His announcement brought a stir from the passengers, who rose to their feet, waving to the approaching Marines wading out in the water toward them.
Of course, all of the occupants of the motor transport were overjoyed at the sight of the rescuers. For an entire afternoon, they had sat hunched together in an open truck, helpless victims of all sorts of insects and a boiling sun. The arrival of Lefty and the others was gratefully welcomed by everyone though not near as enthusiastically as by Elinor who sighted Phelps the minute he jumped from the driver’s seat.
Lefty was the first to reach the imbedded transport, and as he looked up at the marooned sergeant who sat slouched in his seat with his feet perched up on the driving wheel, puffing away indifferently upon the butt of a cigarette, he asked, “What’s the matter, soldier, are you stuck?”
The sergeant gazed down at his questioner with a cutting look of disgust, then partaking of one last, long puff on his cigarette, shook his head and replied sarcastically, “Naw, stupid, we ain’t stuck! I just drove Emma out here to teach her how to swim!”
“Well, you didn’t seem to teach her much,” Lefty replied, assuming a serious expression.
“Oh, we was gettin’ on dandy,” the sergeant explained ironically, “but you know how these women are! When we came this far, the old gal got an inferiority complex and wouldn’t budge!”
Lefty reached down and splashed some water over the Marine in the driver’s seat who made no attempt to avoid the barrage. The men in the water looked up at the nurses, anxiously waiting on the truck to be carried across to the opposite shore.
They walked around to the rear of the transport, forming a line, with the idea that each man was to take a waiting nurse.
Elinor felt her heart heat faster, and breathlessly she waited for an acknowledgment from Lefty who, up to this time, hadn’t seen her. She saw that he was the third in line so she stepped back, allowing the two girls behind her to come forward, thus assuring herself that no one would carry her across but Lefty.
The first Marine stepped up and with arms extended, called to the waiting nurse who was now first in line: “Allee-oop, baby!”