“Well, then, let’s get busy.” She motioned her men to unload.
“We don’t have rivets,” she went on, “but we do have several sizes of copper pipes and these boys will make you the finest rivets you ever saw—any size—any length.”
That this was no idle boast the boys soon discovered, for in an incredibly short time the forge was glowing and the anvil ringing.
“I only hope those Japs don’t hear that noise.” Jack’s brow wrinkled.
“They won’t,” was Mary’s reply, “for there’s a high stone wall between them and us. But if they did, and came over here without their machine guns, we would be a match for them. My natives took their rifles from hiding. There are six of them with good rifles. And believe me, they can shoot!”
With the natives to forge out hot copper rivets of just the right size and the young airmen to hammer them into place, the work progressed rapidly.
So busy were the boys that they failed to miss Mary Brown, who had slipped away almost at once. They failed, too, to note that night was falling.
“Three more rivets,” Ted breathed, “and we’re through. What luck!”
At that instant Mary appeared at the crest of a huge rock. Without speaking, she beckoned to Jack.
When he reached her side he realized that she was greatly excited.