_Night Bombers_
Gale did visit the colonel next day, but at his request, not hers. And
not a word did she say about the temple adventure. She was rather
ashamed of the whole affair. True enough, that had been her night off.
"But that's no excuse for risking one's life in a foolish adventure,"
she told herself savagely.
"How are you and Mac getting on with your practice?" the Colonel asked,
once she was seated before his teakwood desk.
"Oh, fine!" she enthused. "We've been working nights. Shot down at least
a dozen bombers only night before last."
"That's quite a record." He laughed. "Strange we haven't had a report on
it."
"Well, of course," she smiled, "the enemies were only transparent
plastic balls that light up and come floating down through the night sky
when I locate them with radar and Mac shoots them down. But if they had
been enemy bombers--"
"You would have scored a hit."
"Oh, yes! More than one. Radar is wonderful!" Her eyes shone.
"It certainly is," he agreed. "Of course," he leaned back in his chair,
"It's comparatively new to the army. And I might add, that I haven't
another pair like you and Mac. Your record tops them all."
"That--oh--" she stammered, "That's fine."
"Of course it is. You deserve some sort of a reward."
"Reward?" Her face flushed. "I don't want a reward. All I ask is a
chance to serve my country as my father, my grandfather and all the
others have done."
"That's the spirit!" He smiled his approval. "For all that, there may be
some request that you would like to make." A strange smile made
bird-tracks about his eyes.
"No--er--at least--none that you would have a right to grant."
"Oh! So that's it!" He sat straight up. "In that case let us say that
your unexpressed wish may have already been granted."
"You can't mean--" she hesitated. "Oh, all right, we'll say that. I'll
be watching and waiting."
As she left the large cool room that housed the colonel and his staff,
Gale found her head in a whirl. What had the colonel meant? Did he know
all that was in her mind, or did he know nothing? Only time would tell.
"I'll work harder than ever," she told herself. "No more temple bells
for me." In this she was partly right and partly wrong. In the end,
temples were to play a very large part in her young life, and that very
night, had she but known it, she was to meet someone who would join her
in a rather wild temple adventure.
She and Mac met an hour after darkness had fallen, to resume their
practice.
They had been at it for a long time and were in the process of making
their most perfect score when the phone on the palm tree jangled.
Gale's heart skipped a beat as her keen ears picked up the words spoken
to Mac over the phone:
"Warning! Enemy bombers, in large formation, approaching from the
northeast. Be at your station."
"Now we'll get them!" she exclaimed, as Mac returned to his gun.
"If they don't get us first," Mac grumbled. "This night fighting isn't
so hot. I've only been in it twice, but one of those times they nearly
got me."
"We'll get them this time," the girl insisted. "We've got to do it!
Think of all those women and children packed away behind those crumbling
walls beside those narrow streets in the city only a ten-minute flight
from here!"
"It's murder to attack a city like that--"
"Nothing else," he agreed.
"They'll fly over us to get to the city, won't they?" she asked.
"Sure will, if they don't stop long enough to tear us apart." Mac
glanced at the dugout. "One thing I want understood. When I say 'Duck!'
you duck. I've seen a lot more of this night fighting than you have."
She made no reply, but lifting a hand to her ear exclaimed softly,
"Listen! There they come!"
"That's right." A confused roar beat upon their eardrums. "Must be a big
flight of them tonight."
Gale looked to her instruments. They were in perfect condition--always
were--but now they must be perfection personified. A slip might mean the
loss of a thousand lives in that crowded city.
This done, there was nothing left but to wait.
"It won't be long now," she whispered.
"It won't be long," Mac echoed, fingering his gun.
Gale wondered if she could ever describe the feelings that coursed
through her being as she waited. First a feeling of great exultation
swept over her. She had power--such power as she had never known
before--the power to destroy a hated enemy. A dozen, a score, perhaps
half a hundred enemies might fall to death because of her radar. She had
power to save countless lives.
Then she went all cold. She might fail, or be killed before she had done
her work.
After that came a steady, calm resolve. She felt free as air. Her
fingers would do her bidding perfectly. She wanted to sing.
"Here they come! Get set!" Mac was teetering on his toes. She knew that
type too. They performed the most dangerous tasks as if they were
dancing to fast music. She knew Mac. He was all right.
Now she was sending out those long electric fingers. They went here,
there, everywhere, but found nothing. They could only reach for the
stars.
"Too far away yet," she murmured. "We'll have to wait. We--
"There!" she exclaimed. "They're coming in. Let me show you." Seizing
his gun control, she set it at a definite angle. "That's the line
they're taking. Coming straight."
"Swell!" Mac's lips were drawn into a thin line. "Very kind of them. Let
me know if they leave that course. When they get in close enough I'll
let them have it."
"And keep it up," she hissed. "We'll get three of them."
"Three of them! That's a lot!"
"Not enough," she murmured. Then--"Coming straight on. Still coming.
Same direction, same height. How wonderful!"
"Mar--marvelous." Mac's throat went dry.
"Still coming straight on. Same direction. Same height. Seems as if I
should see them."
"But you can't."
"They're close now. Get ready. Same direction. Same--Fire!" Her voice
rose to a scream. Her wind-blown hair was in a mad tangle, her face lit
as by a flame.
The big pom pom gun roared.
"Again!" Once more the gun spoke. "Again! Again! Again!"
Something was happening up there in the sky. The exploding shells
boomed, while in between the sound of oncoming planes became more and
more confused.
"They're almost over us." Mac glanced at the air shelter.
"We can't stop yet. Once more," she pleaded.
Once again the gun spoke.
Next instant, as if caught by a whirlwind, Gale was seized from behind
and sent through such a dizzy circle that she had no notion where she
was going until she landed on the floor of the air raid shelter.
"Let me go! We've got--"
She did not finish, for a pair of hands seized her and shook her hard.
"You fool!" a voice hissed. "Want to get--"
The voice was drowned by a roar that tore the very earth about them, and
seemed to lift their air raid shelter up to let it gently down again.
"That," said Mac, "was one whale of a bomb." Gale looked at Mac. He was
seated before her. Who was behind her? Who had perhaps--no, most
certainly had saved her life?
"We'll have some hot tea," Mac said calmly, as he reached for a small
charcoal burner in a dark corner.
"Tea? Oh yes, tea." Gale's head was in a whirl.