CHAPTER SIX
CAMOUFLAGE
Nancy was not too surprised when she found Tini having a whisperedconversation with the soda jerker in the strange town. Tini seemedalways involved in some undercurrent.
She glanced at her watch and saw they had only five minutes before thetransport was due to move on. "We've got to beat it," she told Mabel.
"Better come along, Tini, or you'll be left behind!" warned Mabel asthey went toward the door.
Tini threw her money on the counter and overtook the girls.
"Don't see why you wanted a coke 'round here when we had plenty of freeones at the Canteen," Mabel said.
"Oh, just an excuse to talk to the clerk. I wanted to ask him if CarlBenton had been here lately."
"Carl Benton," repeated Nancy as they almost ran toward their trucks."You mean that fellow you dated back yonder?"
"Sure. He sells soda-fountain supplies. Said he came through hereoften."
"Did that chap know him?" asked Nancy.
"Dumb bloke--no! He's only had that job a few days."
"Surely you've heard from him since he left," said Mabel, not withoutan acid flavor in her tone.
"You bet! But I thought if he was around this way I might get a chanceto see him again."
"May as well put him out of your mind," Nancy suggested.
"Gal, if my hunch is right we won't be doing any dating till we getthrough some maneuvers ahead of us," said Mabel.
Toward sunset it began to look as though Mabel's hunch had somematerial foundation. They turned off the paved highway and bumped forfive miles over a rutted clay road before they entered a swamp madeshadowy by the Spanish moss that hung from the oaks, cypress and sweetgum trees. Though the nurses were tired after their long day's travel,Nancy and Mabel exchanged satisfied glances.
"Say, gal," whispered Mabel. "Looks like they're preparing us for thereal thing."
"We'll sure have to sleep under nets down here or there won't be anysnoozing," said Nancy.
The sun had already gone down, leaving a red glow in the west, when theconvoy circled a clearing in the swamp where there was a small tentvillage already set up. The passengers climbed out gratefully, eachnurse loaded with her personal baggage.
Lieutenant Hauser called the roll and assigned four girls to each tent.The tents were numbered, so the nurses hurried off to see what theirnew homes were like.
"Four cots and that's all!" exclaimed Mabel, the first to reach numberfour, their new habitation.
Nancy's heart had taken a dive when she learned that Tini and herformer room-mate, Ida Hall, were to share the tent with Mabel andherself. Had this been prearranged by Major Reed, she wondered? Shecertainly had no desire to continue serving as a day and night watchmanfor Tini Hoffman.
"Must think we're made of cast iron," complained Tini when she triedout her cot.
"But here are mattress cases," said Nancy. "We can stuff 'em withSpanish moss from the trees and make grand mattresses. We used to dothat when Dad took us fishing in the river swamp."
"Not a bad idea," agreed Ida.
They took their casings and hurried off under the trees to fill thembefore dark. The suggestion spread, and soon the swamp was alive withnurses preparing for a comfortable night's sleep.
Their mess hall was a long tent in the center of the camp. They ate bylantern light. The food was all from cans, and cold, but the nurseswere too hungry that night to be critical.
"Say, this is going to be real fun," said Mabel, as they made their wayback to their tents by G.I. flashlights.
Though it was spring the swampy air had a penetrating chill, which,however, did not discourage the mosquitoes at all.
"When we used to go camping we drove away the pests with a bigcampfire," said Nancy, thinking sadly of the good times she had hadwith her dad, Tommy and their friends at their swamp shack.
"No fires here," said Ida. "I heard Lieutenant Hauser say we must livejust as if we were in range of enemy fire."
Each tent had one lantern that hung from the center pole. Under itNancy nailed a puny mirror, which had to serve all of them in turn.They transformed canned goods packing boxes into chairs. Theirindividual toilet articles had to be fished out from their musette bagsevery time they were used.
As neither Mabel nor Tini had ever been camping, they had theirinitiation that night in sleeping under mosquito nets.
"Gosh, feels like a prison in here!" exclaimed Mabel.
"A prison you'll be glad to stay in," Nancy informed her, "when youhear how those mosquitoes sing outside it."
Long before day, however, each of the nurses was rolled in a blanketunder her net and the discouraged pests had returned to their swampmuck.
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_The Nurses Washed Their Clothes in the River_]
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In the days that followed the nurses discovered what it meant to do alltheir bathing and clothes washing in the shallows along the rivershore. With only a compass to guide them, they learned to cut their waythrough the dense undergrowth of the river swamp. More than one rattlerhad to be killed in the process. But many others they left alone, asthey had been given careful instructions about poisonous snakes andinsects in various parts of the world. They crossed streams and lagoonsin high boots, and several times ate from their mess kits the food theyprepared for themselves on all-day hikes.
