_Blood In The Sky_
As Dawson crouched there motionless at Freddy's side, and listened to
the Japanese speaking voices that seemed not to come closer, nor to
retreat, a crazy impulse caused him to glance down at his wrist-watch.
The crystal had been smashed in the crash, and the minute and hour
hands were gone. The second hand was still in place, however, and
ticking around its little graduated dial. Yet it seemed to stop and
wait after each tick as though that were the last, and there would be
no more. Then suddenly it would jump around to the next graduation
mark, and pause and wait again.
Of course, it was actually moving all the time, but because of the
terrible suspense that held him rigid, his eyes and his brain played
him crazy tricks. And then suddenly the grip of Freddy's hand on his
arm dragged his half hypnotized attention from the watch. The English
youth put a finger to his lips for absolute silence, and then pointed
ahead and to the left. Dave bent forward to sight along the pointed
finger, and caught his breath sharply. He was staring through a small
opening in the heavy growth, and there not more than twenty yards away
were five squat, chunky, slant-eyed Japs. Each was armed with one of
the deadly Jap sub-machine guns, and the expression on each face was
that of the lustful desire to kill, and maim, and torture, for the
sheer diabolic pleasure of so doing.
The little group had come to a halt and were all sharing something
that one of them portioned out from a bag he carried slung over one
shoulder. In a dull abstract sort of way, Dawson guessed it was the
daily handful of rice that keeps a Jap soldier going when on the march,
or on the hunt. However, it was no more than a half-hearted guess,
because his attention was not fixed on what they were doing, but on
what they looked like. The uniforms they wore, and the branch of
service insignia on their uniforms. And though the uniforms were dirty
and shabby, and much the worse for constant wear, he knew in a flash
that that little group of Japs were aircraft mechanics.
And an instant later when he twisted his head around to meet Freddy
Farmer's eyes, he knew that the English youth had recognized that fact,
too. Freddy was grinning, and there was the light of wild hope in his
eyes. He leaned forward quickly so that his lips were against Dawson's
ear.
"No doubt chaps sent out to inspect the crash, Dave!" he breathed
softly but with tingling excitement in every word. "And that they've
stopped to have a bit of their blasted rice must mean that they're _on
the way back_ to their field. Right?"
"Dead right!" Dawson breathed back with a grim nod. "Sure wish I knew
the Jap lingo. I'd give a lot to know if they think the B-Twenty-Five's
crew burned up in her. But we've just got to hope that's so, and trail
them back. Okay by you, Freddy?"
"Where they go, we go!" the English youth replied. "Only I hope it
isn't far."
"Something tells me that it isn't," Dawson said with a little gesture.
"Just a hunch. Okay, we tag along behind. But watch it! Those little
tramps have plenty sharp ears, and our guns can't outshoot what they're
carrying."
"You watch your big feet, and I'll watch mine!" Freddy assured him.
"Don't worry. And--There! They're moving off, Dave. And, say! I can see
it, now. The blighters are following a path. Praise the Lord for that.
Make it easier to keep up with them. Come along!"
As the English-born air ace spoke the last he got swiftly and silently
up onto his feet and began virtually to squeeze his way through the
heavy tropical growth. Dawson followed along right at his heels. And
just that, too, for it took all of his efforts to keep Freddy Farmer's
heels in sight. The English youth was like a shadow, and just about
twice as silent, as he melted forward. In fact, Dawson came within
a hair's breath of plowing right into his back when Freddy finally
reached the narrow beaten path and came to an abrupt halt. Crouching
down low with his pal, he strained his ears for sounds ahead. The
sing-song jabbering reached his ears in almost no time at all, and
after taking into consideration what heavy jungle growth does to the
travel of sound, he judged the enemy patrol to be a good hundred yards
ahead. Freddy Farmer figured the same distance and formed the words
silently with his lips as he looked inquiringly at Dave. The Yank air
ace nodded, and then started stealthily along the beaten path.
For almost an hour they followed the winding course of the path through
the dense jungle, pausing every so often to hug the soft damp ground
and listen to the incessant jabbering of the Jap patrol ahead. The last
time they paused they also heard other sounds. Sounds, however, that
were not distinct and clear. In fact, it was a sort of rumbling murmur
that made Dave think of storm waves pounding against a rock-bound
coast. He glanced back at Freddy, but the English youth was equally
puzzled by the sounds.
However, a few moments later when Dawson turned around and started
forward again, he suddenly felt Freddy's hand grip him by the arm and
jerk him down flat. He squirmed around with an angry questioning look
in his eyes. But Freddy's finger to his lips, and the brittle glint in
his own eyes, checked any words that might have spilled from Dawson's
lips. Then Freddy put his lips close and whispered softly.
"Just a little ahead, there's one of them, Dave!" he said. "Left to
stand guard, is my guess. So that means we must be near their field.
And--Hear that, Dave! That's what the sound is! Aircraft engines being
revved up. This darn jungle blankets sound until you're right on top of
it."
"Left one behind?" Dawson echoed, as little shivers began to ripple up
and down his backbone. "You spotted him, Freddy?"
Young Farmer didn't answer at once. He motioned Dawson up to a half
crouching position, and then pointed a stiff finger ahead, and nodded
for Dave to sight along his arm. Dawson did that, but for several
seconds he could see nothing but the greens, the browns, and the faded
orange of jungle foliage. But all the time he could hear the rumbling
murmur somewhere ahead. And he realized at once that Freddy's statement
was true. The sound came from revving aircraft engines, but it was
muffled and dulled in note by the thick jungle.
