= u YYYYYWYY ’ TAHA TVVRYRYREYYTYY Synopsis—FPat O'Brien, a resid joins the British Royal Flying corps ing period is sent to France, service on the front. He engages ent of Momence, Ill, -after seeing in Canada, and after a brief train. several hot fights with German CHAPTER —— Captured by the Huns. I shall not easily forget the 17th ofl August, 1917. I killed two Huns in the double-seated machine in the | morning, another in the evening, and | | i then I was captured myself. I may have spent more eventful days in my life, but I can't recall That morning, in crossing the line early morning patrol, I noticed German balloons. I decided that my patrol over 1 would go off on my own hook and see what a German balloon like | at close quarters. any just now. | o on two | NS SOOR 48 was looked These 11loons are used by both artillery. observation ba sMes in conjunction with the and di- | From his in ratus up me time he ca ny's movements and report them, good at this great number The Germans {re very O Machine O'Brien Was Driving When He Was Overcome and Captured by the Huns. | considered a! work to these It FEL a balloons, was rt of our yf the sky. after a them is fly- There are two w ball a mechine. to cross the lines at a low altitude, going oon in Cine of t the nn a 1 { gu n't bothe itil you get to the | in the! not drawn the | mn it and it on fir nid if na ii, open fire « will set Ae Huy 0 ns to be that n, SO they can't hit balloon ang en open back hund This is the attacking an enemy’ I rot got you, get above them, spin over the | fire. In you cross at going a few over the line i red feet, i of tl} There is less aircraft. had made ball and I only haped on the Job until m. one ie wvardest loha in I 3 i er in service, dat “ Novertheleas, mind to make them descend, that they would stay I had a chance at the When our ho therefore, 1 droppe ad mp my t hose OOns or two duty was sat of the tion as we crossed the lines and turned back again, I was at a height ihly of 15.000 feet, the Shutting my motor off, I drape thinking five or six con- sider higher than 4d down | to find miles through the cloud the balloons at fe 1 red fily} hind the German lines, Inet as 1 eame omt of the eclond Hanks I saw below me, about a thou sand a tw hostile mu chine doing artillery observation and directing the German This was aut a point about four miles behind the German lines, feet, o-seater suns, Evidently the German artillery saw me and put out ground signals to at tract the Hun machine's attention, for | I sow the observer quit his work and grab his gun, their the 1 of machine down, But they were too late to escape me I was diving toward af probahly while his pilot wre We st raigh them at a speed hundred miles wir, shooting all the time as fast ible, Their chance the possibility that the force drive might break 4 danger In that mn ks I eae {uns would have their chance to I had to get them first s 4 chanee on my wings hold two an ax tw Ory my wh Ay direction, out of my d row, find 1 knew and tok ing out Fortunately some of my first bullets found their and I was able out of my dive at about thousand feet. «! theirs! y+ Dut right twa came the hottest sit- mark, Come four The depth of from antiaireraft guns and I had an opportunity to “ride the as they call it in the R. F. C. make the situation more Interest- they began shooting “flaming on- at g onions” are They when It Is are effective up| thousand feet, after an- | of yOu ight, and things to me. “Flamin used to hit a machine to about five Some- | One ther in strings ardest If they hit the machine, fire and then the being ate itinireraft ns and the or five plugged made a | tension (Copyright, 1918, by Pat Alva O'Brien) ‘ a fea, “such as they were,” and read- ily observing that nothing could be done with what was left, I made my way back to Infaptry headquarters, where I was able to telephone in a report. A little later one of our automo- biles came out after me and took me back to our airdrome. Most of my squadron thought I was lost beyond gain: but my friend, Paul Raney, had out that I was all right, and as I was afterwards told, said, “Don't send for another pilot; that Irishman will be back, if he has to walk.” And he knew that the only thing that kept me from walking was the fact that our own automobile had been sent out to bring me home, I had lots to think about that day, and I had learned many things; one was not to have too much confidence in my own ability, One of the men in ter not was going take those chances; that It to be a long war and 1 would have plenty of opportunities to myself, the truth of his statement, That night my “fii —pach squad. ron divided into lights, 4 sisting of ht" mht $ is hree six men each—got As I st noticed Ww up for d 20 out my tunic I marked I askéd the o major, what the re he replied that for that if 1 again, rie as uty done enough ong ur lines, and | or. Fortunately, | enough to drift on | es, for my | mmis- | 18 deseend- would rossing the in » two miles here the balloons I had gone out to get had the s: of “ ' strike the grout y yt there line, 1 wind favor, and our pin pointing” rections whiel sive to thelr artill helling my © 4 IE ny 1 } re it lay. This particular work is to direct the fire of their and they used just as the artillery observation Usually two men are stationed In each balloon. They ascend height of several thousand feet hout five miles behind their own lines d are with wireless and g appara They the f their own artillery, check up the range, and direct artillery, are virplanes are, to a ped tna fus, equig wats h get nditions to are