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Flight simulation
Edited by
J.M. ROLFE
Senior Principal Psychologist, Ministry of Defence
Kee DALLES
Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford
™
Contents
Preface
Introduction to flight simulation
Introduction
Definitions
The basic structure of flight simulation
1.3.1. The effect of an inadequate model
1.3.2. Effect of inadequate facilities
1.3.3. The effect of inappropriate application
The flight simulator: models and facilities x
—
—-
hve
Coon
4A2Z7, Input/outpul
4\4 The use of microprocessors in Night simulation
5 Structures and cockpit systerns
SA Introduction
5.2 Mechanical and structural constraints
5.21. Platform services
a 4 ~~ Cockpit systems
S41, Instruments
5A Wetronic packaging
5.5 vmergency and saledy features
S51. Vire detection|/suppression
55.2. Lmergency Cuacuarion
55,3, Electrical codes
6 Motion systems
6) Introduction
6,2 Motion sensing and perception and their modelling
6,3 Production of motion am
633. Motion platform design
63,2, Motion platform drive signals
63.4, Non-platform motion-cucing devices
6.44, Motion platforms for training simulators
62,5. Motion platforms for engineering imulavors
64 Motion cue requirements
7 Visual systems
TA introduction
12 The psychophysics A visual perception
13 Visual system requirements for the airlines
1343. Hordwore for wrline visual simulation
1342. Computer image generation for the or lines
133, Certification reguremens for visual systems for the oirlines
14 Military visual simulation
TAA. Regurcwnetts
142. Hordwore for wilitary vieud sirwotion
143. Comper tage generation for wilitary sirolation
% Iatructor’s facilities
1 Introduction
Na) ;
B11. Role of te invtiructor
412. General regurcmests for the inaructors tition
$2 Design of the on-board insiructor’s station
$21. Design to meat the genoa regu cmetass
22 Smplemeaaion ond twxaan factors
£3 Design fA the Si-board instructor's siziion
831. Flight insructof s station
Vill Contents
B.5. Results
B.6. Comment
10.9 Concluding remarks
11 The flight simulator as a training device
11.1 Introduction
WD The advantages of simulation
Nels! Cost
11.4 Safety
ES Opportunity
11.6 Ecology
Wile7/The effectiveness of simulation
11.8 The customer’s role
WS) The legislator’s role
11.9.1. Evaluation procedures
11.10 The role of the training technologist
Js General conclusions
12 Résumé
I Introduction
12.2 The computer system
123 Physiological stimulation
12.3.1. The motion system
12.3.2. Visual systems
12.4 Other challenges
12.4.1. Instructor operating stations
12.4.2. Complex aircraft systems
12.4.3. Applications
IDES) Concluding remarks
References
Index
To the memories of Wladyslaw Sluckin (late Professor of Psychology, the
University of Leicester, England )and Svante Skans (late Director, LUT AB,
Sweden).Two wise friends whose enthusiasm and encouragement is embodied
in this book.
Preface
“1 Introduction
While not neglecting the applications of flight simulation, the
principal objective of this book is to provide an introduction to the
fundamentals of flight simulation and the elements that contribute to the
construction and operation of the modern simulator.
As its name implies the object of flight simulation is to reproduce on the
ground the behaviour of an aircraft in flight. The practical value of flight
simulation can be judged by the extensive use of the technique in aerospace
research and development and by the fact that more than 500 flight
simulators are in use, throughout the world, for training and maintaining
the skills of civilian and military aircrew.
When used for research, flight simulators allow designers to explore the
implications ofdifferent design options without having to incur the expense
and delay arising from building and testing a range of prototypes. Examples
are the extensive use of flight simulation in the design and testing of the
Concorde supersonic airliner and the role played by simulation in the
manned space programme.
Flight simulation has provided a means of evaluating the likely
behaviour and consequences arising from abnormal operating con-
figurations. Solutions to handling problems associated with deep stall, clear
air turbulence and, recently, wind shear have all been worked through with
the aid of simulators. _
Flight simulation has established for itselfasignificant position in the ab
initio and advanced training of aircrew. The market for simulators is world
wide and annual expenditure on new devices involves millions of pounds.
Nevertheless, hard-headed commercial operators and efficiency conscious
air forces are prepared to argue five major advantages accruing from the use
of simulators in training. These are:
2 An introduction to flight simulation
1.2 Definitions
Simulation can take a variety of forms and it is therefore essential
to define the scope of this book. A common feature of all simulations is that
they attempt to provide an operating imitation of a real activity. Just how
this is achieved will vary with the nature of the simulation. The economist
and operational analyst may create numerical simulations totally within a
computer while the earth scientist or hydrographer may use dynamic
physical representations of parts of the environment. These two examples
represent the different levels of abstraction which can be contained within
the use of simulation. A further dimension is the level of human
involvement that occurs within the simulation. One extreme is represented
by the computer simulation case while the other by management, or
command and control decision making simulations which involve people
as participants in and controllers of, the simulation.
1.2 Definitions 3
This book is about the design and operation of devices with low levels of
abstraction and high levels of human involvement whose purpose is to
simulate the behaviour of an aerospace vehicle. Aviation does use other
forms of simulation but these will not be dealt with in any detail here. The
essential form of flight simulation is the creation of a dynamic repre-
sentation of the behaviour of an aircraft in a manner which allows the
human operator to interact with the simulation as a part of the simulation.
The form of simulation dealt with here involves the combination of
science, technology and art to create artificial realism for the purpose of
research, training and pleasure. This statement identifies two streams of
influence in the development of flight simulation. Firstly, the creation
of simulations is as much an art as it is a science and technology. Secondly,
the purpose for which the simulation may be employed can be both creative
i.e. improve aeronautical design and operating proficiency, and re-
creational, i.e. provide enjoyment by having created a simulation which can
give pleasure and satisfaction.
The streams of influence and application referred to above can be seen
to be present in the historical development and current state of flight
simulation. As an example of the combination of art, science, and
technology to achieve effective simulation Tabs (1964) described how, at
the start of the Second World War, theatrical set designers were called upon
to collaborate in designing training simulators for navy torpedo attack
pilots operating against enemy shipping.
Still in the context of the evolution of flight simulators an example of the
pleasure or purpose dichotomy is the dilemma faced by Edwin Link, the
inventor of the Link Trainer, as to whether his device would have more
attraction to flying schools or amusement parks (Kelly & Parke 1970).
