  Eager as Gale was for a look at the scene that lay spread out beneath her window, she gladly followed the colonel’s lead in a slow, leisurely breakfast. Full well she realized that this was one of the rare moments of her life. “It’s the lull before a storm,” she told herself. “Soon an army will come sweeping up from below. Then we at this bleak outpost will be all but forgotten.” As she looked at the colonel sitting there drinking coffee and munching toast, she found it difficult to realize that he was a truly great man. “So simple! So kind and thoughtful of others,” ran through her mind. She wondered in a vague sort of way if all the truly great ones of this earth were not at some time simple and kind. “Dawn must be here!” the colonel exclaimed at last. Putting down his empty cup he walked to the window and raised the shutter. “There!” he exclaimed. “That is Burma—the land we left behind. Now we’re going back.” “Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “Is that Burma out there?” They were looking down first on a green ocean of treetops, then upon low rows of low mountains, and after that, dim in the distance, green valleys. “The distant hills and valleys are in Burma,” the colonel explained. “If you look closely you will discover a touch of blue here and there. Those are little patches of blue in the river down which we waded for so many hours on our retreat.” “Oh, I wish Than Shwe were here!” Gale exclaimed. “This would be a rare treat for her,” the colonel agreed. “Unfortunately, some wounded airmen were brought in this morning. Our little nurse will be busy.” Gale looked at him hard, but said never a word. She wanted to know about these air battles,—wanted to be sure she would play her part in a real war. As if reading her thoughts, the colonel pointed down at the ocean of treetops. “Nature has been kind to us,” he said. “All that you see in the foreground is tops of giant trees. Beneath these trees lies an extended plateau. In secret, working day and night, we have cut away brush and small trees. In this way we have prepared a vast temple for the gods of war.” “The secret forest,” Gale murmured, charmed and thrilled by the thought. “You might call it that,” the Colonel agreed. “Roads have been laid out in every direction,” he went on. “Roads and airplane runways. Some of these runways are miles long. Because of this, airplanes based at the center of the forest may race away to spring up at the enemy far from their base.” “Wonderful!” Gale murmured. “Those, I suppose, are the planes I heard in the night.” “That’s right,” the colonel agreed. “There has been some fighting in the air. The Japs think we are up to something, but don’t know what. They send over scout planes and some bombers that do no harm.” “Golly! You HAVE been up to something!” Jan exclaimed. “Think of making all those roads through the jungle!” “Up to something!” the colonel exclaimed, “I’ll say we’ve been up to something! As the days go by you’ll realize it more and more. “Just now,” his voice dropped—“What I want most of all is to impress you with the importance of your work here. You,”—he placed a hand on Gale’s shoulder, “Are to be the guardian angel of the army.” “An angel?” Gale gasped. “Well, hardly that, colonel.” “Exactly that,” he insisted. “Radar is much better than harps for fighting wars. Harps for angels of peace, radar for guardian angels of war.” He laughed in a strange sort of way. “Look!” He pointed down to the forest that lay beneath them. “Soon beneath those trees tens of thousands of soldiers will be sleeping, waiting for the big push. Good American boys, they are, the kind that came from your own home town.” “Yes, Yes—I know,” Gale murmured hoarsely. “Long years ago,” the colonel went on, “wars were fought by professional soldiers, men from every land, hired to fight. Even in our Civil War, if you had money and didn’t want to go when you were called, you could pay someone to take your place.” “But in this war it’s different,” Gale agreed. “It’s the boy who used to work in the Post Office, and the one who sat across from you in school, all kinds of boys who were your playmates and pals who have gone.” “Golly, yes!” Jan put in. “And then they think it’s funny that some of us girls want to drive a truck in the war, or something.” “They’ll change their ideas about that,” the colonel replied soberly. “They ARE changing them now. You girls can help. That’s part of the reason why I brought you. “What I was starting to say,” he went on, “was that you’re up here like an all-seeing eye, Gale. Below you in that great forest will be thousands on thousands of splendid boys, ready, if need be, to give their lives for their country when the big push comes. And here you are, with radar eyes that can see in daylight or dark, clouds or sunshine, three hundred miles or more. When enemy planes come this way looking for those boys, you’ll know.” “Yes,” Gale replied solemnly. “I’ll know.” “Your equipment is the best,” the colonel went on. “We ran a line up here so you won’t lack power. You have a phone and a radio for sounding a warning. “And here,—” he pulled a cord, letting in a flood of light from above—“Here is your lookout above, in case the enemy is overhead. You’ll only open this on special occasions. “If things get too dangerous, you’ll take a few steps down, and—” he led the way—“this is your refuge.” They went down a narrow stone stairway to at last step into a cavern cut from the solid rock. “Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “I’m sure glad to see this place. I was getting all covered with goose pimples.” As for Gale, she gave the rock-hewn room only a quick glance. All that interested and inspired her was in the room above,—her radar set, radio and phone. “I can see,” said the colonel after studying her face, “that the boys down there will have a guardian