“Can you find them, sir?”
“I know what sector he’s supposed to patrol.”
“Let me go with you, sir. You might need help.”
“No. You stay here.”
Quickly Lance donned his flying gear and ran out, pulling his helmet on. When he got to the hangar, Tom Morrison looked up with a startled expression. “What’s wrong, Captain?”
“Is she gassed up?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Engine all right, Tom?”
“Why, yes, sir. All ready to go. The guns are loaded.”
Without another word Lance climbed into the Nieuport. He went through the drill of starting the engine, and when it burst into a roar, he opened the throttle. He knew there was not a second to waste, and the anger he felt toward Malone’s foolishness burned in him.
Tom Morrison watched and Revelation came over. “What’s eatin’ the captain?”
“Don’t know. Took off like the devil was after him.”
Revelation shaded his eyes with his hand. The two men were standing there watching when Jerold Spencer came over. He had a hangdog look. “Well, I guess he went after them.”
“Went after who, Lieutenant?”
“Why, Miss Hellinger. She took off with Sailor on his patrol.”
Revelation’s jaw dropped. He could not speak for a moment, then he looked heavenward and said, “Good Lord, defend them! Bring them back safe!”
Tom Morrison was as shocked as his friend. “Sailor’s got a death wish, Rev. I hope he doesn’t get his way this time. Not with Miss Jo up there with him.”
****
Lance glanced at his gas gauge and saw that he had, perhaps, enough fuel to get back to the base—perhaps not. He had crisscrossed Sector J where Malone was supposed to be, and even as he looked up and started to turn back, he caught a flicker of movement down below. He stiffened when he saw Malone’s plane being attacked by three Fokkers!
At once he put his plane into a steep dive and prayed for skill to drive the Fokkers off. He caught them unaware, sweeping down on the first one like a hawk. The pilot was so busy pumping lead into Malone, who was taking evasive action, that he never saw the Nieuport as the bullets crashed into his back, killing him instantly.
The other two planes immediately stopped firing on Malone’s plane, which was already smoking as the engine sputtered.
Lance had no time to see what was happening to Malone and Jo. The Germans were expert and fought as a team. He felt the plane shudder under his hand as bullets ripped through it, and no matter how many sharp turns he made, the Fokkers stayed right on his tail. The duel went on for some time until finally he had no ammunition left. He glanced down to see Malone’s plane headed toward a green field. Lance knew that the Fokkers would knock him out of the sky, and he did something then he had never done before. They had divided and were coming at him head on, when Lance shifted his stick sharply and headed straight for the one on his right. He could see the startled expression on the face of the German pilot as he tried to avoid the crash.
Lance was shaken as the two planes met. The undercarriage of his Nieuport racked right across the top of the Fokker, crashing through the windshield and shattering the pilot’s face. The undercarriage took off the rudder, and the Fokker began to flutter to the ground like a broken toy.
Lance had no ammunition left, and the remaining Fokker racked him fore and aft with tracers. Without warning, his engine began to sputter, and he went into a steep dive.
Lance managed to land the Nieuport, but the wheels tore off. He was thrown forward against the straps, which broke, and his head smashed into the control panel. He felt blood flow over his face and was blinded momentarily as the plane suddenly rose in the air.
Lance felt himself falling as the plane continued to cartwheel past him. He hit the ground, rolling over, as his plane landed on its back behind him.
Staggering to his feet, Lance yanked out his handkerchief and wiped the blood from his eyes. Staring wildly around he saw the observer plane with its tail sticking upright into the air. He stumbled forward and saw that it had nosed into a ditch.
“Jo, are you all right?”
“Yes. Yes, I think so. But Malone is hurt.”
Clambering up on the wing, Lance reached in and saw that Jo had suffered a few bruises and a small cut on her arm.
When she saw the blood all over his face, she cried, “Lance, you’re hurt!”
