  Slowly the sound of battle faded away in the distance. With fingers that trembled violently, Gale drew the blind before her window aside and started her radar set working again. Now instead of a great formation of enemy planes advancing upon her, she picked up one here, another there, and always rapidly fading off into the distant sky. Now and then she caught sudden movements of planes, indicating that some daring American fighters were still after the retreating enemy. Was Jimmie one of these? She dared hope a little, but not too much. “Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “Was that a battle!” “It was a great defeat for the enemy.” “God be praised for that,” was Gale’s solemn comment. “More than half their bombers must have been shot down. The others dropped their bombs where they did no harm, and fled.” “Did some of their fighters get away?” Jan asked. “Yes. Several of them.” “That’s bad.” Jan’s knees trembled. “It scares me. I’m funny, I guess. I could drive a jeep almost over a precipice and not be scared at all. But just to think of a bomb dropping on me, that’s terrible! There would be nothing left of me,—just nothing at all. But if that Jap in the fighter plane spotted us—” “Perhaps he didn’t,” was Gale’s quiet reply. “Besides, something tells me we won’t be here much longer.” “Why? What makes you think that?” Jan asked in surprise. “The colonel wouldn’t have sent out all those planes to attack the Jap bombers if this was to be an important point much longer. That’s sure to tip them off to the fact that there’s something big around here somewhere. They’ll be back.” “Oh! They’ll be back!” Jan was more frightened than ever. “Oh! Snap out of it, Jan!” Gale scolded. “We joined up to help fight a war! We’re not worth much if we’re scared all the time!” “Sure.” Jan’s ample figure stiffened. “Sure. That’s right. You can count on me in the pinches every time.” “You’re just right we can!” Gale agreed. At dusk, when her relief arrived, Gale asked eagerly for news of the air battle. “I can’t tell you a thing,” was the quick reply. “You mean you’re not allowed to,” she suggested. “No. That’s not it,” said the young sergeant with a slow smile. “Things are terribly secret up here these days. I’ve been here for quite a while. With every day that passes the officers get more nervy. There’s something really big in the air.” “I shouldn’t wonder,” Gale murmured. It was the same way when Gale and Jan had arrived in the shadow of the secret forest. Isabelle, who had awaited them at the tent, was in a fine state of excitement, but could tell them nothing of the battle. “There’s been no report given out except that it was a great little victory for our side,” was all she would say. When Than Shwe arrived from the hospital she reported that three wounded aviators had been brought in. “Than Shwe!” Gale exclaimed. “Do you know Jimmie?” “That handsome fellow who called for you once at the club?” the little nurse asked. “Yes! Yes! That was Jimmie!” Gale caught her breath. “Is—is he in the hospital?” “No.” The little nurse shook her head. “No, your Jimmie, he was not one of these. But really, do you think he was shot down today?” “I don’t really know.” Gale’s brow wrinkled. “I saw him in a terrible fight with three Jap Zeroes. His plane was crippled, and then that was all we saw.” “Oh, Jimmie’ll come back,” Jan consoled. “He’s that kind of a boy.” Since Than Shwe was to dine that night with a Burmese officer and Jan was to eat with a truck crew that had just arrived, Gale and Isabelle took their mess kits and went to join in the lineup for chow. “We’ll have better arrangements for you girls later,” the colonel had said to her. “You couldn’t!” she exclaimed. “Oh yes!” he had smiled. “A mess hall all your own—just for the ladies of the camp.” “That might please some of them,” she had said, “but not me. I like to feel that I am a real soldier. There’s a sort of comradeship that comes from standing in line with your mess kit and cup, the boys joshing one another, and all that. It’s real fun. At first,” she laughed, “they sort of leave you a space by yourself—as if you were poison, or perhaps were made of fragile stuff.” “But after that?” he grinned. “After that they find out we’re real fellows, and take us in. That makes me feel all sort of good inside.” “The other night,” she had laughed, “they started doing a goose-step, with hands on shoulders. At first there was no hand on my shoulder. Then there was, and I did the goose-step with the best of them.” “That’s the spirit!” the colonel had enthused. “That’s the sort of thing that took my little band of boys and girls out of Burma. Comradeship! There’s nothing like it!” There was no goose-step on this night. The boys were a sober lot. Perhaps the air battle of the day had warned them that big events were just ahead. Despite all this, the meal was a great success for Isabelle, for no sooner had she joined the line than a great paw was placed on her shoulder and a big voice said: “Hi, Isabelle! How’s things?” It was her old schoolmate, Pete Sikes, of the tanks. “Gale!” Isabelle exclaimed, “this is Pete Sikes, the all-star player of our old high school days—you’ll like him.” And Gale did. They ate their corned Willie, dehydrated potatoes, tomatoes and pineapple together beneath a great spreading tree that appeared to offer ample protection from any attack from the air. “Pete,” said Isabelle, when they had finished with home town talk, “What do you know about the air battle we had today?” “Not very much.” Pete wrinkled his brow. “I’ve been busy. Big business tonight,” he grinned, mysteriously. “Oh!” Gale exclaimed. “No one seems to know about that fight. We saw it all from our coop up there in the rocks,—that is—nearly all. I missed the part that means the most to me. One of my friends was in the fight. He got a bomber.” “Great!” Pete exclaimed. “That’s not all.” Gale went on: “Three Zeroes went after him. He’d shot down two of them, but his plane had been damaged and the third Zero was after him when Jan pulled the curtain.” “Pulled the curtain!” Isabelle exclaimed. “Sure. A Jap fighter flew in close to our coop. We were afraid he’d spot us. “When we could open up again,”—Gale drew in a long breath—“Jimmie and his little fighter had vanished from the air.” “Well now, that is bad,” Pete drawled. “Just one of those things though—you’ll