"No, Red. Don't you see, all they're waiting for is an excuse to invade Thailand? Let us shoot down a single Jap 'plane tonight, and tomorrow their bombers will be over Bangkok. So—no shooting! Even if they fire on us."
"We-e-ell—" grumbled Barrett—"okay! But I think it's a hell of a way to fight a war. They bombed the Tetuila and sank the Panay, and all we got was: 'So sorry! Accidents will happen!' We're not even supposed to defend ourselves."
Ramey grinned at him; a lean, knowing grin.
"Don't you worry about that, pal. Your Uncle Samuel knows what he's doing. You and I were in the U.S. Army airforce till the bewhiskered old gentleman in the striped pants graciously permitted us to 'resign' and fly for China. But I notice our paychecks still bear Yankee signatures. And don't forget—there are a thousand more like us. Neutral soldiers of fortune, learning the ropes 'just in case.'
"But we've got to keep our noses clean tonight. Get all the pictures and information we can, but don't get in any scrapes—them's our orders. Well, where are we now?"
As they talked, Red had been deciding, as well as he could, their route on the scroll-map before him. Now he drew a dubious circle.
"Here, maybe. Or here. About Kiang-khan."
"Good enough. And nothing stirring yet, hey? Well, we'll keep looking for a few more minutes, then head back before dawn—Hey! Get a load of that! Campfires! A bivouac! Mark it, Red!"
The command was unnecessary. Barrett had also seen the encampment, scored it on his chart. But now, as the pair craned intently into the flame-dotted dark below, striving to guess the strength of the enemy outpost, there leaped to life that which startled both of them to awareness of a new peril. Searchbeams burst suddenly from the ground, snaring them in a dazzling web; floodlights blazed a golden square in the black jungle; there came the first, frantic coughs of anti-aircraft fire—phum-phum!—from invisible guns, and the biting snarl of hastily-revving motors. And:
"Get going!" roared Barrett. "We hit the jack-pot! It's an enemy airfield!"