“ME GOT MACHINE GUN!”
In the meantime, with a borrowed co-pilot, Sparky had made his way to a
hidden airbase at the foot of the mountains. Since the co-pilot had
made the flight several times before the trip was accomplished without
mishap or adventure.
The moment they landed a Chinese boy, hopping along on one leg and a
crutch, came out to greet them and guide them back into the bush where
living quarters had been established.
“Oh!” he exclaimed after looking into the cabin. “Somebody say mebby
lady flier come. Mebby somebody don’t know.”
“They were not mistaken,” said Sparky. “The lady pilot belongs to this
plane. She’s coming later with Scottie Burns.”
“Oh! Scottie!” the boy exclaimed. “Very good flier, Scottie, mebby
seventy Japs he shoot down, me not know.”
“That’s a great record,” said Sparky. “What’s your name, boy?”
“Me, Hop Sing. Alla time me hop—sometimes me sing.” The boy laughed at
his misfortune.
“You’re all right.” Sparky laughed with him. “How did you lose your
leg?”
“Zero plane come down,” the boy swept the air with an arm, “came zoom!
Zoom! Zoom! Machine gun—rat-tat-tat, go down me. Too many times shot.
American hospital doctors fix up. Now, me, I got machine gun. Want Zero
come back.”
“You Chinese people have been taking the rap for us all these long
years,” Sparky said soberly. “Now—here we are.”
“Very soon come many big planes,” said the boy. “Mebby bomb Tokio.”
“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Sparky said.
After looking the plane over carefully, then locking it up tight, they
made a dash through the pelting rain where a warm welcome and a good
American dinner awaited them.
When Mary and Scottie came zooming down on the hidden airfield, they
found Sparky waiting for them. In a jeep he whisked them away to a
little eating place where they had coffee and sandwiches and where
Sparky listened to their rather amazing story.
“I wish I had been with you when you visited that hospital,” Sparky
said when the story was told.
“Oh! I wish you could have been!” Mary exclaimed with real feeling. “It
was sad but just wonderful. I’d go around the world three times just to
do that much for our fine boys, who seem to feel that they are sort of
forgotten over here.”
“You took a long chance?” Sparky said to Scottie.
“When we went for that Jap after our plane had been shot up?” Scottie
spoke slowly. “Yes, that’s right, we did. But if you had seen that Jap
in his plane with Uncle Sam’s face painted where it was and you knew
what that rat of a monkey had done,—”
“That’s right,” Sparky grinned, “I’d have gone after him.”
“Of course you would,” Mary agreed. “Any real man would have done just
that. There are some things in this war that can be passed up. Others
are on the must-be-done list, and that was one of them.
“But Sparky,” she leaned forward eagerly, “what comes next? When do we
cross the mountains?”
“Tomorrow morning if the mountain storm gods permit,” was his reply.
“This afternoon, however, I have a little trip to make.” He turned to
Scottie. “Do you know the road to a town called Gonagona?” he asked.
“Very well,” said Scottie, “I’ve been there several times.”
“There’s an officer over there with secret orders for us,” Sparky
explained. “It has something to do with our landing place once we are
over the mountains. I must get over there. Will you drive me?”
“Oh! Sure!” Scottie grinned.
“We’ll leave Mary in charge of the plane,” said Sparky. “Think you can
manage that?”
“What am I to guard it from in this wild place?” Mary asked. “The
Monkeys of the Snows or something?”
“You never can tell,” Sparky did not smile. “And, by the way, there’s a
one-legged Chinese boy who will help you out in a pinch. He has a
sub-machine gun that someone loaned him. It’s a businesslike affair and
I shouldn’t wonder if he could shoot it. He’s looking for a low-flying
Zero plane. Perhaps you can find one for him. He calls himself Hop
Sing. Sometimes he hops and sometimes he sings.”
“He sounds interesting,” said Mary. “Please tell him to come around.”
A half hour later Sparky and Scottie motored away, leaving Mary seated
on a fallen palm tree at the edge of the narrow airfield.
Mary dreamed of many things, of wide, black waters, sifting desert
sands, glorious dances in Egypt, Persian gardens, and many more. But
suddenly she was startled from her dreaming by a high-pitched voice
saying;
“You are the so beautiful flying lady and I am Hop Sing. Me, I got
machine gun. Many times practice.” Aiming the gun at a tree the Chinese
boy seemed about to mow it down but, instead, merely clicked his gun.
“Can shoot very well. Come Zero plane, flying very low, I show you
plenty.”
“I’m glad to see you, Hop Sing.” She slid down from her log. “You’ll
protect me from the monkeys, won’t you?” she added with a laugh.
“Monkeys not hurt white lady,” was his laughing reply. “Only monkeys
wearing glasses, they hurt white lady, but _not_ hurt white lady. Me, I
shoot them, all-a-same them shoot me.”
Mary took to Hop Sing at once. She enjoyed his happy, squirrel-like
chatter. He told her many amusing stories of the war, how his people
had learned to trick the Japs and lead them away from their goals, how
they had hidden their food to return for it and so save their own
lives. He told her too of things that made her blood run cold.
“How can you be so happy when such terrible things are going on?” she
asked.
“No happy, bye-um-bye dead, that’s all,” was his way of saying that
happiness, come what may, is a human necessity.
After a time Hop Sing wandered away. Taking a seat on the plane’s right
wing, Mary sat dreaming in the bright tropical sunlight until, with
startling suddenness a powerful twin-motored plane appearing to come
from nowhere circled once then swept down upon the field.
The plane came to a halt not thirty paces from where she sat.
Immediately four big men in officers’ uniforms leaped from the plane.