These design and use features remain as influences in the present day
context of flight simulation practices and applications. In the development
of new techniques, particularly those associated with the representation of
the visual world using computer generated graphics, the influence of the
artist in representing texture and accurate patterns of light and shadow is
clearly important. At the same time the advent of the micro computer and
its ready adoption as an adult toy has resulted in the creation of flight
simulator game packages that offer recreation and challenge but do not set
out to teach the user to fly.
Clearly then, flight simulation presents a multidisciplinary challenge to
skill and ingenuity. This position has been described most succinctly by a
former Chief Test Pilot of the British Civil Aviation Authority (Davis 1975).
device will be the flight simulator and it will, inevitably, appear as the most
apparent facet of the simulation. However, the model is essential. Without
an adequate or representative model the simulator would either be inert or
inaccurate.
The operating régime is the application for which the simulation is
intended. Once again there are a variety of applications. Elmaghraby (1968)
has listed five common uses of models and simulations:
(1) as an aid to thought
(2) as an aid to communication
(3) for purposes of training and instruction
(4) as a tool for prediction
(5) as an aid to experimentation
The need to pay attention to the technique of usage is important because
the simulation will rarely be a perfect representation of reality. The task, or
set of functions, for which the simulation is used is thus constrained and
elements of the real-life task may themselves have to be distorted to
allow a valid solution to the aim of the simulation.
The interrelatedness of the three elements representing a simulation is
not sequential, with the model determining the choice of facility and the
facility deciding the application. The elements will be looked at in this order
in the following chapters of this book because it forms a logical way of
looking at the elements offlight simulation. The ability to create an effective
model, and the nature of the model, will have a direct influence upon the
choice offacility to operate the model. But, it is also important to stress that
when a simulation is being created for a specific application the intended
use must be taken in account when selecting the model upon which to base
the simulation.
Decisions about the choice and content of the model and the associated
device are an aspect of that facet of simulation practice which has already
been described as being in some part an art. Shannon (1975) emphasises this
as a key point in simulation when he says:
The tendency is nearly always to simulate too much detail rather
than too little. Thus, one should always design the model around
the questions to be answered rather than imitate the real system
exactly. Pareto’s law says that in every group or collection there
exists a vital few and a trivial many. Nothing really significant
happens unless it happens to the vital few. The tendency among
systems analysts has too often been to transfer all the detailed
difficulties in the real situation into the model, hoping that the
computer will solve their problems. This approach is unsatisfac-
6 An introduction to flight simulation
that point the expectation was that the captain would declare an emergency
and ask to be allowed to descend in order to continue the flight at subsonic
speed, something the aircraft was capable of doing. This was the point at
which lessons were to be learned and the object of the simulation.
The exercise commenced and at the correct point in the flight the
simulator operator injected the engine failure. The captain of the Concorde
reacted immediately to the incident by taking all the necessary steps to close
down the engine and prevent a fire. He then declared his situation to ATC
and asked for assistance to return to Heathrow Airport at London. This he
did.
In the subsequent debrief the captain was asked why he did not continue
with the trans-Atlantic flight at subsonic speed and lower altitude. His
answer was that, while this was possible, he knew there were no spare
engines at the diversion airfield in North America. He therefore decided
that the correct course of action was to return to London so that a new
engine could be fitted. In this way the aircraft would be back in service with
less delay.
The incident did not invalidate the objects of the study and it produced
an outcome which, although not what was expected, was nevertheless a
valid one. It emphasised the importance of ensuring that the model for the
simulation contained all the relevent information required to produce an
appropriate simulation. When the added factor of engine availability was
understood it was possible to repeat the exercise with the crews knowing in
advance that simulated spare parts were present on the other side of the
Atlantic.
control surfaces generated by the wind to create and sustain the simulation.
In this case there was a limited pragmatic model with the essence of the
simulation being in the device, the tethered airframe and in the environment
(Haward 1910).
The next chapter will review the technological history of flight simu-
lation. One important point is that the model has gone through a number of
transformations before arriving at the mathematical representation of flight
dynamics which is the basis for contemporary simulation techniques. The
ability to express the behaviour of an aeroplane and its major internal
systems by means of a series of equations existed long before an
implementing device was available to rapidly translate mathematical
calculations into a representation of flight. This became possible with the
advent of the computer. When this capability presented itself two ensuing
developments resulted. Firstly, the scope and magnitude of the model could
be greatly extended. Secondly, because the model was being implemented
using a device which used electrical pulses, initially in analogue and
subsequently in digital form, it opened the way to the development of
enhancements to the implementing device.
Consider first the extension of the model. The aircraft model is the
nucleus of the simulation and within it there will be contained submodels
representing the handling characteristics of the airframe, engines and
manual and automatic control systems. Also present will be a further range
of submodels for display and communications systems. Lastly the aircraft
model will contain a subset relating role functions; for example with a
fighter aircraft there will be weapons models.
For the simulation, the aircraft model must operate within a simulated
environment. The extent of that environment will be determined by further
models. Once again the scope for modelling has changed significantly. In
early simulations the simulated aircraft operated in a relatively un-
structured and limited environment. Flying was done on instruments and
the dimensions of the world were represented by radio beacons and other
fixed location navigational aids. With the capabilities of the modern digital
computer it is possible to create detailed air and ground environments
within and over which the aircraft model can be translated.
The air environment model will contain representations of meteorolo-
gical conditions and other aircraft which may be seen and heard. The
ground environment model will contain a terrain model which will be
enhanced by specific features: models of towns, arrival and departure
airfields and, for military applications, potential targets. A radio navigation
model will be expanded to include an inertial navigation model and an air
traffic control model.
10 An introduction to flight simulation
Aircraft
model
Outside
visual
world
Visual
displays
Audio External
displays audio
world
Automatic
control
systems
Aircraft
Controls
motion
conjunction with the ground model to determine what terrain features can
be seen from the aircraft.
The second advantage that accrues from the use of acomputer as the host
for the simulation model is the ability to extend the sophistication of the
implementing device. The extent of this ex pansion is shown ina simple form
in Fig. 1.2.
Early simulation was confined to reproducing the dynamic behaviour of
the aircraft via the basic controls and displays within the cockpit. However,
with increased computing capacity and improved electromechanical
facilities much higher levels of simulation are possible in terms of realism, or
fidelity with the real world.