angel who never fails.” “Not if I can help it,” Gale replied, with deep conviction. “Of course,” the colonel added, “I wouldn’t want you to feel that the burden is all yours. That would be too much. You are not alone. There are other radar watchers along this ridge. But yours is the key position.” “It shall be guarded well!” Gale promised. “Golly, yes!” “With our lives!” Jan, who could not tell a radar set from a radiator added her bit, and they all laughed. A moment later the colonel was gone, and Gale had lost herself in the study of her radar set. “How grand!” she murmured. “This is new, but I have studied about it. It goes like this.” She turned on a switch, and the set began to humm. “Jan!” she exclaimed. “What a lovely time we could have up here if it wasn’t for the war and all the terrible responsibility it brings.” “Ain’t it the truth!” Jan agreed. Gale had not exaggerated. The view from their window, the one that faced the world and Burma, was truly magnificent. The sea of waving green that was tree-tops, the hills beyond where morning mist still slowly drifted in the wind and the green valleys far beyond—was all like a picture painted by some famous artist. But the view over head? Ah, that was different. Just now it was blank, Gale knew. At night stars would hang above them, and at times the moon would look in upon them. But always there was the chance that some spy would search out their high lonely post and mark it on a map. She thought once more of the woman in purple, the black dwarf and the three secrets of radar. “If our hideout is marked on their map,” she thought, “then our view overhead will be horrible.” As she closed her eyes she seemed to see soaring planes that, banking steeply, came shooting down. And after that the falling dots that grew and grew and grew. “The dots that scream like demons and at last roar like explosions in hell,”—she found herself thinking over words that Jimmie had once spoken to her. “I wonder where Jimmie is now,” she mused. Soon enough she was to know. * * * * * * * * In the meantime Isabelle had met with a happy surprise. In high school she had been an “A” grade student, a real worker. Probably that was why she was the colonel’s yeoman now. She had learned to make a perfect job of everything, and hadn’t forgotten how. There were times in those half-forgotten days when she had wished she were different. Those were the times when at school parties the smooth boys passed her up for girls with a light touch, an easy laugh and plenty of “blue slips” along with their grades. But Isabelle hadn’t worried too much about that, for the smooth boys made her a little weary. She liked the rough kind, and one boy above all others was just that. He even had a rough and rugged name—Pete Sikes. Pete was a redhead and his hair was always in a tangle. He had freckles, wore a broad grin, was six feet three, and could throw a forward pass farther and straighter than anyone in the league. And when it came his turn to carry the ball he simply faded into the growing dusk. Pete had on weak point—he wasn’t quite all there—at least his football togs never were. He would come to the game minus a shoe, a helmet, or even a pair of pants. That was where Isabelle came in. Because she was good at looking after things and needed the money, she had worked at the school office after hours. That was how she knew just what Pete had left behind each time he went to the football field for a game, and why she came rushing to the grounds in a taxi—hired by herself—to slip under the ropes and somehow get a package to Pete. Pete was bashful, so he’d just blush and mumble,—“Thunder! Isabelle, if it wasn’t for you I’d be playing football in my shirt and shorts!” He couldn’t know that Isabelle was crazy about him—that she longed to untangle that mass of red hair and do a lot of other nice things for him. So commencement came and went. Pete went with it, and she had lost him. Forever? Well, it had looked that way until that day the colonel took Gale to her new location. Since the colonel was away, Isabelle was on her own, and was wandering in and out among the great teakwood trees when she ran squarely into a tall, grinning, redheaded sergeant. “Pete! You old rascal!” she exclaimed, bracing herself to avoid making a grand rush that would have ended in something quite startling to Pete. “How did you ever get here?” she demanded. “Oh,—by boat, train, automobile and foot,” he grinned. Then he said a whole lot, for Pete. What he said was: “Thunder! Isabelle! It’s certainly good to see you here! Any American gal would look good to any of us doughboys, but you, Isabelle—you’re just tops!” There were tears in Isabelle’s eyes, and a rare smile on her face just then, but all she said was: “Pete! What are you doing here?” “Looking for a parking lot location,” was the surprising answer. “But Pete! You’re in the army!” she exclaimed. “Sure! Oh, sure!” he agreed. “But I’ve got to get a parking place for a thunderin’ lot of army tanks.” “Tanks? Oh, yes! Tanks!” Isabelle stammered. “I’m a gunner in a General Sherman tank,” Pete confided, coming in close and speaking softly. “And Isabelle, believe it or not, I can put those big shells just any place I please.” “Just like you used to put the old pigskins into some player’s mitt!” Isabelle exclaimed. “Oh, Pete! You’re wonderful! You always were!” There might have been much more of this, but just then an orderly hurried up to announce that the colonel would soon be at his headquarters and would Isabelle please hurry back. So all she could say was: “Well, goodbye, Pete. It’s been swell seeing you again.” And Pete, because he was Pete, said nothing at all. But Isabelle had not heard the last of him. Far from that. Not that she wished to hear the last of him. Far from that too. |
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