“What do you see?” he whispered.
“Japs,” Deke said. “We saw them clear as day. There’s at least half a dozen hidden in the grass down in that ravine, maybe more.”
“Damn,” Steele said. He took off his helmet and scratched his sweaty, matted hair. Deke noticed again that the lieutenant’s hair was flecked with more than a few strands of gray. Steele put his helmet back on.
“I can sneak up there and get a look at them,” Deke said, starting to move forward.
The lieutenant grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “Hang on, Deke. You might be walking right into a nest of Japs. I don’t want to lose my best shot just yet. Besides, our orders are to reconnoiter, not engage the enemy.”
“It’s a long way around that ravine,” Deke said doubtfully. “We’d lose most of a day going around it.”
“You only saw half a dozen Japs? Maybe we can shake them loose.”
Steele took out his binoculars and glassed the ravine. Deke followed his example and used the scope to look for any sign of the enemy.
Tony Cruz crouched beside them, watching and waiting. Without the benefit of optics, it was next to impossible to spot the Japanese hidden in the grass below.
To Deke’s surprise, he spotted movement in a tree ahead — and then a second tree. Two Japanese soldiers were shimmying into position. He could see that one of them had a rifle with a telescopic sight, much like Deke’s own weapon. The range was extreme, so the sniper had clearly been planning for the Americans to come much closer before opening fire.
“Snipers,” Deke said.
“Where?”
“Those trees down in that ravine. Four o’clock.”
Steele glassed the ravine for a long moment. His binoculars were much more powerful than Deke’s riflescope, but then again, he had only one good eye. “Now I see them. Goddamn, Deke. You’ve got good eyes. The question is: Can you hit them from here?”
“Gonna find out.”
It was a difficult shot to make from a standing position, without the benefit of anything to rest the rifle on. The breeze and the waving branches of the trees didn’t help matters. However, Deke could see one of the enemy soldiers clearly enough through the pattern of branches. He lined up the crosshairs just where he wanted them and squeezed the trigger.
Chapter Twenty
The rifle fired. From the ravine below, they heard a sudden cry and a body tumbled from the tree.
Deke worked the bolt, but not before they heard a faint crack and, much closer and louder, the whine of a passing bullet. Deke felt his spine shiver at the sound. The second Japanese sniper — the one with the scope — had spotted them.
Fortunately for Deke, the lieutenant, and Tony Cruz, the Type 38 Arisaka was also a bolt-action rifle like the Springfield, and it was thus slower to fire than the semiautomatic M1.
Deke already had a round in the chamber, and the gunshot had revealed where the second Japanese sniper was hidden. Now it was Deke’s turn to shoot. The enemy was well concealed — he swore to God that these damn skinny little Japs could hide themselves with nothing but a blade of grass and a couple of sticks — but Deke lined up his sights on what appeared to be a patch of uniform. Sure of his target, he fired.
A moment passed, Deke wondering if he had missed, after all, and then the second Japanese sniper tumbled from the tree.
“Got him! That’s some fine shooting, son,” Lieutenant Steele exclaimed, clapping Deke on the shoulder. Deke was a little embarrassed to feel himself swell with pride at the lieutenant’s praise. The lieutenant’s approval felt better than getting a medal pinned to his chest. “If those other Japs are smart, they got out of there. There weren’t that many, anyhow. We’ll keep following the trail. You see any other Nips, you take them out.”
“You got it, Honcho.”
Lieutenant Steele signaled to the rest of the squad, who began following the trail down into the ravine. This time, it was Tony Cruz and the lieutenant who led the way. The path became steep and slippery, forcing them to sling their weapons to leave their hands free; essentially, they would now be climbing down the ravine. Egan was having to half carry Whoa Nelly down the slope.
“This isn’t a trail,” Philly complained, after he had slipped and slid several feet, leaving the seat of his trousers slick with mud. “It’s a toboggan ride.”
“Wait here,” Steele said, moving ahead of the others. “I don’t know for sure that we got all of those Japs.”
“You sure about that, Honcho? Maybe I ought to go first.”
“No, you’d better watch our backs, Deke,” the lieutenant said, then moved on. “Besides, you already nailed those couple of snipers. We can’t let you fight the whole war by yourself.”
Steele kept going down the steep ravine, the Chamorro guide ahead of him. Tony’s sandaled feet moved surely along the path, although he was forced to dig the edges of his sandals into the mud to keep from sliding down the slick patches. The lieutenant was having a much harder time in his heavy combat boots.
It came as no surprise when the lieutenant lost his balance and slid the rest of the way down to the bottom of the ravine, tumbling once or twice in the process. His shotgun went flying. Whoa Nelly began barking frantically, but it was hard to say if the lieutenant’s fall had set her off, or the scent of Japs.
“Easy, girl,” Egan said, looking around nervously.
“See what I mean?” Philly said. “Toboggan ride.”
“Honcho, you OK?”
“Come on down,” Steele said, giving them a wave to show he was all right. He had managed to knock over Tony Cruz on the way, leveling him like a bowling ball hitting a bowling pin. The Chamorro managed to pick his way down the rest of the steep grade, looking indignant.
Steele retrieved his shotgun, then walked over to where the bodies of the Jap snipers had fallen out of the trees like bloody, overripe fruit. He poked at one with the muzzle of the shotgun, then reached down to pick up the Arisaka rifle with the telescopic sight.
The lieutenant was studying the rifle with interest when a shot rang out, and Steele went down.
“Honcho!” Philly shouted in alarm, but the lieutenant didn’t move.
Deke could only stare at the lieutenant’s still body, but not for long. They had to move.
Below them on the slope, Tony Cruz scrambled for cover. A shot pecked at rocks near his feet, but he managed to get down the slope and into cover.
The rest of the squad wasn’t as lucky. They were caught out in the open and exposed on the path.
“Spread out!” shouted Deke, who was highest up on the ravine.
Ingram tried to get into the bushes growing alongside the path for whatever cover they offered. Philly opted to sit on his backside and slide all the way down the slick, muddy slope. His method was fast enough, but the drawback was that his tailbone hit every rock and root on the way, leaving him cursing and howling.
Still on the path, Deke raised his rifle and searched frantically for a target, but the sniper was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t even sure where to look. Then a flurry of shots came from the brush in the bottom of the ravine. Was that where the sniper had been hidden?
He couldn’t think of what to do except to get down there and help the others. Was Lieutenant Steele still alive? Only one way to find out. He started down the steep path.
He came even with Ingram, who was clinging to a bush, struggling to keep his balance as he swung his rifle around. Like Deke, he was trying to figure out where the shot that had hit Lieutenant Steele had come from.
Ingram started to say, “Hey, I think—”
His head jerked back and he stared at Deke, startled. Deke saw the blood and realized that Ingram had been shot through the throat.