SHE was anchored to earth in a good-sized field. Woods horizoned the field on three of its edges and a sunken road bounded it on the fourth. She measured, I should say at an offhand1 guess, seventy-five feet from tip to tip lengthwise, and she was perhaps twenty feet in diameter through her middle. She was a bright yellow in color—a varnished2, oily-looking yellow—and in shape suggestive of a frankfurter.
At the end of her near the ground and on the side that was underneath—for she swung, you understand, at an angle—a swollen3 protuberance showed, as though an air bubble had got under the skin of the sausage during the packing and made a big blister4. She drooped5 weakly amidships, bending and swaying this way and that; and, as we came under her and looked up, we saw that the skin of the belly6 kept shrinking in and wrinkling up, in the unmistakable pangs7 of acute cramp8 colic.
[Pg 227]
She had a sickly, depleted9 aspect elsewhere, and altogether was most flabby and unreliable looking; yet this, as I learned subsequently, was her normal appearance. Being in the business of spying she practiced deceit, with the deliberate intent of seeming to be what, emphatically, she was not. She counterfeited10 chronic11 invalidism12 and she performed competently.
She was an observation balloon of the pattern privily13 chosen by the German General Staff, before the beginning of the war, for the use of the German Signal Corps14. On this particular date and occasion she operated at a point of the highest strategic importance, that point being the center of the German battle lines along the River Aisne.
She had been stationed here now for more than a week—that is to say, ever since her predecessor15 was destroyed in a ball of flaming fumes16 as a result of having a bomb flung through the flimsy cloth envelope by a coursing and accurate aviator17 of the enemy. No doubt she would continue to be stationed here until some such mischance befell her too.
On observation balloons, in time of war, no casualty insurance is available at any rate of premium18. I believe those who ride in them are also regarded as unsuitable risks. This was highly interesting to hear and, for our journalistic purposes, very valuable to know; but, speaking personally, I may say that the thing[Pg 228] which most nearly concerned me for the moment was this: I had just been invited to take a trip aloft in this wabbly great wienerwurst, with its painted silk cuticle19 and its gaseous20 vitals—and had, on impulse, accepted.
I was informed at the time, and have since been reinformed more than once, that I am probably the only civilian21 spectator who has enjoyed such a privilege during the present European war. Assuredly, to date and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I am the only civilian who has been so favored by the Germans. Well, I trust I am not hoggish22. Possessing, as it does, this air of uniqueness, the distinction is worth much to me personally. I would not take anything for the experience; but I do not think I shall take it again, even if the chance should come my way, which very probably it will not.
It was mid-afternoon; and all day, since early breakfast, we had been working our way in automobiles24 toward this destination. Already my brain chambered more impressions, all jumbled26 together in a mass, than I could possibly hope to get sorted out and graded up and classified in a month of trying. Yet, in a way, the day had been disappointing; for, as I may have set forth27 before, the nearer we came to the actual fighting, the closer in touch we got with the battle itself, the less we seemed to see of it.
I take it this is true of nearly all battles[Pg 229] fought under modern military principles. Ten miles in the rear, or even twenty miles, is really a better place to be if you are seeking to fix in your mind a reasonably full picture of the scope and effect and consequences of the hideous28 thing called war. Back there you see the new troops going in, girding themselves for the grapple as they go; you see the re-enforcements coming up; you see the supplies hurrying forward, and the spare guns and the extra equipment, and all the rest of it; you see, and can, after a dim fashion, grasp mentally, the thrusting, onward30 movement of this highly scientific and most unromantic industry which half the world began practicing in the fall of 1914.
Finally, you see the finished fabrics31 of the trade coming back; and by that I mean the dribbling32 streams of the wounded and, in the fields and woods through which you pass, the dead, lying in windrows where they fell. At the front you see only, for the main part, men engaged in the most tedious, the most exacting33, and seemingly the most futile34 form of day labor—toiling in filth35 and foulness36 and a desperate driven haste, on a job that many of them will never live to see finished—if it is ever finished; working under taskmasters who spare them not—neither do they spare themselves; putting through a dreary37 contract, whereof the chief reward is weariness and the common coinage of payment is death outright38 or death lin[Pg 230]gering. That is a battle in these days; that is war.
