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Rh In 1891 Mr. A. Strahan drew attention to the occurrence of two bands of phosphatic chalk in the neighbourhood of Taplow Court. These bands consist of brown friable chalk, the colour being due to a multitude of brown grains in a white chalky paste. The grains are almost entirely of organic origin, foraminifera, fragments of Inoceramus and of teeth and bones of fishes, together with small oval pellets which are evidently coprolites of small fishes forming the bulk, all being more or less phosphatic. Two bands occur, the higher is from 8 to 1 1 feet thick, and occurs at about 20 feet from the base of the Eocene strata as proved in a shaft. The lower band is 4 feet thick and occurs from 1 2 to 19 feet lower, according to measurements made in the shaft section and in a pit near the lodge of Taplow Court. Mr. Strahan observes that there can be little doubt that this phosphatic chalk underlies a con- siderable part, if not the whole, of the outlier of Tertiary strata on which Taplow stands, but there are no other sections to prove its exten- sion. Hence it appears to be strictly local. Analysis showed from 18 to 35 per cent of phosphate of lime.

The Taplow phosphatic chalk bears a strong resemblance to a bed, approximately on the same horizon, which has been worked in the north of France. At Taplow the Chalk has yielded Actinocamax (Belemnitella) quadratus, Ostrea acutirostris and other fossils, rather above the zone of Marsupites.

The sloping chalk plateaus, formed mainly of Upper Chalk, are mostly under arable cultivation, but owing to their coverings of loam and gravel the soils are often deficient in lime. Hence it has been the custom to sink wells or pits in the fields to a depth of 15 or 20 feet to obtain chalk for the land. The steeper slopes of Upper and Middle Chalk form down land with a herbage adapted for sheep walks. Here the soil is thin, and although the ploughed fields may show a brown clayey or loamy soil, adjacent pits often exhibit but a trace of soil.

Plantations of beech trees occupy many tracts in this area on the borders of the plateaus and along the deep and ramifying valleys. These beech woods furnish material for the important chair manufactory at High Wycombe, and for sundry wooden articles made at Chesham and elsewhere. The celebrated Burnham Beeches are situated partly on gravel and partly on Reading Beds, but no doubt in places they are rooted into the underlying Chalk which appears at the surface to the north-west of Burnham Common.

Old terraces of cultivation or lynchets occur in places, as on the hillsides near Chesham, and notably on the Chalk outlier of Southend and of Westend Hill, near Cheddington, where, as I am informed by the Rev. F. W. Ragg, some of the best examples (locally called ' lynces ') may be seen.

The Chalk is a famous water-bearing formation, and the upper

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Rh and middle divisions are practically undivided by any impervious layers. The marly chalk at the base of the Melbourn Rock sometimes throws out springs, but the more copious outflows of water are at the base of the Totternhoe Stone which rests on marl. Here strong springs are thrown out as at Wendover. As the strata dip towards the south-east the underground flow follows that course, and the streams which have cut down to the plane of saturation carry away the overflow in that direc- tion, and they issue at higher places in the valleys when the plane of saturation rises after long continued rain. The Colne, which cuts into the saturated Chalk carries away much water and receives springs along its bed.

Water is naturally scarce on the higher Chalk uplands, and on some of the downs ' dew ponds ' have been constructed. These are made from 30 to 40 feet in diameter and from 4 to 6 feet deep in the chalk, and they are clayed at the base. A high and exposed situation is selected, and in the first instance water or snow is introduced, and the supply is then maintained by the condensation of moisture from the atmosphere as well as by rain, the condensation exceeding the evaporation.

There is evidence of a considerable change in conditions between the Chalk, a deep sea deposit, and the next succeeding deposits of Eocene age which exhibit shallow-water conditions, both estuarine and fresh- water. There are no traces of Thanet Sands which occur directly above the Chalk under parts of London and eastwards. During these early Eocene times the Chalk was upraised over large areas and much eroded. Evidence of this is furnished by the pebble beds made of rolled flints, which occur in the Reading Beds and other Eocene strata, also by the fact that higher stages of the Chalk characterized by Belemnitella mucronata occur elsewhere in England, and are not known in Bucking- hamshire owing to the erosion to which the Chalk has been subjected.

The Reading Beds comprise dark grey and mottled clays with crimson, green and other tints and white and coloured sands, together with pebble beds made up of black flints. Occasional seams of iron- stone occur, and there is often a layer containing unworn green-coated flints at the base. The strata rest on the Chalk and are overlain by the London Clay to the south-east, but their outcrop is largely concealed by gravel both in the Thames valley and on the uplands to the north of it.

Usually Ostrea bellovuacina is found in the lower beds, and higher up remains of leaves of plants have been observed. The flora indicates conditions approaching to tropical in character.

Portions of the main outcrop of the Reading Beds may be seen here and there at East Burnham, Cliefden, Hedsor, Hedgerley and Ful- mer, while outlying masses occur at Taplow, between Little Marlow and Loudwater, at Lane End and Cadmore End, Turville and Ibstone,

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Rh at Beaconsfield and Penn, between Chalfont St. Giles and Amersham, and to the east of Chesham.

Many of these outliers form picturesque wooded tracts, diversified with commons, as at Lane End and Cadmore End Commons, where the strata are evidently faulted. In some dark sands at this locality traces of nickel and cobalt have been detected.

The most distant outlier is that noticed by Mr. Whitaker at Ring- sail to the north of Ashridge Park and not far from the Ivinghoe hills, where a pit showed fine white sand. In such situations relics of Eocene strata are preserved in deep pipes in the Chalk, far away from the parent source, as the mass of the strata above had been removed by erosion.

The mottled clays are dug in many places for brickmaking, the sands for mortar making, and the pebble beds for road mending. Both sands and pebble beds yield a fair amount of water under favourable circumstances.

This great clay formation forms the substratum over much of south-eastern Buckinghamshire, but like the Reading Beds it is almost wholly concealed by gravels.

It has been observed at the surface at Upton and along the borders of Stoke and Fulmer Commons, at Iver, and to the east and north-east of Fulmer. Outliers appear at Lane End, Penn and Tyler's Hill east of Chesham. In many places the clay is dug for brickmaking.

Nowhere in the county have we the full thickness of the formation, but the greatest thickness is probably on the borders of the Colne, south- east of Wraysbury. In mass it is a bluish-grey clay with septaria, brown at the surface. The basement bed, 6 or 8 feet thick, is a brown loam, which contains flint pebbles and green sand. The sand is sometimes cemented into tabular masses of rock, and these are in places crowded with fossils, such as Cardium, Cytherea, Panopaea, Pectunculus, Nucula, Natica, Rostellaria and Ditrupa plana. Many have been found at Hedgerley.

Fossils are by no means common in the mass of the London Clay. We may occasionally meet with a Nautilus, but near the surface the shells have been almost wholly destroyed. The fauna and flora are of tropical aspect.

There is a great gap between the London Clay and succeeding deposits in Buckinghamshire. Of the interval we have no actual records in the county. The Bagshot Beds were no doubt spread over large areas, for they occur in Middlesex and on the Berkshire and Surrey side of the Thames valley. During Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene times the area must have undergone great waste by subaërial agents. The London Basin took form by the upraising of the bordering

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Rh Chalk tracts and the removal from the higher grounds of great masses of Eocene strata. The relics of this denudation have mostly been worked up into the Drifts which were deposited at various periods during Pleistocene and recent times, but it is possible that some of the irregular accumulations known as Clay-with-flints may date back to the Miocene and Pliocene periods.

On the higher Chalk tracts, especially about Chesham, Little Missenden, Little Hampden and High Wycombe, there are thin but widespread accumulations of unworn, little worn and broken chalk flints and reddish-brown clay. On some ploughed fields there appears to be such a mass of these flints that it is difficult to believe that any crop could be grown, yet turnips and other roots flourish.

When we see a cutting through this accumulation of Clay-with- flints we find the Chalk to be irregularly eroded in great hollows or ' pipes,' some of which may be 50 feet deep and 20 feet or more across. These hollows are due to the dissolution of the Chalk, and the dark brown Clay-with-flints which lines these pipes and occurs as a thin covering on the irregular surface of the Chalk is the residue. Some, if not all, of these pipes may be regarded as swallet holes, formed on the margin of Eocene Clay areas, before the Eocene strata were wasted away.

In practice we have to include with the Clay-with-flints a very variable accumulation. Preserved in some of the pipes and sometimes intermixed with the Clay-with-flints are relics of Reading Beds, such as mottled clays and sands and pebble beds ; and thus since some of the pipes were formed there is evidence to prove that the Tertiary strata have been so eroded that only small outliers, or the contents of pipes, remain here and there.

Large areas of loam or brickearth, much of it bright and mottled in colour owing to its derivation from the mottled clays of the Reading Beds, occur on the higher Chalk tracts at St. Leonards, Lee and Hyde Heath east of Great Missenden, again to the south of Hampden, on Priestwood Common and Wycombe Heath, on Bledlow Ridge, on the hills above Bradenham, on Radnage Common and near Lane End.

Numerous unworn flints occur in the loam, also irregular masses of greywether, a hard sandstone, almost a quartzite, of which materials have been extensively dug, broken up and squared for paving at Aylesbury and other places.

Professor Morris mentioned that blocks of the stone known as Hampden Stone have been extracted 5 or 6 feet in length, and used as ornamental stones or rude pillars as at Hartwell Park. Masses of Hertfordshire puddingstone also occur. This is but a pebbly modification of the local greywethers, which are indurated masses of sands

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Rh or pebble beds derived from the Reading Beds. Other greywethers have been derived from the Bagshot Sands, which are locally solidified. In these accumulations we see the waste of an old land-surface in the true Clay-with-flints, but it is so intermingled with the extraneous loamy and gravelly deposits that we can only look upon these wide- spread Drifts as in the main a wreck of Eocene deposits.

