Secrets of Radar

The girl with wind-blown hair ordered the coolie pushing a cart loaded with instruments and strange radio-like boxes to come close to the big anti-aircraft gun and leave the cart there.

"You runnee this-a wire backee and fixee him plenty good." She handed the coolie a long electric cord. The coolie vanished into the shadows of the palm trees.

"What's the big idea?" The sergeant in command of the anti-aircraft gun sat up. The air of India was hot and moist that afternoon. He had been half asleep. Now he stared at the cart and its odd contents and then sent a second questioning look at the girl with the wind-blown hair.

"You and I are going to do a little practicing." The girl spoke in a steady even tone. Then she smiled.

The sergeant looked her up and down. She was, he decided one of those rare girls who could make even the drab uniform of a WAC look good. She was rather large but well proportioned. "An oversize copy of a beautiful gal," he told himself.

To the girl, after recalling her words, he said:

"Says who?"

"Says the Colonel." Smiling a little more broadly she fished a crumpled bit of paper from her pocket and handed it to him.

"Military papers," he grumbled as he smoothed out the sheet. "Should be kept in perfect condition, folded neatly."

"And read." She did not smile.

"Okay--okay, sister. All the same, that's general orders I'm giving you. I--"

He broke off to stare at the paper. "What's this?" He glared at the paper some more. "You are to send small balloons carrying hollow steel balls up into the sky. Then you are to find them up there in the clouds and I am to try and shoot them down?"

"That's right."

"What's this? A new game for a soldier's pastime in a strange and foreign land?" He stared at her afresh.

"Ever hear of radar?" she asked.

"Sure! They use it in the Navy."

"They do. And they'll use it in the Army too, providing it is possible to get the co-operation of the Army sergeants in charge of anti-aircraft guns."

"Meaning me? Okay. You win," he agreed with an unwilling grin. "But there's one line in this paper that is coo-coo. It should say that you are to try and find those steel balls in the clouds and I'm to shoot 'em down."

"Wait and see." She stood her ground.

The coolie returned with one end of the electric cord. She connected it to the box on the cart. Something began to burn. Some tubes lighted up.

"Now," she sighed. "It's hot, don't you think?"

"What? That thing? I wouldn't know," he said.

"No. The weather," she replied.

"Terrible!" he agreed with conviction. "Just at the end of the rainy season! It's awful having your rest period broken into by a gal in an army uniform." He winked at the two buck privates who helped man his gun, and they laughed.

Paying not the least attention to this unflattering bit of drama, the girl went about her work. Removing a short steel tube from the cart, she connected it with a large paper balloon, then turned on a valve. A hissing sound followed. The balloon inflated rapidly and pulled at the cord that held it to the cart. After attaching a metal ball about a foot in diameter to the balloon, she allowed it to float skyward. It rose rapidly.

Squinting his eyes, the sergeant said: "You expect me to hit that steel ball after it gets into the clouds?"

"If your shell explodes within fifteen feet of the balloon the balloon will burst and the steel ball will come down," she explained with the patient tone of a born teacher. "If you burst the balloon, you score. Hit the steel ball and you score double. Get me?" she asked.

"Oh, sure. But when do you score?" he asked.

"If you score, I score." Her smile was broad and friendly.

"Fair enough," the sergeant grinned. "Well, boys, we'll give it a real try, huh?"

"Sure! Oh, sure!" came from his crew.

The balloon went up. In silence they watched it rise to at last disappear in the clouds.

At once the girl with wind-blown hair got busy with her instruments. "I'm feeling for the steel ball," she explained. "I'll have it presently."

"She's feeling for the steel ball," one of the buck private gunners repeated.

"She'll have it presently," said the other. "Like h--l," he muttered, under his breath.

The eyes of the gun crew were on the girl. It was as if she had learned some Hindu magic there in India. They questioned that she could do the trick, but gave her the benefit of the doubt, nevertheless.

"Something like making a boy climb a rope into the sky," one of them suggested.

"Uh huh. Probably," the other agreed. "I saw an old guy do that trick once. And say! Was it spookey!"

"Did the boy come back?"

"Not that I saw, he didn't." The two buck privates settled back in their places.