So twistiwise was our route, and so rapidly did we pursue it after we left the place where we took lunch, that I confess I lost all sense of direction. It seemed to me our general course was eastward39; I discovered afterward40 it was southwesterly. At any rate we eventually found ourselves in a road that wound between high grassy41 banks along a great natural terrace just below the level of the plateau in front of Laon. We saw a few farmhouses42, all desolated43 by shell-fire and all deserted44, and a succession of empty fields and patches of woodland. None of the natives were in sight. Through fear of prying45 hostile eyes, the Germans had seen fit to clear them out of this immediate46 vicinity. Anyhow, a majority of them doubtlessly ran away when fighting first started here, three weeks earlier; the Germans had got rid of those who remained. Likewise of troops there were very few to be seen. We did meet one squad47 of Red Cross men, marching afoot through the dust. They were all fully48 armed, as is the way with the German field-hospital helpers; and, for all I know to the contrary, that may be the way with the field-hospital helpers of the Allies too.
Though I have often seen it, the Cross on the sleeve-band of a man who bears a revolver in his belt, or a rifle on his arm, has always struck me as a most incongruous thing. The[Pg 231] noncommissioned officer in charge of the squad—chief orderly I suppose you might call him—held by leashes49 four Red Cross dogs.
In Belgium, back in August, I had seen so-called dog batteries. Going into Louvain on the day the Belgian Army, or what was left of it, fell back into Brussels, I passed a valley where many dogs were hitched51 to small machine guns; and I could not help wondering what would happen to the artillery52 formation, and what to the discipline of the pack, if a rabbit should choose that moment for darting53 across the battle front.
These, however, were the first dogs I had found engaged in hospital-corps employment. They were big, wolfish-looking hounds, shaggy and sharp-nosed; and each of the four wore a collar of bells on his neck, and a cloth harness on his shoulders, with the red Maltese cross displayed on its top and sides. Their business was to go to the place where fighting had taken place and search out the fallen.
At this business they were reputed to be highly efficient. The Germans had found them especially useful; for the German field uniform, which has the merit of merging55 into the natural background at a short distance, becomes, through that very protective coloration, a disadvantage when its wearer drops wounded and unconscious on the open field. In a poor light the litter bearers might search within a few rods of him and never see him; but where the[Pg 232] faulty eyesight fails the nose of the dog sniffs56 the human taint57 in the air, and the dog makes the work of rescue thorough and complete. At least we were told so.
Presently our automobile23 rounded a bend in the road, and the observation balloon, which until that moment we had been unable to glimpse, by reason of an intervening formation of ridges58, revealed itself before us. The suddenness of its appearance was startling. We did not see it until we were within a hundred yards of it. At once we realized how perfect an abiding59 place this was for a thing which offered so fine and looming60 a target.
Moreover, the balloon was most effectively guarded against attack at close range. We became aware of that fact when we dismounted from the automobile and were clambering up the steep bank alongside. Soldiers materialized from everywhere, like dusty specters, but fell back, saluting62, when they saw that officers accompanied us. On advice we had already thrown away our lighted cigars; but two noncommissioned officers felt it to be their bounden duty to warn us against striking matches in that neighborhood. You dare not take chances with a woven bag that is packed with many hundred cubic feet of gas.
At the moment of our arrival the balloon was drawn63 down so near the earth that its distorted bottommost extremity64 dipped and twisted slackly within fifty or sixty feet of the grass.[Pg 233] The upper end, reaching much farther into the air, underwent convulsive writhings and contortions65 as an intermittent66 breeze came over the sheltering treetops and buffeted67 it in puffs69. Almost beneath the balloon six big draft horses stood, hitched in pairs to a stout70 wagon71 frame on which a huge wooden drum was mounted.
