Orders Is Orders Read Online Free PDF

while when we’ve a hundred and seventy-three
     miles to go. A hundred and seventy-three miles to go, boys, a hundred and seventy-three
     miles to go. We’ll walk a while and—”
    They both stopped.
    Up ahead there rose a sound which might have been a binding machine or a riveting
     hammer or a kid running a big stick along a picket fence.
    Scarlet tongues of fire were stabbing the ebon sky and a rosy glow marked the place
     where Chengchu once had been.
    The sound, which might have been a signal clacker and wasn’t, stopped and then started
     up again.
    “Somebody is having a party,” said Mitchell dryly.
    Toughey looked to his commanding officer and then rolled the keg back until it was
     up against his leg. He took his rifle off his back and checked the magazine.
    Brisk hoofbeats sounded ahead. Mitchell grabbed Toughey’s arm and Toughey grabbed
     the keg and they rolled off the road into a muddy ditch.
    A squadron of Japanese cavalry rocketed by, heading east. Against the stars Mitchell
     saw two empty saddles. Something black was hanging down from one, bouncing as it hit
     rough spots in the road.
    “Chinese troops ahead,” said Mitchell. “We’ve come up with their wing.” He wondered
     a moment about the possibility of nervous sentries and then turned to Toughey. “Come
     on.”
    Toughey shouldered the keg and they stepped back up on the road to proceed short distances
     at a time, to stop and listen intently.
    The town grew larger and the surrounding plain began to glow eerily from the light
     of the flaming town. Beneath the smoke, lorries were moving out, going west.
    Expecting momentarily to be greeted by the machine gunner, they left the road and
     began to circle to the left. They stumbled from time to time over the debris of a
     battle so recent that the acrid fumes of smokeless powder still hung in the dust.
     Evidently the Japanese had been rolled back at this point but had bulged the Chinese
     center until the troops in Chengchu were in danger of being flanked.
    Mitchell appreciated this in a vague way. He surmised that another Japanese army was
     coming up from the south and that another Chinese army was trying to stop its progress.
     The only thing he knew clearly was that this was a bewildering hodgepodge of yellow
     men with rifles.
    The last lorry rumbled out of sight ahead of them and a squadron of Chinese troopers
     were momentarily silhouetted against the flames of a burning warehouse. All outposts
     were evidently drawn in and the cavalry was on the scout.
    Mitchell warily approached the end of a street. They were tired and hungry and they
     read little likelihood of food in this gutted village. But Mitchell knew better than
     to go stumbling across the plains in darkness with cavalry nervously outriding.
    The blasted houses presented an ugly sight. A Chinese soldier hung head down out of
     a window, fingertips touching the ground. An old woman was sprawled in the gutter,
     almost covered by the burst bag of possessions she had tried to save. A wounded and
     deserted Chinese soldier hitched himself slowly around the mounds in the street, leaving
     a squirming trail in the dust like a snake’s, inching himself west after the departing
     lorries.
    Ahead, a cavalry patrol had stopped before the only building in town which had remained
     intact. It was the local hotel and before it stood an American car.
    Mitchell called a halt and Toughey put down the keg with a weary thump.
    “We better not run into that,” said Mitchell, pointing ahead at the clustered horsemen.
    Toughey sat down on the keg and planted his rifle butt in the dirt.
    “Wonder what they’re up to,” said Mitchell. “If they’ll clear out, that car might
     be in running condition.”
    “Car?” said Toughey, brightening.
    Three of the Chinese were dismounted and inside. They came out now, leading a girl
     in a blue swagger coat .
    At first Mitchell thought she was Chinese and then by the flaring flames across the