"At ten o'clock in the forenoon o' a clear but wintry day, a solitary airman micht hae been seen wingin' his lane way ameedst the solitude o' the achin' skies." "'Achin' skies'?" queried the stenographer dubiously. "It's poetry," said Tam. "A' got it oot o' a bit by Roodyard Kiplin', the Burns o' England, an' don't interrupt. "He seemed ower young for sich an adventure--" "How old are you, Sergeant, if I may ask the question?" demanded the amanuensis. "Ye may not ask, but A'll tell you--A'm seventy-four come Michaelmas, an' A've never looked into the bricht ees o' a lassie since A' lost me wee Jean, who flit wi' a colonel o' dragoons, in the year the battle of Balaklava was fought--will ye shut yeer face whilst A'm dictatin'?" "Sorry," murmured the corporal and poised his pencil. "Suddenly, as the wee hero was guidin' his 'bus through the maze o' cloods, a strange sicht met his ees. It was the caircus of MacBissing! They were evolutin' by numbers, performin' their Great Feat of Balancin' an' Barebacked Ridin', Aerial Trapeze an' Tight-rope Walkin', Loopin' the Loop by the death-defyin' Brothers Fritz, together with many laughable an' amusin' interludes by Whimsical Walker, the Laird o' Laughter, the whole concludin' with a Graund Patriotic Procession entitled Deutschland ower All--or Nearly All." "I ain't seen a circus for years," said the corporal with a sigh. "Lord! I used to love them girls in short skirts--" "Restrain yeer amorous thochts, Alec," warned Tam, "an' fix yeer mind on leeterature. To proceed: "'Can it be,' says our hero, 'can it be that Mr. MacBissing is doin' his stunts at ten-thairty o' the clock in the cauld morn, for sheer love o' his seenister profession? No,' says A'--says our young hero--'no,' says he, 'he has a distinguished audience as like as not.' "Speerin' ower the side an' fixin' his expensive glasses on the groon, he espied sax motor-cars--" The door was flung open and Blackie came in hurriedly. "Tam--get up," he said briefly. "All the damn circuses are out on a strafe--and we're It--von Bissing, von Rheinhoff, and von Wentzl. They're coming straight here and I think they're out for blood." The history of that great aerial combat has been graphically told by the special correspondents. Von Bissing's formation--dead out of luck that day--was broken up by Archie fire and forced back, von Wentzl was engaged by the Fifty-ninth Squadron (providentially up in strength for a strafe of their own) and turned back, but the von Rheinhoff group reached its objective before the machines were more than five thousand feet from the ground and there was some wild bombing.