Gerry, when shot down over the German lines, had succeeded in making that “some sort of landing” which his comrades had reported.
There was an axiom, taught in the training camps to give confidence to cadets, which said that when a pilot once gets his wheels squarely on the ground, he will not be killed, though his machine may be badly smashed. Gerry, in his landing, had tested this axiom to its utmost; for he had had sufficient control of his ship, at the last, to put his wheels square to the ground; and though his machine was wholly wrecked, he was not killed. He was painfully shaken and battered; but so excellently was his ship planned to protect the pilot in a “crash,” that he was not even seriously injured. Indeed, after the German soldiers dragged him out he was able to stand—and wa
