The Ely miner., 1941-03-20

the distant hum of this new men,
ace.
Boil broke out the glass win
dows of his station wagon with the
butt Of his automatic. He thrust
his head out and peered into the
sky. Planes were circling overhead
like so many mad wasps waiting the
instant Of better visibility. There
was not long to wait As night shed
its last veil, the war falcons swooped
one at time to pluck the little
caravan to bits with their talons Of
steel.
Men N the trucks opened fire with
their rifles. But the attacking planes
few with the speed of the wind. They
dashed low, pumping bullets from
hot machine guns, releasing their
fragmentation bombs, and In twin
king were gone. Then back they
came, one at a time at irregular
intervals, to plaster the road with
their fury.
Overhead the flock was growing.
Fourteen planes, he estimated. Two
squadrons, force enough to tear him
to pieces bit by bit unless miracles
of good fortune and bad marksman-
ship attended him along the red
course to the Nueces. Inevitably,
dropping down time after time with
out other hindrance than the ran
dom fire Of his rifemen, the air.
men would take their relentless toll.
A truck went out, the third one
back from Boil. It cracked up
across the road under impact of a
bomb. The driver slumped dead
ID his seat. Men piled out and be-
gan scattering out of the storm Boil
stopped his car, ran back to straight
en- out the snarl.
Three planes zoomed down his col
umn, knifng the road. He saw two
of his men fall. He gave instruc-
tions to sergeant and two corpo-
rails. They were to pass word down
the column. Hereafter stricken
trucks were to be showed to the
side Of the road, survivors and
wounded distributed to other trucks
as they passed along. All were to
act promptly on their own initiative.
Boil ran back to his station wagon.
leaped II. The car was vibrating
with the gentle motion of idling mo-
tors.
A shout went up from the men
N Bou's truck. A plane crashed
out of the sky and whanged into
the gray earth. 1t burst instantly
into flames. BolPs rihemen had
claimed another bird In this unequal
clash. But the next instant brought
red retaliation Another truck nosed
off the road In a crush of wounded
men and dead. Boil saw the sur
vivors act promptly to extricate
themselves, gather up the manned
and flag down succeeding vehicles.
The village of Encinal flashed by.
Boil shook his head and swore biz.
terly. Encinal told him that he had
little more than started on his long.
desperate run Next would come
Artesia Wells, which would be httle
more than halfway to the Nueces.
He looked at his watch and saw
the hour was short of six o'clock. He
groaned and passed a tormented
hand across his face. Misgivings
struck him of making It through.
His mind made hasty calculation.
At their rate of kill, those vultures
would tear his column to pieces be-
fore he could run under the dubious
cover ahead.
Decision snapped IN his mind as
he saw a new fight swarming into
the fight. The birdmen were travel
ing high, but heading straight into
the conflict.
More than twenty more planes he
guessed IN the daze of tragic dis
covery. His eye raced over the ter
rain. There were mesquite, juniper
thickets, some rugged dwarf pine.
Scattered, his men would have
refuge until Van Hassek's columns
wheeled up.
He roared an order to stop the
truck and leaped to the ground. The
unwuunded men with him he IN
structed to keep UP their rife fire.
Standing beside the road he sinaled
a halt, motioned the command to de-
truck
lTO RE COvTTNTTFDl