Our Pilots in the Air

Prepared by Sean Pobuda
The scene in the valley was striking in one respect. Low ranges of gently sloping hills had widened out, enclosing broad levels with what in America would be termed a creek but was here poetically named a river. By here I mean eastern France, not so many miles from No-Man's-Land. The striking feature was the Flying Camp spread out over a dead level of much trampled greensward, enclosed by high board walls, irregularly oval in shape, with a large clump of trees in the center and a multiplicity of large, small, mostly queer-shaped buildings scattered about.
There were a few wide roadways, with smaller avenues intersecting them, and larger open spaces, bordered by hangars, at either end of the oval.
On a bulletin board in one of these open spaces a placard was tacked, at which several young men in khaki and wearing the aviator cap were gazing, commenting humorously or otherwise. All that this plainly open placard published, apparently for all eyes to see, was as follows:
Members of Bombing Squadron No. - will be on the qui vive at 7 p.m. tonight. Specific orders will be issued to each at that time.
Not much in that, an outsider might think. But wait! Listen!
Say, Orry, remarked an athletic youth, throwing an arm casually over the shoulder of a smaller companion beside him and tweaking the other's ear, does this mean that you and me go up together in that crazy old biplane they foisted on us before?
How should I know? replied the smaller lad, a nervous, sprightly youngster, dark-eyed, curly-headed, thin-faced. Did she get your nerve last time?
Not by a long shot! But when we made that last dive to get away from Fritzy in his Fokker, I noticed your hands on the crank were shaking. Say, if that Tommy in the monoplane hadn't helped us, where'd we been?
Right here, you goose! We'd have got out somehow, but it was squally for about five minutes.
The two strolled off together as others, also in khaki but with different fittings or insignia, gathered about to read, comment and then turn their several ways.