Gardella 11

11     After my own effort to cheer up Scotty I began to realize how perfectly lousy I felt.  "Why would they not want to save us?" I asked aloud.  Audy said, "Politics, mate, ever hear of politics?"   The Dragon Lady broke in as though she had heard too much griping, "When we cross the Great Wall, Peking will be only thirty-five miles south.  I must go there."  She stared at me.  "You will go to the south of it with the other group."  I said without hesitation that I was going to Peking with her & Gunny did the same.  "No," she said, "it is not your affair."  "But if you hadn't helped us with our problems, where do you think we'd be today?"   Again she said no.  But this time I was not to be overruled, & after some more sparring I said, "Look, I would just rather be with you than away from you.  I feel safer.  It's not going to be all that easy for me to leave China; I might not even leave at all."  I knew I'd gotten carried away but just then that was the way I really felt.  "Are you serious, Rick?" Gunny asked; there was a strange look on his face.  "Yeah, I've gotten to feel so much better when I'm with these people, I don't want to go anywhere without them."  I wound up, looking straight at the Dragon Lady, "& I am definitely going to Peking!"   "If you feel so strongly," she replied, "I shall not stop you.  But you must not go because of feeling that you are in debt to me."  Gunny & I both assured her that that wasn't the reason, & before long we were on the way with the Dragon Lady in charge as always.  The Mongols, she told us, would soon be leaving us.  "They will go back toward the mountains, toward the Gobi, until things are quiet again."  Since they were nomads & continually on the move, she told us, the Communists could never be sure where they were.  & besides, the Communists preferred not to fight the Mongols so long as the Mongols left them alone.   Nancy had been nearby during the entire conversation.  When we were on our way she rode up alongside me.  "Ricky, you say you stay in China?"  Though I'd said it on the spur of the moment I now found myself thinking about it.  "I don't know, Nancy.  There is alot of fighting here & it's a hard life but I've found real friends.  & I don't know how I could leave you."   "What will your mother & father, your--"  "My family?"  I gave the word she had been groping for.  "They'd be unhappy & I'd miss them.  I'd miss my home.  But the idea of leaving you..."  It was something I was going to have to figure out--assuming I'd be given any choice in the matter.   A few minutes later we heard bellowing again--& now I knew that was the signal the scouts gave as they came in.  Almost at once three riders came down the slope on our right.  We stopped but didn't dismount while they spoke with the chief & the Dragon Lady.  After a couple of minutes Audy said, "There's something funny," & in another minute or two Scotty dug his heels into the flank of his horse & cantered forward to investigate.  He & the Dragon Lady came back with grim faces.   "There is a large Communist force on the far side of the mountain," she told us.  "They are only three miles from us.  They do not know we are here--not yet."  "How many are there?" Gunny asked.   "Perhaps a thousand."  She went on, "Although they do not know yet, we do not have much time before they find us.  We cannot avoid them unless we go back in the direction we came from & we do not want to do that.  We must get ahead of them to the west before we strike.  Then when the chase begins they will think we are headed further up toward Mongolia.  After that there is a pass we must reach before they do." She would take a small force of no more than a hundred--enough to hurt & confuse them while the rest moved ahead to get the soldiers off our trail.  We would move while it was still light so that we would have the dark to escape in.  I turned to Nancy.  "This time you stay with the main group."  "Oh no," she siad, "I go with you."   The Dragon Lady agreed with me about Nancy.  "Charlie will lead the others to safety," she said.  "You must stay to help him."  She added a few words in Chinese which made Nancy stare for a moment like a little girl who's been told it's her bedtime.  But then she turned to me.  "You be careful," she said.  "Don't worry," Gunny told her, "I'll look after him."   Along with Gunny, Audy & Scotty, I moved up to the head of the column.  The chief wouldn't be going with the raiding party but his lieutenant would.  Moving out we rode hard for an hour.  Then after pulling up in a cloud of dust we got down & proceeded on foot.  We started up a slope that looked down onto a canyon with a natural bridge over it.  Before long something like seventy-five of us were charging over the bridge leaving the rest to cover us from behind, & making our way down the side of the mountain to where scrubby trees & rock formations gave us some cover.   