Extensive sheets of gravel occur on the lower dip slopes of the Chalk tracts from Amersham and Cheneys, southwards over the uplands east of Chalfont St. Peter. They occur also at Chalfont St. Giles, south of Penn, at Flackwell Heath and west of Great Marlow, and they extend over the Eocene tracts from Beaconsfield to Gerrard's Cross, and over Burnham, Stoke and Fulmer Commons to near Iver.

To what extent these Drifts were connected with certain stages in the development of the Thames Basin is a question difficult to decide, but the subject has been ably discussed by Mr. H. J. O. White ; and there is little doubt that the Thames belongs to a very early system of drainage, modified from time to time by various physical changes.

In the northern part of the county we find Drift gravels and sands and Chalky Boulder Clay, all distinctly connected with the Glacial period. The Boulder Clay contains many fragments of glaciated chalk, much flint, large boulders of Oolitic rocks and fossils derived mainly from the Oxford and Kimeridge Clays, such as Ammonites, Belemnites and Gryphaea, It is spread over the Great Oolite Series and over portions of the vale of Oxford and Kimeridge Claysdistricts formerly more richly wooded than they now are, but of which traces remain in Whittlewood Forest, Stowe Park and Salcey Forest, on the borders of Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, and in Whaddon Chase. Patches of Boulder Clay occur on the western end of the Woburn Hills, and thence southwards from near Leighton Buzzard across the Vale of Aylesbury to Long Crendon, and through the region of the Claydons to the north of Bicester.

Here and there beneath the main mass of Boulder Clay, as at Shalstone, we find beds of sand and gravel of irregular thickness and extent ; and both Boulder Clay and gravel contain much chalk and fragments of limestone, which are dissolved away at the surface, giving rise to irregular furrows or pipes like the Chalk itself. Fine sections of Boulder Clay were exposed along the Great Central railway at Chetwode, and at Rosehill farm, where it rests on buff sands.

The ice sheet to which this Boulder Clay owes its origin may have covered the northern portions of the county, but it did not overspread the main escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, although it extended east- wards into Hertfordshire and the northern parts of Middlesex.

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 All Stories New—No Reprints WeirdTalesv36n1pg004 Title Banner.png

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Rh Near Buckingham, at Tingewick, Radcliff and elsewhere coarse boulder gravel with large blocks of Oolitic rocks and finer gravel and sand occur with intercalations of Boulder Clay.

If we believe that the main mass of Boulder Clay was formed on the land, that much of it was overridden and pressed down into the tough material which it usually is, and that it was left on the melting back of the ice sheet, we might expect, along the borders of the glaciated area, to find alternations of gravel, sand and Boulder Clay. The ice during fluctuations in climatic conditions extended and receded for some distance more than once before it finally retreated, and the melting of the basal portions gave rise to such diverse sedimentary accumula- tions, largely torrential, as in fact we find near Buckingham. It may be therefore that over the Chalk tracts which were not glaciated the brickearths and gravels of the plateaus belong to the marginal area of the ice sheet, whence more or less mixed deposits were spread out by the flood waters.

In the higher courses of the Chalk valleys, where no streams now flow at the surface, or only occasionally in times of excessive rain, we find accumulations which have been termed ' Dry Valley Gravel ' largely made up of loam with unworn and broken flints, a waste from the clay-with-flints and brickearth and occasional gravel beds of the bordering hills. These merge in the lower courses into the ordinary valley gravel, as between Wendover and Great Missenden.

The gravels of the Thames valley extend over broad tracts near Great Marlow, Burnham, Dorney, Eton, Wraysbury and Colnbrook, thence merging into the gravels of the Colne valley by Denham. They consist of angular, subangular and rounded flints, with pebbles of quartz and quartzite, and are exposed in pits to a depth of 1 2 or 15 feet or more. Over considerable areas there are sheets of brickearth which at Slough and Langley have been worked for brickmaking.

We have thus in these lower lands the same kinds of deposit as occur on the Chalk and Tertiary plateaus, but the valley deposits yield the mammalia characteristic of the Pleistocene deposits, and palaeolithic implements. They are distinctly river deposits, although in composition the gravels naturally do not differ from the higher beds from which they were mainly derived ; and near Great Marlow it is difficult in places to separate the higher terraces of river gravel from the plateau Drifts.

In the Ouse valley we find gravels at Buckingham, Stony Stratford, Stanton, Lathbury, Tyrington and Filgrave, Emberton, Olney and Cold Brayfield ; and in the Ouzel valley there is gravel at Linslade, Fenny Stratford, Woughton-on-the-Green and Newport Pagnell. Along the borders of this valley there are extensive tracts of grazing land. Although the main features of the country appear to have been

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Rh sculptured prior to the Glacial epoch, yet during that epoch and in subsequent times considerable modifications were brought about by the accumulation of material as well as by erosion.

The valley gravels which border the present rivers lie in hollows cut through the plateau Drifts. They are evidently newer, but whether they are wholly Post Glacial is difficult to decide, as in both North and South Wales there is evidence that Glacial action continued later than some of the deposits which contain mammalia, like those found in the older Thames valley deposits.

If following Ramsay we believe that the Thames drainage com- menced when the Chalk and Eocene strata extended much further to the west and north-west, and flowed across a gently inclined plane towards the south-east, its general course was marked out perhaps in Miocene times ; but there are no deposits along its valley which date back beyond the Pleistocene period. Subsequent physical changes may have removed such deposits, while the wasting away of the Chalk escarpment must have modified the extent and direction of the drain- age. The Bedfordshire Ouse, according to Professor W. M. Davis, was a subsequent stream which beheaded certain northern streams originally connected with the Thames drainage. Among these is the Tove, which now joins the Ouse near Stony Stratford ; while the Ouzel may have been formed later on as an obsequent stream, as it flows northwards into the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. The Thame is regarded as a subsequent stream, and likewise the Colne which cuts off the waters of the Misbourn and Chess.

If however we judge by the mammalian and other remains found in the gravels of these valleys, it is difficult to make any distinction in point of age. They all belong to the Pleistocene period. Thus in the Thame valley, not far from the borders of Buckinghamshire, between Shabbington and Rycote, remains of elephant have been found.

At Taplow remains of the musk ox have been discovered, and in the lower parts of the Thames valley the gravels and brickearths have yielded many mammalian remains and palaeolithic implements. Again in the Ouse valley of Bedfordshire there have been found numerous palaeolithic implements ; and in the Ouzel tributary remains of elephant (mammoth) have been recorded from Linslade.

The Alluvium, which is the tract of level ground bordering the streams and liable to be flooded when they overflow their banks, occupies but small areas in the county. Wider tracts are seen along the Colne valley than along the Thames or the Ouse. These are mostly meadow land, and should always be avoided as sites for human habitations. Even the low-lying valley gravels bordering the Thames are liable in places to be inundated, and elsewhere they may prove damp as sites for dwellings, hence all living rooms should be well

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The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Chamberlain, Mellen

CHAMBERLAIN, Mellen, American lawyer, librarian and historian: b. Pembroke, N. H., 4 June 1821; d. Chelsea, Mass., 25 June 1900. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1844 and at the Harvard Law School in 1848. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar, opened a law office in Boston and made his residence in

Chelsea, where, during 51 years of citizenship, he served the town in many public capacities. In 1858 and 1859 he was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives and the senate in 1863-64. He was associate justice of the Municipal Court of Boston 1866-70, and chief justice 1870-78. On 26 Aug. 1878 he was chosen librarian of the Boston Public Library, serving until ill health compelled his retirement in 1890. During his administration the new library building was begun and the corner-stone laid. Throughout his life he was a close student and investigator of American history. Besides important chapters in Winsor's ‘Memorial History of Boston’ (1881), and ‘Narrative and Critical History of America’ (1888), he wrote ‘John Adams, the Statesman of the Revolution’ (1884); ‘ The Authentication of the Declaration of Independence’ (1885); ‘John Adams, the Statesman, with Other Essays and Addresses’ (1898); ‘The Journals of Captain Henry Dearborn, 1775-83’ (1886-87); ‘The Constitutional Relations of the American Colonies to the English Government at the Commencement of the American Revolution’ (1887).


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Rh above the level of the highest flood waters in the river. The gravels hold a considerable amount of water, which rises according to the rain- fall, or in other words, according to the amount of water in the river, and thus basements of houses may be rendered damp.

Looking generally to the relation between the geological structure and the early settlements, we find in Buckinghamshire as in other counties that the question of water supply from river, spring, or well was the natural guide in the fixing of sites. In the deeper Chalk valleys where springs break out and streams flow, along the base of the Chalk escarpment and of the Upper Greensand, on outliers of Lower Greensand and Portland Beds or along their margin, and on the Great Oolite Series, there we find the principal villages and towns. On the clay areas the settlements were fewer and less important, for only where patches of gravelly Drift occur could local supplies of water be readily obtained.

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O far at least as published records go, Buckinghamshire seems to be exceedingly poor in vertebrate fossils, the only specimens of any real interest being a few teeth of dinosaurian reptiles and certain remains of fishes from the Purbeck and Portland strata of Aylesbury and its neighbourhood.

From certain Pleistocene deposits at Fenny Stratford the British Museum possesses two imperfect molar teeth and a tusk of the mammoth (Elepbas primige nius), which were presented by Sir Philip Duncombe in 1873. And the occurrence of these specimens suggests that careful search would bring to light remains of other of the contemporary mammals in the neighbourhood. Teeth of the wild boar (Sus scrofa ferus) have indeed been dredged from the bed of the Ouse at NewportPagnell.

