F. C. P.

November 10, 1916.




FLYING FOR FRANCE




CHAPTER I

VERDUN


Beneath the canvas of a huge hangar mechanicians are at work on the
motor of an airplane. Outside, on the borders of an aviation field,
others loiter awaiting their aerial charge's return from the sky. Near
the hangar stands a hut-shaped tent. In front of it several
short-winged biplanes are lined up; inside it three or four young men
are lolling in wicker chairs.

They wear the uniform of French army aviators. These uniforms, and the
grim-looking machine guns mounted on the upper planes of the little
aircraft, are the only warlike note in a pleasantly peaceful scene.
The war seems very remote. It is hard to believe that the greatest of
all battles--Verdun--rages only twenty-five miles to the north, and
that the field and hangars and mechanicians and aviators and airplanes