the zeros, it seemed, were engaged elsewhere. when jack and stew emerged from their cloud none were in sight, nor were the islands that stew had seen.
“a rain squall has hidden the islands. they’re there, all the same,” stew insisted.
“it’s our only chance.” in vain jack tried to get more power from his disabled motor. it coughed, sputtered—all but died—then carried on.
heading due east, he started to climb. he had gained a thousand feet or more when he began losing again.
“look over your parachute,” he said to stew. “be sure you can get hold of our rubber raft at a second’s notice. this motor may die at any moment.”
“it’s all done,” said stew. “all in order. let’s have a look at your chute.” he worked over jack’s chute and harness. “it’s okay. be sure to pull the cord,” he joked. “that’s always a necessity, you know.”
35
“sure i know,” jack’s voice was cheerful. “i’m glad we got our job done before this thing happened.”
“the sea’s fairly smooth. we’ll get on. some kind of a bird will light on us. they always do—booby, gull—something.”
“sure, they light on anything that stands out above the water.” jack set his ship climbing again. they were inside the rain squall. from not too far away came the sound of sudden battle.
“zeros and our fighters have tangled.” stew became tremendously excited. “boy! this is going to be terrific! wish we could see it!”
“like taking in a world-series game from behind a high board fence,” jack agreed. “but leave it to our bombers!”
“they’re sure good! they took that other carrier we discovered a week ago.”
“they’re tops, those bombers!” jack had a great love for his ship and her men. “there never was a carrier like the black bee!”
the roar of bombers coming on in formation filled the air.
“they’re climbing! i can tell by the sound!” stew exclaimed. “boy! just you wait!”
36
stew all but stood up in his place while jack divided his attention between the bombers and his disabled motor.
“now!” stew exclaimed at last. “now they’re diving! listen!” he held his breath, counting “one—two—three—four—five—six—seven—”
he had reached twenty when there came a roar. “oh! too bad! that one missed!” hardly were the words out of his mouth when there came a second roar. “right on the beam! boy! oh boy!”
six bombers dumped their loads. “three connected,” was stew’s decision. “that’s a very good record.”
then all of a sudden they emerged from the screening rain squall to find themselves over a bright, blue sea. in the center of this sea, two large cargo ships and three destroyers steamed rapidly toward the east.
“oh!” stew groaned. “they’ll get away! and i have a hunch they’re the most important of all.”
for a space of seconds jack considered turning back in an effort to direct some of the bombers toward this target. “no use,” he grumbled. “we’d never make it in time.”
“besides,” stew’s voice went husky, “here come three of our torpedo bombers. they got my message after all! boy! we’re some use in the world, you and i! and we’re really going to see a show.”
37
“a grandstand seat! no high fence this time.” jack’s voice expressed his joy.
at sight of the torpedo planes the two cargo ships began zigzagging, while the destroyers darted in close to them.
like catbirds after hawks, four zeros followed the torpedo planes, but as yet were too far away to count.
“man! oh man!” jack exclaimed. “suppose those zeros come after us!”
“let them come!” stew looked to the loading of his gun. “we’ll be waiting for them. we can’t run, but we still can fight.”
two destroyers lay between the torpedo planes and the cargo ships. their pom-pom guns began throwing up shells. the boys could see them explode in mid-air. disregarding these, the torpedo pilots came sailing straight in, dropping rapidly as they approached their target.
jack held his breath as one by one they passed through shellfire. that’s dick, i imagine, he was thinking. dick, bert and phil. all swell boys!
one shell, exploding beneath the second plane, lifted it into the air, but the plane came straight on.
at just the right moment, not five hundred feet from the sea, the first plane released its “tin fish.” jack saw it hit the sea and speed away.
38
“bull’s-eye!” he shouted. but the torpedo acted strangely. it leaped into the air, then dove like a playing porpoise. at last it reached the side of a cargo ship.
“now!” stew breathed.
but there came no sound. “oh!” jack exclaimed, as he saw the torpedo speed away beyond the ship. “it went right under her! what a—”
he did not finish, for suddenly a mighty explosion fairly tore the sky.
“did you see that!” stew exclaimed. “the second torpedo took that ship right on the beam! and did she explode! must have been loaded with tnt.”
jack had not seen. what he did see was a tower of black smoke and pieces of debris falling over the sea. and he saw the second ship, attacked by the last torpedo plane, meet the same fate.
all this had happened in the space of seconds, and all the time their disabled plane was chugging its way toward three small islands that stood out like green stones set in a field of blue.
“i hope they raise chickens on those islands,” said stew.
“chickens and no japs,” jack agreed. at that moment his eyes swept the sky for the zeros. “gone,” he murmured at last. “i guess they’ve seen enough for one day.”
39
after that jack was silent for a time. he was thinking: those ships were loaded with ammunition intended for japs on some island. if they had gone through safely, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of our marines and army men might have died. we got them. a feeling of pride in a job well done, a task in which he and stew had played a large part, coursed through his being.
“we found them. the torpedo planes destroyed them,” he said aloud. at that moment he would not have traded his job as a scout for any other in the service.
but what of the attack on the jap carrier and her escort? only sound could tell them the story, for the rain squall still hid that battle from their sight.
“our radio is gone,” he said to stew. “we’re headed for an unknown island. no one will know where we are.”
“that’s right,” stew agreed soberly. “even those three torpedo planes have gone to join the attack on the carrier. we’re in the sky alone.” a strange wave of loneliness swept over him. “it may be months before we know how that battle ended.” jack nodded in the direction from which came a continuous roar of motors, machine-gun fire, bursting shells, and exploding bombs. “we’re on our own, and i don’t mean maybe!”