favorable they the accn- ick work destroying ject of their att t wns such direct shots so + of attack. {loon as thisthat got my position, ed for artillery imenced shelling my If 1 had got of the air have lost | ked me out, ¢ an and they con achine where it lay. he tw balloons Instead lane, I probably would mact 0 ie not ine, for he wonld in all proba- | ty have gone on home and not both- getting my range and caus- ing the destruction of my m I landed In a part of { that was literally 3 holes, red about i whine, i country with shell | machine was | he covered Fortunately my gz. I leisurely got out, what the 4d Iuded that It cot be easily re- paired. In fact, ht if I could find a space long enough between shell walked around | son wmge was, and | the ground that I would be able to fly on I was still examining my plane and ing the matter of a fow slight 1 n Ii ecame air, knocked landed few she whizzing | me to the feet away. than I made cover and erawled into a I would have liked to get know where burst, and I there, so 1 them when throngh the ground and spot, a a ran for shell hole, the shell next would down and let blaze | The only damage I suffered was from the mud which splattered up in | face That | my hole, | ny and introduction and I resolved right could have they over my clothes, a shell there that the in nll the shell-hole | but did not | was to fantry iting wanted, it through many a long night and I had only songht shelter there for a few ninutes, After the Germans had completely 1 hed machine and ceased firing, I waited there a short time, might send over to get me after they concluded | shi my y+ lucky all, shot, hoping ut evidently man. I erawled ont cautiously, shook direction where my machine had once been, There wasn't enough left for a decent souvenir, but nevertheless I got am sure } mind As for this patrol 50 Tr ly five mars , anyway, becau it wi ie BN Wi drop out on account of motor trouble. was up 8S p. m., and in ten minutes of that hour it had been entirel At 7:50 np. however, fiving at a height of ohserved three Our patrol wit! nt to ire m., a y uneventful, while 13.0060 feet, English 3.060) were we other which about below us pick a fight with nine Hun yeu, chines were woe were in over toward of Hun ma- 1d escaped iY country- I knew right then that for it, because I could see the a whole flock which evidently h the attention of our s« ocean chines rapi men below us, fa we dove down those Huns, At first the fight falrly even. There were eight of us to nine of them But which 1 which we were, wns the other machines in the were flying even higher arrived on the scene, in turn, just twenty of them to our e Four of them singled me out diving, and they dived ri me, they tracer bullets were me f]OON geen distance, and and when dove down on ns, ght down after shooting as ne, On These trac lets are balls of fire which enable the shooter to follow the his bal- every moment, COUrse accordingly. They do no more hart gly. 3 to a pilot if he is hit than an ordinary n good night! When a machine catches ire in flight there is no way of put- ting it ont. It takes less than a min- ute for the fabric to burn off the wings and then the machine drops like arrow, leaving a trail of smoke like a comet, As thelr tracer bullets came closer | and closer to me I realized that my chances of escape were nil, Their very next shot, I felt, must hit me, Once, some days before, when I was an i above me. A German machine on fire, and dived down through our formation in flames on its way to the ground. The Hun was div- ing at such a sharp angle that both his wings came off, and as he passed within a few hundred feet of me I saw the look of horror on his face, Now, when I expected any moment | to suffer a similar fate, I could not help thinking of that poor Hun's last | look of agony. I realized that my only chance la in making an Immelman turn. This maneuver was invented by a German— one of the greatest who ever flew and set v fore. This turn, which I made succe fully, brought of thelr right in front of me, and as he salled barely ten yards I *had one machines along away, His white face still see. He kn that his last can ew beyon moment Lie ever ther ne to do but fight, and three was notl iny han ble went an fade lodge d in my iz 1 knew was nl ean German hospital following morning at five o'clock, to in a I was a prisoner of war, CHAPTER IV. Clipped Wings, The hospital in which I found my- self on after my capture the morning private and “ail made and not pted for use as a hospital, 1S Aa house low dirty, at count of the big push that was tak- pil probabilit the honse hile, In all, contained four of the all. Although I “wing” I was told that it, too, patients lying on beds of straw around I do not know whether largest ¢ they, too, were officers or privates. The room in which I found myself contained eight beds, three of which ficers. The other rooms, 1 Imagined had about the same number of beds as | mine, There were no Red Cross nurses in attendance, just orderlies, for this wns only an emergency hospital too near the firing line for nurses, orderlies were not old men nor young boys, as I had expected to find, | but young men In the prime of life, | who evidently had been medical dents, One or two of them, I discov- ered, were able to talk English, but for some reason they would not talk. | Perhaps they were forbidden by the | and The ! very | stu In addition to the bullet wound in my mouth I had a swelling from my forehead to the back of my head al- most as big as my shoe—and that 1s! saying considerable. I couldn't move an