Inside the cockpit the simulator engineer has been able to keep up with
developments in aircraft instrumentation and avionics. This has been aided
by the greater use of electronics in the cockpit so that differences between
the simulated and the actual instrument have been reduced. For example in
the era of the direct pressure-driven altimeter the simulator engineer had to
construct a totally different drive mechanism for the simulated altimeter.
With the advent of the servo-driven and computer generated altitude
displays it is possible to use the actual displays driven by electrical signals
generated by the interface to the simulator computer instead of the air data
computer.
The ability to reproduce what goes on inside the cockpit and how the
aircraft handles under manual and automatic flight control is one facet of
the increased capability available to the simulator designer. The second,
and equally as significant a development, is the ability to reproduce in
greater breadth the behaviour of the aircraft in relation to the external
world. This capability shows itself in three major areas: the provision of
cockpit motion, and the representation of both the external visual and
audio environments.
The motion of an aircraft in flight can be considered in relation to the
three rotational axes and the three translational axes. Motion systems
providing movement along all six axes are now in use. Although opinion is
divided as to the extent of the motion that is really essential there is
agreement that motion plays an important role in the simulation of flight.
Equally challenging is the ability to provide a representation of the ex-
ternal visual scene from the cockpit. The task is to provide sufficient detail
together with both field and depth of view to allow a pilot to perform tasks
which require rapid and accurate assimilation of information from the
outside world. Examples of situations where an accurate representation of
the external world can be vital are for visual approaches and landings and
for very low level ‘nap of the earth’ flying in military helicopters. It is also
12 An introduction to flight simulation
will not only have to satisfy the demands ofthe intending purchaser but also
those of a legislative authority, such as the Civil Aviation Authority in the
United Kingdom, who will have the responsibility for approving the use of
the simulator for training.
The major part of this book will be devoted to a consideration of the
methods of modelling flight and the means of implementing the model to
create a flight simulator. The third aspect of the subject is the application of
simulation. While it was stated earlier that this topic was not the principal
purpose of the book it does deserve some attention. The potential value of a
device which could represent the behaviour of an aircraft in flight on the
ground was recognised more than sixty years ago by Reid & Burton (1924).
They concluded that such devices, if they could be constructed, could be
used to:
(1) test the ability of subjects to fly and land successfully
(2) assess the rate of acquisition of flying skills
(3) train pupils on those particular coordinations necessary for
aircraft control
(4) classify subjects for different forms of flying service
All of these predictions have been fulfilled and flight simulators play an
effective part in flying training. The flight simulator’s value as a research
tool is also recognised. The applications of simulators, in research and
training, will be considered in later sections of the book. However, the
objective in the present context will not be to provide a comprehensive
analysis of applications but, rather, to identify some of the fundamental
issues which have to be taken into account when seeking to utilise flight
simulations.
The editors hope that this book will convey an appreciation and
understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of flight simulation, science,
technology and art. Other authors have drawn comparisons between the
skill of the stage illusionist and the flight simulator specialist. There are
undoubted similiarities, both seek to deceive the senses and to convince the
observer that what is being experienced is real rather than a simulacrum of
reality. However, the major and fundamental difference is that whereas the
illusionist performs to an audience the practitioner in flight simulation
must convince human participants who are themselves part of the simu-
lation. Therein lies the challenge, the reward and the satisfaction.
ue
A short history of the flight
simulator
2.1 Introduction
An account of the development of the technology of flight simu-
lation would not be as narrow in scope as it would at first sight appear.
Flight simulation has made immediate use of advances in technology
throughout its 75-year history and indeed, its demands have more than
once spurred new developments in the supporting technologies.
These demands have always been to produce as faithful a reproduction as
possible of the behaviour of an aircraft — both of types already in use and of
those still in development. This short review will focus on the evolution of
techniques for flight simulation using for illustration examples of devices
which best represent the major steps in their evolution. The majority of
these were built for training purposes, although of course flight simulation
includes machines built for engineering and psychological research. Most
of these latter are omitted from this account for reasons of space, as are
simulators built for training in the non-piloting tasks of aircrews, such as
navigation, radio operation and gunnery.
early example of this was the Sanders Teacher, introduced in 1910. A piece
in Flight stated: (Haward 1910)
The invention, therefore, of a device which will enable the novice to
obtain a clear conception of the workings of the control of an
aeroplane, and of the conditions existent in the air, without any
risk personally or otherwise, is to be welcomed without a doubt.
Several have already been constructed to this end, and the Sanders
Teacher is the latest to enter the field.
The Sanders Teacher was a modified aeroplane mounted on a universal
joint linked to the ground. In it the student could learn the control
movements necessary to maintain equilibrium. Of course such a device
depended on a satisfactory supply of wind and relied on gusts to produce
disturbances. Another example was that ofthe Italian Gabardini company,
who produced a captive version of their monoplane, based on the same
principle, for teaching the use of the controls (Janes 1919). The idea ofusing
a captive aeroplane for elementary training or for amusement was patented
in Britain by Eardley Billing (Billing, 1910). His device, which was available
at Brooklands Aerodrome, was in fact not an adapted aeroplane but a
purpose-built machine (Fig. 2.1). The control column operated planes
which enabled equilibrium to be kept and the rudder bar was connected to
the base to allow the machine to be rotated to face the wind.
A variation ofthis principle, one which did not rely on the wind, was also
frequently tried in these early days of flying. These devices relied on an
instructor to provide the disturbances while the student would attempt to
maintain equilibrium by manipulation of controls connected through wires
and pulleys to the base. Walters’ machine was of this type (Walters 1910).
An improvement on this solved the problem of the student having to act in
direct opposition to the disturbance forces applied by the instructor, by
adding a second universal joint. In the Antoinette ‘apprenticeship barrel’
illustrated in Fig. 2.2 two instructors are required and the universal joints
are provided by barrels. Even though these contrivances did not require a
breeze for operation, their training value must have been even less, or
perhaps even negative, due to their immediate response to control
movements by the student.
With World War I and the development of military aviation the first
requirement arose for teaching rapidly the skills of flying to large numbers
of people. Simulation had virtually no impact. In Britain the training
system devised by Smith-Barry emphasised actual flying from the earliest
stage. In France, where the Blériot system was used, the pupil advanced
through a planned evolutionary sequence (Winter 1982). His first ex-
perience was at the controls of a ‘Penguin’, a monoplane with sawn-off
wings capable of hopping at about 40 mph down the ‘frogs meadow’
(Winslow 1917). The penguin idea was well known even before the war, but
the French seem to be the only ones to have used it in serious training.
