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CHAPTER V A GOOD SHOW
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The Zeros, it seemed, were engaged elsewhere. When Jack1 and Stew2 emerged from their cloud none were in sight, nor were the islands that Stew had seen.

“A rain squall has hidden the islands. They’re there, all the same,” Stew insisted.

“It’s our only chance.” In vain Jack tried to get more power from his disabled motor. It coughed, sputtered—all but died—then carried on.

Heading due east, he started to climb. He had gained a thousand feet or more when he began losing again.

“Look over your parachute,” he said to Stew. “Be sure you can get hold of our rubber raft at a second’s notice. This motor may die at any moment.”

“It’s all done,” said Stew. “All in order. Let’s have a look at your chute.” He worked over Jack’s chute and harness. “It’s okay. Be sure to pull the cord,” he joked. “That’s always a necessity, you know.”
35

“Sure I know,” Jack’s voice was cheerful. “I’m glad we got our job done before this thing happened.”

“The sea’s fairly smooth. We’ll get on. Some kind of a bird will light on us. They always do—booby, gull—something.”

“Sure, they light on anything that stands out above the water.” Jack set his ship climbing again. They were inside the rain squall. From not too far away came the sound of sudden battle.

“Zeros and our fighters have tangled3.” Stew became tremendously excited. “Boy! This is going to be terrific! Wish we could see it!”

“Like taking in a world-series game from behind a high board fence,” Jack agreed. “But leave it to our bombers4!”

“They’re sure good! They took that other carrier we discovered a week ago.”

“They’re tops, those bombers!” Jack had a great love for his ship and her men. “There never was a carrier like the Black Bee!”

The roar of bombers coming on in formation filled the air.

“They’re climbing! I can tell by the sound!” Stew exclaimed. “Boy! Just you wait!”
36

Stew all but stood up in his place while Jack divided his attention between the bombers and his disabled motor.

“Now!” Stew exclaimed at last. “Now they’re diving! Listen!” He held his breath, counting “One—two—three—four—five—six—seven—”

He had reached twenty when there came a roar. “Oh! Too bad! That one missed!” Hardly were the words out of his mouth when there came a second roar. “Right on the beam! Boy! Oh boy!”

Six bombers dumped their loads. “Three connected,” was Stew’s decision. “That’s a very good record.”

Then all of a sudden they emerged from the screening rain squall to find themselves over a bright, blue sea. In the center of this sea, two large cargo5 ships and three destroyers steamed rapidly toward the east.

“Oh!” Stew groaned6. “They’ll get away! And I have a hunch7 they’re the most important of all.”

For a space of seconds Jack considered turning back in an effort to direct some of the bombers toward this target. “No use,” he grumbled8. “We’d never make it in time.”

“Besides,” Stew’s voice went husky, “here come three of our torpedo9 bombers. They got my message after all! Boy! We’re some use in the world, you and I! And we’re really going to see a show.”
37

“A grandstand seat! No high fence this time.” Jack’s voice expressed his joy.

At sight of the torpedo planes the two cargo ships began zigzagging10, while the destroyers darted11 in close to them.

Like catbirds after hawks12, four Zeros followed the torpedo planes, but as yet were too far away to count.

“Man! Oh man!” Jack exclaimed. “Suppose those Zeros come after us!”

“Let them come!” Stew looked to the loading of his gun. “We’ll be waiting for them. We can’t run, but we still can fight.”

Two destroyers lay between the torpedo planes and the cargo ships. Their pom-pom guns began throwing up shells. The boys could see them explode in mid-air. Disregarding these, the torpedo pilots came sailing straight in, dropping rapidly as they approached their target.

Jack held his breath as one by one they passed through shellfire. That’s Dick, I imagine, he was thinking. Dick, Bert and Phil. All swell13 boys!

One shell, exploding beneath the second plane, lifted it into the air, but the plane came straight on.

At just the right moment, not five hundred feet from the sea, the first plane released its “tin fish.” Jack saw it hit the sea and speed away.
38

“Bull’s-eye!” he shouted. But the torpedo acted strangely. It leaped into the air, then dove like a playing porpoise14. At last it reached the side of a cargo ship.

“Now!” Stew breathed.

But there came no sound. “Oh!” Jack exclaimed, as he saw the torpedo speed away beyond the ship. “It went right under her! What a—”

He did not finish, for suddenly a mighty15 explosion fairly tore the sky.

