“I reckon I’ve had enough of this joker,” Deke muttered, not taking his eyes off Mr. Suey’s.
“Look around you, man. There’s not a whole lot that you can do about this situation. Keep your eye on the prize.”
Deke knew that Faraday was right, but it didn’t make things any easier. How he wished to get his hands around his rifle and get the Japanese sergeant in his sights.
He was sure that Mr. Suey felt the same way and would have likely shot him or beat him to death if the officer had not intervened. Next time, if Eyeglasses wasn’t around to keep the lid on things, there was no telling what the sergeant might do. Deke understood that it was even more urgent than ever for them to escape the camp. Clearly Mr. Suey meant to kill him.
All the prisoners had seen what happened, and so the rest of the afternoon passed tensely. It was as if a brooding storm cloud hovered over them all. The other men had been here longer and had seen just how brutal the Japanese could be. They probably understood better than Deke that Mr. Suey was just biding his time.
Later in the day, the commandant himself appeared to check on the progress of the work. Colonel Yamagata arrived on foot, carrying his bow and quiver slung across his back, which Deke found to be an odd sight. Even more than other men, Deke understood that he had one foot in the past and was more than a little old-fashioned. But even he recognized that it was the twentieth century. There were airplanes and submarines, radio waves, and motion pictures. Yet here was a Japanese officer who armed himself with a bow and arrow. But instead of eccentric, Yamagata managed to appear menacing.
The colonel stopped to confer with Eyeglasses. Judging by the pointing that the commandant did and the earnest nodding from the subordinate officer, it appeared that Yamagata was making a few suggestions.
Meanwhile, the attention of some of the prisoners had been drawn to that brightly colored tropical bird sitting high up in a tree, some distance from where they were working in the streambed. Even a tired prisoner could be momentarily awed by the bird’s bright plumage. Its feathers seemed to span all the colors of the rainbow. The bird appeared as a bright point in an otherwise tense and backbreaking day.
Deke didn’t know what kind of bird it was, but if he was going to guess, he would say that it was a parrot. The bird even cried out a few times as if to say, Look at me! Look at me! A few of the prisoners even dared to pause in their work and lean on their shovels to gaze in wonder at the phenomenal creature.
The commandant apparently saw the bird as a distraction. Consequently, Colonel Yamagata was determined to deny the prisoners even that small pleasure.
He glared at the bird, then took the bow from his back, fitted an arrow to the string, and drew it back to his ear. It was an unfamiliar weapon to Deke, but he was impressed at seeing how deftly the colonel handled the bow. He also guessed that you had to be quite strong to draw a bow like that. The razor-sharp tip of his arrow did not waver as he held his aim steady. Clearly the commandant was very experienced with his weapon.
Deke took a moment to study the colonel. Before, he had only seen him sitting down, or standing from a distance. In his spotless uniform, the colonel had a rather commanding presence. He was well-built and taller than even some of the American prisoners. He was certainly better fed — where the majority of the POWs looked skeletal, Yamagata looked chunky by comparison.
Standing off to one side, the sergeant gazed at Yamagata with something like admiration in his dark, beady eyes. Deke noticed that the corners of Eyeglasses’ mouth were turned down in a disapproving look. Like the men, he evidently admired the colorful bird.
Despite Yamagata’s apparent skill with the bow and arrow, the bird made a difficult target. It was some distance away and high up in the tree, roughly the size of a large crow. Deke knew for a fact that there were plenty of GIs who couldn’t have hit the bird with their rifles, much less a bow and arrow.
Deke figured the bird’s chances were good, and that at best the colonel’s arrow would just pass nearby and startle the creature. He caught himself holding his breath.
The colonel released the arrow with an audible twang. The arrow sang through the air, straight and true, so fast that it was hardly more than a streak.
The arrow struck the bird with an explosion of bright feathers. The bird dropped through the tree branches and disappeared. There was no doubt that the arrow had found its mark.
Deke had to admit that he was impressed by the colonel’s ability. He was also disgusted. What was the point of killing a beautiful bird for no good reason? Deke’s rule always had been that you ate what you killed. The colonel turned away, clearly without any intention of retrieving the bird or his arrow. He wore a satisfied smile.
The prisoners, however, were disappointed. It was as if the bird had been a symbol of freedom, the kind of freedom that they were not allowed, and the colonel had snuffed it out as if to deny them hope. The death of the bird had been symbolic in that regard.
Deke thought about the stories he’d heard claiming that the colonel had offered prisoners a chance to escape — or forced them to try — only to shoot them down with his bow. Until that moment, Deke had doubted that the stories were true. He now had no doubt that Colonel Yamagata possessed a wanton cruelty that made Deke hate him all the more.
The colonel returned up the trail, leaving the work crew under the direction of his subordinate officer. Eyeglasses appeared relieved once Yamagata had left — at least, he eased some of the ramrod posture that he had adopted in the colonel’s presence. As for the sergeant, Deke did his best to stay out of his way.
It wasn’t easy. Although the rest of the day passed quietly enough, it felt like they were all walking on eggshells around the volatile Mr. Suey. Again, he was like a storm waiting to break, and he kept casting venomous side glances at Deke. From time to time Faraday traded looks with Deke and gave him a quick, reassuring nod that was too subtle for their Japanese captors to notice. Both men knew that the hours ahead were crucial to the escape plan.
The incident with the commandant skewering the parrot with an arrow had also been unsettling in a different way. Once or twice Deke could have sworn that he heard the cry of the wounded bird from the trees, as if the arrow hadn’t killed the poor creature outright and it was lingering somewhere in the forest shadows. An hour or two passed, and he did not hear the bird cry out again, but only the stillness of the jungle interrupted by the cacophony of insects and the rushing stream.
It was getting near dark when they finally brought in their last load of stones. Deke felt exhausted. He was still sore from the beating yesterday, and the fresh blows he had received today. He knew that as soon as he sat down or stopped moving, his body was going to register every ache. He was so soggy from all the heat that he felt like he could be wrung out like a washcloth. With each step that he took, his feet felt heavy as concrete blocks.
To make matters worse, his rumbling belly reminded him that he had not been fed yet today. Deke almost welcomed the thought of whatever thin soup the Japanese intended to serve up. It was a wonder that the prisoners were able to labor like this, day in and day out, without any real nourishment. No surprise that so many were just withering away to the point where they couldn’t leave their bunks.
Deke was looking forward to whatever grub was served up and perhaps a few hours of rest before their escape plan was set in motion. However, that was not to be the case.
As the POWs reentered the prison compound and made their way toward the barracks, Mr. Suey was there to block Deke’s path.
Here we go again. This is the last damn thing we need.