The need to reduce the wastage rate in World War I flying taining
encouraged the growth of the discipline of aviation psychology. Many of
the tests for flying aptitude developed by these psychologists required the
and effect link between the controls and the actuators, its motion served to
indicate attitude rather than to provide correct motion cues.
Link had a difficult job convincing people that his device was worth the
investment. It may have had a more realistic feel to it than its predecessors,
but it was still not seen to meet a real training need. Such a need did exist,
however, in instrument flying. This requirement demanded a more
analytical approach to simulation — a model of the aircraft behaviour had
to be set up first.
Every flight training device described so far has had a movable cockpit
indeed this was generally the sole function of the simulator. Given that this
form of motion is not useful motion cue, a simulator providing instrument
displays can dispense with it altogether. This was, in fact, done in all
succeeding trainers except the Link until the era of true motion cue
simulation.
Rougerie’s patent of 1928 (Rougerie 1928) describes a simple trainer,
fixed to the ground, consisting ofa student’s seat facing an instrument panel
and two sets of controls, one each for the student and instructor. The
student’s flight instruments are directly connected to the instructor’s
controls. The student would fly the trainer in response to commands from
the instructor, who modifies the instrument readings according to the
Transverse
Velocity
Absokte Relate
rate of Roll
Climb Angle
w tf
@ Engine
and
22 A short history of the flight simulator
Jenkins and Berlyn of Air Service Training Limited, Hamble, in their patent
applications of 1932 (Jenkins & Berlyn 1932). This ground-fixed apparatus
used mechanisms similar to Johnson’s for linking the instruments to the
controls. Simple mechanical means were used to produce the required
dynamic behaviour of the instruments in response to control inputs, but on
a case by case basis rather than as an outcome ofa unifying dynamic model.
The first simulator described in which the design followed the
systematic approach outlined at the start of this section must be that of
Roeder (Roeder 1929). On every re-reading, one comes away with the
impression that he has said it all! Roeder’s patent describes in detail a
simulator for the height control system of an airship. The computer is part
hydraulic and part mechanical, with cams for generating non-linear
functions. The diagram (Fig. 2.5) reproduced in translation from the patent,
shows the interaction of forces in an aeroplane together with the inputs
(controls) and outputs (instruments), From a scheme such as this Roeder
produced his simulation. In addition, he discusses the problems of setting
initial conditions, introducing disturbances, recording performance and
introducing instrument failures. He also gives the opinion that while a
movable cabin would be useful for an airship or submarine simulator, it
would not be so for an aeroplane.
to marks on the chart, the instructor was able manually to control the
transmission of simulated radio beacon signals to the trainer (Fig. 2.6).
The Link achieved increasing success throughout the 1930s. The device
was produced in various versions and was sold to many countries,
including Japan, the USSR, France and Germany. The first Link Trainer to
be sold to an airline was that delivered to American Airlines in 1937. The
RAF also took delivery oftheir first Link in that year. By the beginning of
the Second World War, many of the major air forces were doing their basic
instrument training on Links, or derivatives. At the start of the war,
German pilots posted to bomber squadrons had had 50 hours of blind
flying training on Link Trainers (Deighton 1977) (Fig. 2.7).
The need also arose for the training of large numbers of recruits in the
many individual and team skills involved in the operation of the ever
increasing number of military aircraft types. Basic instrument instruction
was performed in part on Link Trainers (Curtis 1978), but aircraft
developments such as variable pitch propellors, retractable undercarriages
and higher speeds made sound training in cockpit drill essential (Air
Member for Training 1945). The mock-up fuselage was one solution — for
example, the Hawarden Trainer, made from the centre section of a Spitfire
fuselage, enabled training in the procedures of acomplete operational flight
(Directorate of Operational Training 1942). The Links, too, were developed
to the stage where the instrument layout and performance of specific
aeroplanes were duplicated. The US Army—Navy Trainer, Model 18 (ANT-
18), for example, was designed for indoctrination in AT-6 and SNJ flying.
foot high silo-shaped building. This was the Celestial Navigation Trainer
(Fig. 2.8).
The trainer incorporated a larger version of the conventional Link
Trainer fuselage which could accommodate the pilot, navigator, and
bomber. The pilot flew the trainer, which included all of the normal Link
facilities and instruments, while a bomb aimer’s station provided the
appropriate sight and an image of targets over which the trainer flew. The
navigator was provided with radio aids and, in addition, a very elaborate
celestial view from which he could take his astro sights. The ‘stars’, twelve of
which were collimated, were fixed to a dome which was given a movement
to correspond with the apparent motion of the stars with time and changes
in bomber longitude and lattitude. The first Celestial Navigation Trainer
was completed in 1941, and the RAF placed an order for sixty. However,
only a limited number were installed. Hundreds of them were installed and
operated in the United States (Maisel 1944).
Throughout the war, many instructors on RAF stations contributed
their ideas with the construction of improvised devices — this due to the long
delivery times and low priority given to the manufacture oftraining aids. An
early development was the ‘instructional fuselage’, consisting of a fuselage
of the required type mounted on stands and housed in a hangar. ‘It could be
used to train air crews in all the drills they have to carry out in the particular
aircraft that they are being trained on. All the services, hydraulic, electrical,
Fig. 2.9. A Silloth Trainer for a Halifax aircraft. (Courtesy Controller HMSO.)
2.5 The electronic simulator oT,
and pneumatic, and their recording instruments are made to work in the
normal manner, so that the various drills carried out by the crew are
realistic. Bomb-dropping procedure and abandon aircraft drills by para-
chute and dinghy are also carried out; the bombs are released into sand
trays beneath the aircraft.’ (Directorate of Operational Training 1942.)
Other reports exist of trainers made from fuselage sections mounted on
crude motion systems.
One such trainer which achieved wider success in the RAF was the
‘Silloth Trainer’, developed by Gordon Iles at RAF Silloth, a Coastal
Command station near Blackpool. This trainer was designed for the
training of all members of the crew, and was primarily a type familiarisation
trainer for learning drills and the handling of malfunctions. As well as the
basic flying behaviour, all engine, electrical and hydraulic systems were
simulated, and sounds generated. An instructor’s panel, visible in the
illustration, was provided to enable monitoring of the crew, and fault
insertion (Fig. 2.9)
All computation was pneumatic —a natural choice for the designer,
whose background in the pianola business gave him a lot in common with
Edwin Link. The simulation was developed empirically but when properly
adjusted, gave realistic responses. Silloth Trainers were manufactured for
many types of 2- and 4-engined aircraft throughout the war, but were never
used in large numbers; in mid-1945 only 14 were in existence or on order.
