Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover] [Illustration: THROUGH THE SKYLIGHT. _See page_ 22.] BURTON OF THE FLYING CORPS BY HERBERT STRANG _ILLUSTRATED BY C. E. BROCK_ LONDON HENRY FROWDE HODDER AND STOUGHTON _First printed in 1916._ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. CONTENTS I DÉFENSE DE FUMER Showing how Burton made a trip to Ostend in pursuit of a spy II THE DEATH’S HEAD HUSSAR Relating Burton’s adventure in a French chateau III BORROWED PLUMES Showing how Burton caught a German in Bulgaria IV THE WATCH-TOWER Showing what followed an accident in Macedonia V THE MISSING PLATOON Relating an incident of trench warfare in Flanders LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS COLOUR PLATES Through the Skylight . . . _Frontispiece_ (_see page_ 22) An Interruption Nonplussed Hands up! DRAWINGS IN LINE "Oh, Mr. Burton, sir" Signals of Distress "I give him in charge" Congratulations "You have had an accident" The German Way The Marquis is hit The Door fell in with a Crash An Aerial Somersault "He looks a terrible fellow" A Discomfited Spy "Dismount, sir" Milosh waits "A strange find, upon my word" A Perilous Moment The British Way The Captain is annoyed Headings on pages 9, 63, 129, 163, 246 [Illustration: Chapter I Heading] DÉFENSE DE FUMER I About one o’clock one Saturday afternoon in summer, a hydro-aeroplane--or, as its owner preferred to call it, a flying-boat--dropped lightly on to the surface of one of the many creeks that intersect the marshes bordering on the river Swale. The pilot, a youth of perhaps twenty years, having moored his vessel to a stake in the bank, leapt ashore with a light suit-case, and walked rapidly along a cinder path towards the low wooden shed, painted black, that broke the level a few hundred yards away. It was a lonely spot--the very image of dreariness. All around extended the "glooming flats"; between the shed and Luddenham Church, a mile or so distant, nothing varied the grey monotony except an occasional tree, and a small red-brick, red-tiled cottage, which, with its flower-filled windows, seemed oddly out of place amid its surroundings--an oasis in a desert.