Round this drum a wire cable was coiled, and a length of the cable stretched like a snake across the field to where it ended in a swivel, made fast to the bottom of the riding car. It was not, strictly72 speaking, a riding car. It was a straight-up-and-down basket of tough, light wicker, no larger and very little deeper than an ordinarily fair-sized hamper73 for soiled linen74. Indeed, that was what it reminded one of—a clothes basket.
Grouped about the team and the wagon were soldiers to the number of perhaps a third of a company. Half a dozen of them stood about the basket holding it steady—or trying to. Heavy sandbags hung pendentwise about the upper rim75 of the basket, looking very much like so many canvased hams; but, even with these drags on it and in spite of the grips of the men on the guy ropes of its rigging, it bumped and bounded uneasily to the continual rocking of the gas bag above it. Every moment or two it would lift itself a foot or so and tilt76 and jerk, and then come back again with a thump77 that made it shiver.
[Pg 234]
Of furnishings the interior of the car contained nothing except a telephone, fixed78 against one side of it; a pair of field glasses, swung in a sort of harness; and a strip of tough canvas, looped across halfway79 down in it. The operator, when wearied by standing80, might sit astride this canvas saddle, with his legs cramped81 under him, while he spied out the land with his eyes, which would then be just above the top of his wicker nest, and while he spoke82 over the telephone.
The wires of the telephone escaped through a hole under his feet and ran to a concealed83 station at the far side of the field which in turn communicated with the main exchange at headquarters three miles away; which in its turn radiated other wires to all quarters of the battle front. Now the wires were neatly84 coiled on the ground beside the basket. A sergeant85 stood over them to prevent any careless foot from stepping on the precious strands87. He guarded them as jealously as a hen guards her brood.
The magazine containing retorts of specially54 prepared gas, for recharging the envelope when evaporation88 and leakage89 had reduced the volume below the lifting and floating point, was nowhere in sight. It must have been somewhere near by, but we saw no signs of it. Nor did our guides for the day offer to show us its whereabouts. However, knowing what I do of the German system of doing things, I will[Pg 235] venture the assertion that it was snugly91 hidden and stoutly92 protected.
These details I had time to take in, when there came across the field to join us a tall young officer with a three weeks' growth of stubby black beard on his face. A genial93 and captivating gentleman was Lieutenant94 Brinkner und Meiningen, and I enjoyed my meeting with him; and often since that day in my thoughts I have wished him well. However, I doubt whether he will be living by the time these lines see publication.
It is an exciting life a balloon operator in the German Army lives, but it is not, as a rule, a long one. Lieutenant Meiningen was successor to a man who was burned to death in mid-air a week before; and on the day before a French airman had dropped a bomb from the clouds that missed this same balloon by a margin95 of less than a hundred yards—close marksmanship, considering that the airman in question was seven or eight thousand feet aloft, and moving at the rate of a mile or so a minute when he made his cast.
It was the Lieutenant who said he had authority to take one of our number up with him, and it was I who chanced to be nearest to the balloon when he extended the invitation. Some one—a friend—removed from between my teeth the unlighted cigar I held there, for fear I might forget and try to light it; and somebody else—a stranger to me—sug[Pg 236]gested that perhaps I was too heavy for a passenger.
By that time, however, a kindly96 corporal had boosted me up over the rim of the basket and helped me to squeeze through the thick netting of guy lines; and there I was, standing inside that overgrown clotheshamper, which came up breast high on me—and Brinkner und Meiningen was swinging himself nimbly in beside me. That basket was meant to hold but one man. It made a wondrously97 snug90 fit for two; the both of us being full-sized adults at that. We stood back to back; and to address the other each must needs speak over his shoulder. The canvas saddle was between us, dangling98 against the calves99 of our legs; and the telephone was in front of the lieutenant, where he could reach the transmitter with his lips by stooping a little.
