The Ypres Times.
91
"SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT."
An Airy Sketch.
We have had little about flying in the Salient, but we hope to remedy this in the future.Ed. Y.T.)
The moon was full and the night was perfectthere was no good in disputing that. Nor
were there any indications of it clouding over. So we just stood there, George and Dodgson
called The Dodger for shortand Charles and myself, watching the Archies com
peting with the stars and listening to the Gothas gothing up above, and eating choco
lates desultorily.
Now and again, as if to reassure us that others besides ourselves were to experience
the discomforts of a full moon, our own night-bombing machines FE's by name)
came waddling over with a great deal of fuss and buzzed away Hunwards with their
navigation lights twinkling.
Good old FE'S,' they make me feel so comfy," said the Dodger with his childish
but engaging giggle. George started to laugh to himself crescendo-wise, like a Scotchman
who sees a joke told him the day before. Then he began
How doth the little busy FE
Improve each shining hour-
That will do, George," I said coldly. He relapsed once more into his self-satisfied
chortle.
Meanwhile the Gothas drew ever nearer, and as they passed over the town just east
of our areodrome, half-a-dozen searchlights leapt up and swung to and fro across the sky.
Bjit their beams were feeble in the moonlight.
We're for it," murmured The Dodger disconsolately. The Dodger was a curious
psychological problem. On the question of winning the war he was an ardent optimist,
but where a bomb or any other flying matter was concerned he was the gloomiest and
most windy pessimist who ever graced a squadron.
Listenhe wenj on. His injunction was not hard to carry out. Nearer and
nearer with each crash the bombs were falling one, two, three, four, five
What about the sixth asked Charlesa little nervously, I thought.
Oh, he's keeping that for us," whispered The Dodger it won't be long now."
P'raps they only carry five," I said. The wish is father to the thought.
Sure to carry sixat the least," said The Dodger. And at that moment some ass
walked out of the mess to see what all the row was about, leaving the door wide open,
and the light streamed out
The Dodger was right. They did carry sixat the leastWhen it was
all over everybody laughed, for each bomb had fallen to the accompaniment of an I told
you so from The Dodger. In fact the idea seemed to cheer him immensely, and quite
to compensate for the inconvenience caused him by his prophecy being fulfilled.
Everything was quiet now, in strange contrast to the swift noise of the preceding
minute. Not a breath of wind stirred the trees.
What are the chances of another visit to-night asked George hopefully. Charles,
who looked very pale, would certainly have kicked him for this, but for the fact that his
recent experience had left him rather weak in the knees.
Chances and I looked at my watch. Twenty to eleven," I said, but nobody
saw the pun. So I asked, What does Meteor say George informed me that
Meteor the official Old Moore to the B.E.F.foretold a wind of gale force through
out the night.
Dear old Meteor,'I saidbut Charles will no doubt oblige by supplying the wind.
Have a chocolate, Charles And I handed him the box under my arm just in time
to avert a rupture of diplomatic relations.
And then our attention was drawn to the mess, whence hideous noises proceeded.
