"'What's wrong wi' ye?' says the oberlootenant. 'Are ye Gairman heroes or just low-doon Austreens that ye fear ain wee bairdie?' "'Lootenant,' say they, 'yon feller is Tam o' the Scoots, the Brigand o' the Stars!' "'Ech!' he says. 'Gang oop, ain o' ye, an' ask the lad to coom doon an' tak' a soop wi' us--we maun keep on the recht side o' Tam!'" All this and more would have gone to form the preliminary chapter of the true version of Tam's code of attack. * * * * * "He's a rum bird, is Tam," said Captain Blackie at breakfast; "he brought down von Zeidlitz yesterday." "Is von Zeidlitz down?" demanded half a dozen voices, and Blackie nodded. "He was a good, clean fighter," said young Carter regretfully. "When did you hear this, sir?" "This morning, through H. Q. Intelligence." "Tam will be awfully bucked," said somebody. "He was complaining yesterday that life was getting too monotonous. By the way, we ought to drop a wreath for poor old von Zeidlitz." "Tam will do it with pleasure," said Blackie; "he always liked von Zeidlitz--he called him 'Fritz Fokker' ever since the day von Zeidlitz nearly got Tam's tail down." An officer standing by the window with his hands thrust into his pockets called over his shoulder: "Here comes Tam." The thunder and splutter of the scout's engine came to them faintly as Tam's swift little machine came skimming across the broad ground of the aerodrome and in a few minutes Tam was walking slowly toward the office, stripping his gloves as he went. Blackie went out to him. "Hello, Tam--anything exciting?" Tam waved his hand--he never saluted. "Will ye gang an' tak' a look at me eenstruments?" he asked mysteriously. "Why, Tam?" "_Will_ ye, sir-r?" Captain Blackie walked over to the machine and climbed up into the fuselage. What he saw made him gasp, and he came back to where Tam was standing, smug and self-conscious. "You've been up to twenty-eight thousand feet, Tam?" asked the astonished Blackie. "Why, that is nearly a record!" "A' doot ma baromeeter," said Tam; "if A' were no' at fochty thousand, A'm a Boche." Blackie laughed. "You're not a Boche, Tam," he said, "and you haven't been to forty thousand feet--no human being can rise eight miles. To get up five and a half miles is a wonderful achievement. Why did you do it?" Tam grinned and slapped his long gloves together. "For peace an' quiet," he said. "A've been chased by thairty air Hoons that got 'twixt me an' ma breakfast, so A' went oop a bit an' a bit more an' two fellers came behint me. There's an ould joke that A've never understood before--'the higher the fewer'--it's no' deefficult to understand it noo." "You got back all right, anyhow," said Blackie.