“They crowded me in on you,” the girl apologized. “Wanted my room for one of the higherups. I—” Gale was due for a shock—“I’m only the colonel’s yeoman (secretary to you).”

“Are you the colonel’s secretary?” Gale leaned forward in her chair to extend a hand. “Here! Shake! You’re just the person I want to know most. You shall have my easy chair for keeps, my bed too, if you want it, and the five pound box of chocolates I just received from home.”

“Say! What’s this?” The girl’s lips parted. “I didn’t say I was the colonel—only his yeoman!”

At that they both laughed.

“I heard you the first time,” Gale said at last. “By the way, your first name is Isabelle, isn’t it?”

“Yes, and the last is Jackson.”

“Well, Isabelle Jackson, you’re an angel sent from Heaven. There are a few little things I want from the colonel, and the colonel’s secretary is just the one to get them for me.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Isabelle replied modestly. “Just what is it you want?”

“The colonel is going back to Burma?” Gale leaned forward eagerly.

“Oh, undoubtedly!”

“And very soon?”

“That, of course, I couldn’t tell you, even if I knew.”

“Of course not. I’m sorry. It really doesn’t matter just when. The point is, when he does go, I want to go with him.”

“There’s nothing much I can do about that.” Isabelle settled back in her chair. “You’ll have to win the right to go. Anyway, that’s my guess. And I might add, you’ve got a pretty swell start.”

“What do you know about all that?” Gale demanded.

“Everything,” was the quiet reply. “I’m the colonel’s secretary. There isn’t much I can tell you, but I guess it won’t hurt if I just whisper a word or two.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Lieutenant Hatch was in the colonel’s headquarters late this afternoon and raised a merry fuss about some WAC who knows, it seems, all there is to know about radar, and 

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