The soldiers began unhooking the sandbags; the sergeant who guarded the telephone wire took up a strand86 of it and held it loosely in his hands, ready to pay it out. Under me I felt the basket heave gently. Looking up I saw that the balloon was no longer a crooked100 sausage. She had become a big, soft, yellow summer squash, with an attenuated101 neck. The flaccid abdomen102 flinched103 in and puffed104 out, and the snout wabbled to and fro.
The lieutenant began telling me things in badly broken but painstaking105 English—such things, for example, as that the baglike pro[Pg 237]tuberance just above our heads, at the bottom end of the envelope, contained air, which, being heavier than gas, served as a balance to hold her head up in the wind and keep her from folding in on herself; also, that it was his duty to remain aloft, at the end of his tether, as long as he could, meantime studying the effect of the German shell-fire on the enemy's position and telephoning down instructions for the better aiming of the guns—a job wherein the a?roplane scouts106 ably re?nforced him, since they could range at will, whereas his position was comparatively fixed and stationary107.
Also I remember his saying, with a tinge108 of polite regret in his tone, that he was sorry I had not put on a uniform overcoat with shoulder straps109 on it, before boarding the car; because, as he took pains to explain, in the event of our cable parting and of our drifting over the Allies' lines and then descending111, he might possibly escape, but I should most likely be shot on the spot as a spy before I had a chance to explain. "However," he added consolingly, "those are possibilities most remote. The rope is not likely to break; and if it did we both should probably be dead before we ever reached the earth."
That last statement sank deep into my consciousness; but I fear I did not hearken so attentively112 as I ought to the continuation of the lieutenant's conversation, because, right[Pg 238] in the middle of his remarks, something had begun to happen.
An officer had stepped up alongside to tell me that very shortly I should undoubtedly113 be quite seasick—or, rather, skysick—because of the pitching about of the basket when the balloon reached the end of the cable; and I was trying to listen to him with one ear and to my prospective114 traveling companion with the other when I suddenly realized that the officer's face was no longer on a level with mine. It was several feet below mine. No; it was not—it was several yards below mine. Now he was looking up toward us, shouting out his words, with his hands funneled115 about his mouth for a speaking trumpet116. And at every word he uttered he shrank into himself, growing shorter and shorter.
It was not that we seemed to be moving. We seemed to be standing perfectly117 still, without any motion of any sort except a tiny teetering motion of the hamper-basket, while the earth and what was on it fell rapidly away from beneath us. At once all sense of perspective became distorted.
When on the roof of a tall building this distortion had never seemed to me so great. I imagine this is because the building remains118 stationary and a balloon moves. Almost directly below us was one of our party, wearing a soft hat with a flattish brim. It appeared to me that almost instantly his shoulders and[Pg 239] body and legs vanished. Nothing remained at him but his hat, which looked exactly like a thumb tack61 driven into a slightly tilted119 drawing board, the tilted drawing board being the field. The field seemed sloped now, instead of flat.
Across the sunken road was another field. Its owner, I presume, had started to turn it up for fall planting, when the armies came along and chased him away; so there remained a wide plowed121 strip, and on each side of it a narrower strip of unplowed earth. Even as I peered downward at it, this field was transformed into a width of brown corduroy trimmed with green velvet122.
For a rudder we carried a long, flapping clothesline arrangement, like the tail of a kite, to the lower end of which were threaded seven yellow-silk devices suggesting inverted123 sunshades without handles. These things must have been spaced on the tail at equal distances apart, but as they rose from the earth and followed after us, whipping in the wind, the uppermost one became a big umbrella turned inside out; the second was half of a pumpkin124; the third was a yellow soup plate; the fourth was a poppy bloom; and the remaining three were just amber25 beads125 of diminishing sizes.
Probably it took longer, but if you asked me I should say that not more than two or three minutes had passed before the earth stopped slipping away and we fetched up[Pg 240] with a profound and disconcerting jerk. The balloon had reached the tip of her hitch50 line.
