We had, in
fact, only made very slight and very slow changes of altitude, speed,
and direction. Compliments from him mean something, for nobody has
better nerve. In the evening Captain Gerard, in command of army
aviation, called me and said: 'You are a nervy pilot, all right; you
won't spoil our reputation by lack of pluck--quite the contrary. For a
beginner!--' and he asked me how long I had been a corporal. _Y a bon._
My '_coucou_' is superb, with its parts all dated in red. You can see
them all, for those underneath spread up over the sides. In the air I
showed each hole in the wing, as it was hit, to the passenger, and he
was enchanted, too. It's a thrilling sport. It is a bore, though, when
they burst over our heads, because I cannot see them, though I can hear.
The observer has to give me information in that case. Just now, _le roi
n'est pas mon cousin_...."
Lieutenant, now Captain, Colcomb, has completed this account. During the
entire period of his observation, the pilot, in fact, did not make any
maneuver or in any way shake the machine in order to dodge the firing.
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