_A Monstrous Procession_
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.