It isn"t your fault, but I can"t stop you in time. I"ll try again in a second if you swing her round."
In a great circle we sweep round to our old starting-point, and I get ready to make another attempt.
"I"ll try very hard this time, old man. Let"s get into the wind as near as we can, and you steer by some light, and I"ll try to give as few changes in direction as I can. The worst is, I can"t see the beastly aerodrome till we are almost on top of it, and then I can"t get a decent "run". We must get that front c.o.c.kpit position!"
I stand up and look over the front, and try to fix the exact position of the aerodrome and its surroundings in relation to the machine.
I hurry into the back and look through the trap-door again. I can hardly see, owing to my running eyes; but I wipe them dry, and look intently ahead in a horribly uncomfortable position, my head and shoulders hanging out of the bottom of the machine. Right ahead of us is the pale shape of the aerodrome. The pilot is flying magnificently. We are moving steadily forwards. As we draw nearer, I wriggle back into the machine and look down the bomb-sight. The thin direction-bar lies right across the aerodrome. I joyously press the middle b.u.t.ton, so that the white light laughs out: "Good! Good! Good!" into the pilot"s face. We begin to drift slightly to the right. I do not touch the key-board, but stand up and push my body forwards beside the pilot and shout furiously--
"Turn her very slightly to the left, Jimmy! We"re doing fine! We"ll get her this time! I"ll press central when we"re on it."
In a flash I am underneath the seat and looking at the bomb-sight. It swings slowly, slowly to the left. Just before it arrives over the aerodrome I press the white light b.u.t.ton deliberately. The movement stops, and the bomb-sight begins to creep steadily forwards over the hangars and surface of the aerodrome. With my anxieties past I have a wonderful feeling of relaxation and happy excitement. Just before the two luminous range-bars actually touch the edge of the line of hangars, I grasp the bomb-handle and begin to press it forward slowly. I hear the sharp clatter of opening and closing of the bomb-doors behind me, and I see two plump bombs go tumbling downwards below the machine. Again, and a third and a fourth time, I press forward the bomb-handle, and can feel the little drags on it as I release bomb after bomb. I look behind, and see that they are all gone. I shine my torch through the racks to make sure, and I see the gunlayer busy with his torch also. I look below through the door, and see four or five bomb-flashes leap out across the aerodrome, while behind them lies apparently the smoke of others near the hangars. I slam the door to with a feeling of thankfulness, and get back to my seat.
"All gone, Jimmy! No "hang-ups." You did jolly well; they went right across the aerodrome. Let"s push north-west back to the coast. I"m absolutely frozen."
I have a hurried look at my pressure-dials, to see that they are all right; and when I have adjusted them, I uncork my Thermos flask, have a comforting drink of hot tea, and eat some chocolate. I beat my gloved hands together and try to restore the circulation, and stamp my feet on the floor. Feeling tired and cold, I sit on my seat with my head on my breast, feeling languid and limp after the subconscious strain.
Towards the distant coast-line, with its steady flickers of lights at Ostend and Blankenberghe, we move, forgetting already the place on which we have just dropped our bombs. The turmoil of Bruges has subsided--only two wary searchlights stand sentinel at either side of the town, alert and scarcely moving. Those two are enough to give us warning, however, and we sweep to the left to leave the simmering inferno well to our starboard.
Below lies the pallid moonlit country,--field and forest, chateau and ca.n.a.l,--clearly etched in a soft black pattern of shadows and dim light.
Far, far to the south Ypres flashes and flares on the horizon, with its night-long artillery fire.
Now that our job is done, we are not so fearful of being over enemy country, partly because we are used to it by now, and partly because we are leaving the interior farther and farther behind us, minute by minute, as the coast-line draws nearer.
Unexpectedly I notice below the machine a curious white patch on the face of the country. Then I see others behind it, and realise that the coast-line is becoming swiftly blotted out under a layer of clouds.
"Jimmy! Look--clouds! We"ll have to go carefully," I remark, and have a look at the compa.s.s. "Let"s turn a bit more south-east, and we are bound to see Ostend."
We turn swiftly, and in a few minutes are above a white carpet of cloud, through which, to my joy, I can see very hazily the flashing light of Blankenberghe to my right. Over towards Zeebrugge rise a few parting strings of green b.a.l.l.s as the last British machine turns out to sea.
For ten minutes we fly on by compa.s.s, which I check by the coldly glittering North Star, that shines faithfully for us high in the deep blue of the sky.
Then I see, running to and fro, and round and round, on the carpet of the clouds, little circles of light. Now and then one comes to a rift on the bank, and for a moment a beam of light shoots up into the sky, only to vanish again. The Ostend searchlights are vainly looking for us; our engines have been heard.
Now we are approaching a new formation of clouds, lovely towering ma.s.ses of c.u.mulus, pearl-white in the light of the moon. Over an unreal world of battlement and turret, of mountain summit and gloomy valley, we move in a splendid loneliness beneath the scattered stars. This billowy world of soft and silvery mountain ranges is made the more strange by the restless discs of radiance which run and swoop and circle and dance in a mad maze of movement across the curving pinnacles and ravines. Now and again a searchlight, striking into the heart of some towering summit of cloud, illuminates it with a glorious radiance, so that it seems for a moment to be woven of the fabric of light.
Suddenly the scene becomes even more fantastic, for in one place on the clouds appears a spot of vivid green. The spot of light spreads and spreads until it is a circle of emerald light, a mile or more in diameter, and from the extreme centre appears a ball of brilliantly green fire which pops out of it quickly, to be followed by another and another, until the whole chain of beads have freed themselves from the entanglements of the vapour and rush gaily upwards high over our heads, to end their brief career in a lovely splendour above the milk-white billows of the cloudy sea.
