![]() Overnight, his 'official' squadron coffee mug had changed from 'Winny' - a nickname he'd despised - to 'Dutch,' engraved into the porcelain with blood-red letters, a call sign he'd borne for the remainder of his career. Landing on his carrier forty minutes later, he'd claimed three kills before the incredulous eyes of his squadron commander - then had all three confirmed by gunsight cameras. The third had taken longer, but he could remember every glint of the sun off his target's wings and the tracers from the gunner's futile efforts to drive him on. ![]() He'd killed two of them on his first surprise pass out of a cloud. On the fourth of June, 1942, in the early afternoon, he'd spotted three Japanese 'Val' dive bombers that ought to have followed the rest of the Hiryu air group to attack Yorktown but had gotten lost and headed towards his carrier by mistake. He remembered it well: less than thirty years earlier, flying an F4F-4 Wildcat fighter off USS Enterprise, an ensign, with all his hair - cut very short - and a brand-new wife, all piss-and-vinegar and three hundred hours under his belt. Most bartenders overuse vermouth in Gibsons, and I'd rather make my own anyway. Actually -I twisted the metal caps off the two gin miniatures-it's better this way. I shrugged.I don't think they're allowed to serve mixed drinks in this Georgia county, although the waiter would've mixed them for you if you'd tipped him. She swung back and forth in the eddies, but the kegs kept her afloat and quick handling of the steering oar and lusty rowing kept her from being dashed against either the wreck or the rocks. A wave burst upon the reef, broken over the stern of the wreck, and filled the boat almost full. It was easy to direct the steersman towards that particular point, and then, as the boat moved in, to wave his arms and demand the attention of the little group under the break of the poop, and to point to the spot to which they were approaching. When the water was at its lowest level, immediately before the next roller broke on the reef, Hornblower, standing up and craning his neck, could see no rocks beside the wreck in the middle part of the waist where the deck came down to water level. But the ship was canted a little over to port, towards them, which made the approach easier. This was the trickiest part of the whole effort, to get close enough alongside the wreck to be able to take off the survivors without stoving in the boat, there were wicked fangs of rock all about the after end of the wreck, while forward, although the forecastle was above the surface at times the forward part of the waist was submerged. There were inches of water washing back and forth in the bottom of the boat, but there was neither time nor opportunity to bale it out. Now they were past the mast, close to the submerged bows of the ship, and close enough to the Devil's Teeth to be deluged with spray as each wave burst on the farther side of the reef. ![]() Get in one of them cars behind,' said Packard, 'you and Lucy both and we'll fetch them out of their holes like snakes -' He seemed to have forgotten Sharpe's handiwork with his horse, for his long-nosed face was as unfriendly as ever. The General was bareheaded and Sharpe saw that his temples had turned prematurely grey.
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