Gardella 13

13   Crossing the plain we began to see walled villages with the dark rich green of fields & trees around them.  Great numbers of people were hard at work paying us only casual notice as we galloped past.  Finally we came in sight of our main group.  The reunion with them didn't last long; soon the order came to split up into two groups.  "We are too many, too noticeable," the Dragon Lady told Scotty.  "You & Charlie will take one group; I shall take another."   Gunny, Audy, Nancy & I were to go with her; we'd take some of her people & half the Mongols to make up a force of fifty.  Scotty & Charlie were to form an equal force out of the other twenty Mongols & the rest of the Dragon Lady's people.  She explained to Scotty & Charlie where we'd meet again, outlining what she thought was the best route to follow.   Looking over my shoulder as we took off I could see the others disappear into the haze & I had to wonder whether I'd see them again.  After a few miles there were new orders.  "We shall be passing many people," the Dragon Lady said.  "We shall travel in single file keeping twenty yards between.  Do not pay any special notice to the people you pass.  Act as if you were one of them.  If anyone questions you, don't answer.  Just keep your head down.  I or one of the others will answer for you."   Though this was the country with the largest population in the world we hadn't seen very many people thus far.  But the more of them we met now the greater the chance that something could go wrong & interfere with our chances of reaching the coast.  We were proceeding slowly & although I could understand why we didn't dare act like fugitives on the run, the pretending to be casual with the hat low over my face was beginning to be a strain.  I couldn't help thinking about what would happen if anyone got a close look at the blond blue-eyed boy from Massachusetts underneath the disguise.  I tried to hypnotize myself into staying clam by concentrating on the steps of my horse.   People & wagons were all around us now.  The rice paddies appeared more frequently & often we would cross a bridge over one of the streams that watered them.  Suddenly we were being led off toward a village with a high stone wall around it.  When we reached the gate the Dragon Lady spoke to an old man who was acting as a sort of gatekeeper & he motioned for us to go in.  As we filed through what struck me was the number of people swarming inside those walls.  After we had dismounted the Dragon Lady spoke with a villager & then said to Gunny & me, "Go with him; you will change clothes, then we shall have to leave; quickly."  In answer to a question from Gunny she explained, "You are wearing Communist clothes.  I don't like to wear those; do you?"  "No sir!" Gunny said, "I mean, no ma'am!"  Her face eased into a grin.  "Five minutes."   Following the villager into a hut Gunny & I were given clothes in the Mongolian style though less heavy than the ones we'd seen in the north.  We got into them quickly.  Outside we found the Dragon Lady who had also changed her clothes already mounted & waiting for us.  "Why have you taken so long?" she asked good-naturedly, & we had been so tense until then that we all laughed.   Once we were on the road again I noticed that the people who passed would glance at us & then look away quickly.  The Dragon Lady told us that all the Chinese whether Communist or non-Communist were afraid of the Mongols, & I could believe that it must be so.   By now we were continually crossing bridges, many of them spanning canals with dikes on each side.  The plain was so low that without the dikes it would have been flooded.  After we had been traveling for awhile we came to a halt.  Up ahead a group of Communist soldiers appeared to have gotten out of a truck & rounded up a group of about fifty people.  When the Dragon Lady started around the truck a soldier who looked like an officer shouted something to her.  She answered & waited calmly as he approached, with a kind of leer on his face.  After another exchange he reached out to touch her arm & now his grin was really ugly.  She pulled back her arm as she answered him & in the same moment the Mongol lieutenant pulled up alongside her at an angle that allowed me to see what happened next, though I was twenty yards away.  The Mongol riveted the soldier with his powerful stare whose effect I knew about from my own experience.  I watched the soldier's hand fall away from the Dragon Lady's arm as he took a step back.  Then calling out something harsh, as though to save face, he waved us on.  We passed the soldiers one by one looking straight ahead.  I was so anxious that it wasn't until we'd gone a hundred yards that I risked a peek over my shoulder to make sure we'd all been allowed to pass.   Some time later the Dragon Lady dropped back alongside me to say that we would soon be stopping at a village & that she thought we would leave the horses there.  When I asked why she said, "They make us too noticeable.  But there is a chance we can keep them; we shall see later."  "Do you know people there?" I asked.  She said she did & I asked, "How is it you know everybody everywhere?  You seem so young to have met so many people!"   She shrugged & I said, "How old are you?"  She gave me a stare that ended in a smile.  "I told you; very old & wise."  "Okay," I said, "but let me ask you something else.  In Peking--those prisoners--"  "Yes, those prisoners were American & we could understand the way you felt.  But you were putting all of us in danger.  So--"  She gestured with her head toward the Mongol lieutenant.  "He hit you; I told him to do it."   I nodded but I must have looked as unhappy as I felt, because she now went on, "You must understand that he has vowed to protect you with his life to make sure you reach the water & then go to an American ship.  He made a promise, Khan, & he will keep it."   She pointed to the right.  "We must go that way across the fields there.  The village is not far now."  We left the road & were soon moving at a fast pace between ricefields where people were at work.  The stone wall of the village came into view & then we were reining up at the entrance.  while we dismounted a group of people came out to meet us.  After the Dragon Lady had spoken with them briefly several of them took our horses & we went in on foot.  Once again I was struck by the density of the population.  The whole area was small but with hundreds of people packed into it.  "Are the villages always this crowded?" I asked her.   "Yes, all very crowded," she replied.  At a word from her the Mongol lieutenant spoke to his men & in a moment they had fanned out & were mingling with the villagers.  A figure now came toward us who had the look of a headman if I ever saw one.  After a few words with the Dragon Lady, who pointed to Gunny & me as she answered him, the man strode up & made us welcome.  Our little party--the Dragon Lady, Nancy, Gunny, Audy & I--followed him to the far side of the village where he led us to a house that I suppose was his.  It had just three rooms & in one of them at least fifteen people sat in a circle.  They had been eating, but now they all got to their feet & bowed to us.  We bowed back & then the headman motioned for us to sit down with them.  We were given rice & maize which we ate without speaking while the chief & the Dragon Lady talked quietly.   When the food was gone the people all bowed their heads & began a kind of mumble.  I looked over at Gunny & saw that he was just as puzzled as I--until the Dragon Lady caught my eye & then bowed her own head.  I realized then that the mumbling was a prayer.  As Gunny & I sat there with our heads bowed nobody had more to pray for than we did.  After that the Chinese people began chatting among themselves.  One young fellow who must have been about my own age insisted on talking to me.  The Dragon Lady, noticing, slid closer & explained, "He wants to know if you are American."  "What will you tell him?"  "What do you want me to tell him?"  "Do you trust him?"  "He is my cousin & I trust him."   She turned & addressed the young man who was still looking at Gunny & me as though we were the main attraction in a museum.  He went on talking with the Dragon Lady but every now & then he would begin looking at us again.  Soon I could hardly hold my head up & I asked Gunny if he was as tired as I was.  "More so," he said.   I turned to the Dragon Lady with a motion to let her see how sleepy I was.  "You come with me," she said & walked us all to another room where there were several mats on the floor.  "You sleep here," she said.  "Don't say another word," Gunny told her & in an instant he had flopped down on a mat.  I looked at Nancy thinking she would be sent to another room to sleep.  But she declared, "I sleep here."  "How about you?" I asked the Dragon Lady.  "I shall sleep here too."  Audy said with a laugh, "& I'll sleep here too!"   I suppose the Dragon Lady was still amused by my modesty.  But what was really on my mind just then was how five of us would find floorspace in a room that must have been no more than six by four feet.  I didn't wait to learn how it could be done; I was so exhausted that I was no sooner on a mat than I was sound asleep.  I woke in the dark to a faint flicker of light from the fire in the next room.  Nancy & Audy were still asleep but I found Gunny & the Dragon Lady sitting by the fire in the other room eating rice & talking.  They looked up as I came in & I asked what time it was.   "The middle of the night," the Dragon Lady said.  "What are you two talking about?" I asked them, & Gunny said, "Business."  I thought he looked a little uncomfortable.  "What kind of business could that be?" I said, "in the middle of the night?"  "Well, mainly what's going to happen in the future."  I said, "What future is that?  Is there anything to make you think there even is a future for guys like you & me?"  The Dragon Lady said, "You should not think that way."   "I'll tell you what I think," I burst out, "I think my future ended back in that tunnel.  Back there I had no thought of ever getting out alive.  