The bald old German ignored Pitt's remark. His face remained serious. "The end for Kurt, when it came, was from a cunning British trick. They studied his tactics closely and soon learned that he had a weakness for attacking and destroying their observation ballons. A battle weary balloon was overhauled and the observer's basket was filled with high explosives and a uniformed dummy stuffed with weeds. A detonating wire ran to the ground and the British then sat and waited for Kurt to make an appearance." Von Till sat down in a deeply pillowed sofa. He looked up at the ceiling, but he didn't see it. His mind looked, instead, into a sky that existed in 1918. "They did not have to wait long. Only one day later, Kurt flew over the allied lines and saw the balloon swinging slowly in the offshore breeze. He no doubt wondered why there was no ground fire. And the observer, leaning on the basket's railing, looked to be asleep, for he made no attempt to leap out and parachute to safety before Kurt's guns turned the hydrogen-filled bag into a cloud of fire."

"He had no idea it was a trap?" asked Pitt.

"No," von Till replied. "The balloon was there and it represented the enemy. Almost automatically, Kurt dove to the attack. He closed with the balloon and his Spandau machine guns began raking the thin skinned gas bag. Suddenly the balloon erupted in a thunderous explosion that covered the entire area in fire and smoke. The British had detonated the explosives."

"Heibert crashed over the allied lines?" Pitt queried in thoughtful speculation.

"Kurt did not crash after the explosion," von Till answered, shaking his mind back to the present again. "His Albatros burst through the inferno, but the gallant plane that carried him faithfully through so many air battles was badly shattered, and he was seriously wounded. With its fabric wings torn and tattered, its control surfaces blown off and a bloody pilot in the cockpit, the plane staggered over the Macedonian coastline and disappeared out to sea. The Hawk of Macedonia and his legendary yellow Albatros were never seen again."

"At least not until yesterday." Pitt took a deep breath and waited for an obvious reaction.

Von Till's eyelids widened on his otherwise expressionless face and he said nothing. He seemed to be weighing Pitt's words.

Pitt immediately came back to the original subject.

"Did you and Heibert often fly together?"

"Yes, we flew patrol together many times. We even used to take up a two seater Rumpler bomber and drop incendiary bombs on the British Aerodrome which was located right here on Thasos. Kurt would fly while I acted as observer and bombardier."

"Where was your squadron based?"

"Kurt and I were posted to Jasta 73. We flew out of the Xanthi aerodrome in Macedonia."