have been chums ever since either of them can remember. Corrie's exactly like a sister to us.'
There was a silence. Van der Bos was enjoying himself greatly. Jerry was not. Finally he said, 'I didn't know you were married.'
'That only just occurred to me a few minutes ago,' said van der Bos.
Jerry held out his hand. 'Thanks,' he said. 'I am a goddam fool.'
'Quite right,' said van der Bos.
'Did your wife get away?'
'Yes. We tried to get old van der Meer to send Corrie and her mother out, too; but the stubborn old fool wouldn't. God! and what a price he paid. That man's stubbornness was notorious all over the island. He gloried in it. Aside from that, he was a very fine person.'
'Do you suppose that Corrie has inherited any of her father's stubbornness?' asked Jerry, fearfully.
'I shouldn't be surprised.' Van der Bos was having the time of his life. He liked this American, but he felt that he had a little punishment coming to him.
Bubonovitch and Rosetti noticed with growing wonder the cordiality that existed between Jerry and van der Bos. As the day wore on, they also noticed that 'the old man' was becoming more and more like his former self.
They commented on this. 'He's gettin' almost human again,' whispered Rosetti. 'Whatever was eatin' him must o' quit.'
'Probably died of indigestion,' said Bubonovitch. 'We've known 'the old man' a long while, but we've never seen him like he's been the last day or so.'
'We never seen him wit a dame around. I'm tellin' you—'
'You needn't tell me. I know it all by heart. Dames are bad medicine. They spell nothing but trouble. You give me a pain in the neck. The trouble with you is that you never knew a decent girl. At least not till you met Corrie. And you haven't met my wife. You'd sing a different tune if you fell in love with some girl. And when you do, I'll bet you fall heavy. Your kind always does.'
'Not a chance. I wouldn't have Dorothy Lamour if she got down on her knees and asked me.'
'She won't,' said Bubonovitch.
This edifying conversation was interrupted by the return of Tarzan. He sought out van Prins. 'Your little brown cousins are coming,' he said. 'They are about two miles away. There are two full companies, I should judge. They have light machine guns and those dinky little mortars they use. A colonel is in command. They have a point of three men out only about a hundred yards. Your sentries are coming in.'
'You have certainly done a swell job, Sir,' said van Prins. 'I can't thank you enough.' He turned to the men nearest him. 'Pass the word along that there is to be no more talking. The enemy will be along in thirty-five or forty minutes.'
He turned back to Tarzan. 'Pardon me, Sir,' he said; 'but they are not brown. The bastards are yellow.'
Groen de Lettenhove had been left in command of the guerrillas who had been ordered to remain in the village. He was trying to persuade Corrie to find a place of safety against the possibility that some of the enemy might break through into the village.
'You may need every rifle you can get,' she countered; 'and furthermore, I haven't settled my account with the Japs.'
'But you might get killed or wounded, Corrie.'
'So might you and your men. Maybe we'd all better go and hide.'
'You're hopeless,' he said. 'I might have known better than argue with a woman.'
'Don't think of me as a woman. I'm another rifle, and I'm a veteran. I'm also a darned good shot.'
Their conversation was interrupted by a burst of rifle fire from the forest.
Chapter 22
JERRY was the first to see the approaching Japs, as he happened to be in a position that gave him a view of about a hundred feet of the trail just where it curved to the right toward the village directly in front of him. It was the three man point. They were advancing cautiously, watching the trail ahead of them. They were evidently so sure that their attack would be a surprise that they did not even consider the possibility of an ambush. They paid no attention to the jungle on either side of the trail. They passed the men lying in wait for the main body and stopped at the edge of the forest. The village lay below them. It appeared deserted. The guerrillas, concealed in and behind houses, saw them and waited.
Presently, Jerry saw the main body approaching. The colonel marched at the head of the column with drawn samurai sword. Behind him slogged Amat, and behind Amat a soldier walked with the tip of his bayonet aimed at a Sumatran kidney. Evidently, Amat had attempted to desert somewhere along the route. He did not appear happy. Shrimp saw him pass, and mentally cautioned his trigger finger to behave.
The trail was crowded with the men of the first company. They had closed up into a compact mass when the head of the column was halted behind the point at the edge of the forest. Then van Prins fired, and instantly a withering volley was poured into the ranks of the surprised enemy. Jerry hurled three grenades in quick succession down the back trail into the second company.
The Japs fired wildly into the jungle; then some who had not been hit turned and broke in retreat. A few leaped into the undergrowth with fixed bayonets in an effort to get into close quarters with the white men. Shrimp was enjoying a field day. He picked off Japs as fast as he could fire, until his rifle got so hot that it jammed.
Among those in the mad rush to escape were the colonel and Amat. Miraculously they had so far escaped unscathed. The colonel was shrieking in Japanese, which Amat could not understand; but he had glanced behind him, and was aware that the colonel had lethal designs upon him. As he fled, Amat screamed. He would have been deeply hurt had he known that the colonel was accusing him of having traitorously led them into ambush, and that it was for this reason that he wished to kill Amat.
Rosetti saw them just before they came abreast of him. 'Nothing doing, yellow belly,' he yelled. 'That guy is my meat. They don't nobody else kill him if I can help it.' Then he shot the colonel with his pistol. He took another shot at Amat and missed. 'Doggone!' said Rosetti, as the terrified native dove into the underbrush farther along the trail.
Wholly disorganized, the remainder of the Jap force fled back into the forest, leaving their dead and wounded. Van Prins detailed a number of men to act as rear guard, others to collect the enemy's weapons and ammunition, and the remainder to carry the Jap wounded and their own into the village.
A moment later, a wounded Jap shot the Dutchman who was trying to help him. Shortly thereafter there were no wounded Japs.
Bubonovitch and Rosetti, who had jumped out into the trail to fire on the fleeing enemy, were helping gather up the abandoned Jap weapons and ammunition. Suddenly, Rosetti stopped and looked around. 'Where's the Cap'n?' he asked.
Jerry was nowhere in sight. The two men forced their way back into the underbrush where they had last seen him. They found him there, lying on his back, his shirt, over his left breast, blood soaked. Both men dropped to their knees beside him.
'He ain't dead,' said Rosetti. 'He's breathing.'
'He mustn't die,' said Bubonovitch.
'You said a mouthful, soldier,' said Rosetti.
Very tenderly, they picked him up and started back toward the village. The Dutchmen were carrying in three of their own dead and five wounded.
Tarzan saw the two sergeants carrying Jerry. He came and looked at the unconscious man. 'Bad?' he asked.
'I'm afraid so, Sir,' said Bubonovitch. They passed on, leaving Tarzan behind.
As the men entered the village with their pathetic burdens, those who had been left behind came to meet them. The dead were laid in a row and covered with sleeping mats. The wounded were placed in the shade of trees. Among the guerrillas was a doctor. He had no medicines, no sul-fanilamide, no anesthetics. He just did the