When we were about five hundred yards from the bottom the Dragon Lady signaled a stop.  According to my estimate we had less than two hours of daylight.  We had good cover here but with no weapons heavier than the machine guns we carried, once again we were depending on the element of surprise.  Gunny was ten yards to my left, Scotty & Audy were on his far flank & the Dragon Lady had posted herself about twenty-five yards farther downhill.  As time passed & the light faded, I began to fear it would be dark before the soldiers arrived.  Then we saw them less than a quarter of a mile down the trail.  We were to hold our fire until we had a signal from the Dragon Lady.  I watched the soldiers & her with my heart pounding as they made their way slowly up the rocky trail.  Then they were directly below us.  Still no signal.  I looked for the end of the column but it seemed to have none.  God, there were alot of them!  They began to go under the natural bridge; soon it would be dark.   She waved her weapon finally & we all opened up.  Completely surprised, some soldiers dove for cover, some looked up for the attackers.  There were so many that they got in each other's way.  At last they began trying to climb toward us, firing as they came.  But the terrain had been well chosen; it was steep & rocky with some virtual cliffs between them & us.   Now as suddenly as we'd attacked, we had the signal to withdraw & we were scrambling back up the mountain, firing as we went.  By then it was really dark.  As soon as we got to the level of the natural bridge we stopped firing altogether; the muzzle flashes would have given us away.  Staying low we raced over the bridge.  This was all part of the plan--a feinting action to make them think we'd kept going to the top of that mountain & were heading down the other side.  & it worked.  We crossed without having a shot fired at us.  Dark as it was, we ran all the way back to the horses.  Though my breath was coming in gasps I managed to say to Gunny, "Can you keep up, old-timer?"- -& he managed to answer, "Screw you!"   After we had leaped onto our mounts & ridden off I lost sight of Gunny & the others.  But the Dragon Lady was directly ahead of me & I had no intention of losing her.  After maybe half an hour we halted & she rode down the length of our column & back.  "We did not lose a single person," she said.  "& now I must ride back to make sure the Communists did go the other way."   I told her Gunny & I would go with her but this time she would not be overruled.  "If it is necessary for us to escape quickly," she pointed out, "we may have to separate & you two do not know these mountains."   "Aye, she is right," Scotty told us & there was nothing we could say.  The Dragon Lady picked twelve men & divided them into two groups--one to go south, the other to ride with her back toward the bridge--while the rest of us who made up the main group went in still another direction.  After about twenty minutes we were dismounting on a ridge where we moved our horses in among the boulders.  We waited here until two of the scouts came riding back.  They raced over to talk to Scotty & Audy & in an instant the order came to mount again--quickly.  Scotty told me when I asked what was the matter that there were Communist soldiers twenty minutes away & headed in our direction.  "I thought we'd lost them!" Gunny said.  "We had," Audy replied.  "These are others; the ones we attacked may have radioed for help."   We galloped hard for half an hour, I have no idea in what direction.  After we had stopped I asked Scotty how the Dragon Lady would know where we were.  "Don't worry, lad," Scotty told me, "she'll find us.  Meanwhile get some rest.  We don't know when our next chance for that may be."   I remember trying to settle down--& I must have succeeded because the next thing I remember is being wakened out of a sound sleep by the noise of horses.  Still groggy I got to my feet & half walked, half stumbled over to where the Dragon Lady stood talking with Scotty & Audy.  I wondered again when she ever slept.   The news was that the Communist troops were headed west; we had fooled them.  By now they had stopped to wait for the force that put us on the run.  We could not wait to see what they did next--whether they would continue west or turn back.  We would have to be on our way at once.   We had been on the trail only a little while before two more scouts came in & spoke excitedly to the Dragon Lady.  Suddenly we changed direction & were heading up the mountain as fast as we could ride.  Five hundred yards farther uphill we dismounted to walk our horses through a narrow pass.  Then we climbed again.  