The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-11-12
CHAPTER VI

AS Judy AlcotC walked out OI the Coronado Hotel, with the memory of Marvel Hastings white face and narrowed green eyes throbbing in- side her, she thought slowly, T ought to hate her. But I don't. l feel sorry for her. She's in love with him, and she's so unsure
 But remembering what Marvel had flung at her, in that cool, ar rogant voice, she flushed. You're in love with him." It hadn't taken Marvel long to see that. Because she was jealous. Jealous, and un- sure.
 Judy drove home slowly. Dwight was out at sea now. She thought of white wakes, boiling astern. Of gray ships riding the high seas in a proud battle line. She thought of planes drolling down 8 carriers deck. A signal and they were whirling aloft. Facing the sky, sharing in a vast, mcomprehen- sible job that no woman could ever wholly understand. 'Even their ships," she said to herself, "are better friends, more to be trusted, than their wives ;" And it hurt, but it was true.
 The ships came back in four days. Judy stood on the pier, watching the liberty boats put in- to the water. How many times she had seen them like this, glid- ing smoothly into the harbor, dropping anchor, announcing proud ly that the job was done. What job? She didn't know. It didn't matter.
 She went back to her car and sat quietly while streams of en- listed men poured into the waiting town. Up Broadway they went, swaggering little, tanned and young and muscular. Sailor boys. And there were women waiting for them too. Wives and sweet hearts. Judy wondered, suddenly, if the most blondined. the most raucous little dance hall girl could have put on a worse show of tenn per than the expensively groomed, Superbly finished Marvel Hastings had done.
 She stepped on the starter. It had been a mistake, coming down here. She ought to wait at home for Dwight. He'd come. But when she got home. she found Jack Hanley. She had not seen him since that night aboard the battleship, when they had quarreled. He had not telephoned. She had felt humili- ated because she knew that he must have heard Dwight was go- ing to marry rich girl from the east; and so he had known that Judy had lied to him. But de- spite her consciousness that their next meeting would be embar- rassing, she had missed him in a curious fashion. She had come to depend so much on those casual evenings when he dropped around and they danced to the radio or sat on the porch, idly talking.
 So now she was glad to see him, and yet intermingled with her gladness was the memory of that lie. She wondered if he would refer to it. But he did not. He only said, Hello, Judy" and she said, Hello. You look all in!"
 He did. He was tired. It was in the suddenly deep lines of his face; in the eyes that looked worn and heavy; in the way his long legs sprawled out.
 She said, Flown 8 good many weary miles?" and he grunted. Then she asked him how the four days at sea had gone. He said, Some little whin of the ad- miraPs. Working out a pet mo- tion, or something. Not regular maneuvers, but the battleships had target practice, and we had scouting and meeting the patrol boats and all that"
 Yet the look on his face meant more than mere routine flights. There was more to it than that. She asked swiftly, "Casualties?"
 One" he admitted reluctantly.
 He told her that a light fighter of the Enterprise, spiraling into the clouds, had some way gotten into trouble. Not engine trouble, for the mechanics checked the ships too carefully before each flight. Maybe he got rattled. He never did fly into formation" He had nose dived, spinning into the sea, and one of the big flying boats had come down on the choppy water to render assist ance."
 "Only," he said carefully, not looking at her, Tt was too late"
 She licked her suddenly dry lips. "Who was it? Anyone I know?"
 "No. It was a kid recently transferred from Pensacola"
 That meant he had not been fly ing long. She felt little sick. There were not so many casualties now as there used to be, her father said, proudly. The navy was building some real flyers. But there were enough so that you couldn't ever forget the bravery of men who flew. Enough so that Jack must have