From then on every minute I've lived has been a bonus--one minute more that I didn't dare expect."  Gunny nodded, looking somber.  But then he said, "Well, dammit, you did get out of there; that's what counts now."  "No," I said, "what counts is that when I was in that tunnel I wrote myself off as dead.  Something came over me that made me lose all fear.  It wasn't that I suddenly became a hero or felt like Superman--nothing like that.  It's just that every minute, every day I get now is extra.  So I have not been making any longrange plans for any future!"  I was a little surprised at hearing myself say all this & I halfway wondered whether I really meant it.  But it was true that for days now I hadn't once seen myself back in America.  The place known as the future was nothing but a blank screen with nobody looking at it.   Gunny said, "For Christ's sake, smarten up, kid; you're gonna get out of here--that is, unless you go on thinking like that!"  "Gunny is right, Khan," the Dragon Lady said, "you must not think that way; we all care for you too much."  I shook my head & then shrugged.  "If there is a future for me, I won't throw it away."  Then I said, "But you never did say what the business was that you were talking about."  He laughed & then said, "Seriously-- "  "Seriously?" I grinned at him.  "You don't know what the word is.  But don't get me wrong, Gunny; I think you're one hell of a guy."  Once again what I was saying surprised me--but this time I knew I meant every word of it.  "Back in the States if you were a senior NCO & I was a snuff you might have treated me like shit.  All I know is that here you've never pulled rank on me.  Alot of people would have."  I stopped, feeling a little embarrassed by all that I felt.  The experiences we'd shared had brought us closer than anything else ever could have.  Those experiences weren't over yet & who knew where they would finally take us?   Gunny said, "Well, Rick, I'm pulling rank on you right now; rack out; we got a long way to go tomorrow & we got to be off early; I'm going back to sleep."  & he got to his feet & headed back to his mat.  "What about that business?" I said again.  "I'll tell you; only not now; now let's get some sleep."   In no time I'd dropped off again & when I woke next it was daylight.  Nancy appeared with plates of food for Gunny & Audy & me, & we'd just begun eating when the Dragon Lady came in.  I knew this meant there wasn't much time to finish our meal.  As soon as we had we went with her into the room where the Mongol lieutenant was sitting with two of his men.  They left after she'd talked with them briefly & then she said to us, "We shall take the horses; we do not yet have to leave them."   Just then there was a commotion outside the door.  We heard Audy's voice & he came in in a rush bringing Kim with him.  While the Dragon Lady spoke excitedly with her sister, Audy explained, "She came with some important news."  The two of them talked for some time & it seemed to me that I had never seen the Dragon Lady as she was now--almost rigid with anger.   "It seems that some of the people we killed in Peking were high government officials," she told us finally.  "Very high government officials."  She paused.  then she said to me, "Do you remember the man who came to the door with three others, the one who did not enter with them?"  Yes I remembered.  I'd seen how one man hesitated & then walked off--the decision that had saved his life.  She said glaring at me, "That man was Mao."  "Mao?" I repeated, "Mao Zedong?"  "Yes!"  She was almost spitting with rage.  I said, "I never really looked at him."   "& neither did I!"  She was almost shrieking.  "But if I had I would have given anything --I would even have spared Sing Yet-soo--to put an arrow into him!  Anything!  & now I shall never be so close again!"   I couldn't think of anything to say.  Getting back her self-control she went on, "As you can imagine, they are furious in Peking.  They are sending out troops over all the area to look for us.  but luckily they do not know which way we went.  So those troops must go in every direction."  She seemed to take some satisfaction in giving them that much trouble.  "But we're still in the middle of it," Gunny said.  "Yes," the Dragon Lady told him.  "That is why we must head south.  We must now split up."  "We're already split up," I reminded her.   "Not split enough," she said.  "We must now form at least six groups.  We shall head toward Loshan where I have friends & cross the Grand Canal.  We shall pass many many people, so we must be careful.  Until we meet at Loshan our six groups will be near each other.  But I must warn you:  we may have to change our direction at any time.  So the groups will be close enough that we can speak with each other every day."  I asked, "What about Scotty & his people?"   Before answering the Dragon Lady spoke to the Mongol lieutenant who nodded & went out.  Then she turned to Gunny & me.  "The lieutenant will send two men to warn Scotty & tell him to detour to meet us at Loshan.  