Gardella 8

8   There were two planes, & after one pass they must have spotted us.  Now they circled & dived.  The Dragon Lady yelled, "Down!"   I heard machine-gun fire.  Because we were on the downhill side of their approach they couldn't get a really good shot at us.  After one pass they had to begin a rapid climb to keep from plowing into the far side of the valley wall.  As they pulled out the Dragon Lady yelled at us to get up & move.  with the planes wheeling for an approach from the opposite direction she sent us running to the other side of the valley, so as to be on the downhill side again.   Twice more we went through the same maneuver which was just that much more exhausting for me because I was half supporting, half carrying Nancy.  Then the Dragon Lady began edging us toward an exit from the valley--a narrow wooded gulch where we'd be safe from the planes.  Once we made it Gunny declared, "The woman is a genius."  "Now you see what I mean," I said.   Gunny looked at me smiling.  "You sound like a proud papa, or something else."   "Oh cut it out," I told him & pretended to take a swing at him.  But his remark startled me.  I hadn't admitted to thinking of the Dragon Lady in any kind of romantic way even though she was a young & attractive woman.  I'd thought of her as my general, the leader I depended on to stay alive.  That was the way things were going to be.  The decision I'd made wasn't a conscious one at all.  It was just there.   She dropped back now to talk briefly with Scotty who came over to us to report what she had said:  "A few miles ahead there are inhabited caves.  She knows the people & we're going to be able to stop there & get supplies.  The Dragon Lady says you mustn't be surprised when you see the people."   Even though I'd about had my fill of surprises, for the hour or so it took us to reach the caves I found myself wondering what was in store for us.  During a pause while the Dragon Lady talked with two of her scouts Nancy caught up with me.  She had been walking pretty well & was looking chipper.  Now she took my hand & said, "We run?"   I laughed.  "You feel good?"  "Yes."  "Good!  All the same, we walk."  I gripped her hand strongly as a kind of support & we started forward together.  What stopped us before we'd gone a hundred yards was the sight of a group of people dressed in animal skins, as though we'd stepped into prehistoric times!  It sounds strange even to speak of cavemen but that is what they were.  We watched while the Dragon Lady spoke with them.  Then she turned to us.  "We shall rest here tonight.  Inside there is food."   The series of caves we now entered were almst like rooms, a good deal smaller than the huge caverns where I'd first met Scotty.  There must have been fifty or sixty people living in them.  Once we'd sat down they brought us bowls of something thick & hot--a sort of porridge.  Whatever was in it to anyone as hungry as I was it tasted delicious.  The main course as usual was rice.   After a while the Dragon Lady told us that tomorrow we would begin crossing the plain--& that we would be doing it on horseback.  I had been on a horse once in my life--on a Sunday Boy Scout outing.  & one of the things that gave me asthma was horses.  When I told Scotty about this he asked me how bad it was.   "Not so bad.  I haven't had it at all lately.  But that may be because I've stayed away from animals.  I never thought I was enlisting in the cavalry."   Gunny & Scotty both thought this was funny.  But the Dragon Lady didn't.  She got up & in a few minutes she brought me a small pouch.  "Tomorrow when we ride," she said, "you must take this.  Do not eat it, just put some of it under your tongue."   Inside the pouch I found what looked like sand.  "I'm not going to put sand in my mouth," I said.  She laughed.  "Put a little under your tongue.  Just a little.  Try it now."  So I stuck a very little of it under my tongue.  It had no taste & after awhile I forgot it was there; either it dissolved or I had swallowed it.  But I was going to need another kind of magic to teach me how to ride!   "Well, how long will it take us to cross this plain?" I asked.  "A few days perhaps.  We shall have to cross the Liao river & that is perhaps one hundred miles away," she said.  At least it wasn't a thousand!   As we talked, a couple of little girls had come up to stare at Scotty & Gunny & me.  We were probably the first white men they'd ever seen.  while they stood there, shy & hesitant but with no intention of going away, I motioned one to come closer.  Then I clapped my hands together & after a few more motions she got the idea of a game of pattycake.  the other kids watched with big eyes & the grownups all had big grins on their faces.   