So far they had been singularly lucky and had been challenged by no
aeroplanes at all. The frontier scouts they must have passed in the
night; probably these were mostly under the clouds; the world was wide
and they had had luck in not coming close to any soaring sentinel. Their
machine was painted a pale gray, that lay almost invisibly over the
cloud levels below. But now the east was flushing with the near ascent
of the sun, Berlin was but a score of miles ahead, and the luck of the
Frenchmen held. By imperceptible degrees the clouds below dissolved....
Away to the north-eastward, in a cloudless pool of gathering light and
with all its nocturnal illuminations still blazing, was Berlin. The left
finger of the steersman verified roads and open spaces below upon the
mica-covered square of map that was fastened by his wheel. There in a
series of lake-like expansions was the Havel away to the right; over by
those forests must be Spandau; there the river split about the Potsdam
island; and right ahead was Charlottenburg cleft by a great thoroughfare
that fell like an indicating beam of light straight to the imperial
headquarters. There, plain enough, was the Thiergarten; beyond rose
the imperial palace, and to the right those tall buildings, those
clustering, beflagged, bemasted roofs, must be the offices in which
the Central European staff was housed.
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