Dastral of the Flying Corps

"And so you see by a stroke of luck you happen to be one of my patients. And I am going to take you all the way home."

"Home! Blighty! Home!" murmured the patient. "Are we on the way home?"

"Yes, we are on the way to Blighty. We are now only a matter of twenty miles from the Nab Light at the eastern end of the Isle of Wight. In another two hours we should be in Southampton Water."

"Thank God!" replied Dastral quietly and reverently, as he closed his eyes, bewildered by all he had heard. But he opened them again shortly, and said:

"Tim, war is a ghastly thing. I hope it will soon be over, for it turns brave men who might otherwise be friends into enemies. But I am happy to think that you have won that decoration."

"Tut, tut! Dastral," replied the other. "Do you know that the King has conferred upon you the honour of a C.B., and also made you a Wing Commander. Do you know also that the whole country is talking of your fight with Himmelman, the German air-fiend?"

"Tim, I would willingly shed all these honours if I could bring back my brave comrades, who are buried in unknown graves out yonder. Alas, I shall never see them again," and here Dastral closed his eyes to keep back the tears that tried to force themselves out, and to gulp down a sob. Then he fell fast asleep, and Tim let him sleep on, till they had passed the Nab Light, and steamed along by the Southsea Forts, and Spithead, and Portsmouth, and had entered the lower reaches of Southampton Water.

Then again Dastral opened his eyes, and called softly for Tim.

"I have had such a dream," he whispered. "And I have seen Himmelman, and we are friends again. And I saw Steve, and Brum and Mac, and they were with Himmelman, for there are no enemies in the other world, amongst the brave men who have gone there. And the captain of the German warplane, he who died in my arms on the aerodrome near Contalmaison–he was there too. They were all happy together, and they said that one day I should meet them all. Oh, tell me, Tim, you who are so wise and learned, and know all these things, was it a dream or did I really see them?"

"Dastral, I don't quite understand. You say you have seen them, and they are all dead?"

"Yes, all dead, all brave fellows, killed by this accursed war. But come, tell me, do you really think I saw them, or was it only a dream, a spirit dream?" and the wounded pilot looked appealingly up at his friend.

"I do not know, Dastral," calmly replied the scholar after a full minute's pause. "We often discussed these things in the old days at college, though, after what has happened, it seems years and years ago. We will talk of it again, when you are stronger, but I do believe that for brave men, who have followed the star which has called them, and served God truly, there is, there must be, after death, something like that of which you have spoken, where good men are re-united, even though they have fought with each other in the days that are past."

Then, after another long pause, he added

"Yes, Dastral, I believe there is a heaven."

* * * * *

Thus ends this tale of adventure and heroism during the great war. Dastral eventually recovered his health and strength, under the careful nursing of his friend, Tim Burkitt, but his work in the great war was finished. He had served his King and country nobly. He had crowded into twenty months of service a record second to none during the great war. He was the recipient of great honours from his King and Country. And right nobly had he carried them, for he had believed that the cause for which he fought was for freedom against tyranny.

In days gone by the brave and daring sons of Britain–men like Drake and Cromwell, Blake and Nelson–gained for this country the liberties of the present. And when the story of these days of bitter struggle is fully told, the names of Dastral and his comrades will be engraved in letters of gold, for, against the most fearful odds, they went out in jeopardy of their lives, risking every day a terrible death, so that they might lay deep and sure the foundations of our future liberty and peace.