Evening star., 1942-10-13

irrationally, as one swears at a
stone after he has stubbed his toe
on it.
Tony's Temper Short.
Tony's reactions came to be about
the same as mine. Until about the
third week he was terribly despond-
ent; after that, his stanch nature
came to life.
Tony had heritage of warm
blood; as privation began to work
on him, as it did on us all, he
showed 1t in shortneSs of temper.
Sometimes, when we all happened
to be in a jolly mood at the same
time, I jokingly congratulated him
on the vocabulary he could show
when his ire was aroused. Tony
would grin at this, little sheepish-
ly. Ordinarily, he had a sweet, shy
nature that shrank from violence
either OF action or of language.
We'll, I never liked to fight when
I was kid" Tony explained once.
But one time a fella got me cor
nered and guess I beat the hell
out Of him."
I reflected that it was good to
have these lads along. They were
young, they were inexperienced with
the sea, which had been my profess
sion for % years. They were Just
two American boys, neither with any
extraordinary advantages. One was
from farm, the other was the son
of an immigrant. They joined the
colorS to fight war which neither
had any particular equipment for,
and one day they found themselves
up In the air, hunting submarines
with a tough old chief petty officer.
And now here they were, three weeks
in little rubber float that turned
them like birds on spit beneath a
flame every rainless day. In that
time, the food and water we put
into our bellies would hardly have
sustained, for the same length of
time, the poor creatures we had
eaten. Still, beside me here, they
were stubbornly fighting off a death
that must become more certain and
more horrible every day that we
avoided it. No one yet had suggested
the easy way out. If anyone thought
OF it, he didn't let on.
Back In Missouri" Gene said,
"the peach trees bloom swell"
Il wonder how Irene's getting
along" Tony mused.
Irene was Tony's girl, back in
Youngstown. They planned to marry
when the war was over and Tony
was out of the Navy.
Prefers Irene Topic.
I considered briefly the topics be-
fore the house, peach trees in Mis-
souri, and Tony's girl in Youngstown.
I decided that I would rather hear
about anything other than peaches.
We had had Missouri peaches for
breakfast, lunch and dinner for a
week now.
She sounds like pretty intelli-
gent girl, Tony" I said.
"Yeah-she works for a doctor
now, and she's anxious to get into
some kind of war work-Red Cross
or something like that"
So we talked about Irene for a
while and indeed she must be fine
girl. Later Tony showed me some
of the poetry she wrote.
Gene was on watch and not
taking much part in the conversa- =
ton since I had lodged his favorite
subject. I was sitting in the bot
tom OF the boat; Tony was lying
down. 1t was getting to be about
that time of day when the equatorial
sun seemed to take on positive
malevolence, drying up our spirits
and making the mere effort of talk
ing an exertion to be avoided If
possible.
Suddenly Tony sat up.
Il feel coconut," he said.
Gene and 1 watched him stupidity.
Il feel a coconut" statement
didn't make sense. Was Tony imag-
ining things?
Didn't you hear me? I felt a
coconut bump me under the bottom
of the boat"
That was different!
I jumped up and looked over the
side. Sure enough, there was Coco
nut bobbing just out of reach in
the water.
Get it!' Gene said.
The water-soaked shell looked
slick, so 1 didn't try to grab it.
Instead I dived over the side, caught
the nut and heaved it back into the
raft. The boys put the nut down
carefully and helped me back
aboard.
Il felt something bump me on
the back, see" Tony said, elated,
"and the first thing 1 thought of
was coconut"
The thick, flbrous outer husk had
begun to rot-evidently the coconut
had been in water long time. How
ever, the shell was still intact: it
acted as float and at the same
time kept most of the salt water
from the nut itself, which reposed
Snugly within.
Soaked as it was, the outer shell
was easy to remove. I pulled it off
strip at time, with the pliers.
Then took piece of metal from
the defunct pistol and punched q
hole in the eye. First 1 tasted milk
inside to see if it was fit to drink.
1t was little brackish, but not too
bad.
passed the nut around and each
of us took turn until the milk was
all gone. Warm and brackish as it
was, the drink was refreshing after
our long diet of nothing.
After we drank the milk we
cracked the nut open and divided it.
The meat made a fairly substantial
meal, by our easy standards.
1t was particularly fortunate that
we had come upon coconut, for
our systems needed oil. Twenty
one days in the sun of the tropics
had boiled the moisture from our
bodies and our skins were dry as
parchment. I felt as If I had been
f1ayed.
Continued tomorrow.
tcoprisht, 1912. by Henry Holt & Co., Inc
Distributed by King Features, Inc.)