  For Gale, that day passed quietly, but the night offered a thrill, sudden joy, and grave misgivings. Three times during the day her long electric radar fingers reached out to touch metal floating in the sky. Three times, with quickening pulse, she followed these a hundred, two hundred miles away, but each time they moved in a leisurely manner over the distant landscape. “Just some enemy scout planes watching over their own troop concentrations,” she said to Jan. “No need to report them. They’re not headed this way.” Shortly after nightfall, very reluctantly she yielded her post to a smiling young sergeant who was to take over for the night. “Nice quiet day.” He smiled again as he looked over her report. “Quiet, but not nice,” was her quick response. “Oh, you crave action!” He laughed. “You’ll get that soon enough, or I miss my guess. Big doings just ahead.” “Here’s hoping,” was Gale’s comment as she drew on her jacket. “Well, goodnight and good hunting. I’ll see you just before dawn.” “Wish you were staying longer,” he said, with a quiet smile. “I like company. We don’t see many bright-eyed American girls over here. This WAC idea is the berries, if you ask me.” “Glad you like us,” said Gale. “Golly, yes!” Jan agreed. “Orders are orders,” said Gale in a friendly voice. “Going is just as much a part of our job as coming, so once more, goodnight.” At that she and Jan went down the steep rocky stairway to at last climb into their jeep and rattle away. “It’s a nice world,” Gale murmured. “Everybody is just swell.” “Golly, yes!” Jan agreed heartily. It was in the late evening as she wandered among the shadows not too far from her own tent that glowed faintly from a light by which Isabelle was writing letters, that Gale got her big surprise. All of a sudden a voice whispered hoarsely: “Hi there!” On the instant she knew who it was. “Jimmie!” she exclaimed softly. “It’s you! How in the world did you get here? I thought you were out over Hell’s Half Hour, or some other terrible place.” “I’ll tell you all about it.” He guided her to a seat on an outgrowing root of a huge tree. “I completed that last mission—the big four-motored job, you know,” he explained. “Loaded with bombs,” she added. “Sure. It was a swell trip. Those bombs helped win a Chinese battle.” “Wasn’t that grand, Jimmie!” she exclaimed. “Swell!” he agreed. “But now,”—his voice changed—“Now I’ve been pulled off that convoy job and am part of the big push. It’s a grand layout here,” he added. “Best I have ever seen.” “How do you mean, Jimmie?” she asked. “Well, you see—” He stopped. “Say!” he whispered, “This is secret. But I know a girl who can be trusted.” “Don’t tell me if you ought not to,” she whispered. “But what you do tell me will be locked up tight in my memory and my heart.” “Your heart! That’s good!” He pressed her hand. “That’s the safest place in all the world.” “You see,” he went on after a moment, “Since the colonel led his ragged little army out of Burma—that was at the start of the rainy season, months ago—he’s been planning and working.” “I know,” she agreed. “They told him this ridge couldn’t be crossed.” “But he and his ragged band crossed it.” “Yes. Then they told him it would take years to make a road into Burma.” “And he said, ‘Only a few months.’ That’s just how long it’s been!” Jimmie drew in a long, deep breath. “And now look! There’s a road up one side of the ridge and down the other side—a road the Japs don’t know a thing about. That’s not all. This great forest has been cleared of brush.” “There are roads all through it,” she said. “Yes, and miles of airplane runways. Our air base is in the heart of the forest. When there is an air raid alarm we can come popping out at them from north, south or west. They have no way of knowing where to drop their bombs.” “But, Jimmie!” she exclaimed softly. “Do you mean that you are flying a fighting plane now, and will be going out after the Japs?” “Sure! Why not?” He laughed quietly. “That’s my job. I’ve got the swellest little fighting kite you ever want to see. It’s a new type. You’ll be able to recognize it if you have a field glass. You see—” “But Jimmie! That’s terrible!” she broke in. “What’s terrible?” His voice showed his astonishment. “If I spot some Jap bombers coming this way and send out an alarm, I’ll practically be calling you out to fight them!” “Sure! Why not? I’ll never be called by a finer gal.” He laughed. “Yes, I—I suppose that’s what you think,” she replied slowly, solemnly. “And—and I like you for saying that. But it would be hard to watch you being shot from