“You are right, I would. Jimmie is one of my boys, one of my best. I can’t go. The big push is on. You go. I’ll give you Jan and her jeep for transportation. Jan will drive that jeep of hers through hell and high water. You go, and God guide you.” He stood up.
“But—but I want to join you later,” she insisted.
“Oh, sure! Soon as you can,” he agreed. “We’ll be in China again. I’ll team you and Mac up again to guard my headquarters.”
“Thanks. We’ll guard it well.”
Just then an orderly announced the arrival of Than Shwe.
“Than Shwe, my child,” said the colonel as the little nurse stood in the doorway. “We march tonight. You will report here in two hours with about four times as much baggage as you carried on our retreat.”
“Oh, my colonel!” Than Shwe rushed to the old colonel and threw her arms about his neck. “I knew you would not leave me behind when the big push came!”
“Certainly not,” said the colonel, after engineering his escape from the girl’s embrace. “I would leave anyone else behind first. We went through hell and high water together.” He laughed a joyous roaring laugh.
“We waded the river for hours.” Than Shwe was laughing too. “The younger men they were too hot, too tired. They were about to drop. But you, you who are sixty, you were magnificent.
“You marched along with your Tommy-gun on your shoulder and you said, ‘What’s the matter with these young men? When I was young, if I couldn’t do this before breakfast I’d have been ashamed.’”