“Never mind me. You’ve got to get out of this thing. It might blow up any minute.” He had seen the streamers of vapor and then turned to Malone, but he saw at once that it was useless. A bullet had taken Malone directly in the back and another in the neck. He had died moments after the plane landed.
He pulled Jo out of the cockpit, and the two fell to the ground. “Run!” he shouted.
“But what about Sailor?”
“He’s dead. Come on, we’ve got to get out of here!”
The two staggered away, and when they were a hundred yards from the plane, it burst into a ball of yellow and white fire. The force of the explosion knocked them down. As they fell, Jo cried out, “Sailor! Oh, Sailor!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“I’ve Forgotten God . . . !”
Danielle was sitting on the floor with Gabby surrounded by dolls. The late afternoon sun poured through the window, and as the light struck Gabby’s face, Danielle thought, She looks so much like Noelle! She missed her sister desperately, and time seemed not to have done much toward healing the wound.
“Why don’t we pretend there’s a wedding, and we can dress Helen up like a bride?”
“But what will we use for a bridegroom? You don’t have any male dolls.”
“We’ll fix a costume for Jennifer. She’s sort of ugly anyway. She can be the groom.”
Fascinated by the vivid imagination of the child, Danielle entered into the world of make-believe. She watched as Gabby acted out the roles of minister, bride and groom, and even the bridesmaids. A tender smile came to Danielle’s lips, and she thought how she had come to love this child as if she were her own daughter.
“Dani, Logan is here,” Katherine Laurent said.
Getting to her feet, Danielle shot a questioning look at her mother. “Were you expecting him?”
“No. He looks troubled, but he wanted to talk to both of us.”
“You wait here, Gabby.”
“But I want to see Logan.”
“You can see him after we have our grown-up talk,” Danielle said. “You go ahead and have the wedding reception.”
Leaving Gabby in the midst of the dolls, Danielle followed her mother to the formal dining room, where Logan stood waiting. There was a stiffness in his expression that alerted Danielle, and she said quickly, “Something’s wrong! What is it, Logan?”
“It’s Lance—and Jo.”
Both women had been expecting some sort of news about Lance, but the way Logan put the statement puzzled both of them. “Has there been some sort of accident? Were they together?”
Clearing his throat, Logan said, “Jo got in an observer plane with Lieutenant Malone. It was just a routine flight, but some of it was over German territory. When Captain Winslow heard about it, he jumped into his plane and took off.”
“You think something’s wrong?”
Logan hesitated for a moment, then said in a strained voice, “I think so. They’ve been gone longer than their fuel would keep them aloft. I’m afraid they’re down.”
Danielle could not take it in for a moment. She glanced up at her mother and saw the fear that she herself felt in her mother’s eyes. Quickly she said, “But it’s not certain, is it? Do you think they’ve been shot down?”
“I think we have to face that possibility. They should have been back long ago. Of course, there could have been engine trouble,” Logan said.
“But you don’t think that’s likely, do you?” Katherine Laurent spoke slowly. “You think they’re in trouble.”
“I thought I ought
to come out and tell you,” Logan said. “I’m very worried about both of them.”
“What will you do? What can be done?” Danielle asked.
“I’m going back to the field now, and we’ll have every plane that can get in the air doing a search. I have hopes that we’ll find them. It may be they just simply ran out of fuel.” Logan knew that this was not very likely, but it was all he could think of to give a shred of comfort to the two women.
“I want to go to the field with you,” Danielle said.
“There’s nothing you can do, Dani.”
“I’m going, and don’t try to stop me.”
Logan shrugged his shoulders. “All right, but it’ll be a lonely wait.”
“I’d rather be there than here. Mother, you can take care of Gabby, can’t you?”
“Yes, but send word as soon as you find out anything.”
Logan waited until Danielle got her things. The two went out and got into the car he had commandeered from the base. He started the engine and stepped on the gas force-fully. He said no more for a time, but finally glancing over, he saw that Danielle was sitting bolt upright. She clasped a handkerchief in her hands, and she was straining at it, pulling at its corners. He said quietly, “I knew this would be a hard knock for you, Dani.”