After I'd played the game with the second child & then the third, a woman came & said something in a scolding voice, & the kids ran off.  Though I didn't know a word of her language, the tone was so familiar that I could almost translate:  "Now don't make pests of yourselves, just run off & leave our guests alone!"   I was thinking how wonderful it was that I could play games with these kids even though we came from countries thousands of miles apart & couldn't speak a word to teach other.  Then all of a sudden fatigue hit me & I was ready to sack out.  We were given some skins to lie on & to cover ourselves with, & in no time I was asleep.   When Scotty woke me the next morning every muscle ached.  There was a strange smell in the air & I saw some men smoking.  Though I'd been a smoker--nothing like a pack a day, but regularly--I hadn't had a cigarette since soon after I "volunteered" , for the simple reason that there weren't any.  I said to Gunny, "Maybe one of those guys would give us a smoke.     "No, you don't smoke," Nancy, who'd been listening, said firmly.  "Why not?"  The Dragon Lady answered.  "They smoke opium.  If you want a cigarette I shall find one for you."  She waved to one of her men who walked around a bit looking for someone in her party to bum a smoke from.  In a while he brought me a couple of handrolled cigarettes.  I gave one to Gunny & we both lit up.  From the first drag I knew this was a mistake.  Coughing & gasping I finally managed to ask, "What the hell was that--rope?"   Scotty told us, chortling, that it was made from the fibers of a plant.  "& the Mongols love it!"   The laughter had hardly died down before the Dragon Lady said, "Now we shall go & get the horses."  She led us to an open place where a couple of dozen of her men were holding four animals each.  Altogether there must have been nearly a hundred--enough for all of us.  Where she'd managed to get them I have no idea even now.  But clearly--whether because of fear or love--she was respected in this country & there hardly seemed to be any limit to what she was capable of.  By then if someone had told me she was going to produce an aircraft carrier on this plain I guess I would have believed it.   None of the horses had saddles & the bridle was a single rope around the head.  A second circle of rope over the back & behind the front legs served in place of stirrups.  One of the Dragon Lady's men walked up to me with a horse that they must have picked for its greatness, though it looked to me like a monster.  While I watched, the others began mounting with ease--even little Nancy--& I wondered again how I would ever manage.   Then I saw that Gunny was having trouble too.  He'd get his body up but couldn't get a leg over, or else he'd get one leg up & the horse would move a bit & he'd lose his nerve.  I laughed out loud & he glared at me.  "I don't see you up there either, hot shot," he said.   That stung me.  I grabbed the rope in my right hand, tried to get a handful of mane in my left, & with a leap & a pull managed to get my left leg over the horse & my weight on top of him.  I was about to say something when my horse fidgeted a little.  In a new fit of panic I clutched at his mane & neck & barely managed to stay on.  There was laughter all around, but then Gunny had gotten the hang of it too, & we were off--beginning at a slow walk that I suppose was for our benefit.   After watching the way the others hitched their feet into the ropes & used their heels to make the animal move & the way they handled the reins, I felt more secure.  Scotty was staying close to make sure Gunny & I managed.  "We're going to be awfully conspicuous crossing the plain this way with so many people," I told him.  "It's a chance we've got to take.  Perhaps we can do it because it's so unexpected."  Scotty added that later we would break into smaller groups & begin to ride faster.   I stayed with the Dragon Lady, together with Scotty, Gunny, Nancy & eight or ten others.  After a while the Dragon Lady started spurring her horse forward & the others began to speed up, with Gunny & me doing our best to imitate them.  At first I was bouncing with such a jolt that my spine seemed to be forcing itself up through the top of my head.  Then Nancy pulled alongside me.  "Move with horse," she said, "like this."  I watched the way she rocked, using her legs so that she went up & down along with the motion of the animal & soon--though it was certainly no featherbed up there--I began to feel more comfortable.   We'd ridden about an hour when the Dragon Lady held up her hand & called out the order, which Scotty translated for us, to walk with the horses for awhile.  This was a great relief to me.  