From coprolite-pits in the Cambridge Greensand near Puttenham remains of three species of vertebrates, commonly met with in that formation in Cambridgeshire, have been recorded by Mr. JukesBrowne. These, according to modern nomenclature, are Ichthyosaurus campylodon, one of the extinct ' fish-lizards '; Protosphyrcena ferox, a large fish with spear-like teeth; and Lamna appendiculata a widelyspread species of Cretaceous shark. Ichthyosaurus campylodon is likewise said to have been obtained from the Chalkmarl of Waddon.

The Lower Greensand coprolite-beds at Rushmoor yield vertebrate fossils, derived chiefly from the Kimeridge Clay, similar to those found at Potton in Bedfordshire, but no list of the species seems to have been published, and no great interest attaches to the occurrence of the remains in question. Lower down in the geological scale the Purbeck beds of Aylesbury have yielded part of the lower dentition of a fossil fish belonging to the group of pycnodont ganoids which Dr. Smith Woodward has made the type of a distinct species, under the name of Athrodon intermedius. This unique specimen is in the British Museum. Other remains in the same collection from the Purbeck of Hartwell and Bishopstone indicate a very different type of ganoid fish belonging to the widely-spread Jurassic genus Pleuropholis; the name P. serrata has been proposed for the Buckinghamshire species.

Of wider interest are the crowns of two teeth of a gigantic

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Rh dinosaurian reptile from the Portland Limestone of Beagle Pit, Hart- well near Aylesbury, which have been described by the present writer under the name of Pelorosaurus humerocristatus. The genus Pelorosaurus, it may be observed, was founded on the evidence of a huge bone (humerus) of the fore-limb from the Wealden of Sussex. And since American specimens have shown that reptiles allied to this genus possessed teeth of the type of those from Hartwell it is a fair infer- ence that the latter belong to Pelorosaurus, although not to the same species as the one indicated by the Wealden humerus. Three other teeth from the same locality and formation belong to another and very different type of dinosaurian reptile, namely the carnivorous Megalosaurus, whose remains were first discovered in the middle Jurassic strata of Oxfordshire. These teeth have been described by Dr. Smith Woodward without being specifically determined. A long-necked plesiosaurian reptile, Cimoliosaurus portlandicus, has left its remains in the Portland formation of Quainton ; the Buckinghamshire specimens having been originally described under the name of Plesiosaurus carinatus. Ichthyo- saurian remains are also reported, although not described, from Hartwell.

The Kimeridge Clay of the county has apparently hitherto yielded very few vertebrate remains. A fish-spine from this formation at Hartwell has however been assigned to the common Jurassic type known as Asteracanthus ornatissimus, which may belong either to a shark or to a chimaera-like fish. From the same locality have been obtained remains of the great short-necked and large-headed plesiosaurian known as Pliosaurus macromerus, the teeth of which are characterized by their triangular crowns.

The British Museum possesses a limb bone of a plesiosaurian, or long-necked marine saurian, from the Kimeridge Clay of Newport Pagnell, which is assigned to Colymbosaurus trochanterius, a species widely distributed in the formation in question. Among the fish-lizards the species Ichthyosaurus thyreospondylus is represented in the county by a bone obtained from the Oxford or Kimeridge Clay near Buckingham.

From the Great Oolite of Buckingham and Stony Stratford Pro- fessor J. Phillips records (Geology of Oxford) remains assigned to the great dinosaurian reptile commonly known as Cetiosaurus oxoniensis, but of which the proper title is probably Cardiodon rugulosus.

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N preparing a short account of the botany of the county I may say that my acquaintance with it is of long standing, for I was born on its borders, and my early years were spent near Stoney Stratford, while in my holidays I yearly visited the beautiful district of Brickhill, which was especially attractive to me then, as I was a keen lepidopterist and that heathy country afforded a widely different series of insects and their plant food from that which our more prosaic country afforded. The flora of this county came also under my observation during the time I was preparing the Flora of Northamptonshire from 1874, the Flora of Oxfordshire from 1879 to 1885, and from then to 1897 when I was working at the Flora of Berkshire. Since that time I have been systematically exploring the county with the view of publishing a complete Flora, which with the two last mentioned works will form a Flora of the Upper Thames.

In the few pages at my disposal it is my wish to give a sketch of the salient features of the botany of the county, and to compare it with those of some of the bordering counties.

The acreage of the county, about 467,000, is rather smaller than Oxfordshire (470,000) and larger than Berkshire, which has only about 462,000 acres. Like those counties Buckinghamshire has in the long range of the Chilterns an interesting feature which not only is the domin- ating one from a scenic point of view, but one which materially affects plant distribution. The heathy portion about the Brickhills and the extensive commons of the uplands, as well as those on the lower country in the neighbourhood of Farnham and Burnham. are also most interesting from a botanical point of view.

The following tables corrected to the present date, show the number of species which have been reported on good authority to have been seen growing in a wild state in the bordering counties, as well as those which I have compiled for Buckinghamshire.

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Rh Besides these above named varieties, many hybrids and over 120 species not natives or of casual occurrence, or planted in the county, have been observed.

If the London Catalogue of British plants be adopted as the standard of specific limitations we may say that the total number of British species is now about 2,000, but of these nearly 250 are not native species, 144 are confined to the neighbourhood of the sea, while at least 200 are a species either of northern latitudes, or are not found so far south as Buckinghamshire, except in mountainous situations ; 17 are confined to Ireland, about 20 to the Channel Isles, and a few are extinct.

After making these deductions about 1,350 species remain which might occur in the county, but such is not found to be the case ; for although our knowledge of the county flora is incomplete, yet it is not to be expected that more than 50 species will be added to the list here given, however painstaking may be the work. As compared with the bordering counties, however, Buckinghamshire is richer in species than almost any except Berkshire.

The paucity of lacustrine species is one of the features which characterize the botany of the county, and this is accounted for by the large extent of country occupied by the Cretaceous beds and the absence of large sheets of water such as the Norfolk broads or Salopian meres and the marshy vegetation which surrounds them, but the chalk, limestone, and heath plants are fairly well represented. The three most inter- esting species are probably the pig-nut (Carum Bulbocastanum), which is limited to Bucks, Herts, Beds and Cambridgeshire ; the military orchis (Orchis militaris), limited to Berks, Oxford, Herts and Middlesex, and the box (Buxus sempervirens), which is so well established in two places on the Chilterns, and by some authors is even considered to be native. The other characteristic species are the coral-root (Cardamine bulbifera), so common in several woods on the chalk ; and the beech (Fagus sylvatica), which is the principal tree over a large area of the Cretaceous measures and is of considerable economic value.

A few other species are rather common in Buckinghamshire but are local or rare in many British counties. Amongst these are the calamint (Calamintha Nepeta or parviflora), the large burnet-saxifrage (Pimpinella major), and the candytuft (Iberis amara). The woods of the north have the grass Calamagrostis epigeios, the commons have the dwarf gorse (Ulex minor), and in the south the silver cinquefoil (Potentilla argentea) is not uncommon.

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Rh county, and although this necessitates some repetition of plant names, yet the plan has the compensating advantage of showing how certain groups of plants are to be found on the same soils.

The geology of Buckinghamshire resembles very closely that of Oxfordshire, except that the Liassic formations are exposed to a much smaller extent in the former county, whereas the Reading beds and the London Clay are but sparingly represented in Oxfordshire, but cover considerable tracts of southern Buckinghamshire. The Lias Clay is shown in the north of the county between Grafton Regis and Castle- thorpe, owing to the Tove cutting its way down to it, but no very special vegetation marks the occurrence, beyond the growth of the ordinary pelophilous or clay-loving species. The Ouse, near Weston Underwood and Stoke Goldington, has also cut down to the Lias in two or three places, but again without exhibiting any plant of special interest. The Northampton Sands, which cap so many of the eminences of north Oxfordshire and west Northamptonshire, where from their porous nature they give a warm soil and afford a home for many heath-loving species, are practically unrepresented in our area, but the Great Oolite comes to the surface in many places, and in fact extends in a more or less broken band from Brackley and Buckingham in the west, by Potterspury to Newport Pagnell and Cold Brayfield in the east, and then passes into Bedfordshire. The contrast of the vegetation of that portion of country where the Great Oolite comes to the surface with that district where an impervious material, such as the Oxford Clay, forms the subsoil, is most marked. Nor is it the vegetation alone which marks the difference. In one case we find that the oolite has been quarried for building stone, so that we see good stone houses and cottages, often with thatched roofs since straw is more plentiful, which give a solid yet more picturesque character to the scene than the brick and slated houses of the clay district, while the stone walls of the villages, often mud-capped, afford a home for mosses and other plants to a much greater extent than the better pointed brickwork. The land too will be occupied more frequently by corn on the limestone and by pasture on the clays, and thus the latter is usually a thinly populated area, and such villages as do occur are often built upon some spot where a drift deposit gives some amount of porosity to the soil. If we pass through the county in the summer evenings, we may observe the white mist clinging to the clay surfaces, while the pastures on the limestones will be free. In comparing the more common plants we shall see on the Lime- stone that the hedgerows often contain the buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus), the spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus), the wayfaring tree (Viburnum Lantana), and are often adorned with the traveller's joy (Clematis Vitalba), the maple (Acer campestre) and occasionally the glabrous fruited form, the cornel (Cornus europeaus), and here and there the bramble Rubus Radula, but the ubiquitous species is R. ulmifolius. Where clay is present the spindle tree and cornel will be rare and the traveller's joy absent, and the common brambles will be R. corylifolius and R. caesius, and there will be the bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara) and the blackthorn

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Page:Weird Tales volume 42 number 04.djvu/6

E ARE glad that so many readers seem glad to have the Eyrie back, and we'll try to print as many letters each issue as space will permit. But don't forget that even if we can't print them, we read them! We hadn't intended to bear too heavily on science fiction. In regard to the Wellman story, "Home to Mother" in March, for instance, it seemed to us more of a horror story than sf—but we could be wrong.

