talking with a fellow aviator.

Then they sought the trees, and spreading their heavy blankets so as to
make as comfortable a seat as possible, started to talk in low tones.

The bright moon hung there in the sky, and it seemed as though every
foot of the big meadow could be scrutinized just as well as in the
daytime; but Andy knew from experience how deceptive moonlight can be,
and how cautious one has to be when trying any difficult feat at such a
time.

"I've heard people talk about reading by moonlight, and how they could
tell a friend half a mile away," he remarked to Felix; "but let me say
that it's all a humbug. There never was a brighter night than this, I
reckon you'll agree with me, Felix; and yet look at that stump not a
stone's throw away; you couldn't say now whether it was a cow lying
down, a horse, a rock, or a stump, which last I take the thing to be.
Am I right about that."

"Why, sure's I live, that ere is a fact, Andy," replied the other; "but
I never'd a thought it. Moonlight fools a feller the worst kind. I
throwed a stone at a whippoor-will as was perched on the roof a-keepin'
us all awake nights, and would yuh believe me, she went right through
the winder of the attic, kersmash. Never was more surprised in my life.
And you don't ketch me heavin' stones by moonlight agin."

From one subject they drifted to another. Andy even told more or less
about how Percy Carberry had hated and envied them in the past, and how
often he had tried to do them a serious injury.