_An Enemy at Her Window_
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.