The Editor, WEIRD TALES

9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y.

''"THE SHADOW OF SATURN." March issue. By E. Hoffmann Price.''

''I like it—a good yarn for a number of reasons—it's intriguing and it makes sense. "Wishing is an emotional muddle. Will is pure force." So much food for thought rests in the story. A whole way of life has been projected by Price.''

''It is the type of yarn from which the reader, each reader will experience in accordance with his capacity for penetration into his own personality and thought patterns. "One can't ever escape from oneself and from what one has made." How true. "You can't run away from what you've made for yourself." That is Wisdom.''

''I like what Price has to say about CHOICE. "The stars shape your personality and the pattern of your moods, your peaks of vitality and your depths of depression. But whether your mood will rule you, or you will rule it is a matter of choice."''

In a way, this little yarn is a GREAT story.

(Mrs.) Ruth Dennis Pancera,

Susanville, California.

The Editor

WEIRD TALES

9 Rockefeller Plaza

New York 20, N. Y.

''I've just finished reading the March issue, and don't know whether to kiss you or kick you. The stories were good, really enjoyable, but I want to scream and holler protests against the best ones. I mean, of course, Corn Dance, Two Face, and Home to Mother. They are three of the best science fiction stories I've read in a long time, but for Heaven's sake, what are they doing in WEIRD TALES? For 25 years, more or less, I've been reading WEIRD. I've rejoiced in the good years and been patient in the not-so-good ones, to the extent of a basement full of back numbers which I re-read from time to time. I know by now what I like and what I've enjoyed most from you in the past. Ghosties, ghoulies, unseen terrors, warlocks, witches, succubi, and baneful doom are all OK by me, but anti-gravs, blasters, and characters that have to learn all over again how to build a fire because they are so super-efficient they never knew how—Uh uh! Not for WEIRD TALES ... even when they're good I don't want them!''

''I'm very glad to see you reviving The Eyrie. I enjoy the comments of some of my fellow fen, that is, when they have something to say. I agree about these plus and minus lists, they make the fellows who submitted them sound so stuffed-shirty! Who gives a hoot anyway whether they think one story is an imaginary two points better than another! Either you like 'em or you don't. And I like 'em, especially The Tree's Wife, Shadow of Saturn, and Stay With Me.''

Gertrude M. Carr,

3200 Harvard Avenue No.

Seattle 2, Wash.

The Editor

WEIRD TALES

9 Rockefeller Plaza

New York 20, N. Y.

''WEIRD TALES for January, 1950 is generally poor. I liked "The Smiling Face"'' (Continued on page 94)


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Page:VCH Buckinghamshire 1.djvu/74

Rh (Prunus spinosa) in the hedgerows. The flora of the road borders on the clay will be found to consist principally of the grasses Dactylis glomerata, Poa trivialis, P. pratensis, Lolium perenne and Festuca pratensis, and occasionally F. arundinacea, and the great plantain (Plantago major) and the strawberry-headed clover (Trifolium fragiferum) are common. In the ditches there will be the teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris), the ragwort (Senecio erucifolius), the fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) and the mint (Mentba aquatica), and the thistles will be usually Cnicus lanceolatus and C. palustris, whereas on the oolite the grasses more commonly found will be Poa pratensis, often as the var. subcaerulea, Bromus erectus, Avena pubescens, Cynosurus cristatus, Festuca ovina and F. rubra, and the plantain will be more frequently Plantago media. The pastures will offer abundance of cow-slips (Primula veris), and when there is a rich subsoil there will often be immense quantities of the green-veined orchid (Orchis morio). If there be little subsoil we shall see abundance of the thyme (Thymus Chamcedrys), or the rock-rose (Heliantbemum Chamcecistus), The thistles will be Carduus nutans or even possibly Cnicus eriopborus and frequently C. acaulis. Even the cornfield weeds are different, for on the calcareous soil we shall find the shepherd's weather-glass (Specularia bybrida), Linaria Elatina and L. spuria, the corn gromwell (Litbospermum arvense) and occasionally the rarer form of the pale poppy (Papaver Lecoqii).

But as I have said, this band of oolite stretching across the northern part of the county is not a continuous zone. For considerable distances it is covered with drift deposits, and when these consist of gravels we shall have plants fond of warm and porous soils, while if the surface deposit consist of Boulder Clay we shall have the same pelophilous species which abound on the Oxford or Kimeridge Clays. An example may be worth quoting : When I began systematically to work the county about six years ago I found there was no certain record of the woolly-headed thistle (Cnicus eriophorus) for the county. Now I well remembered as a boy seeing it in a portion of Whittlebury Forest, the haunt of the chequered skipper, in Northamptonshire, and just at its south-western extremity, where there is a turnpike road leading from Whittlebury to Wicken. This road is within a few yards of the county border, so that one might almost have been justified in assuming that in this place the thistle would spread into Bucks. But in order to see if this were the case I went over and found this handsome thistle growing with the rock rose in the spot I remembered, and also extending along the eastern side of the road, but I also saw what the map did not tell me, that there was a sudden change in the soil on the south-western side of the road, for while on the Northamptonshire side the oolite was at the surface, on the Buckinghamshire side a drift deposit obscured the limestone, and not a single specimen of the thistle or rock rose could I see within the Buckinghamshire boundary, although I made a close search, nor did I see it in my walk of seven or eight miles towards Buckingham, but shortly before reaching Westbury I had the pleasure of gathering it in a spot where the oolite once again appeared. I have since found it in great

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text:
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text:
The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Chamberlain, Montague

CHAMBERLAIN, Montague, American naturalist: b. Saint John, New Brunswick, 5 April 1844. He was educated privately, both his parents being teachers. Though engaged in mercantile pursuits, he devoted much time to the study of natural history and came to be well-known as an ornithological writer. In 1889 he became assistant secretary of the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, and from 1893-1900, secretary. A member of several scientific bodies, his chief publications are ‘Canadian Birds’ (1870); ‘Birds of New Brunswick’ (1882); ‘Mammals of New Brunswick’ (1884); ‘Systematic Table of Canadian Birds’ (1887); ‘Birds of Greenland’ (1892); ‘Some Canadian Birds’ (1895); ‘The Church Army’ (1897); ‘Maliseet Vocabulary’ (1899); ‘The Penobscot Indians’ (1899), etc.


text:
The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Chamberlain, Nathan Henry

CHAMBERLAIN, Nathan Henry, American clergyman: b. Bourne, Mass., 25 Dec. 1830; d. there, 1 April 1901. He graduated at Harvard, 1853, and studied theology at the divinity school there, and at Heidelberg, Germany, eventually becoming a Unitarian minister. He was pastor at Canton, Mass., 1857-59, and at Baltimore, Md., 1860-63. He then took orders in the Episcopal Church, and became rector at Birmingham, Conn., 1864-'7; Morrisania, N. Y., 1868-71; Milwaukee, Wis., 1871-'73; Somerville, Mass., 1874-79; East Boston, Mass., 1882-89. He then retired to devote himself to literary pursuits. His books are ‘Autobiography of a New England Parish’ (1864); ‘The Sphinx in Aubrey Parish’ (1889); ‘What is the Matter with our Tariff and its Taxes’ (1890); ‘Samuel Sewall and the World He Lived In’ (1897), an admirable study of colonial life in New England; ‘Life of Sir Charles Napier’; ‘An Itinerary of Cape Cod.’


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Page:Weird Tales volume 42 number 04.djvu/88

(Continued from page 4) and "Dark Rosaleen" was fair (!); beyond that there wasn't much.

''However there were two features which gave me some hope: "The Eyrie" and the Wellman. I've always regretted that you dropped "The Eyrie." Your reasons didn't seem worth much either. January, 1950, gives hopes of a possible return.'' W. H. Baxter.

The Editor

WEIRD TALES

9 Rockefeller Plaza

New York 20, N. Y.

''Let me tell you frankly—I disagree with you. I've got enough letters published in other magazines so that I don't care too much whether this one is published—partially or wholly—in the "Eyrie," but I do disagree with you in regard to your admitted policy of omitting tabulated story preferences. For if it is the editor whom the author must please, and the readers be hanged; ultimately—it is the readers whom the editor must please.''

''I missed the last WT, it seems, but merely because I have to journey a couple of miles to get it. However, I was surprised at the March WT. Extremely surprised. I enjoyed all of the stories I read, which is all but one. Not one, astonishingly, bored me.''

W. Paul Ganley,

North Tonawanda, N. Y.

(Naturally we don't favor hanging our readers; also we keep an eye on circulation figures.—Editor, WEIRD TALES.)

The Editor

WEIRD TALES

9 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, N. Y.

U. S. A.

''In the latest issue of your excellent magazine (January 1950) to reach me, I was surprised and delighted to notice several letters in the "Eyrie." Does this mean, that you are restoring this excellent feature of your magazine, and will, in future, print readers' letters? I sincerely hope so. I don't think many of your readers would object if you were to publish one short story less each issue, in order to make space for readers' opinion.''

''I regard WT as the greatest publication of its kind in the world. Since the change of editorship, the greatest story you have published has been Robert Block's "The Cheaters" (Nov. 1947). Please keep on giving us plenty of Coye illustrations in WT, also some by Boris Dolgov, and Matt Fox's covers are swell too.''

Roger Dard,

232 James Street,

Perth, Western Australia.