After we'd walked for awhile, we were told to give the horses some water & then wipe their nostrils with it.  For that I used another strip torn from my sleeve.  Like the rest I carried my water in an animalskin bag which I refilled wherever I could.  The sun was up & it was beginning to be warm; I took a few swallows but I was careful with my supply.  Then I looked around at the countryside- -a vast level space with trees here & there, & a few fields of grain.   Still walking our horses we began moving into a series of low hills, all the time on the watch for planes.  Suddenly I called out to Gunny, "You know what?  I'v e been with this horse for over an hour & my eyes aren't tearing a bit!"  "So the stuff you took must work," he said.   I caught up with the Dragon Lady to ask what the stuff in the pouch had been.  "A certain leaf, ground up.  Many among us have this...illness that you have.  the leaf prevents it.  Don't people use something like that where you come from?"  "No.  We just have shots."  I made the motions of giving an injection to show what I meant & she nodded to show that she understood.   I thanked her again & dropped back with Gunny & Scotty.  Maybe twenty minutes later the Dragon Lady ordered us to remount & we were off at a full gallop.  I was already sore--especially my seat--but the riding was now a lot easier except that the insides of my legs were chafed.  Looking around at the others--dozens of Orientals mounted on horses wearing rags & skins, carrying machine guns & bandoliers-- I wondered whether the wild Mongols I'd heard about could have looked much different.   At the top of a hill a rider appeared in the distance.  As he headed toward us I saw him hold up both hands, lower one of them & then repeat the same signal.  The Dragon Lady returned it & sent four riders ahead to meet him.  What a strange sight it was, almost as if we had been on the ocean--the rider appearing at the top of a hill as if on the crest of a wave & then sinking out of sight, appearing & disappearing again, until he & his four-man escort wheeled up beside us.  The first of the scouts brought his horse alongside the Dragon Lady & the two of them continued at a gallop, talking as they rode.  It was at least twenty minutes before she signaled Scotty, Gunny & me to come up, & told us what she had learned:  "There is a river ahead & Russians are there."  It was a Communist base, she explained, where the Russians were serving as advisers, teaching the Chinese to fly jet planes.  When I asked, "What do we do?" she looked at me & said, "We shall see."   After we had ridden awhile longer, the chafing along the insides of my legs worsened.  The skin had been rubbed raw by friction.  When I told Scotty he shouted, "You should have wrapped something around them before we started."   Once again it was clear how much I had to learn about taking care of myself in these surroundings.  & how lucky I was to have hooked up with these people!   It seemed like hours, though I knew it was no more than a few minutes before, blessedly, the Dragon Lady signaled for us to dismount & walk our horses again.  Soon I spotted a couple of scouts galloping in &, as I feared, our rest came to an end.  The scouts rode on either side of the Dragon Lady as the three of them talked.  The day had begun to be really hot & it was a relief when I could stop again & douse my horse's head with water.   Noting that the Dragon Lady had slowed, I hurried to catch up with her & hear her report of what the scouts had found.  There were, she said, six planes, perhaps more, several hangars, several shacks with soldiers in them, a radio station & two buildings that might have trucks in them.  "Those," she said, "would be useful to us."   "But how do we get them?" Gunny asked in the voice of somebody who already half knows the answer & doesn't like it much.  "We attack," the Dragon Lady said.   Gunny rolled his eyes but she ignored him.  Turning to Scotty she said simply, "Tonight."  The two scouts were already drawing a map in the dirt.  Scotty asked how many Russians there were.   "We do not know precisely but perhaps one hundred people in total."  She looked down at the map & studied it for awhile in silence.  "We shall not try to attack during daylight.  So now we travel more slowly & arrive after dark.  We hope to strike while they are eating or sleeping.  We divide into groups.  One attacks radio station & building next to it.  This must be done with great speed.  Other groups attack planes & the second building & the shacks."  She looked around as though waiting for someone to say something.  Finally I asked, "Where are we now?"   "We are north of Port Arthur.  & we are going west.  We shall cross the river near Tiehling."  "& once we cross the river & get by the airfield, how far is it to the mountains?"  "Two hundred miles."  She smiled as she said it.   We went off at a gallop & traveled for the rest of the afternoon, resting the horses & ourselves periodically.  The ground was covered with a low growth that might have been moss.  Everything looked green & peaceful & I thought of what I'd seen in only eleven days in China--the blood, the bodies, the children buried alive.  If I ever got married & had children of my own, how could my family have anything to do with the Rick Gardella who had been through all this?  Would I ever be able to tell them what I had seen--& what I had done?  If I never told, what would it be like to live with that secret for the rest of my life?   I thought of what the Dragon Lady had said about controlling your mind rather than letting it control you.  I'd work on that; I'd have to.  How else could I handle the memory of those bodies?   "Wait!"  Scotty's voice shocked me out of my trance; they'd all slowed down for a short rest & I'd gone right on.  So much for mind control.   The Dragon Lady explained that she was ordering one of her riders out to call together all her leaders.  Then we would go over her plans for the airbase.  Within half an hour the leaders had arrived.  We all sat in one large circle with the Dragon Lady in the center.  She used stones to plot a diagram of the base, describing each group's assignment, going over it repeatedly until she was sure everyone knew exactly what to do.  Scotty, Gunny & I were to join her group in attacking the radio station & the buildings adjacent to it.  Each of the group leaders was then given twenty minutes to rejoin his unit while the rest of us mounted & rode off, walking our horses occasionally but taking no long rests & eating nothing but a few handfuls of rice while we were on the move.     Later in the afternoon the Dragon Lady called in her leaders for another briefing.  As we went back to our horses, Gunny said to me, "Kid, when we get there...take it easy, will you?"  "What do you mean?"  "I mean, don't lose your head."  "What makes you think I'll do that?"  "Look, kid, all I mean is that you've been through alot, you've been lucky--we've been lucky--& let's not push it."   "Gunny," I said, "let me tell you something.  I'm not going to push anything.  If we could get around that base, I'd skip it gladly."  "Okay," he said, "that's more like it."   A rider was approaching.  Since there were always scouts coming & going, I didn't pay much attention to him--until he got close & I saw that it was Charlie.  "Where the hell have you been?"  I yelled at him.  though he'd been gone only a short time it seemed long the way everything did here--a day seemed like a week, a week seemed to go back a year.  He grinned at me, pointing to the west.  The Dragon Lady, coming up alongside us, said, "He has been to Mongolia, getting ready for our arrival there." "What did they say when they heard we were coming?" Gunny asked, clowning.  Charlie, clowning back, hunched his shoulders & let out a growl.  "They say that," he said, laughing.  "You tell them we said the same," Gunny told him.   As it was getting dark we stopped & one by one the outlying groups came in.  The Dragon Lady's orders were to proceed on horseback the moment it got dark.  Fifteen minutes later all the groups had assembled & stood waiting by their horses--more than a hundred altogether.  The Dragon Lady pointed to a hill a couple of hundred yards ahead.  Over it & perhaps a hundred yards down the side, she told us, we would find the base that was our objective.  We now formed into a skirmish line & when the light was gone from the sky she mounted as a signal to everyone to do the same.  We set off at a gallop.  I must admit that I was scared but also exhilarated.   Once we got over the hill we were almost on top of the base before we sighted it.  We had seen no one & met with no fire when I spotted the radio station & adjoining building that were our targets.  As we raced past people were coming out of another building.  My machine gun was off my shoulder almost before I dismounted, heading for the station.     I got through the main door & started up the stairs.  By then I was hearing automatic fire outside.  Two men stepped out of a doorway on a landing halfway up the stairs; I opened fire & knocked them both down.  Stepping over them, I raced for the head of the stairs & kicked open the door I found there, revealing a man at a radio transmitter.  I blasted at him & bowled him over.  By this time Gunny was directly behind me.  He opened fire & hit two men who had just come through a doorway to one side of the transmitter.  