Later in the war improved versions of this type of trainer were designed at
other RAF stations but were never developed since all such work ceased at
the end of the war.
It is interesting to note in passing the contribution of Rediffusion. The
company’s skills in wired radio distribution enabled them to develop
crew trainers for radio navigation. Many of these were manufactured and
used by the RAF (Adorian, Staynes & Bolton 1979). Rediffusion did not get
into the flight simulation business until after the war.
the relative position of the ‘enemy’, a visual projection unit and a course
recorder. Some of these trainers were built as mobile units whose function
was to tour Operational squadrons to train in the use ofthe latest versions of
airborne radar.
In 1941 Commander Luis de Florez, of the US Navy, visited Britain and
wrote his ‘Report on British Synthetic Training’. This report was influential
and helped to bring about the establishment of the Special Devices Division
of the Bureau of Aeronautics, the forerunner of the present Naval Training
Systems Center (Murray 1971). Also in that year, a copy of the Silloth
Trainer was constructed in the USA for evaluation at the Mohler Organ
plant. As a result, it was decided to build an electrical version, as instability
of adjustment due to humidity, temperature and ageing made the system
unmanageable. The task of designing this was given to the Bell Telephone
Laboratories who produced an operational flight trainer for the Navy’s
PBM-3 aircraft. This device, completed in 1943, consisted of aPBM front-
fuselage and cockpit, with complete controls, instrumentation and auxi-
liary equipment, together with an electronic computing device to solve the
flight equations (Huff 1980). Non-linear functions were generated by
contoured potentiometers driven by the integrator servos. The simulator
had no motion or visual systems or variable control loading. A total of 32 of
these simulators for seven types of aeroplane were built by Belland Western
Electric during the war years (De Florez 1949). It has been stated that the
PBM-3 was ‘probably the first operational flight trainer that attempted to
simulate the aerodynamic characteristics of a specific aircraft’ (Dreves,
Pomeroy & Voss 1971), but this is a questionable claim.
Dehmel continued to develop his ideas independently of Bell and
managed to interest the Curtiss—Wright corporation in the manufacture of
his devices in 1943. After the development of a prototype trainer, the US Air
Force ordered two trainers from Curtiss—Wright for the AT-6 aeroplane.
Production of these followed. (Fig. 2.11).
After the war, competition from Curtiss-Wright stimulated the Link
Company to develop their own electronic simulators. Also at this time the
value of the Link Trainer motion system was being called into question
(Kelly 1970). The movements of this trainer did not correctly simulate the
forces experienced in flight, and in fact a ground-fixed trainer would
accurately locate the force vector in more cases. Also, the axis of roll
rotation was too far below the pilot to allow correct simulation of
accelerations due to roll. It was argued that the modern pilot should not fly
‘by the seat of his pants’, but by instruments. Ed Link disagreed with this,
holding the view that trainer motion was needed even if incorrect, since
motion was present in flying. Despite this, Link followed the trend to fixed
base simulators. The company therefore developed their own electronic
analogue computer which was used in the C-11 jet trainer (Fig. 2.12). A
contract was awarded by the US Air Force in 1949, and eventually over a
thousand of these types were sold.
Meanwhile, Curtiss-Wright had contracted to develop a full simulator for
the Boeing 377 Stratocruisers of Pan American Airways. The simulator was
installed in 1948 and was the first full aircraft simulator to be owned by an
airline. No motion or visual systems were installed, but in all other respects
the simulator duplicated the appearance and behaviour ofthe Stratocruiser
cockpit. The trainer was found especially useful for the practice of
procedures involving the whole crew; emergency conditions could readily
be introduced by the instructor on his comprehensive fault insertion panel.
Complete routes could be flown, as in real life, using the same navigational
aids. This facility was used by other airlines, and impressed users by the
degree of procedural realism achieved (Brice 1951). The lack of motion,
though, did give rise to reservations due to the unnatural feel of the
aeroplane, even giving rise to controlling problems.
In Britain, a similar simulator was built for BOAC by Rediffusion under
license to Curtiss-Wright. Rediffusion later built a simulator for the Comet
I for the same airline.
The first Curtiss-Wright, Rediffusion and Link simulators used the ac
carrier method of analogue computing. Air Trainers Ltd (the successor
Osterhout walked over to the window. His face was white, his bulky
frame trembling. The betraying sheet of paper fluttered away from
his fingers. Suddenly warm arms were about his neck; soft lips were
pressed to his cheek; a breath that wavered against his ear like a
fragrant breeze of spring formed the words, gaily spoken:
"Oh, Bobs! Who cares a darn for a lost illusion when the reality is so
much sweeter!"
CHAPTER XXXIII
From the time when Dr. Osterhout assured her of her secret's safety,
Pat knew that she must tell her fiancé, before the wedding. Some
quirk of feminine psychology would have justified her in
concealment, so long as there was risk. The chances of the game!
But to go forward upon the path of marriage in perfect safety and
with an unsuspecting mate—that was, in her mind, mean. Curiosity,
too, that restless, morbid craving to know what exciting thing would
result, pressed her. The daring experimentalist was rampant within
her. How would Monty take it? What would he do?
... How should she tell him?...
Opportunity paved the way. A group of her set were at Holiday Knoll
on a Saturday evening, discussing the local sensation of the day.
Generously measured highballs had been distributed, and in the dim
conservatory, lighted only by the glow of cigarettes, they discussed
the event. A betrothed girl of another suburb had committed suicide
after the breaking of her engagement and gossip ascribed the
tragedy to the inopportune discovery of an old love affair. With the
freedom of the modern flapper, Margaret Thorne, half lying in the
arms of Nick Torrance on the settee, declared the position:
"It was the Teddy Barnaby business. Two years ago we all thought
they were engaged."
"Weren't they?" asked someone.
"More or less," asseverated the sprightly Miss Thorne. "Chiefly more,
from all accounts. Then Johnny Dupuy came here to live, and she
shifted her young affections to him and caught him."
"Do you think he found out about Teddy?"
"Sure—like—a—Bible."
"How?"
