The McDowell times. [volume] (Keystone, W. Va.) 1904-1941, 1941-02-21
CHAPTER VII-Continued.

CHAPTER VII-Continued.
Hysteria was spreading. Thou
sands were fleeing the city in taxi
cabs and private cars. Cavalry was
ordered into the city from Fort My
er to help police clear masses Of
people who flooded the parks de-
spite frantic radio warnings that
crowding up was dangerous.
Benning dismissed all thought of
trying again tonight for the Van Has
SEX spies.
A finger of light leaped into the
air across the Potomac. Benning
went tense as he saw the restless
movement into the skies Of that omi-
nous beam.
Another bolt of light shot up, the
sky filled with those long remnants
rising from the Sperry drums, driv-
en- upwards with the intensity of the
thousand million candlepower. The
bark of a cannon crept across the
river. 1t told Benning that the lights
had picked up an enemy craft within
their six thousand yards range of
observation. Other cannon barked.
The three-inch guns were driving at
the skies.
Grimly he lifted his wrist close
to his eyes and strained at the lumi-
nous dial of his wrist watch.
Thirty racking seconds licked by.
Forty. Benning braced himself, wet
his lips, his hand was stricken by
an ague. Through the crackle of
artillery he caught the ominous roar
of motors in the sky. At this in
slant bombs were plummeting down
ward, he reckoned, released three
thousand yards or more to the south
west of Washington while the planes
flashed toward the city.
A vivid yellowish sheet of light
winked over the city, low against
the earth. In the next instant came
the clap of thunder as the mighty
defamation smote the city. Benning
felt the earth reel under his heels,
his ears rang with the reverberation.
Another crash, third, fourth, fifth.
The titanic wrath of the bombers
smothered all sound of the anti-air-
craft in a bedlam of volcanic fury
that filled all existence. Two more
crashes, separated by short inter
walls of time.
Silence came swiftly, a hush that
yielded no sound for several Sec
onds. Then, as his ears recovered,
Benning caught the shrill roar of
motors overhead, the sharp staccato
Of machine-gun fire. Nearby, the
crews of the so caliber antf-aircraft
machine guns were peppering away
namely. A few rounds of futile bursts
and they ceased fire. Now came
the sound of excited masses of peo-
pie.
Benning headed into Fifteenth
Street. People were running this
way and that on the heels Of hysteri-
cal, unbridled terror. Others were
massed in stricken silence gaping
into the skies. Taxicabs and auto
mobiles sped crafty in all direc-
tons. Benning saw pedestrians
bowled over by wheeled vehicles,
left laundering on the pavement.
Scattered policemen were trying to
stem the tide of panic. Sirens
screeched as ambulances and police
cars raced into the targeted area.
It was a few minutes before mid
night when Benning turned into
Pennsylvania Avenue. There was
no such thing as q taxicab in the
present disorder He walked rapid
ly on past the White House, intent
on reaching Munitions by twelve.
Bayoneted sentries paced placidly
back and forth in front of the Presi-
dents official mansion. The place
doomed solemn and tomblike in the
vague light of a quarter moon, the
somber mass Of its gray walls I'M
broken by a single lighted window.
But Benning, as he hurried on,
knew that behind those screened
windows grave conferences would
carry through the night as the heads
of government charted the desperate
course of an unready nation plunged
suddenly into war.
On reaching Colonel Flagwill's Of.
fee, Benning found the CO chief
engTossed in the verbal report of an
air service staff colonel. As near as
could be judged, the attack on Wash.
ington had been made by a single
bomber squadron of seven planes
The bombers had been accompanied
by squadron of pursuit ships. The
anti-aircraft reported no hits. and
was setting up now TO cover the city