(We do not hold with omitting a story to make room for a reader's opinion of it. Perhaps this comment will also take care of one reader who hoped for "Irish myth."—Editor, WEIRD TALES.) Please mention when answering advertisements


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Page:Air Service Boys Flying for Victory.djvu/76

had come again. The work of the day was over, and weary khaki-clad fighters could rest. For they must be fit for the duties of the succeeding day, which, like all recent ones, would bring its new dangers, glories, and no doubt pain and death for untold numbers of their fellows.

Still, in the camps where they were gathered that night, it would have been hard to run across a single soldier who showed a sign of discouragement or concern. Already they bore themselves with the mien of veterans, ready to joke and laugh, and swarming to the Red Triangle huts for a breath of entertainment, a glimpse of a rosy cheeked "home girl" in the midst of all this ghastly business of tragic warfare.

There Tom found Jack and Harry when he turned up rather late that night. He, too, had had a heavy and exciting though successful day's work in the air, as had Jack. Nevertheless, on his return he had asked and received


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Rh to absent himself from quarters for a time.

Of course there was need of consultation with the accommodating hospital nurse concerning the disposition of little Jeanne, the ward of the trio, Jack, Tom, and Nellie, and Tom did not wish to neglect his duty—nor his opportunity.

Late though it was, there still lingered a goodly crowd in the old dugout once occupied by a number of German officers, but now taken possession of by the girls and men who wore the uniforms of Y. M. C. A. workers, when Tom reached it.

An old piano had somehow been brought along, and this was in almost constant use, for numbers of the boys could play; and as for singing there was an almost continuous chorus bawling out favorite songs, such as "Over There," "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag," "When You Come Back," and the like.

When some daring man ventured to play "Home, Sweet Home," however, not a sound was heard; and apparently many of the loudest talkers found something wonderfully important in the magazines they chanced to have before them, to judge from the way they bent persistently over while reading. But then no soldier wants his comrades to see that his eyes are swimming in tears, as pictures of those at home dawn upon his vision.


text:
The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Chamberlain, Samuel Selwyn

CHAMBERLAIN, Samuel Selwyn, American jounalist: b. Walworth, N. Y., 25 Sept. 1851; d. San Francisco, Cal., 25 Jan. 1916. He was graduated from New York University in 1875, and at once entered the journalistic field with the New York Herald; he went abroad with Mr. Bennett of the Herald, and was for a time editor of the Paris edition of that journal.

In 1879 he became editor of the World, but left to take charge of the Evening Telegram in 1881. He founded Le Matin of Paris in 1884 and edited it for two years and then returned to the United States. In 1889 Mr. Hearst engaged him as editor of the San Francisco Examiner, and he remained on the Pacific coast until 1895, when he came to New York as editor of the Morning Journal. In 1900 he became managing editor of the Philadelphia North American, which soon resumed its old place among the successful publications of that city. In a year or two Mr. Chamberlain returned to the Hearst service, and until his death acted as general staff officer. He went to the Chicago Examiner, was recalled to the New York American, and for several years, until the spring of 1915, had been the Hearst representative in London. His last work was editor of the Boston American. He was recognized as an exceptionally able newspaper man; his forte was a news touch of charming delicacy; he had unerring news perception and understood and carried out feature ideas that were distinct.


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68 Tom quickly found his two comrades, to be instantly met with a rush of remarks that, however, fell from him as water would from a duck's back.

"You seem pretty happy, I must say!" observed Harry, grinning, for he understood what an attraction that pretty sister of his was to Tom.

"Oh, everything looks lovely, and the goose hangs high, whenever Tom has spent an hour in Nellie's company," Jack remarked, going on with the teasing.

"Seems to me, Jack," said the object of this joking, "that you're in something of the same box yourself. What important news did Bessie have in that letter you got this evening, and which you thought I didn't see you smuggle into your pocket on the sly?"

"Oh, I don't mind telling you," Jack announced smiling. "Meant to later on anyway. Why, do you know, Bessie has become a Red Triangle worker now, as she and her mother had been transferred to that service. She said there was some talk of letting them come along here to the American front, since Mrs. Gleason had expressed a wish to do her bit within hearing of the guns."

"That sounds good to me. Jack," remarked Harry.

"Do you know," added Tom, "I had a


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Rh there was a hen on in that nest just from a remark Nellie made about hoping to see Bessie before long. Wouldn't explain what she meant, either; so I reckon it's a put-up job between the girls."

"Well, they have become quite fond of one another, you know," Jack suggested.

Harry pretended to look huffed. "All very fine," he grumbled; "but where do I come in, I'd like to know?"

"Huh! what about some of those pretty French girls I've heard you raving over, Harry? You might choose one and study French under her direction. Plenty of our boys are doing it, and seem to be pleased."

"If it comes to the worst," added Jack, soberly, "he can wait for little Jeanne to grow up. I imagine she's bound to be a peach one of these days, and well worth waiting for, Harry. But, joking aside, Tom," he continued, "what's doing over there with Nellie and our little charge?"

"Oh, she's making capital progress," came the quick reply. "Told me all about it, you know."

"Sure thing, every word," put in Harry. "A whole hour it took, too, I warrant. There must have been a heap to tell."

"She's already managed to get together quite a number of things for the child," Tom went on to explain. "A pair of fairly decent shoes and


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70 some material that one of the nurses will make into a dress, for she used to be a seamstress over in the good old U. S. A. before the call came. Best of all, Nellie has found just the family to leave our ward with."

"That's news worth while," asserted Jack. "What else do you know that's interesting, old scout?"

"This family is named Desplanes," Tom continued. "They have a fine home in Paris, from which they have been kept ever since the war began, because of the Germans getting between. They are glad to take charge of your little girl, Jack, since they mean to start immediately for the capital, having only been able to get into our lines a few days back."

"Then that part of our job is settled, if you've got their Paris address!" Jack exclaimed. "The other connected with the finding of Helene is going to prove a harder task I reckon."

"Oh! I've picked up a bit of information in that direction," the newcomer told them, an announcement which of course caused Jack to look intensely interested.

He had often found himself repeating that sad message and picturing the suffering of the poor woman who, in dying, did not know what would be the fate of her twin children, thus rudely separated, the one to be carried away by a


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Rh remorseless relative and the other cast adrift in the midst of the fighting zone.

And so when Tom hinted that fortune had allowed him to secure valuable information connected with the abduction of Helene Anstey Jack's interest leaped upward by bounds. The spirit of laughter passed, and he was now only alert for news that would perhaps stand them in good stead.

"Was it about that man, Von Berthold, Tom?" he demanded.

"No other," came the answer. "Nellie gave me the tip, and I made some inquiries of a prisoner she had picked out from among those who claimed to be Lorrainers and fighting for Germany against their wishes, because they were forced into it. She had dressed a wound for him, and had got to talking with him. I was able to treat him to some cigarettes, and also gave him a cake of chocolate on the sly; because that's really against orders, you know. But he promised to nibble it in secret, and not let any one see him."

"I'm really ashamed of you, Tom!" said Harry, shaking his forefinger in a threatening fashion, and pretending to scowl. "A fine example to set to other pilots in our unit, or any of the doughboys in fact. But then you'll claim you had a good object in doing it; and of course


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72 circumstances alter army rules, as well as ordinary cases. Go on, and talk some more."

"Well, from this prisoner I learned that General von Berthold's first name is really Anton, which you remember she used in telling of his carrying little Helene off."

"We'll call that point settled, then," affirmed Jack decisively. "This German officer whose brilliant work has often been mentioned in dispatches to the Paris newspapers, is Jeanne's uncle. What else did you pick up?"

"He's quartered right now in an old chateau on a height that overlooks this whole sector of country, though some miles beyond the Argonne forest," explained the one who was telling the story.

"For a short time only," grimly announced Harry, "because the doughboys have got the Boche on the run, and before long we'll see him skipping out for Sedan and the border. I suppose when this famous general does have to give up his fine chateau he'll send it sky-high with explosives, as they always do, so as to leave nothing that is French made to comfort their enemies."

Tom nodded his head in assent.

"Do you know this Lorrainer told me that had already been arranged," he hastened to say. "He himself had been one of a party of engineers to plant terrible mines secretly in certain places under the walls, so the whole building could be


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Rh blown up in a flash. But that cunning old fox managed it so that no one but himself knows how to start things moving."

"Why should he do a thing like that?" asked the puzzled Harry.

"Oh, it seems that a good many of the Boche soldiers have no particular love for General von Berthold," Tom answered briskly, as though he had anticipated that very question and was prepared to meet it.

"I see. He's afraid that if they chanced to know the combination," chuckled Harry Leroy, "they might be tempted some fine night, when he was asleep in his featherbed, to give him a rise in the world, since no one would be any the wiser. Yes, he's a sharp old duck, believe me!"

"I wonder," remarked Tom, "if he could have taken little Helene to that chateau and is waiting for a chance to send her on to Munich, or some other German capital."

"Do you know, I've got a big hunch that way, Tom!" Jack exclaimed. "And I mean, for one, to take the very first chance that comes along to run over back of the Hun lines so as to find if I can the chateau."

"Sainte Mershon, I learned the place is called," said Tom. "And I'll do the same, boy."

"You said it was located on a height, so that it commanded an extensive view, didn't you?"


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74 "Yes, that's what the prisoner told me. Said it looked very much like a lot of castles he knew about along the Rhine. We've all seen pictures of those, so it's easy to guess what they resemble. But he also said the building had been twice dynamited, though only one section was in ruins."

"If either of us is lucky enough to make a find, remember, Tom, nothing must be done until we've had a chance to talk matters over."

"Oh, sure thing," affirmed Tom. "I wouldn't dream of trying to cut in and steal your thunder Jack. Jeanne is your find, and we're pals in this game, as we've always been since we were kids together in the U. S. A. When the hour strikes for General von Berthold to have uninvited guests drop down on him from the skies, we'll be in cahoots, as usual. And you may lead off."

