PREFACE
il a
won idea that the age
Perhaps it is. but
ie about
ny
there Is a comn
- t wey v1 ig ¢ 1
i miracies is past,
if so,
ithin t}
aped into Holland, For {if
this life it
ever would have been written but for |
in
the ehar
12¢ must have con
Ww 1e past few weeks—after I es-
anything is
is this: this book |
n
the succession of miracles set forth
these
luck, eoincidence, Provi-
matter much
tainly played an impor-
n the series of hair-breadth
which I figured during my
eventful appearance in the
a now being enacted across
» seas, Without it, all my efy nd
Yorts a
Yori would have un-
~it doesn’t what
you call it—certa
tant part i
ARCADES 1 g
SCapes in =
short but
great drar
been quite
CHAPTER |.
Folly of Despair.
i
i
Lieut. Pat O'Brien in the Uniform of |
the Royal Flying Corps.
cealed the fact, because they don't a
cept older men for the RR. F, C, |
Nine of the squadron were British
subjects; the other nine were Ameri |
cans, who, tired of waiting for their
own country to take her place with
the allies, had joined the British colors
in Canada. I was one of the latter,
We were going to England to earn
/
which
member of
a qualification
n before a
XK. F.C.
on the western front.
5 in May
: 1017
st of
ly «
us were full-
ngaged at vari-
ous parts of the line in
Ww
fledge ive
ith the
By
eos
us who ha net the
every man jack
enemy in France,
had
isualty list. The
with one exception, ired on
was
rican, at
the Italian
Whether his
appe:
the ¢
H. K.
last r
front st
good fortune has
time I don’t know
be
exception
doy who
onort
ill uns
, but if it has I would
very much surp
tion one
Canadian,
hiree more were
«Jd In act
ited mere
«
ion
les ir
ive mad
te, if this record of my ad
should prove instrumental in
ho nes end ourage
t my
tha sufferings
¥ that anyone will
experiences, but I
haven't the doubt that many
ave to go through trials equally
racking and suffer disappoint.
ments just as disheartening.
It would be very far from the mark
to Imagine that the optimism which I
ie
slightest
will h
nerve
ne through all my troubles, On
f way to
often, for hours at a time, felt so de-
Jected and discouraged that 1
didn't care what happened to me.
But despite all my despondency and
hopelessness, the worst never hap
Ped, and I can't help thinking that
my salvation must have been designed
to show the way to others.
CHAPTER II.
| Became a Fightig Scout.
I started flying In Chicago in 1012. 1
had a hankering for the air ever since
I can remember,
As a youngster I followed the ex:
ploits of the Wrights with the grentest
Interest, although I must confess 1
sometimes hoped that they wouldn't
I got more
O’Brien Standing Beside the First M
than I was
go at the
sfaction of int:
part of the regular
for cadets In
rant to say right he
has turned
fliers the
France,
{ In May, 1017, I and seventeen othe
Canadian fliers left for England
| Meganic, where we were to
for service in France,
| Our squadron consisted of nin
Americans, C. C. Robinson, H. A. Mil
ler, F. 8. McClurg, A. A. Allen, E. B.
Garnet, H. K. Boysen, I. A. Smeeton
and A. A. Taylor, and myself, and nine
| Britishers, Paul H. Raney, J. R. Park,
. Nelmes, C. R.
COUrsn
BR. |
hat «
the Pe
re t :
out some of
it have ever gone
Or
qu
{ Smith and A. C. Jones,
Within a few weeks after our ar-
“wings"-~the insignia worn on
{ left breast by every pilot on the west-
{ ern front.
We were all sent to a place
France known ns the Pool Pllots Mess
| Here men gather from all the training
await assignments to the particular
squadron of which they are to become
members,
The Pool Pllots Mess 1a situated a
| few miles back of the lines. When-
ever a pilot is shot down or killed the
Pool Pilots Mess {a notified to send an-
| other to take his place.
for new pilots is quite active, but when
| a fellow is itehing to get into the fight
{as badly as 1 and my friends were I
|
| Saa in the R. F. C. at one point of
ch He Saw Active Service.
a little im-
it was ralning
Ww an overcoat over
into the machine, and we made
r time to the airdrome to which
I had been ordered to report.
