Pastoral by Nevil Shute

Author:Nevil Shute [Shute, Nevil]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780884113225
Publisher: World Publishing Company
Published: 1964-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

He sealed the letter and addressed it. The W.A.A.F. sergeant put her head in at the door as he tossed it into the OUT basket. “Sergeant Phillips is here, sir,” she said.

“All rights—send him in.”

He turned to the door. “Morning, Phillips,” he said. “You’ve seen Flight Lieutenant Marshall? We decided this morning that you’d all better get in a fortnight’s leave while your aircraft is put right.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The Wing Commander sat down at his desk and made the rear-gunner sit down. He turned to his little book and frowned. “You seem to have been with Mr. Marshall a long time,” he said. “Were you with him in his first tour?”

The gunner said: “That’s right, sir. I did eighteen operations with Mr. Marshall in his first turn; before that I did fourteen with Pilot Officer Hocking. You remember, sir—him that hit the gasometer.”

Dobbie remembered very well, and did not want to be reminded of that crash. “And then you went on with Mr. Marshall on his second tour, and you’ve done twenty-four more.”

“That’s right, sir. Fifty-six in all.”

“Quite a lot of operational flying,” said Dobbie. “Beginning to feel you’d like to stay on the ground?”

Phillips shook his head. “No, sir.” He enjoyed the relatively easy work of a rear-gunner, and he still felt a certain glamour in the job.

The Wing Commander said: “We shall have to make a change or two now. You’ll have to have a new wireless operator, for one thing. In fact, I may have to do a good bit of snuffling the crews around in the next week or two. Do you feel you’ve been with one captain long enough? Would you like a change?”

The rear-gunner stared at him. “No, sir. I don’t want any change.”

“You’re quite happy as you are, with Mr. Marshall?”

“Yes, sir. We’ve been together a long time. I wouldn’t want to start with anybody new.”

“You get on well together? I’m glad to hear it.”

Sergeant Phillips hesitated. “We have our little troubles now and then,” he said. “Like quarrels in a family, if you take me. But nothing to signify.”

The Wing Commander grinned. “I see. Been having one recently?”

“Well—you might say so. You know the way we register the graticule sight with the guns.” He launched into an involved technical explanation of the focus of his four Brownings. “The Armament Officer, Mr. Higgs, he said I could have it my way, sir, but then Flight Lieutenant Marshall come along and said it had to be like in the book, and got real nasty about it. Not that that troubled me,” he added quickly.

“I see,” said Dobbie. “That sounds rather unreasonable, on the face of it. Is he often like that?”

“No, sir. It’s just that he’s been worried recently, I think.”

“Do you know what he’s been worried about?”

Sergeant Phillips was not a very quick thinker, but he knew well enough when he was treading on thin ice. He said carefully: “I think somebody shot him down, sir.”

Involuntarily the Wing Commander glanced at TAUTWING AERO DOPES; his first guess had been a good one.

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