Show Gun Shy 0 0 o oBy By Dy CLYDE B. B HOUGH I McClure syndicate Features Feature WHEN HEN Hyder er fumbled his rifle and dropped it that first mornIng morning mornIng morn- morn and Ing at drill most of us recruits of the older heads snickered some thundered Silence in the ranks Sergeant Kane Hyder made no move to recover stood staring down atit atit at atit his rifle-just rifle it in trancelike horror Dont Don t be It It Kane said afraid of it guy wont won't bite anybody but them AXIS hums bums m B But i Hyder was afraid of a gun learned later His all guns as we hands would tremble every time he touched one So naturally he drew drewa a low rating in rank-and-file rank judg judg- ment His only champion was Barry Barry Barry Bar Bar- ry another rookie I know the guy You fellows dont don't Barry told us inthe inthe in inthe the squad room We Ve I know now hes he's afraid of guns He must be yellow came the answer Youre wrong all of you Barry argued Hyder and I were raised in the same town on the same block Hes He's no coward just coward just gun shy Born that way same as some people are born with blue eyes others brown Someone said Bah hes he's and cut the speech short Another glanced toward the door but immediately immediately immediately imme imme- looked away Hyder seemed rooted on the threshold towhead thrust forward eyes squinting his squatty body taut hard For a moment he held his belligerent bellig erent pose and then eyes straight ahead he walked slowly and deliberately deliberately deliberately down the aisle between the two rows of cots He stopped before before before be be- fore his friend Thanks Barry he said and turned and left the room Well Vell guts or no guts said Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant Ser Ser- geant Kane no shy gun-shy son will t t I V i a y 1 i iE iI E ui 1 ly i I saw saw a towhead d bobbing and weaving ever be any good in this mans man's army Hyder could be Barry contend contend- ed He was a hotel cook before the draft got him A good one too and he likes the work A cook huh Kane mused a way for me to get him off my hands Think Ill I'll see the mess sarge about it That was back in barracks Now this was Bataan and the jungle and the Nips We Ve were on outpost duty Barry and Hyder with us Sergeant Kane was in charge Eight of the themen themen themen men rested in pup tents while four others watched from foxholes out front Behind the tents in a tiny clearing where wed we'd chopped away the creepers and the thick bush Hyder Hyder Hy Hy- Hy- Hy der was cooking our noonday meal Yes Barry had been right The shy gun-shy lad c could really cook and he loved the job too I watched him now bending over the stew pot pouring in special seasoning hed he'd concocted from native spices As he stepped back from the cauldron cauldron caul caul- dron he nodded at me and yelled Come and get it But right then things happened all at once The I little monkey men swarmed out of I the jungle No noise no warning II till tit the bullets whistled through the I mist I Rush for the tents an and d grab a Garand I shouted at Hyder and i I acted on my own advice The next few minutes were a mad whirl whirl- shots cracking bayonets twirling I men reeling going down My arms were weak from the shock of thrust I and Then parry suddenly the surging surging surg surg- ing tide of Nips swerved and we stood in the clear I glanced toward the cook pots and saw a towhead bobbing and weaving surrounded b by Japs The squatty body and heavy shoulders heaved to the swing of a baseball bat hat I moved fast Barry and Sergeant Kane running beside me We Ve hit that circle and speared us a Nip apiece Hyder was still swinging We e got of through to him and the yellow yel yel- low boys scatter scattered ed Barry and Kane carried earned him to a tent and I looked at the smeared red-smeared weapon lying on the ground There were eighteen dead Japs sprawled one upon an an- other other every every head busted by Hyder's Hyder favorite instrument s In the tent Sergeant Kane Kan e was swabbing a wound i in Hyder's thigh thich A ba bayonet onet thrust had got him His shirt was off oft and there was a long lone slash across his ribs s sI I said You did wrong buddy According to rules you should have ducked those Nips Nips and and joined mad the rest of us back to back How com come But they were after hoT our chow he protested They hooked of f stew and tried that l p pot t to run with could it rt it H How w I let them get away with it |