I alighted from the automobile
at blew open and displayed
form attired in “shorts” in-
in the regulation flying
and the sight aroused cone
siderable commotion in camp,
“Must be a Yankee!" I overheard
one officer say to another as I ap-
proached. “No one but a Yankee would
have the cheek to show up that way,
you know I"
man
stead of
breeches,
I came up to them, and welcomed me
much at home,
My squadron was one of four sta-
tioned at an alrdrome about eighteen
| miles back of the Ypres line. There
were 18 pilots in our squadron, which
wns a scout squadron, scout machines
carrying but one man.
A scout, sometimes called a fighting
scout, has no bomb dropping or recon
noitering to do. His duty Is just to
fight, or, as the order was given to me,
“You are expected to pick fights and
not wait until they come to you!”
When bomb droppers go out over
the lines in the daytime a scout squad-
| ron ‘usually convoys them. The bomb
| droppers fly at about twelve thousand
feet, and scouts a thousand feet or so
| above them.
If at any time they should be at
| tacked, it is the duty of the scouts to
dive down and carry on the fight, the
| orders of the bomb droppers being to
| go on dropping bom!
u There
an time that machines go out ovs
nless they have to.
3 on this work In the daytime
Fare not acked at
i .
inger con
yy
' EB
und
|
and
1 my apg
for more of the same kind, and
not hax
It
what a spinning nose bend is
yotite
I did
a te
long
may be well to explain here just
A few
years ago the spinning nose dive
considered one of the most
things a pilot
many men were killed getting
spin and not knowing how
out of it In fact,
{ thought that when
a nose dive there
way out of it. It
used, however, in actual fiving.
machines that
are controlled
{both by hands and feet, the feet
working the yoke or rudder bar
which controls the rudder: that steers
the machine. The lateral controls
| fore and aft, which cause the ma-
chine to rise or lower, are controlled
by a contrivance called a “Joy stick.”
| If, when flying In the air. = pilot
should release his hold on this stick.
it will gradually come toward
pilot.
In that position the machine will
begin to climb, So If a pilot is shot
| and loses control of this “joy stick.”
[his machine begins to ascend. and
climbs until the angle formed be-
comes too great for it to continme or
the motor to pull the plane: for a
was
dangerous
and
into this
+
could attempt,
to
of
got
was
lots
you
pilots
into
no
is now
once
spinning
of coming
i “he in
ways,
nse
are
France in two
motor then being the heaviest,
causes the nose of the machine to fall
| forward, pitching down at a terrific
| rate of speed and spinning at the
| same time, If the motor is stil run-
| ning, it naturally increases the gpeed
| much more than It would If the mo-
| tor were shut off, and there is great
report,
some balloon
sends In a ort, it
when a hundred feet
ground the supposed dead man in
spin of the
gone merrily on his way
drome.
artillery observation
rej
few
from
the
and
aire
has come out &pin
for his
In a desperate battle with
four Hun flyers, O'Brien is sent
crashing to earth behind the
German lines from a height of
8000 feet. The next install
ment telis of his miraculous es-
cape from death and of his re.
gaining consciousness to find
himself a prisoner of war.
(TO BE CONTINUED.
Why They Are Lonely.
The people who are lonely In thw
\
ing for something to come to them;
they hope for pleasant adventures;
they exact much from their friends
and from ‘their family-—and they are
never satisfied. But the happy men
and women are those who never think
to demand for themselves—who give
and give and give again, and find Joy
whenever they find opportunity to give
Joy. ~Exchange.
Strange Contradiction.
“De man dat don't see de bright side
o' life,” said Uncle Eben, “is generally
e same feller dat's afraid of his
dow,”