The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-06-16

distance a thunderstorm was mutt
tering as it moved toward the city.
Anyway, I'd been lightly asleep
for about an hour when a glare
awoke me. It was fashlight, held
very close--a haze of yellow light
coming through the mosquito net
ting over my face. But in this haze
I could see that the same fist which
held the fashlight also held a steel
knife, and that its point stuck down
into the yellow cone Of that fash
light. The other hand was just touch
ing the edge of my pillow.
II gave yell and dived through
that netting like a cat, but the vel
low light instantly winked out, and I
was standing there alone in the
darkness, while Jacquet rolled out
on the other side. He hadn't been
as nervous as /, and was sleeping
more deeply. But just then blue
lightning flash Lit up the room, and
by its quick glare I saw the door
into the corridor closing Il was sure
had locked it,. But when I got
out into the corridor it seemed
empty.
"Why hadn't he stabbed me? I
think because he was surprised to
find Jacquet there. One of us would
surely have been able to make an
cutlery. And I thought to myself,
We'll, stranger, for a newcomer
you're sure getting into a lot Of
things, because. you never thought
some guy you didn't know and had
never bothered would ever try to
kill you through mosquito netting in
a place called Java The brief case
was okay."
Sand the queer thing was," said
Mango, shat just at this time the
report got back to America that
Frank was dead. He'd been killed in
a flying accident in Java. I was
down in Florida by then, and the
only man I could really talk to was
Cliff Jensen, an Air Corps boy we
had known at March and Albuquer-
que, and later at Morrison Field.
"He was stationed near by, and
now was working twenty-one hours
a day for the rest Of the gang who
were fighting in Java. could real
ly talk to Cliff-we understood each
other. The runor that Frank was
dead somehow reached Australia,
and of course the Air Corps is a
small place. In few days Colonel
Truesdell in California heard it from
one Of the ferry pilots, and few
days later Cliff heard of it. He
didn't tell me, because he wasn't
quite sure, but some people thought
it had really happened.
81 could feel the difference. They
were looking at me queerly now.
They would say what a fine boy
Frank had been.' Or that they were
praying for his safe return. They
never understand. They can't see
that what you're anxious about is
not the distant future, but this very
night. Is he hungry? Must he 20
out on mission? Maybe he's been
badly hurt during the day, and you
don't know it yet.
"Praying that everything will be
all right during those weeks and
months to come scares you-it's ask
ing too much, you're afraid. You
just pray he's all right tonight, and
isn't wounded, and will get enough
sleep, SO he'll be strong and alert
and have good chance tomorrow.
You don't dare ask more.
"Also those strong plump SUM-
burned men who could leave their
business for months to lie around
on the Florida sands were very real
istic' about the war-sure it was all
a terrible mess and everything was
going to pieces, offering me lots of
sympathy. But what had any of
them ever done to get us a decent
Air Force in the past? Or what good
were they or their realism doing
anyone now? I liked Cliffs better.
He knew what the boys were I'D
against and was up half the night
trying to hurry reinforcements. Out
of the little we had (and he knew
how little), so they could hold what
they could. Cliff made sense. The
rest was a nightmare"
"When we'd first hit Java" said
Frank, 'we'd been full of the often
sive spirit-sure we were going to
roll the Japs back off the Philippines
onto Formosa with those thousand
planes which, according to rumor,
were coming within three months.
The second month was almost UP
now, Java was unsteady under our
feet, and we'd so far received about
two dozen P-40's, maybe few more
Forts than that, and seven dive
bombers. Hardly fifty planes in all.
SNOW we knew the offensive was
out for the time being. What we
prayed for was fighters-to defend
what was left of our Forts and those
beautifully camoufaged Dutch air
fields. With fighters to hold them
off, we knew we could hold Java.
"All right, suppose the Japs had
moved into Timor and cut the jugu-
1av xyoiv, froyr, A,,e - 49,