“Did you see that!” Stew exclaimed. “The second torpedo took that ship right on the beam! And did she explode! Must have been loaded with TNT.”

Jack had not seen. What he did see was a tower of black smoke and pieces of debris16 falling over the sea. And he saw the second ship, attacked by the last torpedo plane, meet the same fate.

All this had happened in the space of seconds, and all the time their disabled plane was chugging its way toward three small islands that stood out like green stones set in a field of blue.

“I hope they raise chickens on those islands,” said Stew.

“Chickens and no Japs,” Jack agreed. At that moment his eyes swept the sky for the Zeros. “Gone,” he murmured at last. “I guess they’ve seen enough for one day.”
39

After that Jack was silent for a time. He was thinking: Those ships were loaded with ammunition17 intended for Japs on some island. If they had gone through safely, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of our Marines and Army men might have died. We got them. A feeling of pride in a job well done, a task in which he and Stew had played a large part, coursed through his being.

“We found them. The torpedo planes destroyed them,” he said aloud. At that moment he would not have traded his job as a scout18 for any other in the service.

But what of the attack on the Jap carrier and her escort? Only sound could tell them the story, for the rain squall still hid that battle from their sight.

“Our radio is gone,” he said to Stew. “We’re headed for an unknown island. No one will know where we are.”

“That’s right,” Stew agreed soberly. “Even those three torpedo planes have gone to join the attack on the carrier. We’re in the sky alone.” A strange wave of loneliness swept over him. “It may be months before we know how that battle ended.” Jack nodded in the direction from which came a continuous roar of motors, machine-gun fire, bursting shells, and exploding bombs. “We’re on our own, and I don’t mean maybe!”


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 jack 53Hxp     
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克
参考例句:
  • I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
  • He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。
2 stew 0GTz5     
n.炖汤,焖,烦恼;v.炖汤,焖,忧虑
参考例句:
  • The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
  • There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。
3 tangled e487ee1bc1477d6c2828d91e94c01c6e     
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了,我梳不动。
  • A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。
4 bombers 38202cf84a1722d1f7273ea32117f60d     
n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 );投弹手;安非他明胶囊;大麻叶香烟
参考例句:
  • Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 cargo 6TcyG     
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物
参考例句:
  • The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
  • A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。
6 groaned 1a076da0ddbd778a674301b2b29dff71     
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦
参考例句:
  • He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
  • The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 hunch CdVzZ     
n.预感,直觉
参考例句:
  • I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉,他并不真正想去。
  • I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。
8 grumbled ed735a7f7af37489d7db1a9ef3b64f91     
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声
参考例句:
  • He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低。
  • The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 天热得让人发昏,水手们边干活边发着牢骚。
9 torpedo RJNzd     
n.水雷,地雷;v.用鱼雷破坏
参考例句:
  • His ship was blown up by a torpedo.他的船被一枚鱼雷炸毁了。
  • Torpedo boats played an important role during World War Two.鱼雷艇在第二次世界大战中发挥了重要作用。
10 zigzagging 3a075bffeaf9d8f393973a0cb70ff1b6     
v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的现在分词 );盘陀
参考例句:
  • She walked along, zigzagging with her head back. 她回头看着,弯弯扭扭地向前走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • We followed the path zigzagging up the steep slope. 我们沿着小径曲曲折折地爬上陡坡。 来自互联网
11 darted d83f9716cd75da6af48046d29f4dd248     
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔
参考例句:
  • The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了,瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 hawks c8b4f3ba2fd1208293962d95608dd1f1     
鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物
参考例句:
  • Two hawks were hover ing overhead. 两只鹰在头顶盘旋。
  • Both hawks and doves have expanded their conditions for ending the war. 鹰派和鸽派都充分阐明了各自的停战条件。
13 swell IHnzB     
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强
参考例句:
  • The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
  • His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。
14 porpoise Sidy6     
n.鼠海豚
参考例句:
  • What is the difference between a dolphin and porpoise?海豚和和鼠海豚有什么区别?
  • Mexico strives to save endangered porpoise.墨西哥努力拯救濒危的鼠海豚。
15 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
16 debris debris     
n.瓦砾堆,废墟,碎片
参考例句:
  • After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
  • Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上,导致蛀牙。
17 ammunition GwVzz     
n.军火,弹药
参考例句:
  • A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
  • They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。
18 scout oDGzi     
n.童子军,侦察员;v.侦察,搜索
参考例句:
  • He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵,受了重伤。
  • The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。


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