I wrote this book during the troubulous nights when the Zeppelins were threatening London and the adjacent counties. While I was writing I was entirely undisturbed by the thought of danger. Outside my windows the great white beams of the searchlights were scouring the skies for the aerial invaders. Now and again I heard the familiar sound of an aeroplane passing through the night and the boom of anti-aircraft guns, and I knew that the heroic men of the British Air Services Were guarding their country and its peaceful inhabitants. Many of these men have lost their lives in the fight against German militarism. In the sincerest admiration I dedicate these pages to all the profits from the sale of this edition to the fund that provides for the families of British aviators who have died in the cause that is Russia's as well as theirs.