“Look, Gale! That Jap plane is coming straight at us and no one is after it!”
The plane, a rather large Zero with a powerful motor was headed straight for them. Only a few moments before Gale had seen just such a plane drop a bomb.
“Quick!” she cried. “Get into the cellar! He’s got us spotted!”
They tumbled rather than climbed down the rocky stairs and had half way slid the steel door to their bomb shelter shut when an explosion all but over their heads seemed to tear the very side of the mountain away.
Jan reeled backward but stayed on her feet. Gale crumpled down, hit her head on the rock floor, rolled over and lay still.
“Oh! My God!” Jan exclaimed. “She must be dead! It’s the concussion! What shall I do?” Greatly excited she cried:
“Gale! Gale!”
But Gale neither moved nor answered.
CHAPTER XXI
Gale Gets Her Plane
Jan was frantic. In the air raid shelter, gas from the explosion was stifling. “I’ve got to get Gale out of here,” she told herself. She tried to move the steel door. It was jammed,—would not move—but was still half open. She was able to crowd her ample body through the opening. Outside she worked frantically removing rocks that shut away the outside air. After that she dragged the unconscious form of her companion from the cellar and up over tumbled rocks to a place in the sunshine above.