  Without any definite plan of attack, and not once looking back, the two girls trudged up the hill leading to the large house built in the American style. They had just reached the top of a flight of steps leading to the lawn when all of a sudden a door leading to a second story balcony flew open, releasing a flood of light. In this light stood a tall, handsome woman and a diminutive black dwarf. Reaching for the light brought Jan and Isabelle out in full relief. “So you wanted to see me again?” The woman’s voice was full of scorn. “Well, take a good look.” She held out a long blue automatic. In his hands the dwarf clutched a rifle. Jan’s heart sank. She was not even sure her rifle was loaded. “Take a good long look,” the woman repeated. “You’ll remember that you saw a handsome woman as you draw your last breath.” She laughed hoarsely. At that instant Isabelle heard a sound behind her but dared not look back. “You take the fat one, Paedro,” Isabelle heard the woman say. “She’s a good mark for you. I could kill a bird at that distance.” Isabelle’s blood ran cold. As the black dwarf lifted his rifle she thought of flight but her feet would not move. Then all of a sudden from behind her something set up a tremendous clatter. As if she were watching a movie she saw the woman and her dwarf tumble in a heap. Then the bright light blinked out, leaving all in darkness. “Jan!” Isabelle cried. “What happened?” “I shot them.” It was the voice of Than Shwe who spoke. She was standing behind them. In her hand was a smoking Tommy-gun. “I shot them,” she repeated in a cool even tone. “They deserved to die. They brought death to hundreds of my people. They would have killed you. I saw you go, so I came too.” “But Than Shwe! Where did you get that Tommy-gun?” Jan demanded. “This?” The little nurse held the gun up proudly. “This is the Tommy-gun the colonel carried out of Burma on his shoulder. When I came to Mai-da’s house he let me take it. “Now,” she added, “I go get Gale’s radar set.” With her gun across her shoulder she marched away. Ten minutes later she returned, lugging the set. “They are quite dead. That is good,” she said. “We will tell the Army Intelligence. When they see what is in that house they will say I am a very good girl. She was a very bad spy, that woman.” * * * * * * * * Next morning at dawn a squad of U. S. engineers with a hundred Chinese workmen appeared at Mai-da’s home prepared to rebuild it. And at that same dawn Jimmie and Gale tuned up their bombing plane to join their flight of forty big ships bound for Tokio. They dropped down half way to Tokio to take on gas, then sped on their way. It was a glorious day, with white clouds floating high. The beauty and peace of the land far beneath them told nothing of war. As they came closer to the sea, clouds thickened. Soon they were passing through miles of gray mist. Gale, busy with her instrument, feeling for danger here, there and everywhere, suddenly exclaimed: “Airplanes almost straight ahead; lower down than we are; ten miles away.” “Gale! You must be wrong!” Jimmie exclaimed. “I can’t be,” Gale insisted. And it was right there that the girl earned her passage. Jimmie lowered his plane, altered his direction, slowed down, then popped out of a cloud almost upon three Jap scouting planes. Had the pilots of these planes been given thirty seconds of life Tokio must have been warned. Thirty seconds was denied them. Cannons and machine guns raked them from engine to tail, and down they went, one, two, three. “Good girl!” Jimmie said. “That will get you a medal.” “I don’t want a medal,” was Gale’s quick reply. “Show me Tokio. That’s all I ask.” In half an hour her request was granted. They came out of a cloud to see a great city bathed in bright sunshine. Smoke rolled from factories making airplanes, tanks and guns for destroying American boys. Trains sped away with their loads of hate. All the city was busy and perhaps happy. Who knows? “That,” said Jimmie, “is Tokio and yonder is our target.” He nodded toward an airfield where a hundred planes resting on the runways tossed back the sun-light. “Beautiful! Glorious! Great stuff!” he exclaimed as he set his big ship roaring over the field. At just the right second bombs began to drop. “One, two, three, four, five,”—Gale found herself counting as they fell among the Jap bombers and exploded with such force that whole planes were blown into the sky to explode there like rockets. “Get ready!” Jimmie warned his