CHAPTER XVIII
The Lady Barber Quartette
The following morning when just before dawn Gale and Jan wound in and out among the trees of the Secret Forest on their way to work, it seemed as if they were in another world. Where yesterday only moss and ferns could be seen, tents had blossomed in abundance. Beside these stood tanks and trucks.
Here and there they passed sleepy sentries. These saluted them with a wave and a friendly smile.
“They like us!” Jan exclaimed. “Golly! Ain’t that swell!”
“It’s your figure they like,” Gale laughed.
“Yeah—sure,” Jan agreed. “Fine and sturdy.” You couldn’t get Jan’s goat.
Further on they passed a portable kitchen that gave off pungent odors of burning wood, frying ham and brewing coffee.
“Hmm!” Jan sniffed. “Good old Virginia hickory-smoked ham! Let’s stop for breakfast!”
“You’ll have toast, and coffee from a bottle, same as usual,” Gale replied grimly. “This is the most important day of our lives thus far. Think what it would mean if a big formation of enemy bombers flew over and dropped their hate on all this.” She swung her arms wide.
Despite her fears, Gale passed a quiet day in her hideout on the ridge. Twice she thought she had picked up the scent of a wolf-pack of enemy planes coming her way, but both times the scent faded and she knew that her fears were not well founded.