He spun one small wheel to show how his pet's steel nose might be
elevated almost straight upward; then turned another to show how the gun
might be swung, as on a pivot, this way and that to command the range of
the entire horizon, and he concluded the performance, with the aid of
several husky lads in begrimed gray, by going through the pantomime of
loading with a long yellow five-inch shell from the magazine behind him,
and pretending to fire, meanwhile explaining that he could send one shot
aloft every six seconds and with each shot reach a maximum altitude of
between seven and eight thousand feet. Altogether it was a very pretty
sight to see and most edifying. Likewise it took on an added interest
when we learned that the blue-eyed youth and his brother of a twin
balloon-cannon at the front of Laon had during the preceding three weeks
brought down four of the enemy's airmen, and were exceedingly hopeful of
fattening their joint average before the present week had ended.
After that we took photographs ad lib and McCutcheon had a trip with
Ingold, a great aviator, in a biplane, which the Germans call a double-
decker, as distinguished from the Taube or monoplane, with its birdlike
wings and curved tail rudder-piece.
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