All nursing work was suspended while they were put through thesephysical fitness tests. To Nancy's amazement, Tini Hoffman stood hersalong with the others, for she seemed to understand its significance.Tini became another person when there were no men around on whom toturn her charms.
They had been camping on the river shore only three days when atbreakfast one morning they were given orders to be prepared to leave bynoon.
"I'm surely ready to go," said Tini, who sat next to Nancy on the longbench at the table. "It's been an eternity since we had any mail."
They seemed so remote from civilization here that it seemed ages toNancy also since she had heard what was going on in the rest of theworld. But their high hopes proved premature as they were not yetscheduled for city lights.
Lieutenant Hauser gave the orders. "Every group is to take down its owntent, roll and pack it, according to previous instructions."
Buzzing with talk and excitement the nurses scattered to their variousquarters. Nancy had left her washing on a bush over night, so snatchedit up as she hurried back to begin packing. Ten minutes before twelveall tents had been cleared to the last tent peg, and the nurses beganto pack their belongings into the trucks in which they had arrived. Itwas thrilling and exciting business, for none of the trainees knewwhere the next stop would be.
To their surprise the convoy did not move out by the way it had come.Instead it turned toward the river. The nurses had discovered nobridges in all their hikes up and down the small stream, so they werenot surprised when the trucks had to cross the stream at a shallowford. For the first time they had a sample of what it would be like totravel where there were no paved roads and bridges.
After leaving the river the trucks moved on to higher ground. They leftthe gray-bearded trees behind and plowed through sand-rutted roadswinding through a pine forest. At noon they stopped to eat from tinsunder the sighing pines. Then they learned they were not on their wayback to their original training center.
"In about two hours we will pitch our tents again," explainedLieutenant Hauser. "Some of your most difficult work is just ahead. Ourcamp will have a public highway on one side, but I warn you to talk tono one outside our unit, or give out any information about the testsyou're going through."
"You mean we can't even write our friends about what we've been doingon this trip?" asked Mabel.
"Certainly not! Too many times spies have deduced from the nature of agroup's training what its overseas dest
ination might be."
A surprised murmur swept over the semicircle of young women sitting onthe carpet of brown pine needles. Nancy wondered about the letters Tinihad written every day while they were in camp. She herself had writtenlong descriptions of their camping life to her parents, but sherealized now those letters she had been hoping to mail would have to betorn up.
But Miss Hauser was continuing, "This period is a try-out for actualoverseas duty. We must conform to all restrictions we would have there."
"Overseas duty!" Those were the magic words they had long wanted tohear. They brought a joyous outburst from the eager nurses, that endedin clapping.
"Aren't we the lucky blokes!" exclaimed Mabel.
"And say, it looks as though it's going to be in the tropics," Nancywhispered.
When they rose to go back to the trucks Tini began to complain. "It'sutterly silly not letting us tell anything about what we've been doingin the swamp."
"Ah, gee, who minds that?" asked Mabel. "After all, we agreed to submitourselves to this rigorous training."
"Of course we did," said Nancy. "I'm sure they have good reasons forall these restrictions. You can never tell what spies may make of thesmallest bit of information that may leak out."
When they were rolling along again in their trucks, Nancy recalled howTini had spent all her spare time back on the river shore, writingletters. Every night she had pushed her cot close to the lantern andsat under her mosquito bar to finish her writing. With her usual lackof consideration for others she kept the light burning till the tentswarmed with mosquitoes, moths and other insects.
"I bet she'll try to mail those letters in spite of what LieutenantHauser said," Nancy thought with disgust.
For the next twenty-four hours, however, there was no time to dwell onher tent mate's tendency to insubordination. The nurses had thoughtthey had stiff training in the swamp, but they truly got a taste ofreal training when their journey ended in the pine thicket at threethat afternoon. No sooner were the ropes tied to the last tent peg thanthey were ordered to a near-by field.
They found several soldiers with guns in the bushy cover on the edge ofthe field. When the nurses came up in their coveralls and G.I. shoes,Sergeant Tanner gave them instructions.
"We're going to let you find out what it feels like to be fleeing withthe enemy firing behind you," he said, a mischievous twinkle in hisbrown eyes. "You're to start across the field, and every time a blastof firing comes you're to fall on your faces."
"We won't need any second invitation to do that," said Mabel with agiggle.
"When the whistle blows that's your order to advance again," continuedthe sergeant.
Nancy looked at the guns with some apprehension. She would be trulyglad when this was over. Shorty was all a-jitter again.
"Nancy, I'll run close to you," she said.
"Sure," agreed Nancy, recalling their trying time at the gas chamber.
