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wmm?mmmxmmmmmmmmmmmmm tongues. In a moment the biplane was -fiercely burning. Against the glare of the flames the head and crouching body of the German were silhouetted like a fiend's. I saw him touch his rudder, and the biplane swopped towardearth. As it fell it blazed up more fiercely. The entire hinder part was now a glowing cin der. JEach moment I expected to see the Taube buckle and go swoop ing earthward, to fall, an incinerated mass, beneath. He had a wonderful head, that Ger man. In spite of the hell of flames that surrounded him and raged above him, he dived like a bird, alighting with only the forepart of the machine as gently as a bird alights, and sprang gracefully to the ground. There he awaited me with his fists clenched. You see, he was armed only with a Maxim, for he had never anticipated this calamity, and he could not re move his gun from the burning wreckage at his side. But he held up his hands reluctant ly when I covered him with my pistol. "Monsieur, there is no man in any army to whom I would sooner sur render than you," he Baid. I marched him toward our distant trenches. We had alighted in a bar ren region between the lines, but nearer our own forces. "Courage, comrade," I said to him. "I have sought to make you a prison er for the sake of one who awaits you." "Eh?" he inquired, looking at me with sharp scrutiny. "For the sake of your love, mon sieur," I said. Would you believe it? The girl had watched the entire combat from the half-ruined farmhouse in which she lived. And at this precise mo ment I saw her coming toward us across the Hats. It was impossible to mistake the gait of youth, the light ness and joy that seemedto animate her. She saw -us and broke into a run. In a few moments she was at our, side. "Embrace each other, then, my children," I said softly. "Monsieur le lieutenant, I trust you implicitly. I am well aware that you will not abuse my confidence." The girl clung to him, but to my dismay there was no love on her face only fury. "Now will you pay me for that pair of chickens you stole!" she screamed at him, shaking him. "But what does this mean?" I de manded angrily. "He took two chickens from my yard three weeks ago and promised to come back and pay for them!" cried the girl, a veritable virago. I flung her a piece of silver. "There, take that!" I said disgustedly. "How the deuce could I come back when the Frenchmen were in posses sion?" grumbled the lieutenant, look ing at the girl, nevertheless with something of admiration. "It's all one to me," she answered. "What I have, I pay for. What any one has from me, he pays for, too." The prisoner and I went on in si lence. Presently he turned to me with a smile. "What a wife she would make!" he murmured. "I shall certainly remem ber this place after the war. 0ne does not often find a hausfrau of such economical virtues." And there you have, in a few words, the difference between the French, the German and the Bel gian peoples. (Copyright by W. G. Chapman.) SAUTED OYSTERS Drain one pint of solid oysters. Put two tablespoons of butter into saute pan. When it is hot turn in the oy sters. Salt and pepper to taste. Shake them in the pan until gills curl, then add one tablespoon of minced parsley and one tablespoon of sweet green peper, chc-pped fine. Serve- on toasF or "With butteredrigs, sstummmMmmMtmrnimmmmM