I took a deep breath & looked at the three bodies.  All of them were Chinese.   We raced through the building firing at anyone we saw & finally we shot up the radio transmitter itself.  Suddenly all was quiet around us though we could hear firing & explosions outside.  Running out, we saw the planes ablaze.  The firing stopped entirely.  In a matter of ten minutes the fight was over.  We had not suffered a single casualty.   Following the Dragon Lady inside the second building, we found the bodies of ten men, all of them Russians--five officers in black uniforms, five enlisted men whose uniforms were brown.  Outside my own group of marines the only white men I'd seen since I landed in Manchuria had been Scotty, Roberts--& the ten dead Russians.  These were the military advisers who had been teaching the Communist Chinese to use the weapons supplied to them by the Soviet Union.  Christ, I thought, we've killed ten Russian soldiers.  If it were known, that would be enough to start a world war!   "What about the trucks?" I asked, & the Dragon Lady said, "There they are."  I watched as several canvas-covered trucks were being pulled out of the garagelike building & one of the hangars.  I could see people already climbing into them.  They were small, holding maybe twelve or fifteen people each.  The horses were to be left behind.   We lost no time in getting out of there & were soon crossing a bridge over the Liao.  Looking back, I saw the buildings we'd set afire lighting up the sky.  "They could see that all over China," I told Scotty.  "Aye, they might.  But by the time they can do anything about it, let's hope we are in the mountains."   We drove without lights over a road full of bumps & potholes.  After an hour or so we stopped short with a screech of brakes & Gunny & I landed on top of each other in the front of the truck.  The reason for the stop, we soon saw, was a couple of Chinese on foot.  After speaking with the driver of the lead truck they came back & got in with us.  As we continued our bone-rattling ride they & the Dragon Lady talked, with Charlie listening & explaining what he heard.  The area up ahead was full of Communist troops--& there were also Russians.  "More Russians!" I exclaimed.  "Hey!  We're not in Russia, are we?"  "We're a long way from it," Scotty insisted.  "Then what is it we've gotten into?  What's going on?"  Scotty said quiet, "Take it easy, Rick."  "Take it easy, hell!" I shot back.  "I'll take it easy if you'll just tell me what's happening & why we go on running into more troops & more russians everywhere we go!"   Nancy had come over to sit next to me.  Now she put her tiny hand on top of my big paw.  I looked at her, felt ashamed & mumbled something about being sorry  "It's all right, lad," Scotty said.  "Just let me tell you what I can.  It appears that the Mongols are upset because of the underground testing that is being done in this area.  The men who just spoke to us say those were atomic explosions.  We can't be sure of that.  The Mongols are saying that animals from their herds are dying & that it's because of the explosions.  They are ready to fight."   "& here we are in the middle of it," I said.  "It's like the tunnel all over again."   "At least we don't have to worry about being bored."  His good-natured tone somehow pacified me & for awhile we jolted along without speaking.  With no headlights & no moon once again it was hard to see the reason when we came to another halt.  We got out & people from the other trucks came together in the darkness while the Dragon Lady went into another huddle with her men.  Then she came back to tell us that up ahead there was another base, a big one--the headquarters responsible for the underground explosions.  "Russians & Communist troops are there," she said.  "So what's the plan?" Gunny wanted to know, while Scotty asked more diplomatically, "May I speak with you for a moment?"   The Dragon Lady wasn't used to being interrupted.  But she went off to confer with Scotty.  In a couple of minutes they were back & she announced that we would go around the base.  I was the last one to get back into our truck & it was starting to move so quickly that I almost didn't make it.  When I asked Scotty what he had said to make the Dragon Lady change her mind about the base, he answered, "I told her we'd already attacked one of their bases & that they had radios & would be after us." "I wasn't sure she would listen," I said.   "She has an open mind, lad.  But you have to understand that every time she comes across a Communist her instinct is to destroy him.  She's got good reason for that--I'll tell you about it sometime--but she also has good sense.  She wouldn't have lasted this long if she hadn't.  