial forces. We need thousands
of others just like them," etc.

Stories of this kind have, without doubt, a certain imaginative
appeal. J. B. and I had often read them, never wholly credulous, of
course, but with feelings of uneasiness. Discounting them by more than
half, we still had serious doubts of our ability to measure up to the
standard set by our fellow Americans who had preceded us on active
service. We were in part reassured during our first afternoon at the
front. If these men were the demons on wings of the newspapers, they
took great pains to give us a different impression.

* * * * *

Many of the questions which had long been accumulating in our minds
got themselves answered during the next few days, while we were
waiting for machines. We knew, in a general way, what the nature of
our work would be. We knew that the Escadrille Lafayette was one of
four pursuit squadrons occupying hangars on the same field, and that,
together, these formed what is called a _groupe de combat_, with a
definite sector of front to cover. We had been told that combat pilots
are "the police of the air," whose duty it is to patrol the