have to wait for news, that’s all. War is a great little waiting game. Something happens that you want to know about, but you just have to wait. You get all set for something big, and then again you have to wait. “But I’ll tell you—” his eyes opened wide—“If you girls want to see something really big,—a thing you’ll never forget—I’m right in position to get you a grandstand seat.” Gale looked at Isabelle. Isabelle nodded her head. “All right.” Gale agreed. “Count me in.” Two hours later, Gale, Isabelle and Than Shwe piled into Pete’s jeep and went gliding silently out from beneath the secret forest toward some unannounced destination. “I’ll have to leave you out here,” Pete explained. “You’ll have to find your own way back, thumb your way, or hoof it. I’ve got lots of work to do. But believe me, you’ll say it’s worth it. It’s not more than four miles, I guess.” “Just think of this big goof asking us to tramp back four miles just to see something we don’t know a thing about!” Isabelle laughed. “All right.” Pete slowed down his car. “Want to go back?” At first there was no answer. “What do you say, girls?” Isabelle asked. “I’ll take a chance,” was Gale’s prompt reply. “Chances. That’s all I take all my life,” Than Shwe said, laughing. They drove on. At a point where something like a cross between a road and a path came out into the main highway, Pete stopped. “This is as far as I go,” Pete announced. “The big show passes here. There’s the trunk of a huge dead tree just back of those bushes. You can see it all right from there. I’ve a notion that you can find your way back to camp by this trail.” “But you’re not dead sure?” Isabelle teased. “That’s right. I’m not,” Pete agreed. “In this man’s war you have to take chances.” They piled out. Pete turned his jeep about and sped away. Like three night birds they perched themselves on the fallen giant of the forest, wrapped their jackets about them to keep out the chill mountain air, then settled down to wait. “This may be just one of Pete’s pranks,” Isabelle announced. “He was full of tricks in high school,—kept us out in the grass hunting snipe with a gunny-sack and a dishpan and a lantern for two hours once.” “If this is a trick,” Gale said, “and if we hike back four miles for nothing, you shall be shot at midnight. I’ve had a hard day, and I’m tired.” “Listen!” Than Shwe put her fingers to Gale’s lips. As they all sat there at the edge of the silent jungle with the night all about them, an ominous rumble reached their ears. “More Jap bombers,” Gale groaned. “And I am not there to help stop them.” “No,” said Isabelle. “It’s not bombers. It’s too tremendous and too indistinct for that.” “Not bombers,” Than Shwe agreed. “Then what is it?” Gale demanded. “If you ask me,” said Isabelle, “I’d tell you that it was Pete’s outfit coming into roost beneath the Secret Forest. He’s with the tanks, you know.” “More than that. Much more!” Than Shwe sprang to her feet to dance a jig. “Then what is it?” Gale repeated. “It’s what the colonel calls ‘The whole damned outfit’.” Than Shwe grew vastly excited. “It’s not just tanks, but tanks, guns, men, trucks, trucks, trucks, kitchens, food, guns, tanks, Tommy guns, and men, men, men,—the most soldiers you ever saw.” Than Shwe danced all over the place. Than Shwe was right. Pete had not let them down. They were to witness one of the most stupendous parades ever put on in the history of mankind. It began with a group of cars. Gale was not sure that they carried officers, advance guard, or both. The darkness that was all but complete—a pin-prick of light showed here and there—only served to heighten the parade of monsters. After the cars came a convoy of trucks. Some of these were closed, some open. On some of the open trucks they made out the form of camp kitchens, on others, bent forward, half asleep, were men,—hundreds and hundreds of men. And then came the big guns—guns on half tracks, on trucks, and propelled by their own power they one and all gave out a great bang and clatter. Now and then, as a gun threatened to leave the road, there came a shout of warning. Once the whole parade of monsters came to a jangling halt. Then the silence was appalling. For each of the three girls the effect of it all was strangely different. Isabelle seemed stunned into silence by it all. When the tanks which followed the guns came clattering in, she wanted nothing so much as to cut and run for it, and keep on running until she was back in the quiet of the city. She had wanted to go forward to join in the war, but this brought the tremendous reality of it all to her in a new and awe-inspiring manner. “It’s as if we weren’t on earth at all,” she murmured once. “It would seem more real on Mars or the moon. “Civilization!” she whispered. “Is this it?” Than Shwe was delirious with joy. Flinging her hair to the wind, she danced about like a woods sprite. “The Japs, they drive the colonel out of Burma. Now see! See what the colonel has got! Oh! I wish I could ride into Burma on top of a tank!” Than Shwe was just plain mad with joy. To Gale, that never ending procession was truly a sight she would never forget. In her mind’s eye she could see them all,—men, trucks, guns and tanks moving into places assigned to them beneath the Secret Forest. “They won’t be there long,” she told herself. “But as long as they remain, with my radar I shall be watching over them. Truly I must be their guardian angel! I must not fail.” At that moment though her eyes saw shadowy forms moving forward in the night. The inner eyes of her being were seeing boys, bright American boys she had known, and thousands she had seen but never known. “Those are the boys riding out there tonight,” she told herself. “Riding to battle.” Again she whispered: “I must not fail!” and the words of an old song seemed to sing themselves in her mind: “A charge to keep I have.” The procession was endless,—guns, tanks, trucks, men, then more guns, tanks, trucks, men. “No end to it,” Gale whispered, sliding down from her seat. “Come on. We’ve got to get back. Tomorrow I must be there in my hideout helping to keep the Jap bombers away.” “Pete suggested this trail,” said Isabelle. “We’ll have to try it.” Gale sighed. “We can’t mingle with tanks and guns, that’s sure.” So, after snapping on a tiny flashlight, she led the way straight into new and surprising adventure. |
|
