“Can’t tell—me. I go see. Mebby quick find somebody who live here, then quick find out.”
The stump-stump of Hop Sing’s crutch faded into the distance. After that, by the plane, for quite some time there was silence.
“Sparky, I’m tired,” Mary said at last. “I hope we can get to the end of our trip soon.”
“Don’t hope too much,” he cautioned. “We wandered about in the sky a long time and that storm may really have taken us places before it let us down.”
The darkness was something to brood about. The big plane loomed like a shadow above them. It seemed a long time before they again heard the stump-stump of Hop Sing’s crutch. As it came closer Mary became conscious of another sound. It was like the wind rustling through dry leaves. Or was it a shuffling sound?
Before she knew it she found herself surrounded by silent, shadowy forms and Hop Sing was talking in a hoarse whisper to Sparky.
Hop Sing’s report was both astonishing and terrifying. They were twenty miles behind the Jap lines. The road on which they had landed ran parallel to the lines. That was why on a dark night like this there was no traffic. Men, ammunition and supplies going to the front traveled a road, some fifteen miles away, a road that crossed this one.
The shadowy forms about them were Chinese, men, women, and children. These astonishing people had hidden in the mountains until the battle lines had swept over them. Now, still hiding in holes and cellars, they were back near their homes.
“Most surprising of all,” Sparky whispered to Mary, “a half mile down this road, and off to one side, there is a small airfield.”
“An airfield! Didn’t the Japs destroy it? Or do they use it?”