Danielle turned around toward him and saw the muscles in his cheek were tight. “Yes, it’s very hard,” she admitted. “Of course we’re always worried about Lance, but we never thought about Jo. What possessed her to do such a thing?”
“She’s just that kind of woman. The way I understand it, she felt that she couldn’t write about the air war unless she had actually been involved in it. She asked Captain Winslow to go up, and he refused permission, so she talked Malone into it. I wish it were anyone except him.”
“Why are you worried about Malone?”
“He’s a wild man and he’s crazy. He shouldn’t have taken her.” Logan’s jaw tightened and he shook his head. “I like Sailor, but he’s just not reliable.”
When they pulled up in front of the aerodrome, Logan turned to say, “I know how you feel about Lance.”
Startled, Danielle could not speak for a moment. She felt a surge of guilt, for she had kept her feelings for Lance hidden, or so she thought. Now she saw that Logan Smith’s eyes were fixed on her, and she could not meet them. Dropping her gaze, she whispered, “I don’t know, Logan.”
“I think you do, Dani. I think you’ve been in love with Lance for a long time.”
Danielle tried to answer but faltered, “It’s . . . it’s been a strange sort of thing. Everyone thought it was just an infatuation when I was just a girl, but . . .”
When she said no more, Logan said heavily, “Well, I hope he’s all right, for your sake.” He said nothing of his own feelings, but he closed the door in his mind to any hope. She loves him and that’s it. He got out of the car and was aware that Danielle was following him. He ignored her as he met with the flight leaders, who all went to the hangar and began making their preparations for a search.
“We’ll put every plane in the air we can, won’t we?”
Cecil Lewis nodded. “We’d better do it quick. Headquarters would never permit it if they catch wind of it.”
Clive Bentley smiled faintly. “I’ll let my father take it up with the House of Lords if they give us any static. I say let’s go find them.”
Thirty minutes later the runway was filled with the sound of roaring engines, and Danielle watched as they flew off toward the front. They disappeared finally, and she turned and started to walk back with her head down to wait in the rec room.
Revelation Brown watched her and finally came over and said, “We’ve got to have faith, Miss Dani. God’s able to do all things.”
“I know, but it’s so hard—”
“Sure it’s hard, but God never offered us a bed of roses. Jesus had to go to the cross, and every one of us is called to be a soldier. Come now. Let’s believe God.”
****
“Lance, you can’t go any farther! You can scarcely walk.”
“We can get a little way. We’ve got to find some kind of shelter.” The pain was half blinding Lance, for his head had been split badly by the crash against the cockpit. He knew he needed stitches, but for now Jo had tied his scarf around his head, making a bandage that staunched the flow of blood. He stumbled suddenly and murmured, “Not seeing too well, Jo—seems to be two of everything.”
Jo had never been in a situation like this. She knew they had gone down in German territory, or very close to it. The lines changed from day to day, and she was terrified that a patrol of German soldiers would suddenly appear and capture them.
“We’ve got to get away from here,” she murmured. She turned and said, “Lance, lean on me.”
“Sorry to be such . . . a bother.”
“No. Don’t say that.” She started to apologize, to say how wrong she had been, but she knew this was not the time. She put his arm across her shoulders, and he put his weight on her and started walking toward a line of trees near the field.
Ten minutes later she stopped. Lance was panting and barely able to keep on his feet. “Look!” she said. “There’s a barn over there.”
“Is there a house?”
“I think there was. Yes, there’s a chimney, but the house has been burned.”
“We’d better get inside. I’d about as soon be shot as be captured. Of course you’d be all right. You’re a civilian, but I’d spend the rest of the war in a prison camp.”
“Come. Let’s get inside.”