"Why pick on me for a hard one like that?"
"Perhaps she told him," suggested one of the other girls.
"She wouldn't be such a boob; no girl would," offered a languid
girlish voice.
"It'd be the square thing to do." This was a masculine opinion, and
jejune, even for that crowd.
"Don't know—yah!" declared Miss Thorne, meaning to express her
contempt for this view. "It was up to Dupuy to look in the mare's
mouth before he bought."
The discussion played about the subject with daring sallies and
prurient relish, the final conclusion of the majority being that the
fiancé had "got wise" and the girl had killed herself because he
broke the engagement, "as any fellow would" (Monty Standish's
contribution, this last).
"What if she did go to him and own up?" suggested Selden Thorpe.
"It'd be just the same," opined Standish. "He'd have to quit."
"Oh, I don't know. It doesn't follow."
"Wouldn't you?"
"I don't know that I would. It depends."
"You'd be a pretty poor sort of fish if you wouldn't."
"Maybe, if I thought as you do. But we don't all think the same."
"Some of us don't think at all," put in Pat acidly. "We just talk."
"Meaning which, Treechy?" inquired Torrance.
"Oh, nothing!"
"I know John Dupuy," proceeded Thorpe. "He isn't just exactly the
one to draw lines too strictly."
"I grant you that Johnnie would never win the diamond-set chastity
belt of the world's championship," said the daring Miss Thorne, and
elicited a chorus of appreciative mirth.
Pat did not join in it. She was thinking fast and hard.
After the rest had gone Monty stayed on, as of right. Something in
Pat's expression struck even his torpid perceptions, as he put his
arm around her and drew her to him for the customary "petting
party."
"What's all the gloom about, sweetie?"
She released herself not over-gently. "Monty, would you have done
what Dupuy did?"
"How do you mean?"
"Broken off your engagement—on that account?"
"Why, yes. Any fellow would." A convincing reason, for him.
"Selden Thorpe wouldn't."
"I'll bet he would. He's a bluff. He makes me sick."
"Well—then—you'd better break ours."
"I don't get you, Pat."
"It's been the same with me as with Elsie Dowden. I've been
meaning to tell you."
"I don't believe it," he said violently. "It's a try-on. A trick."
"It's true. You've got to believe it."
"Who's the man?" bayed Monty like a huge dog.
"I'll never tell you."
He gathered his powerful frame together as if to spring upon her. If
he did, if he beat her to the ground, choked her into helplessness,
Pat thought, she would hate him and love him for it. But his rage
ebbed, impotent of its culmination, a little pitiful, a little ridiculous.
"Wh-wh-what did you do it for?" It was almost a whimper.
"I don't know. I didn't mean to—at the beginning."
"Did you love him?"
"Yes. I thought I did."
"You love him now," he charged, his fury mounting again.
"I don't! I love you."
"This is a hell of a thing to tell a man you say you love," he faltered
plaintively.
"You'd rather I hadn't told you. I'm not built that way! I had to tell."
Instantly he was suspicious. "Had to? Why did you have to?"
"Not for any reason that you'd understand." The slight emphasis on
the "you" was the first touch of bitterness she had allowed herself.
"Wouldn't he marry you?"
"I wouldn't marry him."
Monty perceptibly brightened. Pat's womanly intuitions,
supersensitised by the strain of the contest, told her why. If, to his
male standards, she was a maiden despoiled, she was at least not a
woman scorned; her rating had gone up sensibly.
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him for a long time. I'll never see him
again."
"Pat," with an air of resolute magnanimity—"if you'll tell me who it
was I'll marry you anyway."
At that her pale cheeks flamed. "I'm not begging you to marry me,
Monty. I'm not that cheap in the market."
"You want our engagement broken?"
"That's up to you. Absolutely. If you think, now I've told you, that
you're so much better and purer than I am because I've done what I
did——"
"What d'you mean, better and purer?"
"I suppose you've never had any affair with any girl——"
"Are you trying to pretend to believe that's the same thing?" His
voice was incredulous, contemptuous.
"Why isn't it the same thing?"
Young Mr. Standish suffered a paralysis of scandalised amazement.
"Because it isn't! For God's sake! You talk like one of those radical
freaks that spout on soapboxes."
"I'm not so sure they aren't right about this man-and-woman thing,"
declared Pat recklessly. In so speaking she felt that she had broken
with conventionalities far more than in anything, however bold,
previously enunciated in their talk.
Monty's square jaw became ugly. "I'm giving you your chance. You
won't tell me the man's name?"
Pat preserved the silence of obstinacy. It was more convincing than
any negative. Also more exasperating.
"Good-night!" bellowed her lover, and strode from the room.
Almost immediately he was back, endued with a sad and noble
expression. "Nobody shall ever know about this from me, Pat. You're
safe."
For three nights Pat washed her troubled soul with tears. Her family
knew that there had been a lovers' quarrel; that was all. Pat waited
for Monty to break the engagement formally or send her word that
he wished her to break it. Through all her grief of bereavement
which, she repeatedly told herself, was the most sorrowful depth
that her life had yet touched, that any life could touch, she
impatiently awaited the definite solution. Relief from the strain of
uncertainty; that was what she craved.
On the fourth evening Monty reappeared. All his nobleness was
gone. He was haggard, nerve-racked, forlorn. He threw himself upon
her compassion. He implored her. He would forgive everything; he
would forget everything; he would make no conditions, if only she
would take him back. Life without her——
"All right, Monty-boy," said Pat, really affected by his suffering. "I
haven't changed. I love you, Monty. But if ever you let what I've told
you make any difference, if ever you speak of it or let me know that
you even think of it, I'm through. That minute and forever."
Humbly, abjectly, the upholder of man's superior privilege accepted
the absurd condition. The stronger nature had completely dominated
the weaker.
Back in his arms again, Pat savoured the delicious warmth of a
passion the more ardent for the threat of frustration; the triumph of
a crisis valorously met and successfully passed. But an encroaching
thought tainted the rapture of the moment. What was it that he
himself had so confidently said to Selden Thorpe? Was her splendid
and beautiful young lover, holding the views which he had
proclaimed and surrendering them so readily, indeed "a poor sort of
fish"?