the sky and to know that I was the one who called you out.” “The Japs won’t get me,” he declared. “That little kite of mine is really fast. Besides, if they had any such luck, you’d see my parachute blossom in the sky. I’m really good with a parachute. And AM I!” “That’s fine, Jimmie,” she murmured. “But there’s a lot more to it than that.” Jimmie sat up straight. “Yes, I know.” She caught his sense of thrill. “The whole army is coming here to camp beneath these trees.” “Tanks, guns, and fighting men. That’s why we must defend this forest,” he replied in a tight, tense voice. “Yes, Jimmie. And that’s why I’m to be cooped up there on the hill.” “It won’t be for long,” Jimmie predicted. “I’m sure of that. The army will go forward to victory and we’ll go with them. “Burma, China, and then, Tokio,” he whispered. “Here’s hoping.” She stood up. “Well, I have to be out there on the ridge before dawn. I’ll be seeing you.” She held out a hand. “Perhaps tomorrow,” was his reply. And tomorrow it was. * * * * * * * * It was mid-afternoon of the next day. Gale had given her entire equipment a routine checkup and had sent her radar feelers out into the thin air of a bright, sunshiney day, when she gave a sudden start. “What’s up?” Jan exclaimed. “Don’t know, just yet,” was the slow reply. “There’s something in the air out there far beyond where we can see.” “Must be a hundred and fifty miles. Patrol planes—don’t you think?” Jan settled back. “No, I don’t,” was Gale’s excited reply. “There’s not just one or two of them—more nearly a hundred, I’d say. I get them over quite a wide area.” For several minutes the suppressed silence lay over the lookout station. Then Gale let out a whoop: “They’re coming this way—the whole lot of them—maintaining a uniform speed, too. Must be flying in formation. Get headquarters, quick!” Jan sprang to the phone. Half a minute later Jan said: “Here you are.” Gale’s hand trembled as she picked up the receiver. “Headquarters?” she said in a calm voice. “Right,” came back. “Good! This is G. G. J. speaking. Wish to report large formation of enemy planes due east from this station—a hundred or more miles away. Flying west at identical speed.” “Formation,” said the voice at the other end, “may be practice flight. Keep on them and report again in three minutes.” Gale obeyed orders. In exactly three minutes she was back on the phone. “Formation of enemy planes still traveling west,” was her report. “Maintaining identical and uniform speed. Think they can be seen as a dark spot on the horizon.” “Okay. We’ll check on that and send out scout planes.” was the answer. “Keep your radar on them. Report at intervals.” Gale did keep her radar on those planes. If they were flying to attack the secret forest or the distant city, she had made a scoop that would be remembered. A quarter of an hour had not passed before she was sure that this was indeed an enemy bombing and fighting force. “Looks as if the Japs were planning a big show,” she said to Jan. “Golly, yes!” Jan agreed. “Look!” She handed Gale a pair of powerful binoculars. “You can see them plain now, even tell the fighters from the bombers.” Gale was really startled when she had the formation within her view. For a full moment she studied that mass of flying hate. She fancied that she heard the roar of the motors, but that was impossible. After that she swept the sky with the glass. She was looking for American planes flying out to meet them. There were none—only two observation planes—flying high. “I wonder what that means,” she murmured. She thought of the crowded city she had recently left and shuddered at thought of the death and destruction that would follow if those planes got through. “They may be planning to attack the secret forest,” she said to Jan. “Do they know about it?” Jan asked. “Perhaps. Who can tell?” Gale replied slowly. “Little good that would do them now. That forest is as long as one of our states, and quite wide. There are only a few of us billetted there now.” “Oh, sure! They’d never find us!” Jan was at ease again. But not for long. Gale got her answer to the question regarding the absence of U. S. fighter planes. Long after she had given up hope, when the formation of enemy bombers and fighters were all but over the forest, all of a sudden, seeming to come from every side at once, a great flight of U. S. fighters filled the air. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” Jan exclaimed in wild excitement. “Now there will be a big battle before our very eyes!” The moments that followed will live long in Gale’s memory. Swarms of American flyers filled the sky. To her this was no mystery. To the enemy pilots it all must have seemed a feat of magic. From the direction they had been taking, it seemed evident to Gale that the enemy bombers had not been bound for the secret forest but for the crowded city far beyond. Whatever their destination may have been, they were at once driven off their course and when the battle began in earnest though still some distance away, they were directly in front of her lookout. “Golly!” Jan exclaimed, dancing about. “It’s just like they were putting on a show for our benefit!” Gale did not reply. She was busy, but not with her instrument—her task for that day was done—the enemy did not now need to be spotted—he was here. With her powerful binoculars she was sweeping the sky looking for just one plane. She would know it when she saw it. It was the smallest, fastest U. S. plane of them all. It had a sharp nose, and long, slender wings like those of a nightingale. “And a Nightingale flies it,” she thought, “—Jimmie Nightingale.” Truth is she did not wish to find it there in the sky. She had hoped Jimmie was far away on some other mission, for this would be a fearful battle. The enemy bombers were heavily armed and had a powerful fighter escort. Just when she was hoping that she had seen all the planes and could assure herself that Jimmie was not there, a very small fighter plane with narrow wings came out from behind some enemy bombers. “Jimmie!” she exclaimed. “There he is! Oh, Jimmie!” “Where? Where is he?” Jan exclaimed. “Just in front of those four bombers over to the left,” Gale pointed him out. “Oh! Oh! Yes! I see him!” Jan replied, breathlessly. Just then, as if he was conscious of being watched and felt the need of putting on a show, which of course he did not, Jimmie seemed to leap straight at the nearest enemy bomber. With his guns spouting fire, he flew squarely under the enemy plane’s motors. At once the enemy bomber’s right motor began to smoke. Ten seconds later Jimmie was back. Now it was the right motor that received his hail of bullets. Turning slowly, like a leaf in the wind, the bomber rolled over on its side, then went into a spin. A moment later it struck a ledge and exploded with a terrific roar. “Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “Suppose that one had fallen on our little coop!” “If you’re afraid,” Gale suggested, “Why don’t you go into our shelter?” “Oh! I wouldn’t! Not for worlds!” Jan exclaimed. But now it seemed that Jimmie was in trouble. In revenge for their lost bomber, three enemy fighters had gone after him. Lightly armed, speedy planes, these Jap Zeroes were dangerous enemies. “Oh! Jimmie! Watch out!” Gale exclaimed, unconscious of what she was saying in her excitement. With the three Zeroes hot on his tail, Jimmie went into a power-dive that was like nothing Gale had ever seen before. By the time she had caught her breath, she saw his plane sweep into a steep spiral curve to come up behind one of the Zeroes and send it down in flames. Before Jimmie could swing into a safe position, a Zero got in a burst of fire that made his plane stagger, but he was up and at them with such speed that a second plane was sent spinning earthward. Just when the third Zero, in what appeared to be a suicide attack, leapt squarely at Jimmie’s plane, the whole picture disappeared, and the room went dark. “Jan!” Gale exclaimed in sudden desperation, “What has happened?” “Are you deaf?” was the startling reply. “Listen!” Gale did listen, and to her waiting ears, above the sound of battle, came the roar of a single plane close at hand. “It’s a Zero plane,” Jan exclaimed. “Perhaps he carries a bomb. He may have seen the sunshine on our window.” Jan had drawn the thick shade outside their window, but there remained a small crack. Just as Gale peeked through this crack, the enemy plane passed so close she saw the flyer’s ugly face. Did he look her way? She imagined that he did. For a second he was there, then he was gone for good. “Gone this time,” she shuddered, “But what about next time?” Who could answer? Had the pilot of that plane really spotted their hideout and guessed its purpose? For the present there was nothing left but to carry on. When Gale opened the window a wider crack to fix her binoculars on the few remaining fighters, Jimmie’s small plane with the slender wings was nowhere to be seen. “He was shot down,” she thought in sudden panic. Of this she could not be sure. Nothing is certain in war. |
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