Battle Cry - Leon Uris [209]
LW V JAS. LW V JAS. LW V JAS: JAPS ESCAPING PAST US ON NORTH END OF NELLIE K.
“Ask how many. Marion, get the skipper up,” I said.
JAS V LW: HOW MANY K.
LW V JAS: APPEAR TO BE SEVERAL HUNDRED K.
Marion stumbled back with Huxley. “What’s the scoop?” he asked.
“The Japs are moving past Jasco on Nellie. They say several hundred of them.”
The whole camp was now propped up on one groggy elbow.
“Tell them to lay low and not to try anything,” Huxley said.
“Crank the generator, Mac,” Danny said.
JAS V LW: DO NOT CONTACT ENEMY. STAND BY K.
Danny flicked the receiving switches as Marion held the flashlight close to the message pad. There was a deathly silence in the black night. Danny reached for the dials and gently moved them to catch an answering signal. He turned his face to me.
“Better send that last one over,” I said, turning the generator.
JAS V LW: DO YOU READ ME, DO YOU READ ME K K K.
“Maybe they had to quiet down. Their generator would have attracted the Japs,” I said.
“Hold it!” Danny crouched over the message pad.
LW V JAS: WE HAVE BEEN…
The message broke. Danny dropped his pencil and we all breathed deeply.
“They’ve been attacked,” Marion whispered.
“There is nothing we can do,” Huxley said. “Let’s get some sleep.”
The new day found me achingly stiff but well slept out. I fought into my socks which were still damp from yesterday’s wading. I had no fresh change along.
The squad huddled around the radio as we ripped off the wax carton tops and dug in for breakfast. There was no time for a fire to warm the coffee so the black dynamite would have to go down cold.
“I hear the Jasco squad got wiped out last night,” Andy said.
“We couldn’t get them this morning. It don’t look good.”
“Gimme a cigarette.”
“Whatsamatter, you white men never carry your own weeds.”
“Butts on that smoke.”
“Butts on them there butts, cousin.”
“I don’t like the smell of this whole shebang. The atoll is wide open for a counterattack from the Marshalls. What’s to keep them from coming down after us?”
“What about it, Marion?”
“Counterattack seems rather unlikely but, of course, it can’t be ruled out.”
“See, what did I tell you? Even Marion says it’s possible.”
“I doubt if the Japs are in condition to counterattack. We are attacking too many places at the same time,” Marion continued. “If they move out of the Marshalls to hit us, they’ll leave the door wide open for the First or the new Fourth Division.”
“What makes you so smart?”
“I can read.”
“Maybe if we get them on the run we’ll have a clear field to Tokyo,” Speedy said. “I hear that Henry Ford is giving ten thousand dollars to the first Gyrene that sets foot on the Jap mainland.”
“Don’t discount your enemy,” Marion said. “You should see by now that they can fight.”
“Yeah, they’re a bunch of crazy bastards.”
Burnside growled into the session. “Hey, Mac, you bastards going to sit here all day? Crack down the radio. Captain Whistler’s already got Easy Company reconnoitering up ahead.”
“I hear we’re going to run into some native villages today,” Levin said, getting up and starting to break down the radio.
“Should be educational,” Marion said.
“I wonder if them broads go to the post?”
“I see,” Marion said, going to Levin’s assistance, “that the conversation is beginning to hit its usual high intellectual level. Excuse me.”
“Hey, Mary, wait a minute. Give us the word on the gooks?”
“Yeah, what about these Gilbertese?”
“According to the Encyclopedia…” Marion began.
“Listen at him, would you, listen at him,” Levin said in awe.
“According to the Encyclopedia,” Marion continued, unruffled, “we are in Micronesia. It is one of the three major groups of island people in the Pacific Ocean. The other two are Melanesia and Polynesia.”
“Owi, is he clugg.”
“Skip all the