CHAPTER XXXIV
Again Pat was happy in her engagement. She frequently and
insistently assured herself that she was. Certainly she had no just
complaint of Monty. He was all that a lover should be when they
were together; he kept to his pact and never in any manner referred
to Pat's confession. But when he was away she sometimes wished
that he wouldn't write so often, or, at least, expect her to answer so
regularly. His letters added nothing to his charm. They innocently
bristled with I's; but it was the monotony rather than the egotism of
his style that annoyed her. Her answers, at first ardent, vivid and
flashing like herself, soon became mere chronicles of petty events,
interspersed with protestations of love. They were temporarily
genuine enough, these latter, since each time he was with her she
was re-warmed in the glow of their mutual passion.
But she could not stifle all misgivings. Incompetent though she was
to analyse comprehensively her changeful emotions, she
nevertheless had disturbing gleams of self-knowledge which added
nothing to her confidence in a future whereof Monty Standish was to
be a large part. Pat dimly recognised herself for that difficult and
composite type of girlhood which, though imperatively sexed, will
never fulfill itself through physical attraction and physical
satisfactions alone. For such as she there must be the double
response; if the mating be not both mentally and physically
sufficient, ultimate disaster is inevitable.
Brooding upon these self-suspicions she would fall into moods of
silence and withdrawal puzzling to the matter-of-fact lover who
would sometimes grow quite petulant over her perfunctory
responses to his good-humoured ineffectualities of companionship.
Once when he rallied her upon this she burst into angry tears and
snapped out: "I'm so dam' worn with piffle and prattle," and darted
upstairs.
But at their next meeting she was so prettily contrite and yielding
that his vanity was quite soothed.
As the wedding day drew near, Pat dismissed whatever doubts she
may have had, in the excitement of fitting-out. It was on one of
these shopping expeditions, when she had gone into town by train,
her runabout having suffered an attack of nervous breakdown, that,
crossing the station plaza she came face to face with an old but
unforgotten acquaintance. She saw his keen pleasant face light up,
could read in his half-dismayed expression the struggle to remember
exactly who she was, and went to him, holding out her hand:
"You've forgotten me, Mr. Warren Graves."
He took the hand. "Indeed, I haven't! It's Pat. Little Pat."
She nodded. "Better than I gave you credit for."
"I'm awfully sorry, but I have forgotten the rest of it."
"Pat'll do," she laughed.
"No; but let me think back."
"Want any help?"
"It was a party, somewhere about here. A corking party. I'd had one
drink that I remember and some more that I don't. A funny,
delightful kiddie was floating around outside like Cinderella. She
wouldn't go in and dance with me, but—let me think——"
"I wouldn't think too far," urged Pat, her face tinged with pink.
"Ah, but I've got the name now!" he cried, triumphant and tactful at
once. "Fentriss. Miss Patricia Fentriss, alias Pat, alias the Infant, alias
the Demon——"
"What a relieving memory you've got!"
"—who stood at the bend of the stairs and said good-night so
sweetly that I never quite got over it. But, I say; you have grown
up."
He looked at her piquant, provocative, welcoming face and
continued, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes:
"Now that I'm recovering from the shock I seem to recall an older
sister protruding from a door most inopportunely."
"Aren't you afraid you'll miss your train, Mr. Graves?"
"I'm not going to the train."
"You're carrying that satchel for exercise?"
"I'm wishing it onto the parcels stand while I take a delightful young
lady to luncheon."
"Surely you must be keeping her waiting."
"I'm daring to hope she'll come with me while I pry myself from this
baggage. Will you, Pat?"
"Oh; you're asking me to lunch with you?"
"Such is my dark and deadly purpose."
"I ought not to. But I want to."
He laughed delightedly. "You haven't changed a bit inside and most
marvellously outside. Then you'll come?"
"You'd make a fortune as a mind-reader. There's a condition
though."
"Name it; it's agreed to."
"That you'll forget all about that foolishness of ours at the party. I
was only fourteen."
It was his turn to flush. "You make me ashamed of myself," he said
with such charming sincerity that Pat let fall a friendly and forgiving
hand upon his arm for a second. "But let me tell you this. When I
left your house that night I was more than a little in love with you.
Oh, calf-love, doubtless. But—it makes it a little better, doesn't it?"
"Yes," answered Pat gravely. "It makes it a lot better—for both of
us."
"Then we'll forget all of it that you'd wish forgotten," said he.
In her italicised moments Pat would have described the luncheon
that followed as "too enticing." But Pat did not feel stressful in the
company of Warren Graves; she felt quiet and attentive, and
wonderfully receptive to the breath of the greater world which he
brought to her. He had been in the diplomatic service since the war,
in several European capitals, had read and thought and mingled with
men who were making or marring not the politics alone, but the very
geography of the malleable earth. After a little light talk, in which Pat
was conscious that he was trying her out, the rapprochement of
their minds was established and he settled down to talk with her as
if she had been a woman of the international world in which he
moved. Her swift, apprehensive intelligence kept him up to his best
form. As the coffee was finished he said reproachfully:
"You've made me chatter my head off. And I'm supposed to have
rather a gift for silence. How do you work your spells?"
"By being sunk in admiring interest," she answered, smiling up at
him as she put on her gloves. "You've given me the most delightful
hour I've had for years."
"But it needn't end here, need it?" he protested anxiously. "Don't you
want to go to a matinée, or something?"
"There aren't any. It's Friday."
"So it is. But there are always the movies."
Pat knew that she ought not to go; there were a dozen important
errands to be done. But: "Oh, very well," she said. Duties could wait.
Pleasure was something you had to grab before it got away from
you. The philosophy of the flapper.
At the "motion picture palace" they got box seats, the chairs
suggestively close together. She wondered whether he would try to
hold her hand; also whether she would let him if he did. Probably
she would; there was no harm in that, and it gave a pleasant sense
of companionship. Most of the boys with whom she went to the
theatre or movies expected it. Apparently Warren Graves didn't. He
made no move in that direction. Piqued a little, nevertheless Pat
liked him the better for it. Monty might perhaps have objected if he
knew. And, with a start, she discovered that only just then had she
thought of Monty Standish. He had been, for the time, quite
forgotten in the interest of a more enlivening and demanding
association.
What the "serial" of the play was, Pat could hardly have told; "some
hurrah about the West," she informed T. Jameson James afterward.
At the conclusion of it there came a "news feature," showing scenes
about the building where the League of Nations session was being
held. Various noted personages appeared, walked with the knee-
slung, unnatural stalk of the screen across the space, and vanished.