We paused at a relatively level spot where there were new orders:  about a dozen people, among them Scotty, Audy, Gunny & me, were to follow the Dragon Lady on foot.  There was now a moon.  After walking awhile we came to a ledge.  Looking over we saw the reason for our change of plans.  Down below us were riders, lots of them.  The Dragon Lady whispered, "They are moving toward the pass.  They will probably come this way."   Audy asked the question for all of us, & she replied, "We cannot permit them to go through or they may run into our main force.  Some of us will stay & defend the pass.  The rest will ride to Charlie & warn him."  Gunny & I volunteered to stay & fight with her along with Audy & six others, while Scotty & the rest rode to find Charlie.  "Will the ten of you be enough?" Scotty asked.  "Yes," she told him, "the pass is narrow.  Leave our horses back there, we shall be able to get them."   There was nothing more to say.  While Scotty took off we moved toward the pass keeping down in a half crouch.  At a point just above it we took positions & settled down in the darkness to wait.  My heart pounded so that I wondered whether the Communist soldiers could hear it, while time seemed to drag on forever.  Then we heard the sound of horses below us.  With the moon in & out of clouds, just now we couldn't see much, though we knew the precise location of the pass & how narrow it was.  They would be able to get through only one at a time while we might be able to knock them off almost sight unseen by firing down into the canyon.   The signal came & we began firing.  There were screams & shouts from below.  Sometimes the moon would be hidden & sometimes we'd have glimpses of men scurrying like rats down there.  I remember hearing the expression, "like shooting fish in a barrel."  It seemed that easy.  When the signal to stop firing came I wanted to go down & see what was happening.  But the Dragon Lady said, "No,  no, we want to hold them back as long as we can.  Then we run."  "Righto!" Audy echoed her, "we run like hell!"   The moon popped out for a few moments, lighting up the scene as if it had been switched on from above--& in those few moments we saw that the soldiers were slipping through the pass & that some were edging up toward us.  Once again we began blasting them & hearing the shouts & screams from below.  As we fired the Dragon Lady shouted something in Chinese & two of her men took off to bring the horses closer.  In a few minutes we heard bellowing, the signal that the men were back, & she called out the order to move--quickly.   We scrambled up the mountain & luckily for us there was no longer any light from the moon.  As soon as we reached the horses, two of the men went ahead as scouts, we mounted & then we were riding mostly downhill.  Once we reached level ground we were able to pick up speed.  But just which way we were going I had no idea.  In fact the way these people got around in the dark, over rough terrain with no clearly marked roads & often not even a trail, remained a mystery.  It also made me realize once again how dependent I was on them, how helpless I would have been except for their company.   I lost track of time too--not having had a watch since our special training began--but we might have ridden fifteen minutes before the scouts came back & reported seeing more troops ahead of us.  To elude them the Dragon Lady had us veer off in a new direction keeping the same breathless pace.  We came to a hillside where there were caves, dismounted & walked our horses in.  There were to be no fires.  Instead each of us was to hold onto the tail of the horse just ahead.  "Or else you get lost," the Dragon Lady said.  "Caves go off in many directions."   One more thing that struck me was the way these people functioned in the dark of a cave--how much better than mine their eyes seemed to be.  After awhile my own vision improved & I began to pick up things where there was hardly any light at all.  right then though the darkness in the cave seemed total.  I could literally not make out my hand in front of my face.  As I walked I sometimes used one hand to feel for walls or ceilings but even so I sometimes bumped into one or the other.  After awhile I heard the Dragon Lady speaking in Chinese & I could feel scouts brushing past on their way out.  She said to the rest of us, "We stop here; no talking until we find out where the troops are."  We stood there in the dark & silence waiting for I don't know how long.  Then came a couple of hoots followed by a whispered conversation.  The orders now were to leave the cave, mount again & ride as fast as we could go.  Once we were out in the open the moonlight seemed absolutely glaring.  We must have ridden for a couple of hours while I wondered how much longer our luck could possibly hold out even with the Dragon lady's genius at outwitting her enemies.  