A flying-machine in Ghazistan! The voice of an old, old friend to whom he could not, for the moment, give a name … Why couldn’t the cowardly brutes of vultures begin their business, and end his? What was that familiar voice calling:— “Hold on a bit, we’ll soon be with you! Don’t give up. We can’t land just here. If we drop anything can you crawl and get it?” “He opened his eyes,” said Captain Digby-Soames, “but I doubt if he’s conscious. He must have come a frightful cropper. You can see there’s a compound fracture of the right femur from here, and one of his feet is fairly pointing backwards. Blood from the mouth, too. Anyhow he’s alive. Better shoot him if we can’t shift him——” “We’ll _get_ him all right. This is a Heaven-sent ‘problem’ and we’ll solve it—and I’ll quote it in my ‘manual’. Quite war-conditions. Very badly wounded man—inaccessible position—stretcher-parties all out of sight—aeroplane can’t land for any first-aid nor to pick up the casualty—_excellent_ problem and demonstration. That oont[28] will simplify it, though. Look here—I’ll drop down and land you by it, and then come here again and hover. You bring the beast up—you’ll be able to ride most of the way if you zig-zag, and lead him most of the rest. Then you’ll have to carry the casualty to the oont and bring him down.” [28] Camel. The aeroplane swooped down and grounded gently within a hundred yards of the kneeling camel, who eyed it with the cold and supercilious disdain of his kind. “Tell you what,” said Colonel Decies, “when I get up there again, have a good squint and see if you think you can locate the spot for yourself from below. If you can, I’ll come down again and we’ll both go up on the oont. Bring the poor beggar down much better if one of us can hold him while the other drives the camel. It’s no Grand Trunk Road, by Jove.” “Right-O,” acquiesced Captain Digby-Soames. “If I can get a clear bearing to a point immediately below where you hover, I’ll lie flat on the ground as an affirmative signal. If there’s no good landmark I’ll stay perpendicular, what?”