One of the pilots--a youngster of under twenty, with two wound stripes on his cuff--laughed suddenly. "That Hun bomber just about rounds off a complete day of frightfulness for you two fellows," he said. "You have had a lively time, one way and another." "We have," said Dixie. "I've had thrills enough for this day to fill a boy's adventure library full an' overflowin'." "Too many for me," said the Boy, "when I think of watching that man go down with an unopened parachute." "It was worse seeing that Hun come down the road," said Dixie, "and bein' able to do nothin' to stop him. An' when I think of that mother with a dead baby, an' that kid--a girl--about five years old, that an explosive bullet----" And he stopped abruptly. There was silence for a minute, broken by the young pilot. "Speaking of thrills," he said, and laughed again, "there was a paragraph--some of you will remember how we grinned over it. Wonder if I could find the paper? It would tickle you diving balloonatics especially. I'll see," and he disappeared into the mess-room and began to hunt round with an electric torch. He found the paper and brought it out and read the paragraph by the light of his torch. It was headed "60,000 Thrills," and it ran:[7] "A Blanktown cable, received by the Chief Representative for Blancountry, states: At an aquatic carnival, held by the Big Stone Swimming Club at Light Falls, there was an attendance of 60,000. The proceeds go to the Soldier's Fund. Prince Walkiyick--known as Alec Walker the Middle Seas sprint champion--dived from a height of 200 feet into the water. He was two seconds in the air and thrilled the spectators with his exploit." [7] Except that names are altered, the paragraph is reprinted here word for word as it appeared in a daily paper and was read by thousands of men in the line at the time of the first retreat in the spring of 1918. I have the cutting now.--B. C. "Good Lord!" said the Boy helplessly. "Thrilled the spectators," repeated Dixie. "_Thrilled_ ... well, if that doesn't take it." The young pilot was laughing again, long and immoderately, and some of the others, looking at the two observers' faces, had to join him. "Sixty thousand, you said," the Boy was beginning, when he was interrupted by a distant _boom--boom--boom_. "Huns bombing Blanqueville again," said the young pilot. "More women and kid casualties, I suppose." Dixie was cursing, low but very intensely. "If those spectators are out for thrills----" he said, and looked to where a red glow was beginning to rise in the sky over Blanqueville. XVII THE SEQUEL