The Far Reaches Read Online Free PDF Page B

that—but the bad news was plentiful. The Higgins boats, one by one, were running aground on the reef. Stuck, unable tomove, the Higgins coxswains had no choice but to let down their ramps within a storm of bullets and artillery.
    A groan rose among the
J. Wesley Claytons
watch officers at the sight of an amtrac exploding inside the reef, bits of steel and men thrown high into the air, a greasy plume of smoke left to mark the sinking machine. Then an-other of the tracked troop-carriers was struck and sent wheeling aimlessly in the water. Josh swept the beach with his binoculars. Not a single landing craft had yet made it ashore. Then he looked over his shoulder at Burr, who stood with binoculars pressed against his eyes, his mouth a grim line. Behind him, other marine officers stood in shocked silence at what they were seeing, the savage skill and cold discipline of the
rikusentai
as they tore the heart out of the invaders of Tarawa.
Come you, marine. Today you die!

5
    â€œKeep going, keep going!” the gunnies brayed, pushing their boys toward the rail. Over they went, gasping as they took the weight on the unsteady netting, their packs and rifles and bandoliers of ammunition pulling them backward, their boots slipping on the wet hemp as they clambered down to the tossing Higgins boats. Josh left the bridge and descended to the deck, where he stood with his hands on his hips, then walked closer until he was at the rail. He watched the marines, most of them teenagers, going up and over. Josh had been in many battles, against the poachers and pirates of the Bering Sea with Captain Falcon, then captaining the little cutter
Maudie Jane
against marauding German subs off the Atlantic coast, then against the Japanese infantry in the Solomons, and more. Yet here he was, but an ob-server, while young, inexperienced men were being sent forward to fight and die.
This is all akilter,
he said to himself, and then something snapped in-side his mind, like a cord stretched too taut.
    He had to go.
    Without another thought, he put his leg over the rail and went hand over hand down the netting until he dropped into the landing craft. There, he sought out a quiet corner until the last marine climbed down and the Coast Guard coxswain steered the boat away. Josh worked through the silent troops, a few already seasick, or perhaps sickened by the oily water in their canteens. He climbed into the cockpit. “What’s your orders, son?” he asked the coxswain, a boy with big buck teeth that stuck out over his lower lip.
    The boy looked at Josh with more than a little surprise. Clearly, he had not expected a captain in khakis, brown shoes, and a soft cap with the stiff eagle crest of the Coast Guard to show up among the heavily armed, helmeted marines. “I juth driff around until the lead boat goeth in, thir, then I followit,” he explained, still staring. “What the hell’re you doin’ aboard my boat, thir, if you don’t mind me afking?”
    â€œYou ever hear the story of the fireman’s horse put out to pasture?”
    â€œNo, thir.”
    â€œEvery time he heard the bell at the firehouse, he jumped the fence and raced the wagon to the fire.”
    â€œWhy’d he do that? Wath he thtupid?”
    â€œPretty much.”
    â€œYou ain’t got no weapon, thir.”
    â€œI’ll find one,” Josh predicted and unstrapped his binoculars and handed them to the driver. “Have a souvenir,” he said.
    The coxswain put the binoculars around his neck, then steered the Higgins into a clockwise turn, joining a line of landing craft going around and around. The sun beat down and the temperature rapidly rose. Oily exhaust fumes from the other circling boats turned the air a pale blue. Marines, their utilities soaked with sweat, began to choke. Josh saw three marines doubled over, puking. A foul odor, a mixture of oil and vomit, filled the floating box. Marines drank from their