LADDER OF LIGHT
Then suddenly you see a strange finger of light reaching into the sky.
Or you may liken it to a ladder of light climbing the sky. Or you may
liken it to a lance of light piercing the darkness. Or you may just
call it a good, old-fashioned search-light, which it is. It is
watching for Hun planes, and it plays all night long from north to
south, from east to west, restlessly, eagerly, quickly, like a "hound
of the heavens" guarding the earth. First it sweeps the horizon, and
then it suddenly shoots straight up into the zenith like another sun,
and it seems to flood the very skies. No German plane can cut through
that path of light without being seen, and one night I had the rare
privilege of seeing a plane caught by the search-light on its
ever-vigilant patrol. It was a thrilling sight. One minute later the
anti-aircraft guns were thundering away and the shrapnel was breaking
in tiny patches around this plane while the search-lights played on
both the plane and the shrapnel patches of smoke against the sky,
making a wonderful picture. Military writers say that the enemy planes
are more afraid of these search-lights than of the guns.
[Illustration: One night I had the privilege of seeing a plane caught
by the search-light.]
But perhaps the most thrilling sight of all is that dark night when one
sees for the first time the star-shells along the horizon.
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