"If you know him, Pick," Bill Dunn said "ask him if he can fix it so I can spend my ten days' leave with Whatsername here."

" 'Whatsername'?" Carol Ursery exploded.

"Tell him I'm in love," Dun said, unabashed.

"Can you call the States from here?" Galloway asked.

"There's a hell of a wait for personal calls, Charley," Dawkins replied. "It took me four hours to get through to my wife."

"Who do you want to call, Skipper?" Pickering asked, and then, smugly, "Ah! Ward's aunt!"

"Watch your mouth, Pickering!"

"Do you wish to be nasty to me, Sir, or do you want to talk to the sainted Aunt Carolyn?"

For a moment, Colonel Dawkins was convinced that Galloway was going to really rip into Pickering. But what Galloway said was, "Don't tell me you can get a call through?"

"You got a number, Skipper?" Pickering asked. "I'll just bet that P and FE has a priority. If I can get through to the switchboard in San Francisco, they can put you through to anywhere in the States."

Galloway dug out his wallet.

"Pickering," Colonel Dawkins asked. "What's your connection with Pacific and Far East Shipping?"

Pickering looked at him.

"Sir, my father owns it," he said simply. "But I would appreciate it if that didn't get around."

[THREE]

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

2345 Hours 20 October 1942

Mrs. Carolyn Ward McNamara was thirty-two, blond, long-haired, long-legged, and at the moment fiercely annoyed. It had taken a long time to get to sleep, and when the telephone at her bedside table rang, she did not welcome the intrusion.

It was probably a wrong number. Or worse, some goddamned man who'd decided it was his duty to comfort the grass widow in her loneliness.

Some goddamned man who 'd needed liquid courage to find the nerve and had drunk enough so that he either didn't know what time it was, or didn't care.

She sat up in bed, turned on the bedside lamp, grabbed the telephone, and snarled into it, "Who is this, for God's sake?"

"Mrs. Carolyn W. McNamara, please," a female voice asked. It was an operator.

"Who is this?" Carolyn snapped.

"Are you Mrs. McNamara?" the operator persisted.

"Yes, who the hell is this?"

"Go ahead, Honolulu, we have Mrs. McNamara on the line."

"One moment, San Francisco," another female voice said.

San Francisco? Honolulu? What the hell is this? It has to be about Charley! Oh, God!

"Muku Muku," a male voice said.

What did he say?

"We're ready with Mrs. McNamara on the mainland."

"One moment, please."

"Galloway."

"We're ready with your party, Captain Galloway. Go ahead, please."

"Oh, God, Charley!"

"Carolyn?"

"Yes, yes, yes. Charley, where are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"Where are you?"

"Hawaii."

"Thank God! I've been so worried. Charley, you're not hurt?"

"No. I'm fine."

"The newspapers have been full..."

"I'm fine."

Damn him, he would tell me he's fine if he had just lost both his legs.

"What are you doing in Hawaii?" Carolyn asked suspiciously.

"Chasing bare-breasted girls in grass skirts, what else?"

"Charley, damn you!"

"Look, the reason I called, I'm going to have a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks, in the States. I wondered if I could come to see you....

"You wondered if you could come to see me?"

"Well, you know. I thought about your family."

"When are you going to be in the States?"

"We're catching a plane to San Francisco in the morning. We ought to be in there tomorrow night sometime."

"What are you going to do in San Francisco?"

"You're not going to believe this, but they're sending me on a war bond tour."

"Why shouldn't I believe it? Jimmy Ward's been on one."

"Yeah, I forgot. Where is he?"

Jimmy Ward was First Lieutenant James G. Ward, USMCR, Carolyn Ward McNamara's nephew. Jimmy Ward had brought then Technical Sergeant Galloway to his parents' home, where Aunt Carolyn had first met Sergeant Galloway. Jimmy Ward was thus responsible for substantially changing her life.

Who the hell cares where Jimmy is? Carolyn thought furiously.

"Right now he's in Washington," she said. "Tell me about the war bond tour. Where are you going to be?"

"I don't know. We're supposed to get a ten-day leave before it starts, and I thought maybe I could come to see you."

There you go again! You thought maybe you could come to see me? Goddamn you, Charley!

"Tell me something, Charley," Carolyn said. "Do you love me? Or are you just lining up the standard Marine Corps girl in every port?"

"You don't have to ask that!"

"Yes, I do, damn you, Charley!"

"What are you mad about?"

"Can you say those three words or not?"

"Sure I can say them. But there are people here, Carolyn."

"I don't care who's there!"

"Yeah, sure, Carolyn."

"Wrong three words."

"Jesus Christ! All right." Captain Galloway's voice dropped ten decibels. "I love you."

It was very faint, but it was enough.

"I love you, too, Charley."

"Yeah."

"You're going to San Francisco? And then you'll be on leave?"

"Right."

"Charley, when you get to San Francisco, you go to the hotel."