Evening star., 1939-06-11


thing you may have to live with, day after day
- there is only one thing you can do.
That is to make your legs carry you out to
face the thing you fear to meet it under Cir
cumstanCes allowing no retreat. If it kills you
then. you die with honor. And professional
fighting man can ask no better way to die.
So. Lieutenant Bart Forrest stripped and
pulled on pair Of swimming trunks, and the
Navy doctor pressed the cold disk Of his
stethosCope against Forests chest There was
tumult in the lieutenant's heart which went
far beyond fear he hated himself for trembling.
"All right" the doctor said at length He
stood back and eyed Bart Forrest suspiciously
Your respiratory passages are clear, but your
pulse rate is fast and little irregular. Heart
bothered you any lately, Lieutenant"
Bart Forrest said no, because medical
science doesn't recognize what is known as a
broken heart.
Been running?'
Il was in hurry to get over here" the
lieutenant lied mo use of their having to put
two groups through the escape tank.
The junior grade lieutenant in charge of
the examining room. Ready to 60 when you
are ready, sir, he said. Bart nodded He was
as ready now as he ever would be.
They went outside The sky was warm and
blue over Pearl Harbor; the submarine escape
tower thrust up into it. hundred and twenty
hve-foot steel cylinder with its spiral outside
stair and the glassedin observation platform
ho AlopuciHa tho concrete
height of the elevator shaft reared, but no.
body went to the elevator. Nobody was going
up that way.
They were going up through hundred feet
of water, like monkeys on string. The same
way you went up buoy line from the hatch
of sunken submarine - if you were lucky.
Under the same pressure. That terrible. relent
less pressure which forced in your ear drums
and throttled your throat.
Bart Forrest had been lucky, once. although
there were times since, when he wished he
hadn't been He tried not to notice the bright
sky, because it was infinite and because the
contrast would only be more terrible IN an
other minute when the bukheads shut every
thing out. and the pressure grew, and it would
be lust like being released from a submarine
hundred feet down.
Lieutenant Forrest" 1t was the doctor.
shouting from the door: Telephone for you
He loosened4his Jaw muscles with difficulty.
Thank you, doctor I'm sorry he told the
'iaygee won't be minute.
1t couldn't be Allyne, he thought. because
she d be down at the docks to see Paul Tierney
sail on the Lurline He remembered that to-
morrow Tierney would be gone, And so,
perhaps, would the fear be gone, and there'd
be chance for him to start all over again -
But it ,cas Allyne Her voice was strained; it
reminded him of voice under pressure I've
decided to go with Paul on the Lurlne, Bart.
/ couldn't go without saying good-by.'
The tumult in his heart grew and concen-
trated into one dull, throbbing pain; he Won
dered what the doctor would think if he were
listening through his stethoscope, now. He
wanted to hurt her, but she had left him no
way, no weapon. That really very white of
you, Allyne," he said "Good-by, then.
But, Bart - he fancied there was a
catch in her voice. Just emotion. Nothing
man could pin hopes on - but you're Oft
duty, now. You could come to the dock and
say it."
He had picture of himself doing this.
Watching his wife board the Lurine with
Tierney wealthy, and suave, and to give