Presently a tiny black speck appeared and as it grew within the scope of my glass, it was easy to recognize the shape of a Taube.  That was my introduction to the enemy.

Without waiting a second I rushed to the telephone and asked central at Charly (the telephones now belonged to the army) to pass on the message that a German aeroplane had been sighted from the Chateau de Villiers, and was flying due west, head on for Paris.  The noise had grown louder and louder, and when I returned to my post of observation, I found most of the servants assembled, all craning their necks.  On came the Taube, and there we stood, gaping, never realizing an instant that we were running the slightest risk.  The machine passed directly over our heads, not low enough, however, for us to distinguish its contents with the naked eye.

“There’s another!” shouted someone.  And turning our backs on the enemy, we gave our entire attention to a second speck that had suddenly risen on the horizon.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon and the armored head of the ever-on-coming aeroplane glittered splendidly in the golden rays of the afternoon sun.

“Cest un francais!” cried George.

“Non!”

Allowing that an aeroplane flies at the rate of a mile a minute, one can easily imagine that we had not long to wait before number two sped over us.  Through my glass I was able to recognize the tri-color cockade painted underneath the plane, and when I announced this there went up a wild shriek of joy.

At that moment a loud report in the west announced that the Germans had begun their deadly work on undefended territory.

“That’s a bomb for the railway crossing at Nanteuil, I’ll bet!” said Leon, and while I was realizing that that projectile might just as well have been for us, the others were gesticulating and bowling encouragement to their compatriot some few hundred yards above them, as though he could bear every word they said: 

“Go it, old man!”

“Bring down that cursed blackbird!” “Vive la France!” and other similar ejaculations were drowned by the noise of the motor.

The chase was on!  It was more exciting than any horserace I ever witnessed.  The Frenchman was rapidly gaining on the other, but would they come into combat before they vanished from our horizon?  That was the question that filled us with anguish.

On, on they sped, growing smaller and smaller every second.  Presently it became impossible to distinguish them apart, but we knew that they had come within range of each other, for the two specks rose and fell by turns now soaring high, now dipping precipitately, seeming almost to touch at times.  Then, just as they were about to disappear, one of them suddenly collapsed and fell.  Which one, we never knew.