Just now she saw that we'd better bypass that camp."   At that moment we struck something in the road & Gunny & I were both thrown off-balance again.  When we righted ourselves Scotty was sitting there so coolly that I wondered whether he'd developed some special kind of balance from living the way he did.  "What were we talking about?" he asked.  "About her."  "Yes?"  "About what was wrong with her, that you two couldn't get along."  "I didn't say anything was wrong with her, lad.  We just didn't see eye to eye."   Again we came to a stop, this time because on of the lead trucks had overheated.  Steam waqs coming from under the hood & the driver was making angry noises like any driver anywhere.  In a moment the Dragon Lady had ordered that the truck be left behind.  "There's no time to worry about it," she said.  "The passengers will be divided among the other trucks."  Her tone was so decisive that I couldn't resist saying "Aye, aye, sir!"  "You are sir!" she told me cheerfully, "I am Dragon Lady!"   After we had been riding for awhile I saw that Gunny had somehow fallen asleep.  I had actually dozsed a little myself even though the road was now bumpier than ever--like driving over a bed of railroad ties.  Dawn was coming.  As the sky grew light I saw huge dark mountain peaks up ahead.  I couldn't take my eyes off the scene but stared at it hypnotized until we came to a stop.  We all got out & in a little while the Dragon Lady came up, walking with the same swift & erect bearing as always.I wondered if she ever slept at all.  She told us that Charlie would lead us to a meeting place that had been set up while she went on ahead.  At my questioning glance she said, "I must meet some people before our group arrives.  They do not like to be surprised."  "Didn't Charlie already do that?"  Scotty took hold of my arm & said to her, "We understand."  "What did I say wrong this time?" I asked him.   "Nothing, lad.  You just didn't realize that Charlie didn't actually make personal contact with the Mongols.  He could not have reached the mountains & returned to us on the other side of the river in two days & a half.  That would have meant covering five hundred miles on horseback.  Even he couldn't have done that.  What he did was to reach the outskirts of Mongol territory & send word on ahead that we would be coming.  But she must talk to them herself the way any ambassador pays respects to the rulers of a nation he is about to enter.  It is merely good manners."  Soon we were heading into the mountains following Charlie in the lead truck.  The Dragon Lady had gone off in a different direction.  After awhile we halted & everyone got out.  I watched the trucks being driven off into a gully where they would not be noticeable from the road.  "By the time the trucks are found," Charlie told us, "we will be up in mountains."  "& how do we get there?" I asked.  Charlie smiled.  "We walk."   I really didn't mind after all the riding.  A good deal of the way I stayed beside Nancy.  Her wound had looked bloodier & more dangerous than it actually was, I now realized, but her recovery was still a kind of miracle.  "You know, you are a terrific girl," I told her, & she gave me a big grin.  "Let's go up & walk with Scotty & Gunny." "All right," she answered, "I go."  Letting go of the hand I'd given her to help her walk, she broke into a run & I began jogging to keep up with her.  "I thought you'd gotten enough running," Gunny said.  "Go to hell," I told him cheerfully.   From then on the four of us kept up a steady pace, though things became more difficult as the path got steeper & the altitude began to be noticeable.  The mountains were completely barren without a tree or shrub.  But once I looked off to the right & saw an animal moving fast.  "A deer!" I shouted.  "A gazelle, faster than a deer," Scotty corrected me.  It was the first animal of any size that I'd seen roaming wild since we came to China.  "Are there any other animals around here?" I asked Scotty. "You mean besides the saber-toothed tiger?"  I told him to go to hell too.   After a couple of hours Charlie put up his hand to signal a stop.  We clambered in among the rocks along the trail & sat down.  I was tired yet tense & it must have shown.  when I turned over & lay on my belly I felt hands rubbing the back of my neck, soothing me.  I looked up & saw Nancy.  "You sleep," she said.   The next thing I remember was wakening to a rumbling noise that felt to me like thunder.  Sitting up I saw Charlie & Scotty both staring up the mountain.  From up there about fifty horsemen were charging down toward us.  My amazement grew as they came closer; they were all huge strapping men, they were armed with swords & one of them had red hair.