Tam O' The Scoots

afed" a depot. He stayed a while to locate a new gun positi

Bridgeman isn't back and Tam said he saw

forward a long account of air flights for publication in the

ened oot before he reached airth an' flew aroond a

might have been looking forward to his leaving-book from Eton, bu

ed, awkwardly built youth whom a

oachfully, "I was looking

chuc

' wis not so far frae the aerod

him!" said the

ntin' the Scoot to help ye chase ain puir wee Hoon? Sir

four," pro

stood oop in the fuselage an' hit the nairest representative of the

s that Tam the Scoot was "up" was always sufficient to attract an audi

. Lasky, the Boy Avenger, oor the Terror o' the Fairmament. They darted heether and theether wi' their remorseless pairsuer on their heels an' the seenister sound of his bullets whistlin' in their lugs. Ain by ain the enemy is defeated, fa'ing like Lucife

d with great handclapping and Tam bowed l

next pairformance wi

irs. Nor was he, in the accepted sense of the word, a patriot, because he did not enlist at the beginning of the war.

he badge he had lost. He was unmarried and had none dependent on him, and his landlord, who had two sons fighting, su

ged his

an with the name of coward. Tam hammered his fellow wo

rmy, he invented. He simply did not want to be a soldier. He believed most passionately that the

He was a clever mechanic and he had mastered the intricaci

ext Sunday he bicycled to the aerodrome in his best c

Life. He was not a good or a tractable recruit. He hated discipline an

sent for pilots and mechanics, he accompanied hi

w over England at a height of six thousand feet, and was sorry when the journey came to an end.

on, an' whilst ither laddies were livin' on meal at the University A' was airning ma' salt at the Govan Iron Wairks.

ded to the care of an acquaintance over six hundred paper-covered volumes which surveyed the world of adventure, from the Nevada of Deadwood Dick to the Australia of Jack Harkaway. He knew the stories by hea

e clouds-and enjoyed a fame among the German airmen which was at once flattering and ominous. Once they dropped a

en Tam is buri

h sub

rman Imperia

tio

o much as this unsolicited

the author of the note was the flyer of a big Aviatic, and went

he noo above, the noo below the ither. Wi' supairb resolution Tam o' the Scoots nose-dived for the wee feller's tail, loosin' a drum at the puir body as he endeavoured to escape the lichtenin' swoop o' the

tions, poised in the early sun, fourteen thousand feet in the air, a tiny spangle of white, smaller in magnitude tha

the darker patches where high explosive shells are bursting beneath

doing ther

ok long, you see the machines returning, a group of black specks in the morning sky. The Boches' scouts are up to attack-the raiders go serenely onward, leaving the exciting business of duel à l'outrance to the nip

treaks to the earth, leaving a cloud of smoke to mark his unsubstantial path. As for the others, they bank over and go home. One falls in spirals within the enemy'

to the Almighty when you kent it wer

machine that had come back

look oop an' see me? Did ye no' look thankfully at yeer obsairvor, when, wi' a hooricane roar, the Terror of the Air-r hurtled across the sky-'Saved!' ye said to yersel'; 'saved-an' by

ou to the devil before I give you any mo

educated palate better than you, sir-r-seegairs are for men an' no' for ba

the Corps Comforts Committee which devoted its energies to the collection and dispatch of literature, by requesting that a special effort be made to keep him supplied "wi' th' latest bluid

Black Peter, the Scoorge of Hell Ca?on. A've no soort o' use for the new kind o' stoory-the love-stoories aboot mooney. Ye ken the soort: Harild is feelin' fine an' anxious aboot Lady Gwendoline's bairthmark: is she the rechtfu'

ing the fire of a "grandmother" battery. There was a fair breeze blowing from the east, and it was bitterly cold, but Tam in his leather j

reat frothy pyramid that sailed in majestic splendor. Tam judged it to be a mile across at its ba

' lot of room in

at such a level that did he explore it, he would en

, "Am going to explore cloud,

f the earth. The fog grew thicker and darker and he returned again to the outer edge because there would be no danger in the center. Gently he declined his elevator and sank to a lower level. Then sudde

aite

f one hundred and forty miles an hour. But he had seen the German coming.... Something dropped from the fuselage, there wa

British lines, his wirel

ron in cloud-take th

d brought his machine around to f

h Archies began

he saw fifty stabbing pencils of flame flickering from fifty A-A guns. Every

itiating all attack, and it was a right of which he was especially jealous. Now, with the great cloud disgorging its shadowy guests, he gave a glance at his Lewis gun and drove straight for his enemies. A bullet struck the fus

" said Tam an

uadron was now in position. Tam saw Lasky die and glimpsed the flaming wreck of the boy's machine as it fell, then he found himself attacked on two sides. But he was the swifter climber-the faster move

ad for home and begu

o ground without mishap. He unstrapped himself and descended from the fuselage slowly,

d, for Tam's besetting vice

Masille, sir-r," said

proved Tam. "A'm a s-arrgent. Hoo lan

Sergeant," s

Tam. "A' wouldn't do that wair

ad," said half

ad. "A'm thankitfu' A'm no' a soldier-they tried haird

ho

looked around in alarm. The enemy's heavy shell struck the ground m

"A' thocht it were goin' s

you, Tam?" asked t

ared hi

parrsonal safety, the gallant laddie brocht his machine to the clood i' question, caircling through its oombrageous depths. It was a fine gay sicht-aloon i' th' sky, he ventured into

d bit his lip

he officer, "that's a

no' in the recht speeri

Brand," said the wi

ll ask ye to excuse me, Captain Thompson, sir-r. A'm no feelin' verr