She helped him, and they crossed the field that was still muddy from the rain that had fallen two days earlier. The barn had only one door, and it was sagging badly. Moving inside, she smelled the rank odor of old straw but turned to him and said, “This will do until you feel better.”
“Guess I’d better . . . sit down.”
Jo felt him lurching and led him to a pile of straw. “Here, lie down,” she said, “and close your eyes.”
Lance sank down on the straw and, to Jo’s alarm, went completely limp. “Lance!” she whispered. She bent over and asked, “Are you all right?” When he did not move, she became afraid and thought, perhaps, that he had died. But leaning closer, she put her ear almost on his lips and felt his breathing. Relief washed over her, and she sat beside him.
“I’m glad it’s not winter,” she said. She sat there for thirty minutes, and then all that had happened overwhelmed her. The horrible reality of Sailor’s death flooded her mind. She began to tremble and had a ridiculous and absurd impulse to scream at the top of her lungs and pull her hair.
She closed her eyes and drew her knees up, hugging them, and placed her face against them. She seemed to hear again the thudding of the bullets as they tore into Sailor Malone, and waves of guilt came crashing down on her.
Finally she heard the sound of crickets and a bullfrog croaking somewhere, and the nervous tremors ceased to go through her. She lay back and turned to face Lance. Reaching out, she held his arm, and then, after a time, she went to sleep.
She awoke some time later and had no idea of the time. Outside the sky was black with stars sprinkled over it. She felt Lance stir, and she sat up and tried to brush the straw out of her hair. She could see almost nothing, just a vague outline, but Lance was trying to sit up.
“Don’t try to sit up, Lance.”
“What time is it?”
“I have no idea. I’ve been asleep.”
“So have I.”
Leaning over she touched his head and said, “We’ve got to get you to a doctor.”
“That’s not very likely if we’re in German territory. I have no desire to see a German doctor. Here, I want to sit up awhile.”
Jo helped him sit up, and he scooted back until his shoulders touched the wall. Pain ran through his head like a burning knife, and he could not think clearly. His breathing was erratic, and he did not try to talk for a while.
“Lance, I think I ought to l
eave you.”
Her words came as a shock to Lance. “Leave me and do what?”
“I could make my way back through the lines and find some of our troops. Then I could bring them to help you.”
“That won’t do,” Lance said. He had to summon his strength to speak and said, “There’ll be a search party out for us. Already has been, I suppose, but there wasn’t much light. But they’ll be out again in the morning.”
“Do they know where we are?”
“They know what Malone’s patrol area was. Yes, they’ll know the general area.”
“But they can’t see us.”
“They’ll be flying low. If we hear them, we’ll just have to go out and wave. If we had a pistol or fire signals, it would help. But we don’t have either.”
“It’s bad, isn’t it, Lance? We don’t have much chance.”
“Not much.”
The air was full of the busy singing of crickets, and neither of them spoke for a while. Finally Jo said in a tight voice, “It’s all my fault, Lance. I’ve been a fool.”
“You and Sailor should have known better.”
“I don’t know if I can live with it. It’s my fault that he’s dead.”
“No. Don’t say that. He was jumped by three Fokkers. They would have got him no matter whether you were there or not.”
“Do you really mean that, or are you just saying it to make me feel better?”
“It’s true enough, but I feel sorry for the man. He had some kind of a demon driving him along. I think he was so fed up with this war that he wanted to die.”
The time ran on, and a great wave of loneliness and fear came over Jo. She moved closer and said, “I hate to be a silly, frightened woman, but I’ve got to tell you, Lance, I’m scared spitless.”
Lance suddenly found this amusing. Even in as much trouble as they were in, he found this woman sitting beside him infinitely interesting. “You’ve got a right to be. We’re not out of this yet. We could be shot for spies, or you could. I guess you’re the civilian.”
“Don’t say things like that! Somehow we’ve got to make it back. We’ve got too much to live for.”
The Flying Cavalier Page 30