“All right. Stick around and try it,” Mac challenged. “Or else climb into this jeep.”
Gale capitulated. She and Jimmie climbed in and they rattled away. But even as she rode through the shadows, Gale could close her eyes and see the tall, stately figure of that woman in purple.
CHAPTER X
My Destination Is Tokio
Mac found three of his weary comrades waiting patiently for his return to the parking space. Like Mac, they had their billets in the city and hoped for a ride in. They got it, too, for Jimmie volunteered to ride with Gale in her jeep. Since a jeep is one of those vest pocket sized imitations of a real car, whose front seat is comfortably and delightfully crowded by two people, this was no great sacrifice on Jimmie’s part.
“Chums for a night,” he murmured as he slipped into his place and the jeep went gliding away. “That’s war for you!” he mused. “You are here today, and away tomorrow, and tomorrow may be your last day on earth.”
“So you live that day as if it were your last, with all the excitement and happiness you can pick into it,” was Gale’s comment on war and life.
“Happiness, yes. Loads of it!” he agreed. “Excitement? Well, I don’t know. At least, if you still hope to stretch that day into several more—and who doesn’t?—you don’t go out and make a fool of yourself, get drunk, and all that.”
“I should hope not!” she exclaimed. “Not if you are a flyer. I’ve heard that high octane gas and alcohol don’t mix.”
“You’re darn tootin’, they don’t,” he exclaimed. “I’ve seen it tried, but the fellow who tried it didn’t come back to tell us how it worked. He saw two zeroes and thought they were only one.
“But say!” his voice dropped. “I’ve just got one more day in the city,—a day and a night, and then I’m off on a dangerous mission—big four-motored job, loaded to the top with bombs, little gifts for the little brown devils. How about you and me having a night off together?”