She rocked and twisted and bent126 half double in the pangs of a fearful tummy-ache, and at every paroxysm the car lurched in sympathy, only to be brought up short by the pull of the taut127 cable; so that we two, wedged in together as we were, nevertheless jostled each other violently. I am a poor sailor, both by instinct and training. By rights and by precedents128 I should have been violently ill on the instant; but I did not have time to be ill.
My fellow traveler all this while was pointing out this thing and that to me—showing how the telephone operated; how his field glasses poised129 just before his eyes, being swung and balanced on a delicately adjusted suspended pivot130; telling me how on a perfectly clear day—this October day was slightly hazy—we could see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Cathedral at Rheims; gyrating his hands to explain the manner in which the horses, trotting131 away from us as we climbed upward, had given to the drum on the wagon a reverse motion, so that the cable was payed out evenly and regularly. But I am afraid I did not listen closely. My eyes were so busy that my ears loafed on the job.
For once in my life—and doubtlessly only once—I saw now understandingly a battle front. It was spread before me—lines and dots and dashes on a big green and brown and yellow[Pg 241] map. Why, the whole thing was as plain as a chart. I had a reserved seat for the biggest show on earth.
To be sure it was a gallery seat, for the terrace from which we started stood fully five hundred feet above the bottom of the valley, and we had ascended132 approximately seven hundred feet above that, giving us an altitude of, say, twelve hundred feet in all above the level of the river; but a gallery seat suited me. It suited me perfectly. The great plateau, stretching from the high hill behind us, to the river in front of us, portrayed133 itself, when viewed from aloft, as a shallow bowl, alternately grooved134 by small depressions and corrugated135 by small ridges. Here and there were thin woodlands, looking exactly like scrubby clothes brushes. The fields were checkered136 squares and oblongs, and a ruined village in the distance seemed a jumbled handful of children's gray and red blocks.
The German batteries appeared now to be directly beneath us—some of them, though in reality I imagine the nearest one must have been nearly a mile away on a bee line. They formed an irregular horseshoe, with the open end of it toward us. There was a gap in the horseshoe where the calk should have been. The German trenches137, for the most part, lay inside the encircling lines of batteries. In shape they rather suggested a U turned upside down; yet it was hard to ascribe to them any[Pg 242] real shape, since they zigzagged139 so crazily. I could tell, though, there was sanity140 in this seeming madness, for nearly every trench138 was joined at an acute angle with its neighbor; so that a man, or a body of men, starting at the rear, out of danger, might move to the very front of the fighting zone and all the time be well sheltered. So far as I could make out there were but few breaks in the sequence of communications. One of these breaks was almost directly in front of me as I stood facing the south.
The batteries of the Allies and their infantry141 trenches, being so much farther away, were less plainly visible. I could discern their location without being able to grasp their general arrangement. Between the nearer infantry trenches of the two opposing forces were tiny dots in the ground, each defined by an infinitesimal hillock of yellow earth heaped before it—observation pits these, where certain picked men, who do not expect to live very long anyway, hide themselves away to keep tally29 on the effect of the shells, which go singing past just over their heads to fall among the enemy, who may be only a few hundred feet or a few hundred yards away from the observers.
It was an excessively busy afternoon among the guns. They spoke continually—now this battery going, now that; now two or three or a dozen together—and the sound of them came up to us in claps and roars like summer thun[Pg 243]der. Sometimes, when a battery close by let go, I could watch the thin, shreddy trail of fine smoke that marked the arched flight of a shrapnel bomb, almost from the very mouth of the gun clear to where it burst out into a fluffy142 white powder puff68 inside the enemy's position.
Contrariwise, I could see how shells from the enemy crossed those shells in the air and curved downward to scatter143 their iron sprays among the Germans. In the midst of all this would come a sharp, spattering sound, as though hail in the heighth of the thunder shower had fallen on a tin roof; and that, I learned, meant infantry firing in a trench somewhere.
