He hurried up to me. "All right. There's your machine, and here's your
pilot. Come along."
A lot of officers closed round me, rushed me into a hut: two of them
began to button me into the coat, two more were ramming a cap on my head,
others stood around with goggles, with binoculars. . . I couldn't
understand the necessity of such haste. We weren't going to chase Fritz.
There was no sign of Fritz anywhere in the blue. Those dear boys did not
seem to notice my age--fifty-eight, if a day--nor my infirmities--a gouty
subject for years. This disregard was very flattering, and I tried to
live up to it, but the pace seemed to me terrific. They galloped me
across a vast expanse of open ground to the water's edge.
The machine on its carriage seemed as big as a cottage, and much more
imposing. My young pilot went up like a bird. There was an idle, able-
bodied ladder loafing against a shed within fifteen feet of me, but as
nobody seemed to notice it, I recommended myself mentally to Heaven and
started climbing after the pilot. The close view of the real fragility
of that rigid structure startled me considerably, while Commander O.
Pages:
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303