Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1941-05-30

STAFFORD wanted to know, why
didn't you marry them both, Rusty,
and bring them down here for fly
ing honeymoon"
"Old Stafford of Life, 1 suggested
that very thing. Suzy said she
thought it would be fun to have a
step-wife, or a wife-in-law, or what
ever your husbands other legal wife
might be called. But not so easy
with Babette. The old Latin temper
ament concentrated between flashing
black eyes and flashing red finger
nails. She said no-no, a thousand
times NO! On the question of big
amy she was not a pro but definite
con. Beeeegamy, she said, is not my
idea of MARRIAGE weeeel not marry
beeeegamy! I asked her if she pre-
ferred peeeegamy, and if so she
could find some in Africa"
The photograph record had run
its noisy course an dthe needle was
scraping harshly around the center
of the disk. This gave Hutch the
reason he had been looking for to
leave the table. Try as he would he
could not shake off the picture he had
seen that morning of Mccall hurting
to his death. After "Mac", he con-
sidered Stafford and Ransome his
closest friends, but now it was i'm
possible for him to join in the spirit
of their conversation. By dinner time
he would be all right, but for the
moment he needed air and to be a
lone; so he left his friends discourse
ing earnestly on the merits of big
amy as compared with monogamy.
David walked for a short distance
down the road that ran along the full
length of the flying field into st. AL
bans. 1t was small dirt road flank
ed by trees from which leaves were
beginning to fall in the autumn
breezes. There was something a.
bout this season that always made
him homesick for America and the
family plantation in Albemarle Coun-
ty, Virginia, where Nature colored
the leaves so brightly, and man-stack
ed corn stalks just the right way so
as to make them picturesque, and
big golden pumpkins grew along the
lovely fences of split rails, mellow
ed by years under the open sky.
There was something about American
autumn that he had never found else
where, a mixture of bracing air and
nostalgia beauty as the trees put on
their gayest raiments before undress-
ing in preparation for winter. And
the smells of burning leaves and un-
derbrush, the squirrels busy storing
up food, the rustic of wind in the
drying leaves. And football memoir
les. And the hunting season was
coming. His friends would be shoot
ing down birds while he would be
shooting down-No, he must not
think of that.
The church tower of St. Adams
was plainly visible from where he
stood near the southern end of the
field. When the squadron had few
hours off duty, which was not often,
the pilots gathered in an old tavern
on the outskirts of the town and
drank modestly their half pints of
beer. One might think that after
seeing so much of each other while
on duty they would have preferred
to separate when free. But this was
not the case. They liked to stick to-
gether as much as possible. Perhaps
the reason for this was the knowledge
that, sooner or later, one by one they
would drop out of the group, but this
was never spoken of. They were wise
young men and refused to dwell on
the subject of death or take it Sc
riously.
There was an unwritten law that
pilots on duty should not go more
than fifty yards beyond the limits
of the field; so David turned and
walked back in the direction of the
hangers. An image of the girl he
had met that morning flashed into
mind. What the devil was her name?
Wendy. That was it. Wendy Bruce.
He repeated the name several times
aloud and found it to his liking.
Wendy Hutchinson. That didn't
sound so bad either. My, how he
could love a girl like that-and mar
ry her, too! But this was no time to
think about marriage, even if he
knew her better, and, more important,
if she would have him. He had very
definite ideas about leaving young
girl widows, was very much against
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