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There we piled into a cab, and soon we were rattling over the cobblestones, down a long, sunlit avenue in the direction of B . It was late of a mild afternoon when we reached the summit of a high plateau and saw before us the barracks and hangars of the École d'Aviation. There was not a breath of air stirring. The sun was just sinking behind a bank of crimson cloud.
The most interesting paper of all was our Ordre de Service, the text of which was as follows: It is commanded that the bearer of this Order report himself at the cities of C and R , by the route of the air, flying an avion Caudron, and leaving the École Militaire d'Aviation at A on the 21st of April, 1917, without passenger on board. Signed, LE CAPITAINE B Commandant de l'École.
We did not come back to earth until our ancient, earth-creeping conveyance brought up with a jerk, and we found ourselves in front of a gate marked "École d'Aviation Militaire de B ." After we had paid the cabman, we stood in the road, with our mountain of luggage heaped about us, waiting for something to happen.
It was a trying period to the little group of Americans assembled at the École Militaire d'Aviation, eager as they were to complete their training, and to be ready, when spring should come, to share in the great offensive, which they knew would then take place on the Western front. Aviation is a waiting game at the best of seasons. In winter it is a series of seemingly endless delays.
At another time I should have been much interested; but in the presence of new and splendid realities I could not summon any enthusiasm for illusions. Nevertheless, I should have had to listen to him indefinitely, had it not been for an event which cut short all conversation and ended our first day at the École d'Aviation in a truly spectacular manner.
In so far as Drew and I were concerned, these were matters for the future. It was enough for us at the moment that our applications had been approved, our papers signed, and that to-morrow we were leaving for the École d'Aviation Militaire to begin our training.
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