Jack looked relieved. Apparently he had begun to suspect dimly that his ambitious chum might have thought to cut the ground out from under his, Jack's, feet, by planning a bold raid on the chateau, spurred on to such a rash deed by his ardent desire to impress Nellie Leroy.

Tom began to stretch himself.

"Feeling some tired after such a rushing day's business," he told them, in a vein of apology. "And I think, mates, I'll turn in after I've munched a cake or two and had a drink of lemonade. Join me in a glass, will you, Jack, Harry?


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Rh I feel like treating to-night, I'm so perfectly satisfied with the way things are going."

The other two exchanged looks and chuckles, which, however, Tom pretended not to notice; for he had made up his mind not to be disturbed any longer because of his comrades' jokes concerning his warm friendship for Harry's sister. What boy among the tens of thousands of Americans in that sector but would be pleased to have such a delightful "sister" with whom to hold occasional interesting chats when opportunity arose?

They accepted the invitation, however, for really it was rather warm in the Red Triangle dugout, mostly underground, just as the fleeing Hun officers had left it when compelled to run. Somehow those enterprising Y. M. C. A. workers managed to keep constantly on hand a supply of certain articles deemed necessary to the comfort of the fighting men; and lemons stood near the first in this preferred list.

When coming in on a hot day from hard work in the trenches, or after creeping through tangled undergrowth where not a breath of breeze stirred, with their nerves strained every second of the time, nothing could revive the flagging energies more quickly than a lemonade mixed by the dextrousdexterous [sic] fingers of a clever girl in khaki, a sunny smile on her face, and a love for everything connected with America in her warm heart.


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76 Those huts erected by the Red Triangle corps, what oceans of comfort they brought to the boys over there! Sometimes they were large and commodious, possessing almost every conceivable means for gratifying the normal appetite of a healthy-minded but tired and homesick soldier boy. Then again it might be, as in the present instance, that circumstances prevented any display, and the restoration bivouac had to be opened under rather discouraging conditions, while the supplies also ran low, for it was not easy to get them so far up along the line.

But the main thing was that there could be found the cheerful, never-failing services of those who gave every minute of their time to working for the boys wearing the khaki, and braving death itself under Old Glory.

The night had up to then been fairly quiet.

Tired after the day's fighting, both armies lay down to rest, looking forward to a renewal of hostilities when another day dawned. Doubtless the retreating Huns would utilize this time in preparing many more of the machine-gun nests, each of which was calculated to hold up the advancing Americans for a certain period.

As for the Americans trying to advance during the night, that was utterly out of the question, since under those trees a pall lay that might hide


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Rh any number of deadly traps, into which they, in their ignorance, would surely stumble.

The three Air Service boys were still standing chatting with the girl in khaki, whom they knew very well, and sipping their lemonade when, without warning, there broke out a terrible din. The ground under their feet seemed to shake with the force of an explosion, which they realized must be quite near at hand.

Another explosion immediately followed, and then still more in irregular succession. The boys had learned by now to tell what such explosions signified, so they looked at each other aghast, and Jack cried out:

"The Huns are making an air raid on our lines back here! They must be in great force, too, with all those bombs dropping! Tom, didn't it strike you those explosions came mostly from the quarter where our Red Cross field hospital lies?"

Tom felt a cold chill, the same thought having gripped him.


text: Air Service Boys Flying for Victory/Chapter 8


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1538.] grandson of Edward IV., stood next to the Tudor family in the line of succession. The Courtenays were petty sovereigns in Devonshire and Cornwall; and the marquis, though with no special intellectual powers, was regarded as a possible competitor for the crown by a large and increasing party. Lady Exeter we have already seen as a visitor at the shrine of the oracle of Canterbury; and both she and her husband were on terms of the closest intimacy with the Poles. The Poles and the Nevilles, again, were drawing as closely together as mutual intermarriages would allow. Lady Salisbury was regarded as the representative at once of the pure Plantagenet blood and of Warwick the Kingmaker. Lord Montague had married a daughter of Lord Abergavenny; and as any party in the State in opposition to the Government was a formidable danger, so a union between Lord Exeter, Lady Salisbury, and the Nevilles was, on all grounds, religious, political, and historical, the most dangerous which coidd be formed. It was the knowledge of the influence of his family which gave importance to Reginald Pole. It was this which sharpened the eyes of the Government to watch for the first buddings of treason among his connections.

Exeter's conduct had been for some time unsatisfactory. He had withdrawn for an unknown cause from his share in the command of the royal army on the Pilgrimage of Grace. He had gone down into Devonshire, where his duty would have been to raise the


text:
Category:Garpike

This category is about the short-nosed Garpike (Lepidosteus plaiysiomus)

title: Category:Garpike


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/M'Lean, Hon. George


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132 musters of the county; but, instead of it, he had courted popularity by interrupting the levy of the subsidy. The judges on circuit at the same time complained of the coercion and undue influence which he exercised in the administration of justice, and of the dread with which his power was regarded by juries. No indictment could take effect against the adherents of the Marquis of Exeter; no dependent of the Courtenays was ever cast in a cause.

From this and other causes altercations had arisen between Exeter and Cromwell at the council-board. High words had passed on Lord Darcy's arraignment. The Marquis had been compelled to sit as high steward; and Lord Delaware, in an account of the trial, stated that when the verdict was given of guilty, a promise had been exacted from Cromwell to save Darcy's life, and even to save his property from confiscation. Cromwell may have done his best, and Darcy's death have been the act of the King. With Henry guilt was ever in proportion to rank; he was never known to pardon a convicted traitor of noble blood. But the


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Maclean, Hon. John Donald


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/McLean, Peter


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1539.] was cast by the peers on the privy seal. Once it was even reported that Exeter drew his dagger on the plebeian adventurer, who owed his life to a steel corslet beneath his dress; and that Cromwell on that occasion ordered the marquis to the Tower. If the story was true, more prudent counsels prevailed, or possibly there would have been an attempt at rescue in the streets. The relations between them were evidently approaching a point when one or the other would be crushed. Exeter was boldly confident. When Lord Montague's name was first mentioned with suspicion at the council-board (although, as was discovered afterwards, the marquis knew better than any other person the nature of schemes in which he was himself implicated so deeply), he stood forward in his friend's defence, and offered to be bound for him, body for body. This was a fresh symptom of his disposition. His conduct, if watched closely, might betray some deeper secrets. About the same time a story reached the Government from Cornwall, to which their recent experience in Lincolnshire and the north justified them in attaching the gravest importance.


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Macleay, Sir George


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Macleay, Hon. Sir William John


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Macleay, William Sharp


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134 The parish of St Kevern had already earned a reputation for turbulence. Here had been born and lived the famous blacksmith Michael Mammock, who forty-five years before had led the Cornish men to Blackheath; and the inhabitants were still true to their character—a wild, bold race, fit instruments for any enterprise of recklessness. A painter from the neighbourhood came one day to Sir William Godolphin, and told him that he had been desired by one of these St Kevern men to 'make a banner for the said parish, in the which banner they would have, first, the picture of Christ, with his wounds, and a banner in his hand; our Lady on the one side, holding her breasts in her hand, St John the Baptist on the other; the King's Grace and the Queen kneeling, and all the commonalty kneeling, with scrowls above their heads, making petitions to Christ that they might have their holydays.' The painter said he had asked what they intended to do with such a banner. The man gave him an incoherent account of certain people whom he had seen at Southampton, when he had been up selling fish there, and who had asked him why the Cornish men had not risen when the north rose; and now, he said, they had promised to rise, and were sworn upon the book. They wanted the banner to carry round among the neighbouring parishes, and to raise the people in


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/McLellan, Hon. William


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/MacMahon, Captain Hon. Sir Charles


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1539.] Christ's name. Godolpliin would not create an alarm by making sudden arrests; but he despatched a private courier to London, and meanwhile held himself in readiness to crush any mutinous meetings on the instant of their assemblage: 'If there be stirring among them,' he said, 'by the precious body of God I will rid as many as be about the banner, or else I and a great many will die for it.'

Conspiracies against Henry VIII. met usually with ill hick. Lord Exeter had traitors among his domestic servants, who had repeatedly warned the council that all was not right, and that he was meditating some secret movement. At length particular information was given in, which connected itself with the affair at St Kevern. It was stated distinctly that two Cornish gentlemen named Kendall and Quyntrell had for some time past been secretly employed in engaging men who were to be ready to rise at an hour's warning. When notice should be given they were to assemble in arms, and declare the Marquis of Exeter heir-apparent to the throne. Here was the key to the high promises of Reginald Pole. The Government were on the eve of a fresh Pilgrimage of Grace—a fanatical multitude were about to rise again, with a Plantagenet pretender for a leader.

But Henry would not act without clearer proof against a nobleman of so high blood and influence. Cromwell sent orders to Godolphin to secure the man


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/MacMahon, Philip


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/McMillan, Angus


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/McMillan, William


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Macnab, Henry Black


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136 who had ordered the banner. The King despatched two gentlemen of the bedchamber into Cornwall, to make private inquiries, directing them to represent themselves as being merely on a visit to their friends, and to use their opportunities to discover the truth.