If we can all reach that place safely we shall have a choice of routes to follow.  But I must warn you," she said again & her face & voice were as grave as I'd ever seen them.  "We can trust no one.  The Communists are determined to capture us.  Their spies are everywhere.  They have offered a large reward to anyone who captures us.  The trip to Loshan will be very dangerous."  "They can't outfox the fox," I said, trying to sound as though I believed it.   She did not smile at being called a fox but answered with a shrug, "We shall see.  Once we reach Loshan our chances will improve."  "Let's say we get to Loshan," I began, "& let's say we make it from there to the coast.  How are we going to contact the Americans?"  "We must find a transmitter; I think we shall do that without much difficulty."  I had one more question:  "What happens to Kim?"   After a word to her young sister, with both of them glancing at me, the Dragon Lady said, "She goes with us."  Then as though anticipating what I was thinking about the danger, she went on, "When I was her age I wanted the same thing--not to be left out."  Kim said something now & the Dragon Lady translated:  "She has something to give you--something that belonged to our parents.  She wants you to have it."  While I stared Kim put into my hand a set of rosary beads made of greenish jade with a handcarved ivory cross.   "They're beautiful!" I said, putting my arms around Kim.  She reached up & kissed me on the cheek & when I saw tears welling in her eyes I had to turn away or I would have been crying too.  I saw the Dragon Lady watching with a soft look that made her a totally different person from the one she had been only a few minutes before.  Now I put one arm around Kim & the other around the Dragon Lady & hugged them both at once.   But in a moment the thought of the commander came back into the Dragon Lady's face & I heard it in her voice:  "Now we shall divide into groups.  It would be best for you Americans to go separately.  So if one is caught the other will have a chance to get to the sea."  It was a sobering idea & I hated having to think of it.  I said looking at Gunny, "We're the only two left."  "Yeah," he said, "but she's right, Rick."  He turned to the Dragon Lady:  "Okay, so we split."   "Khan, Nancy, Kim, the lieutenant & one other Mongol will go with me.  Audy & Gunny will go with three Mongols.  Do not worry, Gunny, you will be in good hands." "I'm not worried about me, he said staring in my direction.  "Take care of the girls & don't go gung-ho on us; play it safe."  "Right," I said, "I'll take care of them; & no gung-ho."   Then the Dragon Lady began outlining our trip.  "From here we travel south.  We do not divide into groups until we reach the meeting of the Grand Canal & the Hwang Ho."  I asked how long it would take us to reach Loshan & she said, "Perhaps two days, perhaps a week."  She turned abruptly & shouted an order to someone who disappeared & came back with a leather bag.  From it the Dragon Lady pulled out two sets of binoculars-- one for Gunny & one for me.  The first set she'd given me had been lost in the fighting.   "A good thing that," Audy said.  "With the land so flat you can see a long way; spot a Commie from miles off."  "There is also another enemy out there," the Dragon Lady said, "this is the season of floods."  Audy confirmed this:  "The whole bloody area can go under water."  "But also the floods might work for us," she said.  "Now we go.  they are searching for us every minute."   Outside all of our people were waiting.  A number of villagers were standing by.  When the Dragon Lady said something to them, Audy explained, "She's telling them we are heading east."  "But aren't we heading south?"  "Quiet there, mate," he warned.   We mounted & we did start by heading east.  When we were a mile or so from the village two scouts dropped back as rear guards.  After we had passed a few more villages we took a route through the ride paddies that veered slightly to the south.  There was a halt when we reached a kind of basin where we waited for the scouts to appear.   "It is all right," the Dragon Lady told us finally.  "We are not being followed."  She appeared to read my thoughts about the friendly villagers.  "There are spies & informers--eyes & ears everywhere.  We cannot be too careful.  Soon there may be planes looking for us.  Now we must get back on the road & mingle with other people.  You two must keep your hats down low."   After riding due south for less than half a mile we came to a road that was simply a river of people--so many of them that we had to ride alongside.  After awhile we dismounted & walked our horses with the Dragon Lady in the lead.  I was right behind her, then came Kim, Nancy & the others strung out in a long line, our weapons hidden in baskets that had been secured to the backs of the horses.  Before long we began to see Communist soldiers standing by the road keeping a close watch on the people going in both directions.  The farther we went the more of them there were & the closer together what seemed to be checkpoints.  