A GOOD SHOW
The Zeros, it seemed, were engaged elsewhere. When Jack and Stew emerged
from their cloud none were in sight, nor were the islands that Stew had
seen.
"A rain squall has hidden the islands. They're there, all the same,"
Stew insisted.
"It's our only chance." In vain Jack tried to get more power from his
disabled motor. It coughed, sputtered--all but died--then carried on.
Heading due east, he started to climb. He had gained a thousand feet or
more when he began losing again.
"Look over your parachute," he said to Stew. "Be sure you can get hold
of our rubber raft at a second's notice. This motor may die at any
moment."
"It's all done," said Stew. "All in order. Let's have a look at your
chute." He worked over Jack's chute and harness. "It's okay. Be sure to
pull the cord," he joked. "That's always a necessity, you know."
"Sure I know," Jack's voice was cheerful. "I'm glad we got our job done
before this thing happened."
"The sea's fairly smooth. We'll get on. Some kind of a bird will light
on us. They always do--booby, gull--something."
"Sure, they light on anything that stands out above the water." Jack set
his ship climbing again. They were inside the rain squall. From not too
far away came the sound of sudden battle.
"Zeros and our fighters have tangled." Stew became tremendously excited.
"Boy! This is going to be terrific! Wish we could see it!"
"Like taking in a world-series game from behind a high board fence,"
Jack agreed. "But leave it to our bombers!"
"They're sure good! They took that other carrier we discovered a week
ago."
"They're tops, those bombers!" Jack had a great love for his ship and
her men. "There never was a carrier like the _Black Bee_!"
The roar of bombers coming on in formation filled the air.
"They're climbing! I can tell by the sound!" Stew exclaimed. "Boy! Just
you wait!"
Stew all but stood up in his place while Jack divided his attention
between the bombers and his disabled motor.
"Now!" Stew exclaimed at last. "Now they're diving! Listen!" He held his
breath, counting "One--two--three--four--five--six--seven--"
He had reached twenty when there came a roar. "Oh! Too bad! That one
missed!" Hardly were the words out of his mouth when there came a second
roar. "Right on the beam! Boy! Oh boy!"
Six bombers dumped their loads. "Three connected," was Stew's decision.
"That's a very good record."
Then all of a sudden they emerged from the screening rain squall to find
themselves over a bright, blue sea. In the center of this sea, two large
cargo ships and three destroyers steamed rapidly toward the east.
"Oh!" Stew groaned. "They'll get away! And I have a hunch they're the
most important of all."
For a space of seconds Jack considered turning back in an effort to
direct some of the bombers toward this target. "No use," he grumbled.
"We'd never make it in time."
"Besides," Stew's voice went husky, "here come three of our torpedo
bombers. They got my message after all! Boy! We're some use in the
world, you and I! And we're really going to see a show."
"A grandstand seat! No high fence this time." Jack's voice expressed his
joy.
At sight of the torpedo planes the two cargo ships began zigzagging,
while the destroyers darted in close to them.
Like catbirds after hawks, four Zeros followed the torpedo planes, but
as yet were too far away to count.
"Man! Oh man!" Jack exclaimed. "Suppose those Zeros come after us!"
"Let them come!" Stew looked to the loading of his gun. "We'll be
waiting for them. We can't run, but we still can fight."
Two destroyers lay between the torpedo planes and the cargo ships. Their
pom-pom guns began throwing up shells. The boys could see them explode
in mid-air. Disregarding these, the torpedo pilots came sailing straight
in, dropping rapidly as they approached their target.
Jack held his breath as one by one they passed through shellfire. That's
Dick, I imagine, he was thinking. Dick, Bert and Phil. All swell boys!
One shell, exploding beneath the second plane, lifted it into the air,
but the plane came straight on.
At just the right moment, not five hundred feet from the sea, the first
plane released its "tin fish." Jack saw it hit the sea and speed away.
"Bull's-eye!" he shouted. But the torpedo acted strangely. It leaped
into the air, then dove like a playing porpoise. At last it reached the
side of a cargo ship.
"Now!" Stew breathed.
But there came no sound. "Oh!" Jack exclaimed, as he saw the torpedo
speed away beyond the ship. "It went right under her! What a--"
He did not finish, for suddenly a mighty explosion fairly tore the sky.
"Did you see that!" Stew exclaimed. "The second torpedo took that ship
right on the beam! And did she explode! Must have been loaded with TNT."
Jack had not seen. What he did see was a tower of black smoke and pieces
of debris falling over the sea. And he saw the second ship, attacked by
the last torpedo plane, meet the same fate.
All this had happened in the space of seconds, and all the time their
disabled plane was chugging its way toward three small islands that
stood out like green stones set in a field of blue.
"I hope they raise chickens on those islands," said Stew.
"Chickens and no Japs," Jack agreed. At that moment his eyes swept the
sky for the Zeros. "Gone," he murmured at last. "I guess they've seen
enough for one day."
After that Jack was silent for a time. He was thinking: Those ships were
loaded with ammunition intended for Japs on some island. If they had
gone through safely, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of our Marines and
Army men might have died. We got them. A feeling of pride in a job well
done, a task in which he and Stew had played a large part, coursed
through his being.
"We found them. The torpedo planes destroyed them," he said aloud. At
that moment he would not have traded his job as a scout for any other in
the service.
But what of the attack on the Jap carrier and her escort? Only sound
could tell them the story, for the rain squall still hid that battle
from their sight.
"Our radio is gone," he said to Stew. "We're headed for an unknown
island. No one will know where we are."
"That's right," Stew agreed soberly. "Even those three torpedo planes
have gone to join the attack on the carrier. We're in the sky alone." A
strange wave of loneliness swept over him. "It may be months before we
know how that battle ended." Jack nodded in the direction from which
came a continuous roar of motors, machine-gun fire, bursting shells, and
exploding bombs. "We're on our own, and I don't mean maybe!"