"--"This palm is worth while," he
wrote in a letter to his parents, "for the mission was hard." On his way
back an English aviator shot at him, but on recognizing him signaled
elaborate excuses.
Some rather exciting reconnaissances with Captain Simeon--one day over
Saint-Quentin they were attacked by a Fokker and, their machine-gun
refusing to work, they were subjected to two hundred shots from the
enemy at 100 meters, then at 50 meters, so that they were obliged to
dive into a cloud, with one tire gone--and a few bombardments of railway
stations and goods depots did not assuage his fever for the chase.
Nothing sufficed him but to explore and rake the heavens. On November 6,
3000 meters above Chaulnes, he waged an epic combat with an L.V.G.
(_Luft-Verkehr-Gesellschaft_), 150 H.P. Having succeeded in placing
himself three meters under his enemy, he almost laughed with the surety
he felt of forcing him down, when his machine-gun jammed. He immediately
banked, but he was so near the enemy that the machines interlocked.
Would he fall? A bit of his canvas was torn off, but the airplane held
its own.
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