I had to force myself not to think that way--to make myself believe we'd get through, that she'd get us through.    When we stopped for a rest, moving our horses in among the rocks once again, Audy said, "I think we lost them."  "But perhaps not for long," the Dragon Lady replied.  She wasn't going to let anyone relax very much.  "If they do not bother us we should make contact with Charlie soon.  But we must not lead the Communists to him.   While we sat there resting I looked over toward the Dragon Lady & saw her looking gloomy.  Moving nearer I asked if anything was wrong.  She said no, & then I asked, "Don't you ever get tired?"  "No," she replied, "I am strong."  I said I didn't mean that; I meant tired of this kind of life, riding, fighting, moving around all the time.   "This is my country," she said, "& in my country there must be fighting--for now."  "Some day soon it will be different, won't it?" I said, not knowing what I was talking about.  She answered, "Not in my lifetime.  More time must pass.  Blood must be spilled."   How old was she?  She might have been twenty-five though she looked still younger.  Back in the States a woman her age would be either getting married or worried about a job--maybe expecting a first child.  This young woman was a military leader with no sign that she had ever lived any kind of life but this one.   A couple of scouts rode in & she told me with a smile, "We have lost them."  Charlie's group was about an hour away; we would be with them soon after sunrise but now we would have to go--quickly.  Had there ever been a time when it wasn't necessary to move quickly?   Soon after we started moving Gunny pulled up beside me.  "Well," he said, "I kept my word to Nancy."  "What was that?"  "That I'd look after you."  "Don't be too sure," I said lightly.  "We're not back yet."  Though I meant it as a joke the Dragon Lady, overhearing, told him, "The Khan is right; we cannot be sure of anything until we know it is done."   The sun was coming up by then & though we'd been through a long hard night our spirits picked up when two scouts came riding in with a couple of men from Charlie's group & word that everything was all right.  It wasn't long before I saw Charlie & Nancy waving at us as we moved down a gentle slope.  I galloped toward them, dismounted & gave Nancy a hug.  "I told you it would be all right," I said.  I wasn't sure she understood every word unless I spoke carefully, but I knew she knew what I meant.  We learned that the Communist troops had gone off in the wrong direction.  But when Scotty spoke of needing sleep the Dragon Lady's reply was, "that will have to be later."  As we moved ahead walking our horses, Gunny came alongside me again.   "Rick," he said, "were you serious back there about staying in China?"  "Yes I was.  I feel closer to these people than to anybody I've ever known."  "You're just a kid," he said, "you still haven't given much of a chance to your own country & your own people."  "Yeah, I know you're right," I told him, aware that I hadn't really thought through what I'd said, meaning it without having decided anything.   For two nights & a day we'd been on the move with only one brief rest in the mountains, & I was beginning to feel the effects of fatigue.  But we went on pushing ahead, eating & drinking as we rode.  Midday came & went before there was an order to halt.  Soon after that I saw the Dragon Lady coming toward us with the Mongol chief & his lieutenant.  The chief held out his hands to us & while I looked up into that fierce face the Dragon Lady translated what he was saying.  "This is where we must part.  He wishes to thank you.  He hopes that he has shown respect to you for the help you have given him."   Then he went up to Nancy, put his massive hands on her little girl shoulders, engulfed her in a hug & finally kissed her on the cheek.  With each of us he repeated the farewell ceremony.  He had a few extra words for me, the last in the line, "Khan" was one of them.  "He says he is proud of you & proud to have you in his camp.  You are welcome to return any time you wish, you will always be greeted as Khan."   Touched & proud to have this warrior treat me as a brother, I asked the Dragon Lady to tell him I was happy to have his friendship & his good feelings & grateful for his help.  He gave his fierce smile & again the Dragon Lady translated:  "He is sending the lieutenant & forty of his men with us to protect us.  They will go as far as they are needed, even to the sea.  The Communists hate the Mongols & are afraid of them."   Then the Dragon Lady brought her little sister Kim to say good-bye.  I put my hands on her shoulders & said, "Honey, I'm going to miss you.  I love you, I really do."  When Kim put her arms around me & squeezed I felt closer to tears than I had been in a long time.  