Orders Is Orders Read Online Free PDF Page A

presence of a very Buddha of a staff officer who
     sat in the middle of a meal big enough to feed half his army.
    “This is the fellow,” said the staff officer. “Quick, where are your diplomatic passports?”
    Mitchell was very prompt. He pulled back his overcoat collar and displayed the globe
     and eagle and anchor on his lapel. “There is my passport, sir.” He reached into his
     pocket and brought out a sheaf of onionskin paper. “And here are my orders.”
    The staff officer wiped his hands on his tunic and took the orders. He mumbled over
     them for some time and then laid them down on his desk. “Very good. These are perfectly
     in order. You may proceed.”
    Mitchell held out his hand. “My orders, please.”
    “Ah, no. I can, of course, give you a receipt for them, but I am afraid that these
     will have to remain here as well as your coolies. We can allow no Chinese to pass
     through our lines and I see no mention of them here.”
    Mitchell’s hand rested on the smoothly polished flap of his holster. He glanced around
     and saw that two sentries were very alert by the door.
    He began to argue. But the staff officer was very polite, smiled and steadily shook
     his head in the negative.
    There was a certain responsibility, said the staff officer, in letting two Marines
     through the lines. Without these papers to show in case of accident, the staff officer
     was sorry but he could not let the Marines continue.
    And finally, fuming but baffled, Mitchell went back to the rickshaws.
    “Get out,” ordered Mitchell.
    Toughey groaned and got out. He put the rifle across his back and the keg on his shoulder
     and stood waiting for Mitchell to lead him on.
    Mitchell took two silver dollars of his expense money and gave it to the Chinese coolies.
     They bit the silver and made it ring and then started to turn around to head back
     for Liaochow.
    Mitchell jerked his head at Toughey. “March.”
    The cordon opened up and they passed through, trudging up the dark roadway with the
     rumble of guns a steady concussion in their ears.
    Behind them two pistol shots were sharp in the darkness.
    Toughey gave Mitchell a quick look and said, “The dirty sons!”
    Mitchell did not look back. He seemed to be watching a line of far-off flames which
     leaped redly into the sky.

Chapter Five
    A dark and muttering midnight found Mitchell and Toughey slogging southwest with the
     din of war blazing all along the northern horizon. They had succeeded in skirting
     the main point of contention between the Japanese advance guard and the Chinese rear
     guard and had crossed the disrupted bed of the northwest-running railroad.
    The sight of the blasted rails had been very discouraging to Toughey, as the last
     time he had had contact with them he had been riding a comfortable cushion.
    They stumbled into a river bottom and for an hour poked into the huts along the banks
     to find a man who could find them a boat. Their luck held and soon they struck a roadway
     on the other side.
    Toughey put the keg down and began to kick it along the uneven surface, occasionally
     swearing and rolling it up out of a ditch after a particularly hard boot.
    “I’ll take it any time,” said Mitchell.
    “Aw, what’s the matter? You think I’m fallin’ apart or something? I may have my twenty
     years in, but I’ve—”
    “I was only trying to spell you,” said Mitchell. “Chengchu is a mile or two ahead,
     if I remember this country. We’ll try to get some rations there and maybe dig in for
     a few hours. We’ve made about twenty-five miles.”
    “A hundred and seventy-five to go,” said Toughey and then, despite the bad meter,
     began to bawl, “A hundred and seventy-five miles to go, boys, a hundred and seventy-five
     miles to go. We’ll walk a while and rest a while when we’ve a hundred and seventy-four
     miles to go. A hundred and seventy-four miles to go, boys, a hundred and seventy-four
     miles to go. We’ll walk a while and rest a