16.
Still at the airfield. Major Tacy-Turn allows himself a small fifteen-minute break. Balancing comfortably in a rocking-chair in the sun, he relishes the solitude, peace and quiet, his pipe, and begins to snore.
...When the sound of a two-stroke engine jolts him awake. A motorcycle messenger makes an entrance in a whirlwind of dust, describes a wild turn, leaps from his machine, and hands the officer a large package and an envelope. The package contains a newly developed camera for aerial photography. In the envelope are orders to immediately test the apparatus by photographing the German trenches from above.
For the first time in his life, the Major regrets being alone. He can't both pilot an aeroplane and take photgraphs. Perplexity. He asks the motorcyclist if he can fly with him. No, the motorcyclist has other orders to deliver. He'll be back in three hours to pick up the photos. And, climbing onto his motorcycle, he tears off as fast as he came.
"Complicated!" says the Major.
After having locked up the camera and his orders, he refills his pipe, takes his swagger stick in hand, and leaves the camp.
SECOND ACT. The road between the camp and BLANK.
Dramatis Personae. The Major. A Farmer. Jean-Jean, the Farmer's son. Farmers and Servants. Bécassine.
The Major advances double-quick time. This is what he does when he has an ambarrassing problem to resolve. The march brings him ideas. He lengthens his stride to catch up with a woman walking ahead of him, and wonders where he has seen he before. At the moment he passes, she turns.
The Major: "Oi! The chatterbox!"
Bécassine: "The nasty officer!"
Frightened, she breaks into a run.
17.
She soon arrives at a farm. A large turkey is strutting about in the road.
Concealed behind an embankment, the farmer and his son Jean-Jean are on the look-out. The reason is that, for several days, their poultry has been disappearing, one by one. They promise themselves that they're going to catch the poultry-thief. The turkey is bait to allow them to find out who it is. Naturally, the honest Bécassine hasn't the least suspicion of all that.
She sees the turkey. She judges that it's in danger of being run over by the first car to come along. She takes it upon herself to get it back to the farmyard. And so, as the bird won't take direction, she puts her arms around it and lifts it with difficulty.
Out jump the farmer and Jean-Jean. "Robber!" they bellow. At the sound the farmer's wife and servants pour out of the house.
Poor Bécassine, alarmed, scolded, completely loses her head and melts into tears. Suddenly the Major intervenes in this violent scene.
The Major: "Quiet ... all of you. What's all this?"
The Farmer (timidly): "Monsieur Officer, this woman is a thief."
The Major (brightening up): "Oi! The chatterbox knows how to steal!"
Bécassine: "No, I don't steal."
The Others (in chorus): "She does! She does!"
The Major (taking Bécassine by the sleeve and leading her away): "Come along ... thieving chatterbox."
REMARK -- We should point out that the Major, who understands French imperfectly, has made a mistake, taking the verb voler* in the wrong sense, given the circumstances. We shall see the dramatic consequences of this error in the following acts.
*to fly; to steal
18.
THIRD ACT.
Back at the airfield.
Dramatis Personae. Major Tacy-Turn. Bécassine.
They enter, the one continuing to hold and drag along the other.
The Major (taking out his revolver and showing it to Bécassine): For you ... if you ... try ... to get away. (Bécassine, too intimidated to speak, makes a sign that she has no intention of trying to escape.)
The Major leaves, but soon returns in a flyer's outfit. He hands Bécassine a goat-skin coat, an aviator's helmet, and goggles, and helps her put them on. Then he shows her the camera. More by gesture than by words, but very clearly, he explains its use to Bécassine who, interested, little by little feels her terror subside, and attentively follows the demonstration.
The Major (showing her the shutter release): "I say, Go! You go, click! Understand?"
Bécassine (speaking English for the first time in her life): "Yes!"
The Major: "Good! Come on!"
They enter a hangar and find a two-seater plane.
The Major: "Push!" (They roll the aeroplane out of the hangar.)
Bécassine (to herself): "I don't feel afraid at all. He isn't mean, this officer. He just plays at being a bogeyman. He's even very nice, and it's funny that he's letting me see it."
The Major: "Climb in!"
Bécassine (getting into the observer's seat): "That's it, we're carrying on the joke! This really is funny! Never in my life did I imagine I'd be sitting in a plane! If my masters and mistresses could see me! And Uncle Corentin! And everyone at Clocher-les-Bécasse, back home!"
The Major climbs into the pilot's seat, starts the engine and takes the control. The aeroplane rolls slowly, gathering speed. Suddenly it lifts off and rises.
Bécassine (panicked once more): "Eh? What? It's for real! We're flying! I don't want to! Stop! Papa! Mama! I'm scared! I want to go down!"
The Major (cold and scornful): "Oh, be quiet! Chatterbox!"
19.
FOURTH ACT.
In midair.
Dramatis Personae. The Major. Bécassine.
Bécassine (now completely reassured): "I was an idiot to be afraid. It's fun to fly, and not dangerous. He flies well, the Major. It's pretty down below. It looks like a map of geography. We can hear the guns. We must not be far from the Boches. But up here in the air, we snap our fingers at them. Hold on, what are those little clouds below us?"
The Major: "Shells!"
Bécassine (startled): "Eh?"
The Major: "Shells! ... Not dangerous, poor aim! ... Attention! Photography! ... Go!"
Bécassine (in an anguished voice): "Click!" (She manoeuvres her camera.)
But worrisome noises and backfires erupt from the engine.
The Major: "Stalled! ... Serious! ... Let's try gliding." (The plane descends practically vertically.)
The Major (ever calm): "Go!"
Bécassine (in a deathly voice): "Click!"
The engine restarts, and the aeroplane swoops upward again. But the German gunfire is getting closer. The shells burst all around. The Major hasn't lost an ounce of his phlegm. Though electricfied by the danger, Bécassine regains her calm. She photographs with precision every target listed in the orders. "Go!" and "Click!" follow one another.
The Major: "Photos ... how many?"
Bécassine: "Twenty!"
The Major: "Enough! Returning!"
The wings tilt. Bécassine gives a shout! She believes she's about to be thrown overboard. But presently the craft stabilises, and the return is without incident.
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