“Now!” she exclaimed, laughing, “the colonel can really see you. He wants to congratulate you and pin a medal on you for being the best gunner of the day.”
“Shucks! Isabelle! It was nothing!” he said with a grin. “It was just because they made me mad, blowing away my rose the way they did.
“But Isabelle,” he squared off for a good look, “you sure are one swell gal. I shouldn’t wonder if we’d have a lot of dates when we get back home. Maybe we’ll have so many we’ll just decide to move in together.”
“That,” said Isabelle, “will be just swell.” And to prove she meant it, she sealed the bargain with something better than a handshake.
After that they hunted up the colonel to collect Pete’s medal, which to Pete, considering what had happened before, was practically nothing at all. And so the war went on.
CHAPTER XXVII
The Fiery Cross
It required all the next day to bring Jimmie by slow stages down the rough mountain trail to the temple. There they were given a real treat, some rare vegetable soup, rice bread and such fruit salads as they had never tasted before.
When Jimmie had been put to rest for the night, Gale and Jan were shown to their room. There they found comfortable beds and blankets of virgin wool to keep out the night’s chill.
“Golly!” Jan exclaimed. “This is better than army life!”
It was better, Gale admitted that to herself. She was tired too. It seemed she must fall asleep at once, but she did not. The days that had just passed had been too exciting for that. Besides, within her being was a feeling of vague uneasiness. “It’s some sort of a forewarning of evil,” she told herself. “I’ve felt it before when something terrible threatened.” She had learned many strange signs and tokens from the old black mammy who cared for her as a child.