Suddenly, though, as he strained his eyes at the twisted mass of jungle
growth, he saw something move no more than thirty-five yards from where
he crouched. Had he not been peering intently he would automatically
have taken it for a tree branch or jungle plant leaf being stirred by a
puff of air. However, being on the alert both mentally and physically,
he told himself at once that there could be no puffs of air in the
thick of the jungle. Only heavy pungent smells that hung motionless
in space. And then an instant later his eyes picked out the head and
shoulders of a Jap. The little brown man was facing off to the left,
and his face was in only one quarter profile. But Dave could see the
man's jaws champing up and down on the dry rice he had stuffed into his
mouth. And by straightening up just a little, Dawson could make out the
butt of the deadly sub-machine gun that the Jap held in the crook of
his right arm, ready to whip it up and fire at an instant's notice.
For a long minute Dawson studied the "picture", as a hundred and one
conflicting thoughts raced through his brain. Was that Jap simply
manning his guard post located close to the field? Or had that Oriental
discovered that nobody was aboard the crashed B-Twenty-Five, and was
that Jap up ahead but one of many posted here and there to be on the
look-out for the survivors of the crash? Those two main questions
tormented Dawson's brain, for the simple reason that he could only
guess at the answers. But one thing was very certain, though. There
stood an armed Jap between them and an enemy flying field ahead. If
they were to get closer to the airfield ahead, that armed Jap had to be
put out of the war for keeps.
That fact uppermost in his mind, Dawson took his gaze off the munching
Jap and looked at Freddy. The English youth returned his look,
grinned, tight-lipped, and nodded.
"Remember that Commando show in Occupied France, Dave?" he whispered.
"Well, Jap or Jerry, it shouldn't make any difference, eh?"[2]
[Footnote 2: _Dave Dawson With The Commandos._]
"Same thing, pal!" Dawson chuckled softly, and slowly closed the
fingers of one hand into a rock hard fist. "Let's see if we've
forgotten any of that sweet technique. Okay, kid!"
With a grin and a nod for emphasis, Dawson twisted around and started
along the path again. Compared with their "travel" now, they had been
making a noise akin to that of a herd of elephants on the rampage. Like
blending shadows, and twice as silent, they eeled and snaked their
way forward. Each leaf, or twig, or plant stem was moved cautiously
to the side, and held there until they had slid their bodies past.
Then, another few inches forward, and another few. Bit by bit creeping
closer to the armed Jap, and with no more sound than that caused by the
pounding of their hearts.
However, though they advanced completely wrapped in a blanket of
silence, the Jap was perhaps possessed of that premonition of danger
that science has named the sixth sense. Or perhaps his Nipponese ears
were tuned to thumping human hearts. At any rate, when Dawson and
Freddy Farmer were but a scant two yards in back of him, the Jap spun
around and threw up his sub-machine gun. He was fast, lightning fast,
but those two air aces had been trained to throttle lightning on the
loose. They both moved even faster.
Dawson's outflung arm was like an iron rod with a ball of steel on the
end of it. And that "ball of steel" flew straight to the Jap's Adam's
apple to cut off his wind, and paralyze the nerve center at the base of
his brain. However, that one blow alone would not have been sufficient,
and neither Dave nor Freddy Farmer were counting on it to do the trick.
At the same time Dawson slashed down with his gun hand and knocked
the sub-machine gun downward. And while that was taking place, Freddy
Farmer's flying body caught the Jap across the knees. On the football
field that little bit of blocking would have caused the penalty of
plenty of yardage. But this wasn't the football field. It was a
jungle battle field. And the player to be "taken out" was a ruthless,
butchering little brown rat of Hirohito's brood.
And he was _taken out_, and very definitely so. When Dawson and Freddy
got quickly up onto their feet again, and Dave even had the sub-machine
gun in his own hands, there was no need to give the Jap more than a
passing glance. He was out! He was not only out of the war, but he
was out of his heathen world as well. A broken neck is a broken neck,
whether it belongs to a Jap or anybody else!
Dawson looked at Freddy, but didn't say anything. Whatever might be
said was said with their eyes. They simply exchanged looks, nodded
grimly, and then stared once more along the winding path with ears
tuned to the rumbling murmur ahead that grew louder and more pronounced
with every foot forward they advanced. And so it was that at the end
of ten or twelve minutes of cautious advancing, they finally reached a
point where the jungle stopped, and flat, sun-baked ground began.
The pair stopped just a few feet inside the jungle and peered silently
out at the sight ahead. It was one that caused wild hope to blossom
within them. But it was also a sight that weighed down their hearts
with bitterness and angry helplessness. Though Dawson had been
suspecting it all along, it was not until he stared out onto that
triangular-shaped patch of sun-baked ground that he knew definitely
that Freddy and he had finally reached what had no more than
forty-eight hours before been a Yank and Filipino-held emergency
airfield.
But it was all Jap now. And the only traces that it had once been
Yank-Filipino were the fire and bomb-marked wrecks of American planes
caught on the ground by overwhelming Jap bombers, and the gutted
hangars and buildings that lined one side of the field. And that it
was all Jap, now, was obvious from the Nipponese planes of all types
that were lined up on the other two sides. Planes, and Jap pilots and
mechanics, and ground troops strutting about. A sight to make any
Christian's heart weep blood. And the bitterest touch of all to Dawson
and Freddy Farmer was the way the planes were lined up. They were not
even dispersed about the field. And that could mean but one thing. That
there were no more Yank bombers left in the Philippines to roar back
and give those little slant-eyed brown men a taste of their own kind
of war. No, the bombers that would some day do that little thing were
thousands and thousands of miles away. And a great number of them were
still just working blueprints in American aircraft factories!
Yes, a sight to make Christians weep, but also a sight to fan the
flickering spark of hope and determination into a mounting flame!