Show DEATH IS DEFIED french aviator makes make a perilous war flight dispatch bearer tells of air trip from paris with orders for general in the north brought to earth by shot london le petit journal publishes a description of the experience of a passenger on board an aeroplane in time ot of war the start took place one gray dawn rian the pilot a famous amous civilian aviator clothed in the leather armor ot of his craft received the following orders from his captain you will convey a passenger and dispatches straight north nor th to you orders are simply to get them there you must take no risks en route it if the enemy brings you down destroy both the dispatches and the aeroplane it if you get through to go at once to the general with your passenger who will give him a verbal message good luck and quick is the word 6 the passengers story continues while the pilot was looking over his machine I 1 took my the dispatches between my rny legs and a carbine slung along the framework on either side the machine ran jolting along the ground and rose perceptibly in front of me the pilot lashed to his seat sat motionless and attentive regulating the course with little movements of the levers we started directly north tossed a little by an east wind which caught us under one wing suddenly the pilot cut oi off the motor and nothing was audible except the whistling of the wind mind through the rigging 0 of the aeroplane he 11 1 1 e turned to me pointed out some little wack black smoke puffs tar far below us and signed to me to listen dut but I 1 could hear nothing except the wind then the motor started again and the steady hum covered everything the smoke putts puffs grew nearer and more numerous we tried to rise still higher when a great wind came and threw us to one side the ever ready pilot raghed us but another and more terrible shock hurled us vertically upwards then we began to tall fall the smoke find and flashes were now quite near us find we were thrown this way ma y and nd that by great blasts ot of air still we forged ahead at full speed clinging to the framework 1 I awaited the inevitable end incapable of thinking then suddenly calm was restored we had bad passed the danger zone and beneath us stretched a great forest cut here and there with ravines hardly had we recovered EL a sense of security than the danger reappeared in all its horror As we left the zone of danger our aeroplane began to list over the pilot having done his utmost to right us cut off the motor and halt turning his head bead gazed towards our left wing where a strip ot of torn canvas was streaming in the wind at once our headlong descent began ending with an abrupt landing in a narrow glade no one but that pilot could have attempted so desperate a maneuver with success calm though with mith face drawn with aith anxiety he jumped to the earth shouting take your carbine while I 1 repair the damage da niage and he set to work to fasten a patch over the torn wing whig quick he added quick it if the boches germans come fire at them then I 1 will set the machino machine on fire and we will make a run tor for IV it soon we were in ill our places ready to go the propeller was mas started and we rose but three horsemen at the edge ol of the glade came towards us at a mad pace and their height seemed to grow as we approached it seemed we never would rise above them but suddenly with a bound that carried us up almost vertically we passed above them and then again we ue were ere looking down on a sea ot of troops at the edge of 0 the tor for est emoke and gun flashes reap feared but a sudden swerve enabled us to regain the cover of the forest and gain an altitude when we came out again lost in the sky the guns had ceased to fire and descending slowly we landed within the french lines |