Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From Millennium by Ben Bova (1976, Random House, New York):

"Frank, do you remember Cy Calder?"

"Who?"

"Way back in the early days, when we were training. Cy Calder. He was a newsman for ..."

Recognition dawned on Colt's face. "Oh, yeah, the old dude. Man, he must've been ninety years old."

"Not quite," Kinsman said. "He told me a story once ... about when he flew a bomber in World War I."

"I didn't know he was a pilot."

"One of the first. He used to fly bombing runs in the early months of the war. Open cockpit, scarf-in-wind kind of stuff."

"No shit."

Kinsman grinned at the memory of Calder's story. "He flew a two-man bomber. Cranked her up to maximum altitude over the trenches -- about five thousand feet. All the soldiers in the trenches shot at any airplane. They hated the fliers."

Colt laughed.

"Cy flew mostly at night. Never saw another plane in the sky. Then one night, as they were coming back from a bombing raid on some farmhouse, they poassed a big German Gotha bomber coming back from a raid on the Allied side of the lines."

"Yeah?"

"Cy waved at the German pilot and the guy waved back. They were both excited just to see somebody else up there."

"Those were the days," Colt muttered.

"Well, a couple minutes after they passed each other, Cy's gunner turned around to him and started yelling, so he could be heard over the engines, 'That was a German! What the hell were we waving at him for? Turn around, let's shoot the bastard down!'"

Colt nodded.

"Cy pushed the gunner back away from him and told him, 'You silly sonofabitch, it's dangerous enough up here without shooting at people!'"