loch without suffering intense pain, ind when the doctor told me that 1 iad no bones broken I wondered how | a fellow would feel who had, | German f f } i oflicers visi d told me tl in a height 9.000 feet, and of thelr morning an went down from Although 1 agony, the doctor, sted who nglish, insi upot “You may be all 1 man,” he decla - murd War are mui ought to irderers and ¥¢ The wound in my mouth made | possible for me to ans was suffering too hurt very much say. He “yy ! ' appie; much pain by anything he could asked me If I wonld like an I could just as easily eaten a brick. When he got no answers out of me he walked away disgu have stedly. “You don't have to worry any more,” as a parting shot. ver" o on as I i X ¥ giv the day, and thoughts I wondere pened to my which had resulted so d me. As I began to I worried less about my physical dition than the fact that, tod bad pointed out, comnrax the doc- for me the war I had been in it but a short time, and now I would be a prisoner for the duration of the war! The next day German flying officers visited me, and I must say they treated me with great consideration. They told me of the man I had brought down, They said he was a Bavarian and a fairly good pilot, They gave me his hat as a souvenir and compliment- ed me on the fight I had put up. My helmet, which was of soft leather, was split from front to back by a bullet from a machine gun, and they examined it with eat interest. as BOM or RT found that the star of my rank which had been on my right shoulder strap had been shot off clean. The one on my left shoulder strap they asked me for as a souvenir, as also my R. F, C. badges, which I gave them. They al- lowed me to keep my “wings,” which I wore on my left breast, because they were aware that that is the proudest possession of a British flying officer. I think I am right in saying that the only chivalry in this war on the Ger- man side of the trenches has been dis played by the officers of the German of Germany. They pointed out to me try, but still, they said, they admired us for our sportsmanship. tion to ask them if dropping bombs on Loudon and killing so many innocent but I was in no position or condition to pick a quarrel at that time. That same day a German officer was the bunk next to mine. Of course I casually looked at him, but did not pay particular attention to him at that time, He lay there for three or four hours before I did take a real good look at him, I was positive that he could not speak English, and naturally I did not say anything to him. Once when I looked over in his direction his eyes were on me, and to my surpriso, he said, very sarcastically, “What the h-l are you looking st" and thea ginning to say a few words, as my wound had prevented me from talking, but I sald enough to let him know what 1 was doing there and how | happened to be He evidently had heard my story from some of the because gaid it was not broken my ve n } ympathy He rica 1 came “CalMornia.” que from there though bad I had he did no with the asked me w from, and After a 30 that | and 1 ing, others, 100 that more halied i then adde “How CIRCO, by say have an good, Jule y the Hofbrau?” it would “hit thought my mouth wa eat it, course, what Naturall the spot’ to of Hofbrau, ¢ nected with vears, and I ought the After that this I became rather chummy as I could be enemy, and German offi and ; that is, as chummy with an away 2 good long hours ve had spent | many days w n and frequently in the conversation one of mention som Californian, or some little | with which us would irring there, amiliar, He told me when war was declared he was, of se, Intensely patriotic and thought the only ng r do was to f of his ense th f cour £0 back nd thence to Ger: hey put in at ingland, there taken off the Ire Wi his relief hi ship, re De to several subject of the enjoyed, One little revealed the ren our displayed | tions at sea, fv aaava war, enemy n Ag he ex- one evening assembled for a little music by 1iggesting that they ging “God Save the King.” Thereafter hix popularity was assured and the de- for very goon a French officer came up to him i, “It's bad that England and ourselves haven't men in our army like you." It was too bad, he agreed, in telling me about it, because he was confident he could have done 8 whole lot more for Germany if he had been in the English army. In spite of his apparent loyalty, however, the man didn't seem very enthusiastic over the war and frankly admitted one day that the old pelitical battles waged in Calle fornia were much his liking than the battles he had gone through over here. On ond thought he lnughed as though it were a good joke, bot he evidently intended me tq infer that he had taken a keen interest in politics in San Francisco, which for him. de a hit" no ntageously pressed it, he “ma © effect accomplished, and sai too o more to fod From his prison, O'Brien wit 1 nesses a thrilling air battle, which results in the death of his chum, who is shot down by a German flyer. Don't miss the next instaliment. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Wives Evidently His Hobby. Probably the modern world's marry. ing record for men was created by George Witzoff, the bigamist, whose marriages have variously been estimate ed at from 200 to 800, It was reports ed that in the space of a single week he went through marriage ceremonies with ten women. Worse'n Boils, Too, Old Job had his troubles, but nobody - raised the price of ice on him when he was laying in his wiate's coali—An lauta Constitgtion. ’
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