But the guards were only watching, not stopping anyone.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nancy working her way up to me.  "More Communists as we go south," she whispered.  "I can see," I told her, doing my best to keep my head down.  "You must get back in line."  I smiled from underneath the hat & could see her smile as she dropped behind me.   Over the next few miles there must have been a hundred soldiers stationed along the road.  They made me feel like a hunted animal.  While I tried to sneak past, unarmed, right under their noses, my heart pounded so hard that I halfway believed they would hear it.   It was midmorning by now & the flow of people along the road was thicker than ever.  I was surprised to see one of the Mongols mount his horse & leave the road, heading off towards a rice paddy.  Seeing that we were near a checkpoint I lowed my head.  Then I heard a commotion & up ahead I could just make out that the Mongol was being stopped by three soldiers who had begun interrogating him.  As I got closer I could hear the threat in their voices.  But the Mongol went on sitting astride his horse with his hands folded not saying a word.  I didn't know whether they thought he couldn't understand them or were afraid of him or just baffled.  But finally, looking annoyed, they waved him on.  My spirits had risen briefly at seeing the giant outwit the soldiers, but now they fell again at the thought of how noticeable the Mongols were; it seemed to me that the Communists had to connect them with our raids.  How many Mongols could there be in China at the moment who were giving trouble to the authorities?   As we rode I noticed that the soil was darker & richer than before.  This was river-bottom country with canals everywhere, all of them held in their channels by high dikes.  Toward early afternoon a light rain started to fall.  At the same time the weather was so much warmer that I took off all my extra clothes keeping on a long-sleeved shirt to hide the color of my skin.  I'd smeared dirt on my hands, neck & face.  But what mainly helped me at times when soldiers were within a couple of feet of me was simply the unbelievable numbers of people crowed along the roads--literally thousands of them.  It must have been that after awhile anyone trying to watch would be hypnotized by the sight of so many people passing.   Again & again I made out the walls of a village off to the side of the road with hundreds of people at work in the fields around it.  The rain became heavier & it felt so good that I would have loved to throw my head back & let it wash the grime & sweat from my face; but of course I didn't do any such thing.   The checkpoints now seemed farther apart & after awhile the Dragon Lady dropped back to tell Nancy & me, "After the next checkpoint we shall leave the road.  There is a village nearby where we can stop & rest for a time."  She veered off the road a little later & after riding less than a quarter of a mile we were in the midst of a huge soggy ricefield.  Keeping clear of the green rows while we sloshed through water we made our way across it & uphill onto a plain.  After a mile or so we came in sight of a village.  Before we got to the wall surrounding it the Dragon Lady signaled us to stop while she rode on ahead.  Hundreds of men, women & children were working in the fields & they gave us a curious glance now & then while we waited, not moving.  It must have been nearly an hour before she returned & signaled for us to enter.  During those final few hundred yards the wind was blowing & it began raining harder so I was all the happier at the thought of shelter.   The houses of the village, as those in the others we'd seen, were small & primitive--& just as packed with people.  I wondered how they could live jammed together that way.  Some of the Mongols took our horses & we went in on foot--Gunny & I still keeping our hats pulled low.  After what the Dragon Lady had told us about spies we could hardly feel relaxed.  The Mongols, always a little remote & wary, stayed outside the village with the horses & didn't mingle at all with the people of the village while we were led into a low-ceilinged hut & given food.  From the beginning, though, there had been some uneasiness in the air.  After a few moments I saw that the Dragon Lady & Audy were both agitated & soon she was saying that we must leave.  I asked what was the matter.  Audy answered my question  "The Communists have been really butchering people.  It's no good here.  The villagers are too bloody upset."   So we went out into the downpour.  Just as we were mounted & about to start off, three figures on horseback appeared in the distance heading straight for us.  They were all riding like madmen.  As they got closer I could see that one of them was a white man.  When he leaped from his horse he turned out to be at least as big as the Mongol lieutenant-- maybe six feet six & weighing as much as 250 pounds.   Two smaller figures wearing robes that covered them from head to toe sat on their horses while the big man walked toward us.  