'Don't you know anybody
who could take me up some Sunday?' Of whom has he not asked this
question? But at college it was not at all easy, and it was during
vacation that he succeeded in carrying out his project. If I am not
mistaken, his first ascension was at the aerodrome of Compiegne. At that
time the comfortable cockpits of the modern airplanes were unknown, and
the passenger was obliged to place himself as best he could behind the
pilot and cling to him by putting his arms around him in order not to
fall, so that it was a relief to come down again!..."
The noticeable sentence in these notes is the first one: _When an
airplane flew over the quarter, he followed it with his eyes, and
continued to gaze at the sky for some time after its disappearance._ If
Jean Krebs had survived, he could perhaps enlighten us still further;
but, even to this reasonable friend, could Guynemer have revealed what
was still confused to himself? Jean Constantin only saw him once in a
reverie; and Guynemer must have kept silent about his resolutions.
Soon afterwards, as Guynemer was obliged once more to renounce his
studies--and this was the year in which he was preparing for the
Polytechnique--his father left him with his grandmother in Paris, to
rest.
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