Another point of cloud glows green, there is another swiftly expanding circle of colour, and another string of these quaint gems float upwards in a swaying curve. The sight is one of such exquisite loveliness that it is difficult to describe it. It is all so beautiful--the star-scattered vault of night, gold flowers in a robe of deepest blue: the soft white wonder of the rolling clouds, mile upon mile, as far as you can see, moonlit and magic, a playground for the gambolling figures of light which, like a host of Tinker Bells, rush deliriously from side to side, climb up hills and slide down valleys, and jump excitedly from peak to peak: the expanding flowers of emerald light from whose heart rise the bizarre bubbles of scintillating brilliance, to live through a few glorious seconds of ecstatic motion before they die in the immensity of the night.
It is a scene of a strange and ever-altering beauty, and one that very few eyes have seen. It is a world beyond the borders of the unreal.
Forgotten is the material country of fields and forests far below--as forgotten as it is unseen. To a paradise of vague moon-kissed cloud we have drifted, and float, dreaming, between the stars of heaven and the purgatory beneath.
Then for a moment a great rift in the barrier appears beneath us. Across the dark s.p.a.ce with its edges of ragged white lie two hard beams of light. Then we see, far below, a chain of green b.a.l.l.s rush up from the darkness, and as they appear they light up a great circle of the earth, and slowly there appears nearly the whole of Ostend lit up by a ghostly greenish light. I see the shining sea, the line of the sh.o.r.e broken by the groins, and the huddled roofs of the houses. For a moment the scene is clear and distinct, then with the upward course of the b.a.l.l.s of light it dies away, and the two searchlights throw blinding bands across a pool of obscurity.
What we have seen, however, is a sufficient guide. We know we are above the coast. The machine swings to the left, and above the rippling spots of light we roar on westwards. Soon we leave this fantastic dancing floor behind us, and, seeing through the misty curtains a watery glow of white light blossom out into a hazy gleam and fade away, we know that we are somewhere near the lines.
Onwards we fly, watching the compa.s.s, watching the North Star, watching the pale veils of vapour beneath us. The cloud barrier grows thinner, and more and more rifts appear in it. About ten minutes after we have pa.s.sed the lines, we see ahead of us a pale searchlight flash in the ma.s.ses of cloud, now shooting up through a gap, now losing itself in the lighted edges of a floating wisp. It flashes three times, and stops.
Again it appears, three times stabbing the sky, challenging us with the "letter of the night" in Morse code.
I load my Very"s light pistol and fire it over the side. A green light drifts down and dies. The searchlight goes out; we fly on.
"That light is somewhere near Furnes, Jimmy. Let"s put our navigation lights on now; I"ll try and pick up some landmark below,--the coast if I can ... it"s awfully thick to-night!"
Beneath in the murk I can see now and again a twinkling light, and then, to my delight, I pick up the sh.o.r.e. We fly on above it for a quarter of an hour. Then the pilot begins to get anxious.
"Can you see Dunkerque yet, old man? We ought to be there!" he asks.
I look below, and see sand-dunes and the unbroken coast running a little way on either side into the mist, which has now taken the place of the cloud.
"Can"t quite make out, Jimmy. We had better fly on a bit. We must be past La Panne!"
For four or five minutes we fly on. Once I lose sight of the coast, and ask the pilot to turn to the right, not telling him the reason. To my relief I pick it up again before he suspects that I am lost.
"Anything in sight yet, Bewsh?" he asks. "We must be up near Dunkerque by now. We can"t have pa.s.sed it!"
Still the unbroken coast below.
"I"d better fire a light," I suggest.
"All right," he says. "Carry on--stop a minute, though! We _are_ over the lines, aren"t we?"
"We _must_ be ... I think. We pa.s.sed Nieuport miles back. I can"t make out where we are. I"ll give a white!"
I load my Very"s light pistol and fire it over the side. A ball of white fire drifts below towards the mocking emptiness of the mist. I stand up and look all around. Through the haze comes no welcome gleam.
"No answer, Jimmy! What _shall_ we do? If we go on we"ll get miles down towards Calais! If we go back, we get over the lines. Go up and down here, and I"ll try to find Dunkerque--it _must_ be somewhere near!"
I fire another white light, and then another. No answer comes from the ground. No searchlights move across the sky. All we can see is a vague circle, bisected by the coast-line--one half being sea, the other half sand-dunes.
Then, in my excitement, I accidentally fire a Very"s light inside the machine. The ball of blazing fire rushes frantically round our feet and up and down the floor. I hurriedly stamp it out amidst the curses of the pilot, who says later that in my eagerness I picked it up and threw it over the side.
Now I press a bra.s.s key inside the machine which operates our big headlight. R-O-C-K-E-T-S, I flash piteously; and again, _Rockets_.
Another Very"s light I fire, and then click and clatter the key, "_Please fire rockets_"; and again, "_Rockets--we are lost!_"
"What shall we do?" asks the pilot in a hopeless voice. "Shall we land on the beach? I am getting fed up!"
"Just a second--I"ll ask Wade."
I climb into the back and flash my torch through the bomb-racks. I see the face of the gunlayer in the ray of light. Pushing my head and shoulders into the maze of framework, I shout out at the top of my voice. The gunlayer shakes his head. I go forward and ask the pilot to throttle down a little.
The noise of the engine dies away. I hurry back and shout out again.
"Can you make out where we are, Wade? I"m quite lost. Have we got to Dunkerque?"
"Don"t know, sir. I don"t think so! I can"t make out at all!"
I climb back into my seat, and say--