As if reading her thoughts, the colonel pointed down at the ocean of treetops.
“Nature has been kind to us,” he said. “All that you see in the foreground is tops of giant trees. Beneath these trees lies an extended plateau. In secret, working day and night, we have cut away brush and small trees. In this way we have prepared a vast temple for the gods of war.”
“The secret forest,” Gale murmured, charmed and thrilled by the thought.
“You might call it that,” the Colonel agreed. “Roads have been laid out in every direction,” he went on. “Roads and airplane runways. Some of these runways are miles long. Because of this, airplanes based at the center of the forest may race away to spring up at the enemy far from their base.”
“Wonderful!” Gale murmured. “Those, I suppose, are the planes I heard in the night.”
“That’s right,” the colonel agreed. “There has been some fighting in the air. The Japs think we are up to something, but don’t know what. They send over scout planes and some bombers that do no harm.”
“Golly! You HAVE been up to something!” Jan exclaimed. “Think of making all those roads through the jungle!”
“Up to something!” the colonel exclaimed, “I’ll say we’ve been up to something! As the days go by you’ll realize it more and more.
“Just now,” his voice dropped—“What I want most of all is to impress you with the importance of your work here. You,”—he placed a hand on Gale’s shoulder, “Are to be the guardian angel of the army.”
“An angel?” Gale gasped. “Well, hardly that, colonel.”