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TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1939.THE L@ SERIAL STORYWAR AND A WOMANBYJfcTTY wallaccCOPYRIGHT, 1939, KCA «ERVrcV. INC,\ PNtcrdnys At th«* field Mnrdn loaves to mlk to Bill Bronki, a cadet. ,T\hcn Jimmy auk*. Wa* I wronjr. Ijur ul^ht, or dhl yoU Jrel it toof' I.lndn lt;cIIa Iiim *Hlt;?«eavin»c for home, ni once. Marcia return*.CHAPTER V ^JARCIA! Linds cried warn-ingly. In the one ward was contained an urgent pleading. Jimmy must not know how she felt about this naval air base, about the planes, about war. What difference did it make—why drag 'bat in to torture and torment him? There was enough keeping them apart without that.But if Jimmy Imew the realThey cut the sight-seeing short. To Linda's relief, Jimmy stayed on the held and Marcia drove the car home. Nothing had been solved. Somehow she’d have to get through the two weeks ahead. * * *C UDDENLY she wanted, more ° than anything else, to see George Cameron again. If he was here, close beside her, she’d snap back into her senses. Everything would become serene and normal again. On an impulse, alter iur.ch. she went to her room and wrote him a note.“Dear George—P lease come down here right away. I am missing you dreadfully! George, justreason why you want to go for two weeks can’t you lock upthe laboratory to oe with me? Yhome—•”“Marcia r“But darn it, it's so silly, when you get right down to it! It's making a mountain out of a mole hill?”It would be a mountain, high and impregnable, if Jimmy ever knew it, Linda thought unhappily. Their fight was hard enough already. Because they were both honorable people, they were trying to reason away the mysterious attraction which was catapulting Them toward each other. But even if there hadn’t been Marcia King, for Jimmy—and If there weren't George Cameron, in Queensville, for Linda—this thing alone would have split them apart.Jimmy Cooper was standing, straight and still, the sunlight on his rumpled tawny hair and his eyes on Linda’s face. “If it's something you don’t want me to know, of course Marcia mustn’t tell me, he said tunelessly.All right, all right” Marcia moved Impatiently. “But she's not going home! She came down here to be maid of honor at our wedding, and she's not going to wiggle out of it!Linda wanted to cry out that she dared not stay. She wanted to say, •‘Marcia, you fool! If I remain here maybe there won’t be a wedding! How can you be so blind? Can’t you see what’s going on? Cant you?”But Marcia was sunny and assured again. Her arm slipped inside of Linda’s. I’m a rottenneed you. Love, Linda.”It might not have been so bad, if, in the days that followed, Marcia had not innocently insisted an throwing Jimmy and Linda together so much. But she wanted her friend to have a gay time, and she wanted Jimmy beside her, too.Linda was waiting for an answer from George. The third day after she had mailed the fetter, it still hadn't come. She was' tempted to telephone him. But he’d wonder what had happened, and sosomething. It protected her from looking at Jimmy Cooper too obviously. She prayed, too, that Peter’s attentions would divert Marcia. “She’ll see I’m. no wall flower. She doesn’t need to force Jimmy to dance with me.”But after she had danced several times with Peter, she saw Marcia nudging Jimmy. Linda grabbed her vanity case, she stood up. “Excuse me. I—” She ran for the ladies’ lounge.That was only a respite. She might have known she couldn't escape forever. The moment she had dreaded came at last. Jimmy Cooper v/as bending over her. May I have this dance?”“I—I'm tired—' she whispered.He said quietly, “I won’t bite you.”So she stood up and slipped into his arms, whiLe Marcia regarded them both affectionately.His hand on her back was gentle, and he guided her surely and expertly. But she couldn't bear it any more. A soft sob broke from her. “Please, no more.” They were standing perfectly still while the music rose poignantly and unbearably. For a long moment, there v/as no one else in all the world but their two selves. “Shell we go out on the porch?:she kept herself from acting tool he was asking, his voice curiously panic stricken. j hoarse.That night—it was a Saturday— * * *Marcia had arranged a party at shouldn’t go. Yet she wasthe Officers’ Club. Linda heard j walking beside him like a girl her telling .Timmy, “Don't forget *n..? trance» to dance with Linda, danced with her once since she'shostess, that’s v;hat it is. I ran oft snd left you to listen to Bill j wanted to know’Brooks’ tale of woe. I’m going to SGCTl you before.”She told him about Queen»vHl*beep here.Oh, the fool! The blind fool! A sob rose in Linda's throat. She stumbled blindly away. But the porch v/as no sanctuary either, because it was here that she had first looked up into Jimmy’s eyes. * * *THE Officers’ Club was not quite what she had expected. Men in uniform, girls In evening dress. But the tabler. were bare, and the decorations far simpler than those in the night spots at home. Everyone knew everyone else. There was much calling back, and forth, much familiar banter and teasing laughter.Linda wss grateful for the lanky young lieutenant Marcia had roped in to escort her. His name was Peter. He, too, was a flight instructor at tho field. And he was muck taken with her combination of golden, hair and golden eyes. “How come the Navy didn’t discover you long ago?” he“I've never seentake good care of you from now on and give you a real whirl. You’ll have such a good time you'll forget aH about—all abouthe'•.'crything eise.“Aha, just a college widtw,sard.No, he wasn’t bvftKopi Bwt hej stuck close to her, and that wasYouhaven’ti w e * h ouldn’t — oh — we shouldn’t!” she burst out.I know,” he said miserably. “But, Linda—I've fought until I can’t deny it, even to myself, any more. I haven’t slept. I look at Marcia, and she’s still the same as she always was. She loves me. It’s like a knife in my heart to knew she trusts me. But I car.'t take her in my arms any more. I can’t tell her I lore her any more. The whole world has changed. There’s nothing but you. I see your face up there in the clouds when I ought to be concentrating on the way my student is flying. I hear your voice everywhere. It's driving me trazy! We’ve got to do something.”He had no right to put it into words! While it b*d been only a mirage, beautiful and unreal, beckoning and yet threatening, she had still had the courage to run from it, But now these words of his made it solid, Joes capable.“Listen!” she jarked out, “Even if there weren't Murcia—even if I weren't engaged myself—I couldn't —Jimmy, you're a flyer. A man whose career is devoted to war. And T’ra a girt. Apacifist, if you like. I hate ycwr wprk! And—one* I bate you bemg to ft, sofTb Be lt;5orrHnm*4)vender tn him elm
Newspaper Details
Logansport Press
Logansport, Indiana, US
Tue, Aug 01, 1939
Page 9
Full Page
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USA 13 Apr 2019
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