Guided by the figure on the ground we "taxi" up to the hangars and stop our engines. In a second I am on the ground.
"Didn't you see our Very lights?" I asked almost rudely. "Didn't you see us flashing signals? I signalled Rockets—rockets—rockets—till my hand ached! We got lost. We were going to land on the beach. Why didn't you help us?"
"We wondered what you were doing. We saw you firing lights on the other side of Dunkerque! But, I say, things have been humming here since you left!"
I can find no admiring audience for the experiences of the raid. Every one is eager to describe the German attack.
"By Jove! you were lucky to be away to-night!" says one. "They've been bombing us ever since you left. They must have dropped a couple of hundred during the night. No damage was done. The C.O. nearly got hit. He lay flat and one burst on either side of him. All the time you were bombing them they were bombing us!"
No one wants to hear our adventures. It is human nature all over again. They want to tell us what happened to them.
"Off Ostend we saw one of their patrols. It had a whacking big——"
"But you should have heard them whistling. Bob and I were talking outside the mess, when suddenly we heard——"
"We got over the clouds coming back. You ought to have seen the——"
"You've missed something, ... and I reckon you're lucky! The noise was terrible!"