“I’ll take it into battle,” he shouted. “It will bring me luck. You’ll be proud of me, Isabelle, you really will!”
The tank rumbled on, and Isabelle turned aside to brush her eyes, then to exclaim to Than Shwe, “War is just what Sherman said it was.”
“What did Sherman say?” Than Shwe asked.
“He said it was hot stuff,” Isabelle laughed through her tears. “Redheads always come back,” she murmured.
And so Pete rode away to war, astride his tank, Red Dynamite, with the stem of a red rose between his teeth. And the battle that day was to be real enough. Red Dynamite was to have its turret blown clean off and Pete—well, the fortunes of war are often strange.
CHAPTER XXV
What the Drums Told
The road that led to Hell’s Half Hour grew more difficult by the hour. More than once Jan climbed out to push while Gale held the wheel. “Get along there, Jeep,” she would cry. “I’ve got a strong back and a weak mind, but we’ve just got to get through.”
When at last they reached the place marked “Impassable” on the map, they realized that the map told the truth. They were facing a stone wall up which only a human being or a donkey could climb.
“Well, old Jeep,” Jan patted her car affectionately, “you’ve done nobly. We’ll have to leave you here, but we’ll be back. At least we think we will,” she added in a sober voice.
“You take the grub-sack,” she said to Gale. “I’ll bring the stretcher we brought for Jimmie, and the blankets.” Again her strong back was to stand her in good stead.