She went on hugging me until I told her softly, "You must be brave like your sister."  But she still didn't let go until the Dragon Lady came to lead her away.  "All the women & children are going north," the Dragon Lady told us.  "It will be safer for them there."   We spent some time shaking hads with the Mongols who would be leaving.  When they had all mounted & thundered off we were left once again with about a hundred people, the same number we'd had crossing the Changchun plain.  About a dozen had died in combat & altogether about thirty women & children were leaving, but the forty Mongols who were joining us made up the difference.   Our party mounted & we were on our way again, this time with the Great Wall as our destination.  The pace was a little easier than before; we'd trot, walk, then trot again.  There was not much talk; everyone I guess was busy with thoughts of his or her own.  & we were all exhausted.  When around midafternoon the order came to dismount I simply slid off my horse.   It started to rain.  The air was so cool that I felt chilled almost at once.  I put on the few extra clothes I had but they didn't help for long; the animal skins repelled water only for awhile & as soon as they were soaked they became cold & clammy.  The rain had turned into a driving torrent by the time we mounted again & I felt as though I were freezing.  After awhile Nancy pulled up alongside me.  She must have seen how I was shivering for she said, "I am cold also.  Can I ride with you?"  Though she made it sound like a request for a favor I had a feeling that she was doing it for my benefit.  Holding onto her bridle, she nimbly transferred herself to my horse & sat behind me with her arms around my middle.  Though there were so many layers of soggy clothing between us that her nearness didn't help alot, after a few minutes I did feel a little less miserable.   As it was getting dark we came to a hillside where there were caves.  After the Dragon Lady had sent scouts ahead she led us deep inside to a huge open cavern where fires were lit.  We all sat near them trying to warm ourselves.  I was so tired that the voices of Gunny & Scotty, sitting close beside me, sounded as though they came from a far-off echo chamber.  then Nancy was leaning over me saying, "What is wrong, Ricky?"  But even with her face so near mine I could barely hear her.  Then I couldn't make out anything at all.  The next thing I remember is awakening with bodies piled over me.  I was scared when I tried to move & couldn't.  Then Nancy & the Dragon Lady, still pressed close against me, were asking if I was all right.   "Yeah, I think so," I stammered, still feeling confused.  I discovered now that I was wearing a completely different set of clothes, all of them warm & dry.  Then I noticed Scotty who said, "You had a rough time of it, lad."  "Yeah, you were one shivering son of a bitch," Gunny said, "we were real worried about you."   "How long have I been out?"  "Maybe fifteen, sixteen hours," Gunny said.  "Christ, why did you let me sleep that long?"  "You were one sick bloke," Audy chimed in.  "Trembling like a bloody leaf, sweating & screaming.  You must have had some bloody awful nightmares."  "How did I get into these clothes?"  "They changed you." Scotty gestured toward Nancy & the Dragon Lady.  "That's your third set.  You kept sweating right through them."    When I looked at the two men & smiled, they might have been blushing for modesty--except that no one just then had time to be embarrassed.  "They had everybody lying alongside to get some heat into you," Gunny told me.  When I had thanked the Dragon Lady, I asked, "How about the Wall?  Are we going to get there on time?"  She smiled, "Do not worry, we shall reach it in time."  Then I asked if there was anything to eat.  Nancy said, "I get food."  Scotty laughed & Gunny teased, "Room service & a pretty waitress; some guys have all the luck."   Nancy brought some soup with meat in it which tasted wonderful.  While I ate Scotty explained that the Dragon Lady had gone out to find a certain root which had been boiled in a soup & which they had gotten into me shomehow while Iwas lying there either delirious or dead to the world.  Whatever the root had been it had worked--that & the body heat.  When I'd finished the soup I asked the Dragon Lady when we would be at the Wall.   "We shall rest here today & travel tonight; we shall cross the Wall before sunrise."  Then she was on her feet again.  "I must go & see Charlie & take some food to him.  He has been on patrol."  "What a woman!" I said to Scotty after she left.  "Yes," he answered, "& from a very powerful & highly placed family.  She could be living in comfort on Formosa but she chose to be out here fighting."   