The result of the investigation was an entire confirmation of the story. For several years, even before the divorce of Queen Catherine, a project was found to have been on foot for a movement in favour of Exeter. The object had sometimes varied. Originally the enterprise of Blackheath was to have been renewed under more favourable auspices; and the ambition of Cornwall and Devonshire was to avenge their defeat by dethroning Henry, and giving a new dynasty to England. They would be contented now to set aside the Prince of Wales, and to declare Exeter the next in succession. But the enlistment was as certain as it was dangerous. 'Great numbers of the King's subjects' were found to have bound themselves to rise for him. We have here,


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1538.] perhaps, the explanation of these counties remaining quiet during the great insurrection. Exeter himself might have been willing (if the assistance of the Emperor was contemplated he must have been willing) to acknowledge the higher claims of the Princess Mary. But his adherents had possessed themselves of larger hopes, and a separate purpose would have embarrassed their movements. This difficulty existed no longer. Mary could have no claims in preference to Prince Edward; and the fairest hopes of the revolutionists might now be to close the line of the Tudor sovereigns with the life of the reigning King.

The meshes were thus cast fairly over Exeter. He was caught, and in Cromwell's power. But one disclosure led to another. At or near about the same time, some information led to the arrest of a secret agent of the Poles; and the attitude and objects of the whole party were drawn fully into light. The St Kevern fisherman had mentioned two men at Southampton who had spoken to him on the subject of the new rebellion. Efforts were made to trace these persons; and although the link is missing, and perhaps never existed, between the inquiry and its apparent consequences, a Southampton 'yeoman' named Holland was arrested on suspicion of carrying letters between Cardinal Pole and his mother and family. There is no proof that papers of consequence were found in Holland's custody; but the Government had the right man in their hands. He was to be taken to London; and, according to the usual mode of conveyance, he was


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138 placed on horseback, with, his feet tied under his horse's belly. On the road it so happened that he was met and recognized by Sir Geoffrey Pole, Reginald's younger brother. The worthlessness of conspirators is generally proportioned to their violence. Sir Geoffrey, the most deeply implicated of the whole family, except the cardinal, made haste to secure his own safety by the betrayal of the rest. A few words which he exchanged with Holland sufficed to show him that Cromwell was on the true scent. He judged Holland's cowardice by his own; and 'he bade him keep on his way, for he would not be long after.'

Lord Exeter's chances of escape were not yet wholly gone. His treasons were known up to a certain point, but forgiveness might generally be earned by confession and submission; and Cromwell sent his nephew Richard to him, with an entreaty that 'he would be frank and plain.' But the accused nobleman would make no revelation which would compromise others. His proud blood perhaps revolted against submission to the plebeian minister. Perhaps he did not know the extent to which his proceedings had been already discovered, and still less anticipated the treachery by which he was about to be overwhelmed.

Sir Geoffrey Pole made haste to London; and, preventing the accusations which, in a few days, would have overtaken him, he secured the opportunity which


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1539.] had been offered to Exeter of saving himself by confession. He presented himself to the privy council, and informed them that he, with Lord Montague, the Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter, Sir Edward Neville, and other persons whom he named, were in treasonable correspondence with his brother Reginald. They had maintained a steady communication with him from the time of his legation into Flanders. They were watching their opportunities. They had calculated the force which they could raise, the Marquis of Exeter's power in the west forming their especial reliance. The depositions survive only in portions. It does not appear how far the Poles would have supported Exeter's ambition for the crown; they intended, however, this time to avoid Lord Darcy's errors, and not to limit themselves to attacks upon the ministers. The death of Lord Abergavenny had been inopportune; but his brother, Sir Edward Neville, with Lady Salisbury, would supply his place in rallying the Neville powers. The Yorkshire rising had proved how large was the material of an insurrection if adequately managed; and the whole family, doubtless, shared with Reginald, or rather, to them Reginald himself owed the conviction which he urged so repeatedly on the Emperor and the Pope, that, on the first fair opportunity, a power could


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140 be raised which the Government would be unable to cope with.

If it is remembered that these discoveries occurred when the Bull of Deposition was on the point of publication—when the 'Liber de Unitate' was passing into print—when the pacification of Nice had restored the Continent to the condition most dangerous to England—when the Pope was known to be preparing again a mighty effort to gather against Henry the whole force of Christendom, this was not a time, it will be understood easily, when such plottings would be dealt with leniently, by a weaker hand than that which then ruled the destinies of England.

Exeter, Montague, and Neville were sent to the Tower on the 3rd and 4th of November. Lady Exeter followed with her attendant, Constance Beverley, who had been her companion on her secret pilgrimage to the Nun. It is possible that Sir Geoffrey's revelations were made by degrees; for the King was so unwilling to prosecute, that ten days passed before their trial was determined on. Lady Salisbury was not


text:
User talk:67.225.37.229

Welcome

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title: User talk:67.225.37.229


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1539.] but Lord Southampton went down to Warblington, her residence in Hampshire, to examine her. She received his questions with a fierce denial of all knowledge of the matters to which they referred, and, for a time, he scarcely knew whether to think her innocent or guilty. 'Surely,' he said, in giving an account of his interview, 'there hath not been seen or heard of a woman so earnest, so manlike in countenance, so fierce as well in gesture as in words; either her sons have not made her privy to the bottom and pit of their stomachs, or she is the most arrant traitress that ever lived.' But her rooms were searched; letters, Papal bulls, and other matters were discovered, which left no doubt of her general tendencies, if they were insufficient to implicate her in actual guilt; and one letter, or copy of a letter, unsigned, but, as Southampton said, undoubtedly hers, and addressed to Lord Montague, was found, the matter of which compromised her more deeply. She was again interrogated, and this time important admissions were extracted from her; but she carried herself with undaunted haughtiness. 'We have dealed with such an one,' the Earl said, 'as men have not dealed with tofore; we may rather call her a strong and constant man than a woman.' No decisive conclusions could be formed against her; but it was thought well that she should remain under surveillance; and three days later


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" struck me," exclaimed Harry, amidst the Babel of sounds that had broken out all around them, girls and soldiers chattering like magpies in concert, "that most of the explosions came from over where our hangars are strung out! Yes, there they start up gain! Boys, I tell you it's a big raid on our aviation camp! Let's chase over there!"

They all seemed of one mind, for hardly had Harry shrilled this proposition than the three of them bolted from the exit of the hut and commenced a mad dash through the intervening woods, heading for the opening utilized by the air squads for their canvas hangars. The successive bursts of flame accompanying those frequent explosions benefited them in one way, since they were enabled to see fairly well and thus avoid pitfalls, although once or twice there was a grunt as a member of the group struck some obstacle which he had not noticed soon enough.


title: User:MisterCrazy8/Books/ThoreauSource


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Rh It did not take them long to cover the intervening ground, for by rare good luck the rest-house of the Y. M. C. A. happened to be within reasonable reach of the aviation field.

A new development in affairs had by then taken place. There was a rattle of machine-gun fire from high up in the air that seemed very significant to the Air Service boys.

"Some of the fellows were on the ground—went up—engaged the Boche! Oh, boy, how I envy them!"

Jack gasped out these words as he ran on. He was short of breath, or he might have said more. The others did not reply, partly for the same reason, and then again because of similar views. Knowing the intrepid nature of the boys so well, any one of their friends would have felt confident that both Tom and Harry were feeling jealous of those whom fortune had picked out to shower favors on by allowing them to be the first aloft and after the Boche. But now they had reached the field.

Everything seemed in the greatest confusion there—men dashing this way and that, yelling, asking questions, giving orders to hostlers, getting machines ready for flight, preparing to go aloft to share in the pursuit of the enemy planes.

There had been some damage done, Tom could see; just how much it was impossible for him


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80 even to guess. But several bombs had struck close enough to smash a number of planes, as the débris scattered around disclosed. Great was the relief of the three pilots on learning that their machines had not been in the list of those scrapped. It might have taken many days before they could be supplied with fresh "mounts," such was the demand upon the cargo space of the French railway leading to this sector of the front. That would surely have been considered little short of a calamity by such ambitious fighters as Jack Parmly, Tom Raymond, and Harry Leroy.

"No observer on hand, Jack. Would you mind going up with me?" Tom called out almost immediately.

Nothing would please Jack better than being once more the flying companion of his dearest comrade. To get a chance at the German airmen he stood ready to accept any position offered him. And, besides, he would have the handling of one gun, at any rate.

"You'd better believe I will, Tom!" he cried excitedly. "Harry, there's your assistant, with your plane ready. Get going, fellows!"

The racket still continued above, though with a fresh American air pilot leaving the ground every quarter minute the chances were the Huns would soon conclude that their usefulness was


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Rh past in this neighborhood, and run for home like a herd of wild horses in full flight.

Both boys earnestly hoped the fight would carry on until they had been given a chance to get in a few shots, even if prevented from bagging any game.

"Those Huns must be taught that it isn't going to be a safe thing for them to come knocking at our door under the belief that no one is at home, and pickings will be easy," muttered Jack.

Away they sped, mounting from the ground as soon as free. Yet Tom knew better than to take too many chances. Night flying was always bound to carry more risk than when the daylight held good; so it would be the utmost folly to increase the peril in any unnecessary way.

It was a time when a pilot had full need of every faculty. To the right of them came flashes of flame accompanied by the spiteful crackle of gunfire. Rival marksmen were trying to riddle one another, sometimes flying perilously close in their eagerness.

Great shapes were coursing this way and that like giant bats. Now came a dazzling flash from far down below. The Huns had not as yet entirely exhausted their supply of bombs, and were endeavoring to make every shot count before turning homeward.


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Page:The Clipper Ship Era.djvu/178

T the time of the discovery of gold in California, American ship-builders were well prepared for the work that lay before them. The clippers already built furnished valuable experience, for they had attracted much attention, and their models and construction were almost as well known to shipbuilders throughout the country as to those from whose yards they had been launched. It was found that the clippers were much easier in a sea-way than the old type of vessel; they labored and strained less, and in consequence delivered their cargoes in better condition. When driven into a heavy head sea, they would bury their long, sharp bows in a smother of foam and drench the decks fore and aft with flying spray; but at a speed that would have swamped the full-bodied, wall-sided ships and made them groan in every knee, timber, and beam.

