Munson turned and walked away. Stan and Allison went along with O’Malley to deliver the prisoners.
“You sure hit the bull’s-eye when you cracked down on him,” Stan said to Allison.
Allison frowned. “He gave himself away all right. Now we know how to handle him.” He turned to O’Malley. “What made you lie there on the ground as though you were dead? You had me fooled.”
“I figgered I’d better play possum. With the sky full o’ Japs, one of them might have come down an’ peppered me,” O’Malley answered.
“And where did you meet your friends, the Japs?” Stan asked.
“I saw them crawl out of a bomber and I followed them,” O’Malley sighed. “An’ did I work up an appetite walking all that way! Let’s get rid of these birds and go eat.”
CHAPTER V
RESCUE MISSION
The city of Rangoon lies east of the delta of the Irrawaddy River. A hundred miles further east, the great, sluggish Salween River flows into the ocean. Beyond the Salween lies Thailand. From Rangoon, a railroad runs due north to Mandalay and then northeast to Lashio. Out of Lashio runs the famous Burma Road. It swings north through a narrow strip of Burma, then twists up and over wild mountain country belonging to China. Making a wide circle which bends southward, it ends at Chungking, capital of China.
The Flying Tigers were the guardians of Rangoon where the big ships docked and unloaded supplies for the Chinese armies. They were roving guards of the railroad and of the truck road over the mountains. With their P–40’s, they wove a wall the Japanese could not see and one they could not cross.