For a while I watched some German soldiers moving forward through a criss-cross of trenches; I took them to be fresh men going in to relieve other men who had seen a period of service under fire. At first they suggested moles144 crawling through plow120 furrows145; then, as they progressed onward, they shrank to the smallness of gray grub-worms, advancing one behind another. My eye strayed beyond them a fair distance and fell on a row of tiny scarlet146 dots, like cochineal bugs147, showing minutely but clearly against the green-yellow face of a ridgy148 field well inside the forward batteries of the French and English. At that same instant the lieutenant must have seen the crawling red line too. He pointed149 to it.
"Frenchmen," he said; "French infantry[Pg 244]men's trousers. One cannot make out their coats, but their red trousers show as they wriggle150 forward on their faces."
Better than ever before I realized the idiocy151 of sending men to fight in garments that make vivid targets of them.
My companion may have come up for pleasure, but if business obtruded152 itself on him he did not neglect it. He bent to his telephone and spoke briskly into it. He used German, but, after a fashion, I made out what he said. He was directing the attention of somebody to the activities of those red trousers.
I intended to see what would follow on this, but at this precise moment a sufficiently153 interesting occurrence came to pass at a place within much clearer eye range. The gray grub-worms had shoved ahead until they were gray ants; and now all the ants concentrated into a swarm154 and, leaving the trenches, began to move in a slanting155 direction toward a patch of woods far over to our left. Some of them, I think, got there, some of them did not. Certain puff-balls of white smoke, and one big smudge of black smoke, which last signified a bomb of high explosives, broke over them and among them, hiding all from sight for a space of seconds. Dust clouds succeeded the smoke; then the dust lifted slowly. Those ants were not to be seen. They had altogether vanished. It was as though an anteater had come forth invisibly and eaten them all up.
[Pg 245]
Marveling at this phenomenon and unable to convince myself that I had seen men destroyed, and not insects, I turned my head south again to watch the red ladybugs in the field. Lo! They were gone too! Either they had reached shelter or a painful thing had befallen them.
The telephone spoke a brisk warning. I think it made a clicking sound. I am sure it did not ring; but in any event it called attention to itself. The other man clapped his ear to the receiver and took heed156 to the word that came up the dangling wire, and snapped back an answer.
"I think we should return at once," he said to me over his shoulder. "Are you sufficiently wearied?"
I was not sufficiently wearied—I wasn't wearied at all—but he was the captain of the ship and I was not even paying for my passage.
The car jerked beneath our unsteady feet and heeled over, and I had the sensation of being in an elevator that has started downward suddenly, and at an angle to boot. The balloon resisted the pressure from below. It curled up its tail like a fat bumblebee trying to sting itself, and the guy ropes, to which I held with both hands, snapped in imitation of the rigging of a sailboat in a fair breeze. Plainly the balloon wished to remain where it was or go farther; but the pull of the cable was steady and hard, and the world began to[Pg 246] rise up to meet us. Nearing the earth it struck me that we were making a remarkably157 speedy return. I craned my neck to get a view of what was directly beneath.
The six-horse team was advancing toward us at a brisk canter and the drum turned fast, taking up the slack of the tether; but, as though not satisfied with this rate of progress, several soldiers were running back and jumping up to haul in the rope. The sergeant who took care of the telephone was hard put to it to coil down the twin wires. He skittered about over the grass with the liveliness of a cricket.
Many soiled hands grasped the floor of our hamper and eased the jar of its contact with the earth. Those same hands had redraped the rim with sandbags, and had helped us to clamber out from between the stay ropes, when up came the young captain who spelled the lieutenant as an a?rial spy. He came at a run. Between the two of them ensued a sharp interchange of short German sentences. I gathered the sense of what passed.
"I don't see it now," said, in effect, my late traveling mate, staring skyward and turning his head.
"Nor do I," answered the captain. "I thought it was yonder." He flirted158 a thumb backward and upward over his shoulder.
"Are you sure you saw it?"