He was black-haired with dark eyes.  "& are you just going to sit there & stare all the day?" he asked with a grin that showed alot of very white teeth.  I guessed from his accent that he must be an Irishman--not Boston Irish but the real thing.  An M-1 rifle was slung over his shoulder & he carried two knives on his belt.   The Dragon Lady dismounted to meet him & several of the villagers came outside the walls again.  As soon as they headed back inside she was motioning for Gunny & me to follow her & soon we were back in the same hut as before.  The black-haired giant looked around & grinned again.  "O'Malley's the name, John O'Malley.  & whose company do I have the pleasure of on this hell of a fine day?"  We introduced ourselves & I went on wondering about his two small companions.  They were still engulfed in the robes they wore though they looked as though they must be soaked through.  Finally with a glance at them O'Malley said, "We have a bit of a problem."  When the two figures finally shed those wet outer clothes I saw what it was.  they were both women, Caucasian, & dressed in the garb of nuns.   While they stood there quietly shivering O"Malley said, "The Communists seem to have gone quite daft.  These two sisters are from a little church on the other side of the Grand Canal, four miles to the south.  A force of Communist soldiers came up the road shooting everything & everyone in sight.  They walked straight into the church firing.  I was in the back with a priest & the sisters.  When the priest ran out into the sanctuary they shot him.  I gathered up the two sisters here, got them onto horses & off we rode.  As we were leaving the soldiers were setting the church afire."   A couple of the villagers now took the nuns aside & gave them food.  They were Belgian, O"Malley told us; whether they didn't know English at all or were under some kind of vow of silence or were just in a state of shock I never found out.  For a moment the rest of us simply stood there no one saying anything until I thought to ask O"Malley where he had come from.  It was a second or two while he looked at me as though it was none of my business before he answered, "Burma."  "That is a very long way," the Dragon Lady said.  "What is your destination? "  O'Malley glared at her for a second.  Then he said, "You're a tiny thing.  If you stood sideways I might not even see you."  Though he sounded genial it was a brush-off & the Dragon Lady knew it.  "But I am not standing sideways," she retorted, "I am asking your destination. "   He let out a big laugh.  "No, you're not standing sideways, & I can see you.  Very well, I am heading for Indochina."  "Are you lost perhaps?" she asked.  "You are a very great distance out of your way."   He said, laughing even louder, "I came up here to go to church!"  Then he added, "No, I have to meet some friends first; then we will go south again; to help my countrymen in the fighting in Indochina."  The Dragon Lady stared.  "I did not know the Irish were fighting in Indochina!"   This time he nearly exploded with laughter.  "Sure & you'd be deaf not to hear the Irish in my voice.  But I was in the French Foreign Legion for fifteen years & now I'm heading for where the fighting is."  "& what about them?" I nodded toward the nuns.  they now sat in a corner eating rice, looking nowhere but down into their bowls.   "Oh, I'll manage.  We're only three, & we should be able to slip through.  The soldiers are busy looking for someone else."  He seemed to be thinking & his stare moved from the Dragon Lady to each one of us.  "It wouldn't be yourselves, I suppose?" he said then.  The Dragon Lady answered with another question.  "Have you seen many Communist soldiers?"   "Many?"  The whole road is a nest of them!"  Audy was now looking alarmed.  "What road did you say you were on?"  "I didn't, O'Malley said, still parrying.  Again he seemed to be thinking before he replied, "Just south of Tungping."   "That's the very same bloody road Scotty would be on," Audy said.  "If you have a friend on that road," O'Malley told him, "he'll be overrun."  The Dragon Lady now said, "Our schedule must be changed."  "Then you'd best hurry!" O'Malley told her.  "You've a long way to go & the mud will be so deep that horses will be of no use."   "Perhaps Scotty & his people will not be stopped," the Dragon Lady said quickly.  "We passed many Communist soldiers & we were not taken.  Scotty may not have been so lucky.  But if he has been taken we must try to help him.  With surprise & the weather even a small strike force, one of our size, could perhaps succeed.  If necessary we must be ready to try."  Audy, Gunny & I all readily agreed--though I couldn't help adding to myself, "But how?"   Then O'Malley said with a look at us, "I may as well go too."  "You have the sisters to care for," the Dragon Lady reminded him.  "Ah then if I'm killed," the big Irishman said, "you must agree to look after the sisters."  "Agreed," the Dragon Lady said.   