Too Late the Hero Page #3

for self-inflicted wounds.

Do you hear me all right, laddie?

Yes, Sergeant.

Tosh, what's that then?

It's a bleeding Yank, isn't it?

No, Connolly, that's not a Yank.

That's Snow White.

And very pretty she is, too.

All right!

You've got bugger all to laugh about.

- You there, Hearne!

- Sir.

You're supposed to be

standing to attention!

This way, sir!

Col. Thompson will join you

in a moment, sir.

All right, attention!

Fall in!

One, two, three, four...

Good afternoon, Lieutenant.

Welcome to the New Hebrides.

Lt. J.G. Sam Lawson reporting...

as ordered.

I think we can let the Sergeant Major

deal with those.

Yes, rather an imaginative location

for a military headquarters, don't you think?

Yeah.

I sometimes wonder what kind of an artist

Gauguin woult've become...

if he'd had the misfortune

to choose this place instead of Tahiti.

Yes, I think there would have been

a certain lack of inspiration.

Mind you, I don't know

what the natives were like here...

but there are none anymore.

I'm sure he woult've found the current crop

of inhabitants singularly unappealing.

This part up here is all Japanese.

Not at all jolly.

And down here, we have our own group...

which I imagine he woult've found

only marginally more agreeable.

Now, what we really have is the remainder

of a Brigade HQ Company...

consisting largely

of chaps from my regiment...

brought up to strength by

a rather bizarre variety of odds and sods...

who joined us

when we scrambled out of Singapore.

A lot of them were just as anxious to escape

the Army as they were the Japanese.

But I've no doubt

your chaps have told you about all this.

No, sir, my chaps didn't tell me anything.

Recently, though, the casualty rates

have been alarmingly high.

However, I'm afraid this little jaunt

we've organized now...

is going to change all that

because, amongst other things...

it's going to make it necessary for us

to penetrate all the way to their main base.

Sounds great. When do you leave?

As soon as we've briefed the men.

You'll be leaving

in about half an hour or so.

I'll be leaving in half an hour?

It doesn't do to let the men

brood about these things, you know.

Come in.

I believe you sent for me, sir.

Yes, Freddie. I wanted to have a chat

with you before I talk to the men.

- How are you feeling?

- First rate.

Good. Freddie's been on the sick list

the last few days.

I'm so sorry, I don't think you have met yet.

This is Lt. Lawson

of the United States Navy.

Lt. Lawson, this is Capt. Hornsby,

who'll be leading this patrol.

How do you do?

Glad you'll be coming along.

That makes one of us.

I guess this trip's unavoidable.

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