"No, not sure," said the captain. "I called you down at the first alarm, and right after[Pg 247] that it disappeared, I think; but I shall make sure."
He snapped an order to the soldiers and vaulted159 nimbly into the basket. The horses turned about and moved off and the balloon rose. As for the lieutenant, he spun160 round and ran toward the edge of the field, fumbling161 at his belt for his private field glasses as he ran. Wondering what all this pother was about—though I had a vague idea regarding its meaning—I watched the ascent162.
I should say the bag had reached a height of five hundred feet when, behind me, a hundred yards or so away, a soldier shrieked163 out excitedly. Farther along another voice took up the outcry. From every side of the field came shouts. The field was ringed with clamor. It dawned on me that this spot was even more efficiently164 guarded than I had conceived it to be.
The driver of the wagon swung his lumbering165 team about with all the strength of his arms, and back again came the six horses, galloping166 now. So thickly massed were the men who snatched at the cable, and so eagerly did they grab for it, that the simile167 of a hot handball scrimmage flashed into my thoughts. I will venture that balloon never did a faster homing job than it did then.
Fifty men were pointing aloft now, all of them crying out as they pointed:
"Flyer! French flyer!"
[Pg 248]
I saw it. It was a monoplane. It had, I judged, just emerged from a cloudbank to the southward. It was heading directly toward our field. It was high up—so high up that I felt momentarily amazed that all those Germans could distinguish it as a French flyer rather than as an English flyer at that distance.
As I looked, and as all of us looked, the balloon basket hit the earth and was made fast; and in that same instant a cannon168 boomed somewhere well over to the right. Even as someone who knew sang out to us that this was the balloon cannon in the German aviation field back of the town opening up, a tiny ball of smoke appeared against the sky, seemingly quite close to the darting flyer, and blossomed out with downy, dainty white petals169, like a flower.
The monoplane veered170, wheeled and began to drive in a wriggling171, twisting course. The balloon cannon spoke again. Four miles away, to the eastward, its fellow in another aviation camp let go, and the sound of its discharge came to us faintly but distinctly. Another smoke flower unfolded in the heavens, somewhat below the darting airship.
Both guns were in action now. Each fired at six-second intervals172. All about the flitting target the smokeballs burst—above it, below it, to this side of it and to that. They polka-dotted the heavens in the area through which the Frenchman scudded173. They looked like[Pg 249] a bed of white water lilies and he like a black dragonfly skimming among the lilies. It was a pretty sight and as thrilling a one as I have ever seen.
I cannot analyze174 my emotions as I viewed the spectacle, let alone try to set them down on paper. Alongside of this, big-game hunting was a commonplace thing, for this was big-game hunting of a magnificent kind, new to the world—revolving cannon, with a range of from seven to eight thousand feet, trying to bring down a human being out of the very clouds.
He ran for his life. Once I thought they had him. A shell burst seemingly quite close to him, and his machine dipped far to one side and dropped through space at that angle for some hundreds of feet apparently175.
A yell of exultation176 rose from the watching Germans, who knew that an explosion close to an a?roplane is often sufficient, through the force of air concussion177 alone, to crumple178 the flimsy wings and bring it down, even though none of the flying shrapnel from the bursting bomb actually touch the operator or the machine.
However, they whooped179 their joy too soon. The flyer righted, rose, darted180 confusingly to the right, then to the left, and then bored straight into a woolly white cloudrack and was gone. The moment it disappeared the two balloon cannon ceased firing; and I, taking[Pg 250] stock of my own sensations, found myself quivering all over and quite hoarse181.
I must have done some yelling myself; but whether I rooted for the flyer to get away safely or for the cannon to hit him, I cannot for the life of me say. I can only trust that I preserved my neutrality and rooted for both.
Subsequently I decided182 in my own mind that from within the Allies' lines the Frenchman saw us—meaning the lieutenant and myself—in the air, and came forth with intent to bombard us from on high; that, seeing us descend110, he hid in a cloud ambush183, venturing out once more, with his purpose renewed, when the balloon reascended, bearing the captain. I liked to entertain that idea, because it gave me a feeling of having shared to some degree in a big adventure.
