Dave Dawson with the Eighth Air ForceBowen, Robert Sidney
General
Dave Dawson with the Eighth Air Force
Bowen, Robert Sidney
World War, 1939-1945 -- Juvenile fiction
The voice seemed to speak almost in Dawson's face, and as he peered
through the crack he saw a black-uniformed and booted figure advance
upon a door directly across the hall. A second black-uniformed and
booted figure was right at his heels. The man in front turned the
doorknob, then shoved the door open, and jumped back a step as he
played the beam of the flashlight in his hand through the door opening.
"Ah, swine dog! So there you are!"
As though from a thousand miles away Dawson heard the German snarl
those words, and they hardly registered on his brain. He was looking
past the two Germans and into the room beyond. There stretched out on a
bed that boasted of only one dirty blanket was the figure of a man who
at first glance looked stone dead. His face was like wax under the dirt
and half dried blood. And his fingers that clutched the single blanket
looked almost toothpick thin. But he was not dead. As the light hit
him in the face he opened eyes that seemed to be sunk two inches in his
head. They glowed for a brief instant in fierce defiance. And the thin
lips twitched as though the man were about to speak.
At that moment, though, Dawson saw one of the Germans raise the
wicked-looking Luger that he held clutched in his right hand. And
Dawson didn't wait to see what would happen next. He jerked back one
hand to give Freddy Farmer the signal for lightning-like action, and
then he went out of that hallway closet like a shell from a naval gun.
In one great leaping stride he crossed the hallway. He kicked up with
his right foot and connected with the German's gun hand. The gun went
spinning from lifeless fingers, but Dawson wasn't watching its flight.
He brought his own gun over and down in a vicious chopping motion. The
barrel practically buried itself in the German's skull, and the man
folded up silent as a mouse and sank to the floor.
Spinning around and ducking down at the same time, Dawson started
to rip his gun upward, but he instantly checked the movement. There
wasn't any second German there to receive that gun under the chin in
more or less brass knuckle style. Not a bit of it. Freddy Farmer had
not been simply an interested spectator. He had "taken care" of the
other German. And in very definite style, too. Dawson hadn't heard so
much as a single sound, but when he looked down he saw Freddy's victim
stretched out cold as an iced mackerel across the threshold!
Without a word both air aces grabbed their respective victim and
hauled him inside the room, and closed the door. Then, shielding his
flashlight so that the beam wouldn't strike the man on the bed in the
eyes, Dawson moved over to him. A great lump was in his throat, and it
was difficult for him to speak.
"Hello, Dartmouth," he said. "I'm right, aren't I?"
The deep sunken eyes stared at him; then the man moved his head from
side to side.
"I do not know what you are talking about," he whispered in German.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account