When she returned it was late afternoon outside the cave; the rain had stopped, she told us, & there was no sign of trouble.  But she sounded somehow far away as she said it.  After she'd stood silent almost in a trance for a minute she said abruptly, "I think the Communist soldiers have gone the other way."  Then came yet another of her abrupt swings of mood.  "We had much fun with them, didn't we?"--& her eyes flashed as though she'd been through an exciting game.  "Well, if that was fun," Gunny told her, "I bet we're going to have alot more fun before we reach the water."  The Dragon Lady was laughing.  "They must have tens of thousands of soldiers looking for us."   Gunny rolled his eyes.  "I don't see what's so funny about that," he said, & suddenly we were all laughing--though the idea of being chased by an army can't have seemed any funnier to the rest of us than it did to him.  Charlie walked in & told us that it would be dark in one or two hours & that everything was still quiet.  Spotting me, he asked how I felt.  "Never felt better," I told him.  & somehow it was true.   He said smiling, "You did not look better last night."  Then without any preliminaries except the Dragon Lady's eternal, "We must go now," we began to walk our horses out of the cave, moving single file into the evening light.  It was cheering to see a little piece of daylight before it faded away.   The main Mongol party had left us a supply of meat, maize & kaoliang for our trek south.  Seeing the bundles tied onto the backs of some of the horses I was reminded that with most of them gone we were again down to a hundred people--not alot with thousands possibly searching for us.  Everyone was silent probably thinking about the odds just as I was.  I began wondering again about the failure of the radio operators to make contact with the Americans who had the transmitter whoever they were.   As we rode we descended from the mountains into hill country that made for easier riding.  We still saw many caves & occasionally a patch of land level enough to be used as a rice paddy.  Some of the patches were flooded & after we'd sloshed through one of these we came to a bit of high ground where we stopped to rest.   Sitting next to Scotty I asked him, "Can you tell me why she wants to go into Peking instead of around it?"  "There is someone there she wants to see, lad."  "Oh?  Boyfriend?"   Scotty laughed.  "Far from it; the man is a Communist named Sing Yet-soo & he is a former admirer of hers.  Three or four years ago she was a Nationalist & had a job in the government.  When Sing made a play for her she snubbed him & he had members of her family killed in retaliation.  That is probably why her sister was left with the Mongols--to keep her safe.  The Dragon Lady had been waiting patiently for a chance to avenge her family & now she sees it."  "So she really is not a Nationalist anymore?"   "No, lad.  She should never have been in the government.  She couldn't function in a bureaucracy.  I'm sure you can see that.  Whenever she saw corruption--& there was much of it to see--she spoke up.  When she didn't like what the Americans were doing she did the same.  Of course that just wouldn't work & eventually, since she didn't get on with them, she simply quit & went her own way.  Now she fights for herself & her people against the Communists but not for the Nationalists.  I think that is a mistake & I have told her so.  I stayed a Nationalist even though I saw so much that was wrong.  That's what brought us to a parting of the ways."  Now of course I understood why this amazing woman wanted us to stay out of her mission to Peking.   We mounted again & hadn't been riding long when Charlie dropped back to say that we were about a mile from the Wall.  One mile from the Great Wall!  As I write this I recall having read that the Great Wall of China is the only manmade object visible to the naked eye from the moon.  I didn't know that at the time of course.  But what I would soon be seeing by the clear light of the moon was to me a schoolboy's dream.   As I rode I tried ticking off the days though I couldn't be sure anymore that I knew which one it was.  I knew we'd made our drop into Manchuria on May 9 & as nearly as I could calculate a little more than two weeks had gone by since then.  That would make it either the twenty-fourth or the twenty-fifth.  I supposed that none of the people who'd sent us had expected us to last this long--but then how could I know?  There was so much I didn't know.  How could anyone have predicted that this was where the expedition would take us?  Who could predict how it would end?   Scouts were riding up to report & then going off again & I could feel a kind of buzz around me as though the others also thought of reaching the Wall as a milestone.  We rode to the top of a rise & there it was.