As for the captain and the lieutenant, they advanced no theories whatever. The thing was all in the day's work to them. It had happened before. I have no doubt it has happened many times since.
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offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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7
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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8
cramp
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| n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚 | |
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9
depleted
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| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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10
counterfeited
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| v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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11
chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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12
invalidism
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| 病弱，病身； 伤残 | |
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13
privily
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| adv.暗中，秘密地 | |
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14
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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15
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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16
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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17
aviator
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| n.飞行家，飞行员 | |
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18
premium
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| n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的 | |
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19
cuticle
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| n.表皮 | |
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20
gaseous
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| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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21
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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22
hoggish
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| adj.贪婪的 | |
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23
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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24
automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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25
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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26
jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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27
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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28
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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29
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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30
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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31
fabrics
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| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
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32
dribbling
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| n.（燃料或油从系统内）漏泄v.流口水( dribble的现在分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球 | |
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33
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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34
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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35
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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36
foulness
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| n. 纠缠, 卑鄙 | |
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37
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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38
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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39
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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40
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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41
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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42
farmhouses
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| n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
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43
desolated
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| adj.荒凉的，荒废的 | |
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44
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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45
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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46
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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47
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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48
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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49
leashes
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| n.拴猎狗的皮带( leash的名词复数 ) | |
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50
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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51
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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52
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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53
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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54
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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55
merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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56
sniffs
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的第三人称单数 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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57
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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58
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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59
abiding
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| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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60
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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61
tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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62
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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63
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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64
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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65
contortions
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| n.扭歪，弯曲；扭曲，弄歪，歪曲( contortion的名词复数 ) | |
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66
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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67
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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68
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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69
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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71
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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72
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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73
hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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74
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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75
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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76
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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77
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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78
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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79
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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80
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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81
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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82
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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83
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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84
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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85
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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86
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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87
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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88
evaporation
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| n.蒸发，消失 | |
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89
leakage
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| n.漏，泄漏；泄漏物；漏出量 | |
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90
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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91
snugly
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| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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92
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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93
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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94
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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95
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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96
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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97
wondrously
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| adv.惊奇地，非常，极其 | |
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98
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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99
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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100
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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101
attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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102
abdomen
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| n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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103
flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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105
painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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106
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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107
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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108
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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109
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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110
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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111
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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112
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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113
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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114
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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115
funneled
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| 漏斗状的 | |
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116
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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117
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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118
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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119
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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120
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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121
plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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122
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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123
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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124
pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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125
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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126
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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127
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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precedents
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| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
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129
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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130
pivot
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| v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的 | |
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131
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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132
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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portrayed
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| v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画 | |
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134
grooved
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| v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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135
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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136
checkered
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| adj.有方格图案的 | |
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137
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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138
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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139
zigzagged
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| adj.呈之字形移动的v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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140
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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141
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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142
fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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143
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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144
moles
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| 防波堤( mole的名词复数 )； 鼹鼠； 痣； 间谍 | |
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145
furrows
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| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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146
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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147
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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148
ridgy
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| adj.有脊的；有棱纹的；隆起的；有埂的 | |
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149
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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150
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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151
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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152
obtruded
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| v.强行向前，强行，强迫( obtrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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153
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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154
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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155
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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158
flirted
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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160
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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161
fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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162
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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163
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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164
efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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166
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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167
simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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168
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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169
petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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170
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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171
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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172
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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173
scudded
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| v.（尤指船、舰或云彩）笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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174
analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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175
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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176
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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177
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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178
crumple
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| v.把...弄皱，满是皱痕，压碎，崩溃 | |
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179
whooped
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| 叫喊( whoop的过去式和过去分词 )； 高声说； 唤起 | |
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180
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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181
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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182
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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183
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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