Eager as Gale was for a look at the scene that lay spread out beneath her window, she gladly followed the colonel’s lead in a slow, leisurely breakfast. Full well she realized that this was one of the rare moments of her life.
“It’s the lull before a storm,” she told herself. “Soon an army will come sweeping up from below. Then we at this bleak outpost will be all but forgotten.”
As she looked at the colonel sitting there drinking coffee and munching toast, she found it difficult to realize that he was a truly great man. “So simple! So kind and thoughtful of others,” ran through her mind. She wondered in a vague sort of way if all the truly great ones of this earth were not at some time simple and kind.
“Dawn must be here!” the colonel exclaimed at last. Putting down his empty cup he walked to the window and raised the shutter.
“There!” he exclaimed. “That is Burma—the land we left behind. Now we’re going back.”
“Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “Is that Burma out there?” They were looking down first on a green ocean of treetops, then upon low rows of low mountains, and after that, dim in the distance, green valleys.
“The distant hills and valleys are in Burma,” the colonel explained. “If you look closely you will discover a touch of blue here and there. Those are little patches of blue in the river down which we waded for so many hours on our retreat.”
“Oh, I wish Than Shwe were here!” Gale exclaimed.
“This would be a rare treat for her,” the colonel agreed. “Unfortunately, some wounded airmen were brought in this morning. Our little nurse will be busy.”
Gale looked at him hard, but said never a word. She wanted to know about these air battles,—wanted to be sure she would play her part in a real war.