gunners, “here come the Jap fighters.” As the gunners stiffened at their posts Gale took up a post that would permit her to replace any man in the body of the ship who fell. A Zero plane came in so close that she saw the leer on the pilot’s face. Receiving a burst of fire, he faded from her sight. But on they came,—one—two—three—four, a whole squadron wheeled into view. Cannons roared, machineguns rattled. The din was a terrible thing to hear. Little planes went whirling down, but still they came. All of a sudden the right waist-gunner wavered at his post, then fell like an empty sack. As if indeed he were just that, Gale dragged him aside, seized his gun, looked to its loading, then stood ready. A plane flashed past, too far and too fast. It wheeled to come shooting straight at her. Had the pilot contemplated suicide? If so, it was his last thought. Her gun spoke. He crumpled in his place, his engine died, then his plane went whirling down. But here was another. Approaching with caution, this pilot swung to the right, then sent out a burst of small slugs from a free machine gun. Gale felt a push at her left shoulder. But her eye was on the target. She did not waver but allowing for the enemy’s speed, placed her shots before him. His ship began to smoke, then exploded in mid air. Then, all of a sudden everything faded into gray fog. Jimmie had headed his plane into a huge cloud that lay on the road home. “Here!” he said to the co-pilot. “Take the stick. I’ll look things over.” Already two men were working over the fallen gunner. Jimmie counted his men. “One casualty,” he murmured. “Not bad.” Then his eyes fell on Gale who was sitting beside her gun. Catching a suspicious blotch of red, he tore at her blouse. “You’re hit!” he exclaimed. “Am I?” Her eyes opened wide. “You know you are, you little fool!” he exploded. “I—I feel fine.” “Here,” he said, throwing out a blanket. “Lie down there. Here’s a roll for a pillow. Now! Let me have a look.” Unbuttoning the blouse, he shoved it aside. “Shoulder,” he murmured. “Not so bad. How’s the bone?” “How should I know? I—I’ll try to—” “No, no don’t move. I’ll just fix it up a bit. I’m no doctor. Little first aid, that’s all. But boy! If it had been a little lower there’d have been a dead WAC.” “And Jimmie Nightingale would have been in disgrace for letting a WAC get killed,” she said. “Something like that.” “But now he’ll get another medal,” she teased. “And so will you, dam—I mean dum it. You’ll get it if I have to make it out of a coin I took from a dead Jap. “And now,” he said as he finished his first aid, “I suggest that you relax and forget. There’ll be no more Japs on our trail.” “Relax and forget,” she whispered to herself. How could she ever do that. Relax, yes, but forget, never! Never! She did not even want to forget. She had joined the WACS, had asked for active service, and had gotten it in good measure. Who ever would want to forget? Strange as it may seem, by the time they reached home base she was more than half asleep. But there was an ambulance waiting for her and in it, Jan and Than Shwe to welcome her home. “Golly! Does it hurt much?” Jan asked. “Don’t talk,” Than Shwe warned, “Just relax and try to forget.” There it was again,—“relax and forget.” Gale wanted to scream just to let them know she was still very much alive. But remembering that she was a patient, she did relax, even though she did refuse to forget. * * * * * * * * “The Army Intelligence found plenty to prove that the Woman in Purple and the Black Dwarf were spies,” Isabelle said to Gale as she sat by her cot in the hospital next day and told her story. “They found two servants who told them plenty more.” “It’s good they’re gone,” said Gale. “But now,” she groaned, “I suppose I’ll be shipped off to some place to convalesce.” “That’s right,” said a man’s voice. It was the colonel who had just come in. “Well, you wanted to see Tokio. You saw Tokio, so now you must pay your passage. “But it won’t be half bad,” he added. “I’ll send you to the Secret Forest.” “Lovely,” Isabelle murmured. “I’d almost be willing to get myself shot to go there.” “You’ll have Than Shwe for your nurse and Jimmie to fly you there. And, hmm, I’ll give Jimmie a week’s leave. He’s really earned it, and so have you.” “You’re very thoughtful.” Gale gave him a grateful smile. “But I’m coming back.” “Oh, sure! Sure!” he agreed. “As soon as the doctor says you’re able.” |
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