O'Malley gave his flashing grin, shook hands with all of us & then reached into his pocket like a magician about to perform a trick.  What he brought out was an old battered tin flask.  Unscrewing the top he held it up & called out, "A toast for the battle to come!"  After a healthy swig he said "Ahhh," & passed the flask to Gunny.  "Whiskey?" Gunny asked.  "Homemade."  "It's been a long time," Gunny said & took a mouthful.  He swallowed, gasped & held out the flask to Audy who declined it.  then he offered it to me.   Although my experience with drinking was close to nil, I filled my mouth with the fiery stuff.  That was my first mistake.  Trying to swallow it all was my second.  I choked, gagged & spat all over the place trying to catch my breath while the whiskey made its way through my insides burning all the way.  "Have another, son," O'Malley said while Gunny tried to keep a straight face.  "Half of that one went on the floor."  When the laughter died down the Dragon Lady got back to business with a question to O'Malley:  "Tell us about the condition of the terrain between here & Tungping."   "Mud, as I said; getting worse all the time; we hardly made it ourselves.  I was sure our horses would break a leg.  Now it will be impossible; you'll not be riding there."  "How can we make any time without horses?" Gunny asked.  "I made it all the way from Burma without one," O'Malley told him.   Gunny said, taking on the challenge, "Well, hell, we came all the way from Manchuria & half of that was on foot!"  "Ah, saints preserve us, so you are the ones the Communists are after!" O'Malley declared.  I said to Gunny, "You sure know how to keep a secret!"   "Never mind, lad," O'Malley told me.  "It's hard to keep that kind of secret.  There are only a few of us foreigners in China & when you hear about a group of them causing trouble it's not too hard to figure out who it might be.  Believe me, your secret is safe with me!"  The Dragon Lady had been talking with several of the villagers who now brought out some skins.  "Get your weapons," she said, "& wrap them in these to keep them dry."   We went outside to follow her instructions & found a gale blowing.  Huts were swaying; here & there a roof had been torn off & the rain seemed to be driving at a forty-five degree angle to the ground.  Following the Mongols outside the village walls to where the horses were we retrieved our weapons from the baskets & took them back to the hut.  We found the nuns kneeling in prayer.  Almost without thinking I put down my machine gun & bandoliers & knelt down myself.  "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..."  I hardly knew where the words came from but there they were.  When I looked around the Dragon Lady, Gunny, Audy, Nancy & Kim were all kneeling too.  I had always believed in God & right now the time had come when it was comforting just to ask for a little outside help.   We got up & no one said anything for a moment or two.  Then as if there had been a signal we were all moving.  I slung the bandoliers & the binoculars over my shoulder again, checked my weapon & wrapped it in the skins I'd been given.  The Dragon Lady was saying, "Nancy, I should like you to take Kim, the two sisters & some of our men to a place where we shall meet you.  It will be difficult, for you will not be able to travel on the roads; you will have to cross the plain which is like a marsh in this weather.  You will have to take great care."   She paused & looked for a second at Nancy.  "If we are late," she said, "--if we do not come to the place by the right time then the Mongols will lead you back to the mountains.  You must not wait longer than the time I shall tell you."  "No!" Nancy said.  It was as though the word leaped out of her.  "We wait; we do not leave without you."  "Nancy!" the Dragon Lady answered sternly.  "You will not wait one minute past the time I tell you.  Every minute is a danger to the people with you.  You must promise!"   Tears broke from the girl's eyes & rolled down her face.  She stared at the Dragon Lady & then at me.  I walked over to her, put my hands on her fragile shoulders & said gently, "We're going to be there, don't worry; but you must promise."  She went on looking at the two of us.  At last she said, "I promise," & added, "Please be there!"   I could hardly keep the tears out of my own eyes.  While I turned & walked away, the Dragon Lady put an arm around Nancy & walked with her, telling her in Chinese exactly where & when we were to meet.  & then once again it was time to go.   In a couple of minutes we stood outside the village wall in the pelting rain watching while Nancy & her group veered off to the right & vanished into the storm.  Then we had to concentrate on our own journey.  The mud gave us trouble almost from the first step.  At best it didn't quite reach our ankles; at worst we were sucked in up to the knees all the time struggling to keep upright in the face of the wind.  Adding to our exhaustion was the fact that it was now getting dark.  Soon the mud was an intimate addition to our clothes & it kept working its way through to the skin.  