Then it was as if a blinding flash had been projected from the
square. An unforgettable figure stood out amidst the crowd, the face
turned toward her, the eyes, with the faint ironic lift of the brows,
looking down into her soul, arousing a tumult and a throbbing which
left her hardly breath enough to gasp out:
"Cary Scott!"
"Do you know Scott?" asked her escort interestedly.
"Yes. He used to visit in Dorrisdale. Do you?"
"Quite well. Everyone on the inside in Europe knows him; he's one of
the men who are doing big things under the surface at the
conference."
"Tell me," urged Pat as they left the place.
He sketched Scott's career as confidential adviser to several of the
most important of the protagonists in that Titans' struggle. "He's a
sort of liaison officer, knowing France and this country as he does.
He's had a rather rough time of it, lately, poor chap."
"Is he ill?" Pat had a struggle to control her voice.
"No. A domestic smash. His wife—that was—is a demonish sort of
female. However, he's got well rid of her now. To be accurate, he let
her get rid of him. Over-decent of him, all things considered."
"Perhaps she had cause, too." Pat hated herself as she said it. But
she craved to know.
"Nothing of that kind," was the positive reply. "Scott has been living
like an anchorite. They say he was hard hit here in America. As to
that, I don't know. Certainly he has been devoting himself to his
work with no room for any other devotion. Which is more than can
be said of his ex-wife."
"I never met her," Pat heard her voice saying, and quite admired it
for its tone of casual interest. "She didn't come to Dorrisdale."
"Speaking of Dorrisdale, I'm at Washington for a while. Mayn't I run
up to see you?"
"No. I'm afraid not."
"That's a little—disappointing."
"You see, I'm going to be terribly busy until my wedding."
"Wedding? Oh! All my felicitations. I didn't know."
"Yes. I'm to be married to Monty Standish next month."
Even as her lips spoke the words her soul denied them. In the
dominant depths of her, she knew that she could never marry Monty
Standish now. Her thoughts, so lightly detached from her fiancé by
the easy charm of Warren Graves, had been claimed, coerced,
irrevocably absorbed by the swift-passing phantom presentment of
her former lover. The bond created when she had given herself to
him was as nothing compared to this imperative summons across
the spaces.
After a night of passionate struggle, succeeded by resolute thinking,
she wired Monty to come on. When he came, she broke the
engagement. It was ruthless, cruel, unfair. Pat had no excuses, no
extenuations to offer. She simply stood firm. Monty returned to
college, failed of his graduation, and let it be known among his
indignant friends and relatives that Pat had ruined his career. Hot
and righteous though his wrath was, he never so much as hinted at
Pat's secret. Stupid, unstable, self-satisfied, spoiled; the plaster idol
of an athlete-worshipping age; but nevertheless a gentleman within
whom one flame of honour burned clear and constant behind its dull
encasement.
Pat's family variously raged, begged, and protested. Pat let them.
They prophesied social ostracism for her. She shrugged away the
suggestion as improbable in the first place and not worth worrying
about anyway. But she would have gone away had it not been for
her self-assumed responsibility to her broken brother-in-law. And it
was from him that her main support came. From the first he stood
by her unquestioning.
"You're awfully good to me, Jimmie-jams," she said one day as she
was wheeling him in the garden, having dismissed the attendant.
"What did you really think when I told you I wasn't going to marry
Monty?"
A smile of justified cleverness lighted up his pain-worn face. "I'd
never thought that you would."
"Cute little Jimmie! Why not?"
"Too much brains. He'd never keep you interested and you found it
out in time."
"Not too soon," observed the girl with a grimace. "The family are still
raising merry Hades about it."
"Naturally. You don't think you're entitled to any Sunday-school
award for good behaviour on the thing, do you?"
"No. I don't," admitted Pat. But she pouted.
A silence fell between them. It lasted for a full turn around the
garden. Tired of pouting, Pat broke it.
"Want to play bezique, Jimmie?"
"No."
"Want me to read to you?"
"No, dear."
"What the devil do you want? Oh, I'm sorry, Jimmie! I believe I've
got nerves. Never knew there were such things before."
"Pat, stop the chair."
"What's the idea, Jimmie?"
"Come around here where I can see you."
"As per order."
"I know the man."
"What man?"
"The other man."
"I've been acquainted with several of 'em in my life."
"So I've been given to understand. I'm talking about the man on
whose account you broke your engagement."
"You're seeing things, Jimmie. Monty himself is the nigger in that
woodpile."
"What about Cary Scott?"
The look with which she faced him did not waver. "Well, what about
him?"
"He's coming back."
"Coming back? Here?" Still her eyes were steady, but there was the
faintest catch in her breathing.
"Well, no; he isn't. I just said that as an experiment. Though, of
course, he might come if you wanted him. You do want him, don't
you, Pat dear?"
"Sometimes. Other times I don't. How did you know?"
"When you've nothing to do but think," he explained, "you get tired
of thinking about yourself by and by and begin to think about other
people. I've been thinking a lot about you since we got to be pals."
"You're a dear, Jimmie-jams."
"I'm an old crab. But I'm fond of you. And Scott was good to me,
too, when I was first laid up. When you think hard enough about
people you're fond of you begin to see things about them, even
things they may not see, themselves."
"Even things that maybe aren't there at all," she mocked.
"This is there," he asseverated. "There's no use your pretending.
When we talk I'm always catching echoes of Scott's influence in
what you say. You're a different Pat from what you were before you
knew him. I don't think you get on so well with yourself."
"You are clever, Jimmie. I don't. And it makes me furious."
"At him?"
"Yes. I don't know. At myself, too."
"I had a letter from him last week. We've carried on a desultory
correspondence since he left."
Pat's eyes livened. "What does he say about me?"
"How do you know he says anything about you?"
"Don't tease. Tell Pattie."
"You ought to know Scott well enough to realise that he isn't the sort
to display his feelings in a show window. But there are lines that one
could read between. Have you written to him, Pat?"
"No."
"Aren't you going to send for him?"
Her face darkened with troubled memories. "I couldn't. You don't
understand. I couldn't, Jimmie."
"I could write."
"You shan't. You mustn't; if you do I'll hate you. Promise."
"All right. I promise. But don't you really want to see him ever
again?"
"Sometimes I think I'll die if I don't," she said simply. "Other times—
I don't know."
"Why not find out? Won't you let me write?"
"No; no. You've promised."
"Very well. I'll keep to it. Take me inside, slave."
He did not write. He cabled.
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