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[Illustration: _A Powerful Plane Swept Down Upon the Field_]
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“This the plane that arrived today from Calcutta?” The younger of the
four pointed at Sparky’s plane.
“I wouldn’t know.” There was something about these men that Mary didn’t
like. She was thinking, ‘What’s this’?
“Where is this plane’s pilot?” the man demanded.
“I don’t know.”
“See here!” The man took a step forward. “We just came over the
mountains from China. We were sent to pick up the cargo of that plane.”
“It is imperative that we have it at once.” An older man took up the
story. Mary did not like his accent. He certainly did not come from
America. “There has been far too much delay,” the man went on. “Bah! A
woman for a co-pilot. What can you expect?”
“We are to take off that cargo at once,” said the younger man.
“And fly it to China,” the other added.
Mary, who had been studying their plane, made no reply.
“Well?” The younger man took a step forward. Mary backed away, then
stood her ground.
A great silence had fallen over the jungle. From far away came the
scream of a parrot. Mary’s low-spoken words scarcely broke the silence:
“I have orders to guard this plane until the man who flies it returns.
He’ll be back in a half hour. If you’ve come from China you might like
a cup of coffee.”
“Preposterous!” The older man’s face purpled.
The younger man took another step forward but this time Mary did not
retreat. She just stood there looking him squarely in the eye as she
said, “Why so preposterous? What does this mean, your swooping down
like this? I haven’t been long in the Orient and I’m only a girl but
all this seems strange and,—irregular.”
“Irregular!” the older man stormed. “You can’t run a war in this
country in what you call a regular way. You must sometimes act in a
hurry. China cannot wait, so please step aside.”
“I am remaining where I am,” she declared stoutly. “Anyway, I don’t
have the key to the plane. I may be right, then again I may be wrong.
If I am wrong, I may lose my wings but you’ll have to come and take me
if you want the cargo of this plane.” Outwardly Mary was calm but
inside, she was all atremble.
The younger man’s lips twitched. “Such stupidity!” he muttered, as his
hand slipped toward a something that showed black beneath his belt.
Mary trembled but did not move.
At that instant there came a sound from behind the plane. “Who can that
be?” Mary asked herself. Her heart gave a great leap as she heard a
thin voice say:
“I got me a tommy gun. I can shoot him very good. Wanna see?”
Before Mary could stop him Hop Sing sent out a burst of fire that
burned the air above the four men’s heads.
“You little Chinese rat,” the older man stormed. “You—” He broke off
short. The gleam in Hop Sing’s eyes at that moment was a terrible thing
to see.
Hop Sing’s burst of gunfire, following as it did the arrival of an
unidentified airplane, brought a score of officers, soldiers, and
mechanics rushing to the scene.
“What’s all this?” Captain Noble, the officer in charge of the field,
demanded.
“Well, sir,” said Mary, forgetting to salute, “these men say they’re
from China. They say they have orders to take the cargo from Sparky’s
plane.”
“Let’s see your orders,” the Captain said, turning to the four men.
“Certainly, Captain.” The younger of the four drew a sheath of papers
from his pocket. “Here they are, Captain.” He shot Mary an ugly look.
“Oh! Boy!” Mary thought. “If I’m wrong, I’ll be washed out of this
man’s Army, just like that—”
“Hm!” said the Captain. “Papers seem all in order. Suppose you’d like a
cup of coffee before you start back?”
“There’s not much time—we—” The younger man frowned.
“Time enough for a cup of coffee.” The Captain’s smile was disarming.
“Are you guarding the plane?” he asked Mary.
“Yes, I—I and Hop Sing.” She nodded toward the Chinese boy.
“Unlock the cabin and start unloading the cargo. These boys will help
you.” The Captain nodded to the group of mechanics.
Mary’s heart sank. Then she remembered something. “The cabin’s locked,”
she said quietly. “Sparky has the key.”
“Where is Sparky? Oh, yes, he went to see the Major. I’m afraid we
can’t do a thing until the pilot returns.” The Captain smiled once
again.
“Break the lock,” the older man snarled.
“You know that cannot be done.” The Captain did not smile.
At a slight nod from the younger men, the four moved toward the plane
that had brought them.
Oddly enough, with just no orders at all, but with guns ready for
action, the soldiers of the Captain’s squad lined up in front of that
plane.
“I think,” the younger of the four licked his lips, “we’ll accept your
offer of hospitality.”
Ten minutes later, when Sparky returned, he went at once into a huddle
with the Captain.
A half hour later the four men returned to their plane but four armed
doughboys went there with them. The Captain and a co-pilot took charge
of the plane.
“Mary, you’re a wonder!” Sparky exclaimed as that plane climbed the sky.
“Who are they?” she asked in a whisper.
“That,” said Sparky, “is a military secret.”
“Where are they going?” she asked.
“I don’t exactly know.” Sparky smiled. “One thing I’m sure of, and that
is they won’t come back.”
“One thing still puzzles me,” said Mary.
“What’s that,” Sparky asked.
“Why did the Captain order me to open the plane’s cabin door for those
men?”
“Perhaps he knew you didn’t have the key. Then again he may have known
you wouldn’t use it if you did have it. Either way he was right. What
he wanted was to avoid any shooting, and he got that. I wouldn’t trade
you and Hop Sing for four Lieutenant Colonels and a General,” Sparky
laughed. “And you’re both going with us to China.”
“That,” said Mary, “will be swell!”
Later that day when they were together once more, Sparky and Mary
lingered long over their tea in a little place run by a friend of Hop
Sing.
When Mary had told her story all over again, Sparky’s admiration for
his co-pilot was greater than ever before.
“Listen!” She held up her hand. The air was filled with sound.
“The bombers are here,” he said.
“And that means—”
“That we go over the mountains tomorrow providing the storm gods smile.”
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