I'd wrapped my machine gun as carefully as possible but I worried about how I was going to check it before firing if I ever had to.   Darkness came fast & we slogged on bunched close together so as not to lose each other.  There was almost no visibility.   Even in all that rain I was sweating like a pig.  When I stopped for a drink of water I got a dose of mud along with it.  finally the Dragon Lady held up her hand for a stop & we gathered into a single group.  There were about thirty of us now.  She told us that the Grand Canal was just ahead.  "Scotty had to cross the canal here," she told us, "where it meets the Hwang Ho.  So we shall cross.  We shall take the road he took & we shall catch his group very soon, I hope."   We resumed our plodding for about half a mile.  Then we were at the canal & again she was signaling a stop.  She & the Mongol lieutenant went off to make a reconnaissance, leaving the rest of us there to rest.  I looked over at O'Malley who was so quiet that he might have been in a trance.  Gunny, noticing it too, shook him & said, "Hey Irish, snap out of it!"  But O'Malley only said, "Things are not going right.  When they are I'll be the first to tell you; but now they're not."  Gunny asked what he was talking about & after another couple of moments his eyes seemed to focus.  "Now," I said, "tell us what the hell you were talking about."  "Talking?  Was I talking?  What did I say?" O"Malley asked.  "Alot of bullshit," Gunny told him.   "So I was, so I was, I suppose," O'Malley said.  None of us was satisfied with that but we all settled down to wait for the Dragon Lady.  About ten minutes later she was back.     "There is a big bridge up ahead," she told us, "but it is guarded; so we shall walk under it."  Gunny asked how we were going to do that--by walking on water?  I was glad he had begun asking the dumb questions.  "Yes," she answered with a laugh.  "You will see; there is a footbridge along the abutments at the level of the water; we shall walk on that."   What she called a footbridge was hardly even that.  It had no rail, it was narrow & slippery & in places it was actually under the water of the canal which was turbulent with flooding from the storm.  But there was nothing to do except follow her watching our footing as we moved in single file along those swaying planks with nothing to hold onto except the pilings of the bridge.  These were spaced about ten feet apart & what made things worse was the way the planks kept moving away from the pilings & then drifting back with the movement of the water.  That meant having to dash from one piling to the next while the planks were up against it & then squatting down on the boards to hold on as it moved away again--then another dash, another squat.  The footbridge was held together with rope but didn't seem to be attached to the main bridge; I don't know what kept it suspended.   When I finally set foot on land the Dragon Lady was waiting, moving each one of us along while she watched to see that everyone had made it.  We waited while she took a final count.  It appeared that no one was missing.  then we were moving through the mud again for another half hour until we came to a road.  The storm had left it deserted.  After the packed roads we'd traveled in daylight the emptiness seemed strange.  There was a delay while the Dragon Lady sent out scouts.  The road once we started forward again was so muddy that it was very little better than trudging across the plain had been.   Some figures up ahead meant another halt & this time the Dragon Lady ordered us to get down.  Staying at a half crouch in mud & water left our clothes & skin in worse condition than ever but we hid until it was clear that the people coming were our own scouts.  The Dragon Lady talked with them for awhile & then came over to report.  "The Communists have camped about a quarter of a mile ahead.  In a field just across from them they have shot about two hundred people."   I suppose the same thought went through all our minds.  audy was the one who voiced it:  "What about Scotty & Charlie?"  "The scouts do not know.  We shall move up as close as we can & see what we can find out."  We trudged forward through the mud & again the signal came to halt.    I said, "Why not hit them now while they're asleep?"  "No," she replied.  "We shall wait for the scouts to come back again."  & she told us to check our weapons.  Glad for a chance to do this I unwrapped my machine gun & found that it wasn't quite as filthy as I'd feared.  I did the best I could to clean it in that weather, squeezed out the water from the skins & rewrapped it.   Half an hour must have passed before the scouts returned once again with their report.  Now she told us, "We are thirty yards from the bodies of the prisoners they killed.  the Communists are right across the road.  We shall get into their camp to see if any prisoners are alive.  If there are not--" she paused, "then that will mean that Scotty & Charlie escaped or else they are out in the field...with the other bodies."