_This Is the Zero Hour_
That night Gale kept her resolve to listen in on Jimmie's wave-length at
ten, and with startling results.
Half an hour later an orderly from headquarters was at the door of her
tent to say that the colonel wanted to see her at once.
"What a night!" she exclaimed. "This is one night when I shouldn't be
surprised if all the stars were to fall!"
When she at last stood before the colonel with a smart salute, her usual
composure came back to her, for the colonel at once put her at her ease.
"I understand you had a little trouble today," he said quietly.
"We lost our station," she admitted.
"Bombed out?"
"Yes. But not until we had done our work."
"That's fine." The colonel gave her a rare smile.
"We recovered our radar set," she added.
"You did?" He showed some surprise.
"Yes. It was blown into a gully by the bomb. Getting down wasn't easy.
But we had it to do. There are secrets to radar, you know."
"Yes. Of course."
"Three main secrets. We call those the Three Secrets of Radar. I'm sure
that enemy spies are after them--a woman in purple and a black dwarf."
"Isabelle told me about these, and that you have seen the woman in a
temple near here. It is not easy to keep track of all the people around
us. I sent two Intelligence Officers to investigate."
"You did?" Gale leaned forward eagerly.
"Yes. They got on the woman's trail and followed it for hours. They lost
it at last in a terrible stretch of jungle the flyers call 'Hell's Half
Hour'."
"Hell's Half Hour!" the girl breathed, in sudden surprise. "Then--" she
caught herself and did not finish. Instead, she said: "I'm sure the
Black Dwarf is not with that woman."
"Why?" he asked simply.
"I shot at something when I was recovering my radar." She reached deep
in her pocket. "Someone was watching me. He was after my radar. He got a
shot instead. My bullet cut the strap--from this." She drew something
strange from her pocket.
"What is it?" he asked in surprise.
"It's made of aluminum, covered with thin leather," she replied. "It's
about six inches high and fits the right foot."
"A shoe?"
"No. Only an extension to a shoe. A pair of them would made a dwarf look
like a tall, thin man," she explained.
"And you've seen such a man?" he asked.
"Three times." Gale told of her adventures with the tall, thin man in
the temple back at the city, and of the other times she had seen him.
"Looks as if the Woman in Purple and the Black Dwarf who is sometimes a
tall, thin man, were on your trail. But that," the colonel straightened
up in his chair, "That's not why I sent for you. Tonight,"--he leaned
forward to speak in a whisper--"Tonight at one A.M. is the Zero-hour.
The big push starts then." His eyes gleamed.
For a full moment Gale stared at him in awed silence. Then, speaking
with an effort, she said: "I--I wish you luck." She put out a hand. He
gripped it hard.
"It means a lot to me." His voice was almost solemn. "That other time we
did our best, but always we had too little, too late."
"But now--"
"Now we've got everything--tanks, guns, men, airplanes--everything.
We'll beat the tar out of them. I wondered,"--again he leaned forward,
"if you'd like to go along?"
Gale stared, but said never a word. "It's been hard to arrange." His
voice rumbled. "But I've got it all fixed."
"I--I--," her throat was dry. "I don't want to go."
It was his turn to stare. "At least," she added, "not yet. You see," she
went on, leaning across the desk, "Jimmie and his plane are down off
there on Hell's Half Hour."
"Jimmie who?"
"Jimmie Nightingale."
"What?" He half rose from his chair. "He was on a very secret mission."
"The mission is safe enough. It was on his way back that they got him.
Someone must have tipped the Japs off. Two planes took him by surprise.
He got away in his parachute, but hung up in a tall tree, then fell. One
leg is injured. He can only drag himself along. He got to his wrecked
plane and is living on emergency rations."
"But how could you know all this?" He stared.
"We had an agreement about listening at ten. I listened tonight. He had
his radio going--the speaking end. The listening part is wrecked. The
Woman in Purple is up there somewhere. Jimmie is helpless. That's where
I want to go!" Her words came out like a cry in the night.
"You'd give up the big push for Jimmie?" There was a strange light in
his eyes.
"Yes, and so would you," was the quick reply.
"You are right, I would. Jimmie is one of my boys, one of my best. I
can't go. The big push is on. You go. I'll give you Jan and her jeep for
transportation. Jan will drive that jeep of hers through hell and high
water. You go, and God guide you." He stood up.
"But--but I want to join you later," she insisted.
"Oh, sure! Soon as you can," he agreed. "We'll be in China again. I'll
team you and Mac up again to guard my headquarters."
"Thanks. We'll guard it well."
Just then an orderly announced the arrival of Than Shwe.
"Than Shwe, my child," said the colonel as the little nurse stood in the
doorway. "We march tonight. You will report here in two hours with about
four times as much baggage as you carried on our retreat."
"Oh, my colonel!" Than Shwe rushed to the old colonel and threw her arms
about his neck. "I knew you would not leave me behind when the big push
came!"
"Certainly not," said the colonel, after engineering his escape from the
girl's embrace. "I would leave anyone else behind first. We went through
hell and high water together." He laughed a joyous roaring laugh.
"We waded the river for hours." Than Shwe was laughing too. "The younger
men they were too hot, too tired. They were about to drop. But you, you
who are sixty, you were magnificent.
"You marched along with your Tommy-gun on your shoulder and you said,
'What's the matter with these young men? When I was young, if I couldn't
do this before breakfast I'd have been ashamed.'"
"And you, Than Shwe!" said the colonel. "You and all the native nurses
were magnificent. You held your dresses high and splashed the water--you
danced and sang crazy songs while all the time you knew that bombs from
a Jap plane or machine-gun fire from shore might at any moment send all
to Kingdom Come. Yes! Yes! Than Shwe, you are going, you and Isabelle
will ride in my car."
"And Gale?" The little nurse was loyal to all her friends.
"Gale is to go on another mission. One of her own choosing," was the
quiet reply. "And now," he added, "scram, you girls. I've got to give
twenty thousand boys their final marching orders."
"Just like that," Gale whispered to Than Shwe. "Was there ever such a
colonel?"
"Never!" was the quick reply. "This is his great moment."
"Yes. Perhaps the greatest of his life. And yet he has time for us."
Gale was happy and proud. Then she thought of Jimmie, lost out there in
the wilds, injured and alone. Her step quickened. "Nothing can hold me
back," she whispered, "just nothing at all."