"Yes I see them," said Carstairs. "There are four but they're flying very high."
"No, they're five," said Wharton. "There's one on the left detached from the others."
"You're both wrong," said John, smiling from the depths of his superior knowledge. "They're not birds at all."
"Then what under the sun can they be?"
"Aeroplanes. Flying machines."
"Well you ought to know your kind of carriage. You've been up in one of them. Whose are they, I wonder?"
"I can't tell, they're so high, but I'd judge from the shape that they're the German Taubes."
Carstairs and Wharton looked grave.
"They're far over French territory," said Carstairs.
"So they are," said John, "but you're likely to see them much farther."