"Somehow I always feel safer when you're around."
At the signal they were off across the corn stubble left from lastyear's harvest. As a child, Nancy had read how that other Nancy--NancyHart, and other women of Georgia, advancing in a field of corn stubblehad taken part in the battle of Kettle Creek, and driven the Britishfrom upper Georgia during the Revolution. How little she had dreamedthat she, another Nancy, six generations later, would be rehearsing forbattle in a war for liberty that encircled the globe in just such afield.
The nurses had run only about a hundred feet when there came a roar ofgunfire behind and far overhead. Almost everyone wondered if herneighbor had been struck as she saw her dive for the earth.
"Golly Moses!" groaned Mabel. "I'm scared stiff!"
Nancy giggled nervously as she turned to see her pal's forehead smearedwith dirt where she had tried to go through the corn furrow.
"Exciting, but awful!" she agreed.
At the sound of the whistle they were off again. Over and over thegruelling performance was repeated. Then they had to turn and come backacross the field in the face of the fire. Nancy found this easier. Atleast they could see that the shots were going far above their heads.
Most of them came in across the goal line triumphantly, though somewere slightly hysterical between laughter and fear. Only two or threestaggered back, tense and shaken.
During the rest of the afternoon their men instructors gave themillustrations of jungle camouflage. In the densely wooded section belowthe pine thicket and bordering a creek, they had to try to locate ahalf dozen men whose helmets and garments had been camouflaged.
"Hide and seek when we were kids was never half as thrilling as this,"said Nancy, as she and Mabel started off on the search.
Next morning Nancy, Mabel and Ida Hall were among the dozen nursesinstructed to camouflage themselves and hide in the woods for theothers to locate. Nancy had dabbled at painting in school, and did afairly good imitation of bay leaves across Mabel's face and coveralls.Then before their small mirror she touched up her own countenance tolook like woods' shadows. A net was secured over her helmet and in itshe twisted pieces of jasmine vines and bay leaves, leaving some of thevines to trail down across her face.
They were given ten minutes to hide before the others of their unitwere sent in search of them. Nancy found a spot of dense growth not farfrom the highway where a scuppernong vine trailed over some low bushes,and a near-by jasmine crowned an old stump with yellow blossoms. Shestretched flat under the scuppernong, and stuck her head among theyellow blossoms. Certainly she could not have found a more fragranthiding place.
She heard the shot fired for the search to begin, then came faintsounds of the cautious searchers. In spite of orders, whoops and littlescreeches escaped the nurses when anyone was discovered. Several passedclose enough for Nancy to touch them, but still she wasn't noticed.Like an ostrich sticking his head in the sand, Nancy closed her eyes ateach approach, feeling somehow that she was better hidden that way.Someone was coming near almost at a run when the shot was fired to endthe race. Nancy was thrilled to know she was among those who had missedbeing found.
She was about to crawl out of her hiding place when she saw that theapproaching girl was Tini Hoffman. Tini seemed to have no interest inthe search, however, but was intent on reaching the highway. WhileNancy had crouched under the bushes she had heard several cars go by.Cautiously she lifted her head as Tini passed and saw some letterssticking from her coverall pocket. Suspicion stirred. No doubt Tini wasintent on mailing those letters she had written in the swamp describingtheir activities.
Instantly Nancy had a hunch that she meant to stop some passing car andget the driver to put her letters into the nearest post office. But shecouldn't run out there and accuse her of such an intention. There wasnothing to do but watch her.
She saw Tini running, and in the distance a farmer's truck coming downthe hill. Nancy crawled from her hiding place and hurried from tree tobush on Tini's trail. The car was quite close now and Tini jumped aditch and ran to the pavement. So intent was she on attracting thedriver's attention, she was completely unaware of Nancy's approach.
Tini waved her letters and the driver slowed. When he stopped, shecalled out, "Will you drop these letters at the nearest post office forme?"
"Sure, lady," agreed the farmer at the wheel. "Glad to 'comodate you,miss."
With a leap across the ditch Nancy was at Tini's side. She reached forthe letters as Tini extended them toward the man.
"You know you shouldn't do that, Tini!" she burst forth.
The farmer gaped in amazement at this strange creature draped in leavesand covered with splotches of paint.
"How dare you?" burst forth Tini. "I've a perfect right--"
"You have not!"
"Give me my letters."
"I will not! And if you try to take them I'll report the whole businessto Lieutenant Hauser."
"Reckon I'll be moving on," said the farmer uneasily, looking at bothof them as if he thought they had just escaped from an asylum. Hechugged his motor into
action, but before he rolled off he glanced atthem compassionately and said, "Y'all better be good now and go back tothe 'sylum, so Doc can take care o' you."
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