Cherry Ames 04 Chief Nurse Read Online Free Page A

system of “leapfrog.” Cherry suggested that the medical unit start out together but split into three sections on the way. Each section would stop at only one outpost, then catch up with the others. Thus they could save time and still wind up the march together. It should take them three days, two days to march, one day to set up medical tents and work. Colonel Pillsbee gave Cherry the first 22
    C H E R R Y A M E S , C H I E F N U R S E
    approving look she had had from him, and adopted her
    “leapfrog” plan.
    “Why couldn’t we sail around the island,” Vivian Warren wanted to know, “instead of hiking across it?” Marie Swift sniffed. “Did you see those coral reefs around the island? You can’t sail anywhere near the island. And how’d you like to sail in open sea, with Jap fighter planes taking pot shots at you?”
    “Besides,” Cherry added, “the men in Janeway jungle need our medical care.”
    So on this cloudy morning, a long column of doctors, corpsmen, and nurses, all in olive drab work suits and helmets, were leaving civilization to start their long trek through the jungle.
    The evacuation unit still lacked another X-ray man, another dentist, and—what worried Cherry—a specialized nurse-anaesthetist. The anaesthetist was the most important of the three, and Major Pierce had told Cherry that this special nurse would be flown to the jungle as soon as possible. The other two would follow the unit whenever Army guides next made this trip.
    They started marching. Soon the roads and huts of Port Janeway were behind them, then the bare dirt plateau was left behind. One by one, in single file, following the Army men who guided them, the brown-clad figures slid down a crumbling coral hill and entered the thick tangle of jungle.

    L E A P F R O G
    23
    It was almost dark in here, damp and sweetish, with tropical trees and vines so thickly overgrown that the sun never penetrated. Cherry led the column of nurses.
    They moved down a narrow trail, advancing with painful slowness, pushing aside huge fantastic leaves, clinging to tough roots while they slid down the bank of a stream, crouching to avoid a bush which turned out to be only a strange pattern of shadows. There was a deathly hush.
    It was a relief to know that at least there were no Jap snipers in these palms. But birds and animals and snakes hid in this undergrowth, watching, listening.
    Cherry looked back at her nurses. The girls’ faces, mottled in the dim greenish half-light, were frightened.
    “This is it!” she called out cheerfully. “We’re really on our way to what we’ve been training for!” Her voice echoed and died in the tense stillness.
    Behind her came Vivian Warren’s plaintive voice.
    “Nursing in the jungle—it’s an impossible assignment!
    How can we ever do it? How can we ever get through this maze to set up our hospital?” Other discouraged voices echoed her.
    “We’ll do it,” Cherry called grimly. “We have to, and we will. Come on!”
    The trail rose abruptly and they struggled, single file, up a muddy incline. Far back on the line, Cherry heard a splash. Word was relayed up to her, “Josie Franklin fell in the stream.” The girls could not help giggling.

    24
    C H E R R Y A M E S , C H I E F N U R S E
    “Anyone else dunked?” Cherry called out, sounding gay. “Will you kindly count noses?” The giggles spread down the line. The report “All noses are accounted for!” was quickly relayed to Cherry, and she led them off again.
    At midday they paused for food and rest. Then they wormed their way still deeper into the jungle. That night they bivouacked and slept on bedrolls beside a river.
    Late the next morning they came to a clearing. Smoke from fires, then tents and an American flag, hove into view. Cherry felt a great tug of happiness. The first outpost! Those young infantrymen in worn green fatigues—gaunt, bearded, toughened young soldiers—
    were the ones she had trained to help, and now she had