The superiority of the clippers in speed was even more marked in the average length and regularity of their voyages than in their record passages; they could be depended on not to make long passages; with their sharp lines and lofty canvas they were

title: Page:The Clipper Ship Era.djvu/178


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82 Tom fancied he could locate the Hun machine from which that bomb had been shot downward like a projectile from a catapult, passing through a tube with a forward slant in the bottom of the big bombing plane.

"Over to your right, Tom!" shrieked Jack just then, showing that he, too, had guessed the same thing, for already was the pilot in the act of swinging around in that direction.

The Boche must have sensed their coming, for he started to flee; but they were on his trail almost immediately, going like the wind. Tom opened on him, as he had charge of the bow gun. He worked the mechanism with all his old-time skill, not showing signs of any undue haste or excitement. When in the course of the chase he found that he was getting a bit too close, for the bullets were cutting the air all around them, he changed his direction.

Nor was Jack at all slow to seize upon the splendid opening which this fresh maneuver afforded him. He took up the refrain just where Tom left off; and, if anything, showed more vim in his bombardment, for he did not have the manipulation of the plane to interfere with his work with the gun.

The Hun dived and squirmed, in the hopes of throwing off such a persistent pursuer, but Tom kept after him as if grimly determined to bring


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Rh one of the night-bombers down, even if he had to follow the other to his own line.

That sort of excitement was meat and drink to those daring fellows, who lived in anticipation of engaging in just such combats. Tame indeed did that day seem to them upon which they could not exchange shots with at least one enemy pilot.

Some one had met with disaster over to the left, for Tom saw a flash of descending flame and had a vague view of a figure jumping hopelessly from the doomed plane, having found means to cut loose from his safety belt. It was only "jumping from the frying pan into the fire," however, for death in another form awaited him, the ground being a quarter of a mile below.

At one moment it happened that both boys were firing together, the position of the Yankee plane allowing this unusual demonstration. And as to which of them was responsible for the bullet that sent the Boche downward in erratic circles, like a wounded duck, he trying desperately to gain an even keel before it was too late, was always fated to be a little bone of contention between Tom and Jack.


text: Air Service Boys Flying for Victory/Chapter 9


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two Air Service boys followed the enemy down with a risky nose-dive, determined to make sure that he did not get away; and so were able to see him strike amidst the upper branches of the trees with a horrible crash. They themselves had a close call, and only for Tom's clever handling of his machine might have shared the fate of their victim.

Marking the spot as best they could in the darkness of the night, the boys again started upward, in the hope that there might still be other work for them to do.

"Too late!" called out Jack. "The Boche has had a stomachful and is beating it for home like all get-out. He's lost two planes and pilots, which is a heap more'n he counted on giving up for the fun of bombing our hangars. Shall we call it off and go in, Tom?"

Indeed, there was nothing else for them to do. The enemy had been forced to run before he


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Rh could have dropped more than half of his stock of destructive bombs.

Back to the hut went the three boys. Harry was limping, a fact Tom noticed for the first time.

"Look here, did you run up against a Boche bullet while you were chasing around up there, Harry." he asked solicitiouslysolicitously [sic].

"Not quite so bad as that, I'm glad to tell you," came the reply, as Harry stooped to rub the calf of his left leg gently. "But something struck me a nasty blow. Don't know exactly what it was, but I warrant I'll have a nice black-and-blue mark to show for it. Felt mighty queer, too, just as if you'd gone and slapped me with a lathe, flat-side out."

"I reckon," spoke up Jack, "it was a bullet striking the part of your machine that you've got sheathed in steel. You must have been resting your leg against it just where the Boche bullet struck."

"Now, strange to say, I hadn't thought of that explanation before, Jack. But I wouldn't be surprised if you'd guessed the answer. But it stung like everything for a while, and feels sore still."

"But for all that you've cause for being satisfied, Harry," Tom told him.

"Considering what would have happened to


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86 me if I didn't have that sheathing outside the frame of my plane, I guess I ought to be grateful. Do you know only today I was figuring whether it paid for the extra weight, and had nearly made up my mind to have it ripedripped [sic] off. Nothing doing about that from this time on. Saved me a bad leg I tell you, boys."

Arriving at the Y. M. C. A. shelter the boys halted at the door. It was so cozy in there the boys could always find some good excuse for bending their footsteps in that direction; and also loitering after they had finished the business that took them to the hut. So no one was surprised, or disappointed, to hear Jack call out:

"I think I upset my glass of lemonade in my hurry to clear out; and as the thirst seems worse now than ever I reckon I'll have to indulge in another of the same kind, if Miss Sallie has the fixings. Will you join me, fellows?"

"Not me, for one, Jack," said Harry. "I got all of mine down without spilling a drop. I'm not so keen as you about lemonade. But I'll go along, because these rest places are the only homelike signs we run across on the front these days."

Jack thereupon gave Tom a sly nudge in the ribs.

"I was right, it seems," he managed to whisper


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Rh aside. Keep your eye on that blue-eyed Miss Sallie, and watch for any tell-tale signs in Harry's face when he's chatting with her. But she's a mighty nice girl, all the same, and I don't blame him. Comes of a fine family, too, I'm told."

Sallie, however, was only "conspicuous by her absence," as Jack put it. In fact she had retired to seek rest, for another day's arduous work came with the morning.

Tom, as did Jack, ordered another glass of lemonade, but drank only a small portion.

"Somehow or other I seem to have lost my taste for the stuff," he explained, when this fact was drawn to his attention by Jack; "or else this girl hasn't learned the wrinkle of mixing a drink as well as Miss Sallie has. But there's something bothering me, and I was just going to ask Harry if he didn't want to take a run over to the field hospital with me."

"What's that?" exclaimed the one mentioned. "You don't think any of those Boche bombs could have fallen there, do you, Tom?"

Jack looked worried at these words.

"Well, it's to be hoped not," replied Tom. "But somehow lately the fiends have taken a savage delight in bombing British hospitals and also sinking their hospital ships when crossing the


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88 Channel in spite of their being marked and running with all lights on. As I said before, I'm worried some. Will you go with me, Harry?"

"But we couldn't undertake the trip without special permission, don't you know?" objected the other; though his manner told how gladly he would accompany Tom if given half a chance.

"Oh, I've got my permit, which is good until one to-night," explained Tom. "And as you're still limping some I can manage that you're allowed to keep me company; only you must make sure to let the hospital surgeon take a look at that leg of yours while we're there, and have it bound up. I must save my face, understand?"

Harry gave Tom an eloquent look.

"You are certainly the limit, Tom," he avowed. "But I've always heard that a poor excuse was better than none at all. So, as you've got me anxious about my sister, why, yes, I'll be glad to go along with you."

"How about you. Jack?" Tom queried, turning on the remaining member of the trio.

"Thanking you all the same I believe I'll stay here for a while longer, as two ought to be enough to see the job through. The raid was not in that direction, so the hospital is safe. Jeanne will be asleep so we can't see her, or else I would go. No, I'll stay here, and when I get good and


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Rh tired I'll drop over to quarters, and hit the hay for a sound sleep."

"I reckon we can trust you. Especially," added Tom, with an eye on Harry's face, "since Miss Sallie has disappeared for the night."

When he saw Harry turn red Tom felt satisfied that he and Jack had indeed guessed the other's secret, though he said nothing to indicate the fact.

Jack saw the two depart, and wandered here and there, chatting with some of the boys, who evidently meant to hang around until the last minute before closing time came.

He found himself yawning several times, and admitted that he would be foolish to spend any more time in trying to keep awake, when even a half-way decent bunk awaited his occupancy.

He had reached the door in the act of departing when he became aware of the fact that there was an unusual bustle without. On looking to see what it meant Jack found that a Red Cross ambulance had drawn up alongside the dugout entrance. Some persons were issuing forth from the interior of the motor vehicle.

Jack knew that these long distance ambulances, after taking a load of badly injured fighting men all the way it might be to Paris, on the return journey would often be loaded down with fresh surgical supplies. Yes, and on several


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90 he had even known them to bring new nurses to the fighting front, to take the place of those who had been injured or fallen sick.

As everything of that sort had a special interest for Jack, he watched several trim figures emerge from the motor transport vehicle. All of a sudden he gave a start, straightened himself up, looked eagerly again, rubbing his eyes at the same time, and then with an exclamation hurried forward.

A girl in khaki garments that told of the Y. M. C. A. worker had just alighted. She was followed by an older woman, who seemed to be the last of the quartette and who was evidently in charge of the detachment, for Jack saw that the others deferred to her judgment.

In half a dozen strides he was over at the spot.

"Bessie!"

The girl with the rosy cheeks and bright eyes turned quickly on hearing him call this name softly, A smile flashed over her face, and instinctively her hand was extended cordially:

"Oh, Jack, how glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed.

Jack then greeted the older woman. After a few words Mrs. Gleason said:

"I hardly know what to do, as we ought to be at the field hospital, and here the driver has dropped us, naturally from our costumes, before


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Rh the Y. M. C. A. hut. But of course you can advise me."

"Certainly I can," Jack hastened to say. "I'll see that he takes you on as soon as he unloads some things I notice he has for the people here. Yes, and for fear that you get lost I'll try to go along with you, for there's the officer who can give me permission to leave quarters."

"Where are Tom and Harry?" asked Bessie, for she noticed that the nurses who had also come in the ambulance were listening with smiles to this conversation, and it embarrassed her.

"Over at the hospital. We'll possibly meet them there," replied Jack. "But I'll tell you all about it while on the way, Bessie."


text: Air Service Boys Flying for Victory/Chapter 10