| Show Telegram Fiction v vAt A At t Last Las t M My y L Love 0 v e By y PHYLLIS MOORE G GALLAGHER CHAPTER But a second later Bill had regained his equilibrium and he ho swam swiftly toward that loose- loose rolling head still Just above the water and was conscious that two sailors from the ship were in the water too heading for that prostrate form Bill reached the aviator first wrapped one arm around his shoulder and trod water with his grim burden while one of the sailors tied a rope under the unconscious aviators aviator's arms and paddled him to the ships ship's ladder Only one of the men was in a really serious condition and Bill worked over him all night At dawn he went out wearily on r deck knowing the blond young aviator would live that if he and his staff hadn't been on board he would not be here And still later that day with the coastline of Ireland visible in the distance dim with harbor i lights the captain of the Canadian Canadian Canadian Cana Cana- dian vessel came up beside Bill Billat Billat Billat at the He said simply Were grateful Doctor Those men needed hospital care We could have given first aid but aid but that would have been all The tall Canadian paused a moment and for the first time visa I cant can't bear some of their faces when they watch the American Export boat and the clipper start westward And their talk I They talk of nothing but immigration immigration immigration im im- migration quota numbers hopelessness hopelessness hopelessness hope hope- our draft law and the plans they conc concoct Lets dont don't talk about it Jane Jim Steele s sa said a i d and closed his hand over hers Lets talk about us She withdrew her hand gently Theres nothing to say about us Jim Jane answered slow slow- ly love With a married man That ought to settle it Jane thought and Jim Steele could simply chalk her off bit as one of those things Jim Steele looked at her through the moonlight He wondered wondered wondered won won- dered if he was wrong in his snap appraisal of her The first time hed he'd seen her he had known he loved loyed her He hadn't thought beyond that just his love and his desire to m make a k e her his wife I r wouldn't tell tell everyone that he he said slowly Someone Some one might believe you And they would believe cor cor- Steele looked at her cut clear-cut as steel kept pushing her back from him She had been fighting those waves trying to get to Bill when she had awakened Awakened to a night with air air- raid sirens screaming and the sound of feet running wildly on the streets below And then thea the hideous murmur of German planes above the ack- ack ack of antiaircraft machines The noise was like the prelude to the ending of the world and Jane sat there huddled up in inthe inthe inthe the bed remembering that the desk clerk had told her where the shelter was that if she heard the siren to go straight there Jane couldn't get out of bed She was too frozen in horror to move And then as hs quickly as the violent noise had begun it had ceased It was was noon when Jane reached London and her heart stirred in anger at what she saw Workmen Workmen Workmen Work Work- men were busy clearing out rubble rubble rubble rub rub- ble and putting damaged buildIngs buildings buildings build build- ings back together again But there were buildings too buildings too many of them them that that could not be put together again until after the war The government needed cement bricks and steel too badly badly badly bad bad- ly for the work to be done now The British driver of the car told Jane that when the war was over England would probably have the greatest real estate boom in the history of the world Jane Sees Bill BillS Stanley S Again Jane looked out of the car window They had drawn up before a a. scarred bomb-scarred building across which was the placard British Red Cross Headquarters She said Wait Walt for me will you I report here but I dont don't know exactly where Ill I'll be sent Jane hurried into the building and a little while later she came out and handed the driver a slip lip lipof of paper Im to report to this address she said and climbed back into the car A few moments later the Daimler drew up before St St. Anthony's Anthonys Anthonys Anthony's Anthonys Anthony's An An- thony's hospital and Janes Jane's hand flew to her throat The main part of the building was still standing but the right and left win wings s were mere shattered shatter d brick walls with windows as black and grim as blind eyes St. St Anthonys Anthony's acted as a buffer buffer buffer fer so as not to interfere with the more serious urgent major surgical work of the hospitals It meant too that the unit she was joining was perhaps a mobile mobile mobile mo mo- bile unit with stretcher parties pares It took only a few minutes s to identify herself to the small rosy faced nurse behind her desk then a sister was called in and Jane was taken to her room in the nurses' nurses home just back backof of the hospital The sister stayed with her a moment apologized for her lack of time timeto to assist her in unpacking unpacking unpacking unpack unpack- ing and then en hurried off In Inless Inless less Jess than 1 minutes Jane was in the dim corridor again looking looking looking look look- ing for the casualty reception room where she was to report for duty She found the door on the south side of the corridor stepped through it and stood perfectly still on the three shallow shallow shallow low steps leading down into an operating theater Her heart was beating furiously and for fora a moment her fingers tensely clenched the balustrade to keep her from falling Bill Stanley was at one of the operating tables bending over a little boy who had a bomb fragment fragment fragment frag frag- ment imbedded in his knee To b be continued Ledger Syndicate |
