Time of the Singing of Birds

by Grace Livingston Hill

  Barney looked troubled.

  “Yes,” he said earnestly. “You see, I have been to the same place myself where we thought he was being sent, and we talked together a little about what one could do if he got stuck there. I thought—perhaps it’s only a hunch—but I know the region pretty well, and I think I’d know where he would hide out, if he didn’t get caught in an internment camp they’ve got up there.”

  “I see. But suppose he is in the camp? You couldn’t do anything.”

  “I figured that a man outside could help better than the man that was inside,” said Barney, “and I know what Stormy would do under such circumstances.”

  “Yes, that might be,” said the older man, “but you must bear in mind that you would probably be shot by the guards while you were trying to save your friend.”

  “I’d rather be shot to save a life like Stormy’s than to be shot just in a battle,” said Barney fiercely. “Excuse me, but you don’t know Stormy yet. Someday maybe I’ll bring him here to see you, and then you’ll understand.”

  The older man smiled. “You’re very sure he’s alive, aren’t you?”

  “I am,” said Barney.

  “Very well then, we’ll get to work. Suppose you write down all the names in the case, and the location, your company, your engagements, and the address where I can contact you when I get information.”

  Barney handed him a folded paper.

  “It’s all written here,” he said, “everything you need to know. Now, I’ll thank you for giving me your attention and time, and get out of your way. And I’ll be praying.”

  “What?” said the admiral. “What did you say?”

  Barney smiled half shyly. “I said I’d be praying.”

  “Oh,” said the admiral, studying the young man. “In other words, since you didn’t get quite what you hoped from me, you intend to take this to a higher court. Is that it?”

  Barney’s smile was very reverent and engaging. “I took it to a higher court before I came here, sir!”

  “Oh, I see!” said the surprised admiral. “Then it’s rather up to me to find out what the higher court would have me do,” he said thoughtfully, as if an entirely new idea had been presented to him. “Well, I’ll have to look into that.”

  Then Barney, saluting, went out, and the admiral walked to his window and stood staring toward the ribbon of silver river shining in the distance and the dome of marble that honored a great man who was not afraid.

  Presently he turned and, touching a button on his desk that called his secretary, directed her to start an investigation to find out what was definitely known of the whereabouts of one William Applegate, more familiarly known as “Stormy.”

  Then he went to his desk and wrote two or three brief notes to personal friends in the service, called up a few more on the telephone, and all in the matter of what could be done to find Stormy Applegate. But Barney Vance had wandered out under the great pink-and-white row of cherry trees to look up and talk to God, as he had promised the admiral he would do.

  Chapter 16

  Barney came back to Farmdale at the end of the week, having sent two postcards back to explain his absence. One to Sunny, promising to return in time to help her with the choir Sunday; the other to Roxy, ordering buckwheat cakes for breakfast Sunday morning. Both cards bore beautiful pictures of the famed cherry blossoms. But not a word of all this leaked out to the gang that was chasing in vain after Barney Vance.

  But it was only Sunny who carried in her heart an ache because she was fearful that Barney might be going back overseas before he was physically able, and so she prayed the more.

  About the middle of that week, Mrs. Kimberly sent for Margaret Roselle to come to supper and get acquainted with her niece Cornelia Mayberry. And Margaret came, pleased that Mrs. Kimberly had selected her to meet her niece instead of the other crowd, although Mrs. Kimberly was a friend of Margaret’s mother and would do that. But the fact that she was asked perhaps prejudiced her in favor of the niece beforehand.

  The two girls studied each other politely while the introductions were going on and then smiled and sat down to talk.

  “It is your brother who was in Barney Vance’s company overseas, wasn’t it?” asked Margaret. “Barney told me about him, how fine he was.”

  “Yes,” said Cornelia cordially, “and Jim wrote me that I must be sure to see Barney, and he sent a lot of messages to him. There was a message about Stormy Applegate. He said I was to tell Barney that they had heard nothing further from Stormy. The outfit is sure now that he was taken prisoner, and there seems no hope they will ever see him again. He knew Barney was anxious about him when he left for home.”

  “Yes,” said Margaret anxiously, “I’ve heard about Stormy. But Barney doesn’t believe he was killed. He says that he went in the strength of the Lord, and he believes he will come back.”

  The other girl gave her a quick appreciative look that was almost embarrassed. Cornelia Mayberry was not used to speaking of things religious in ordinary conversation. She hardly knew how to answer, and yet she realized that this other girl was something fine and unusual. She wondered if her brother knew of her. He had never mentioned a girl named Margaret, nor even a girl named Sunny, which was what her aunt Mrs. Kimberly called her. She would have a lot of things to ask Jim when next she wrote to him. Meanwhile, she was here to stay a few days at least, surely until Barney came back and she could deliver her messages from Jim. If she liked it here, and this girl proved as pleasant as she seemed to be at first sight, she might stay longer, instead of joining her cousins at the resort where they usually spent the summer together.

  Cornelia’s young cousin Sam Kimberly had come into the house now and was in the next room turning on the radio, hastily, as if he were hunting for some special station. The girls were talking and not noticing the radio, until suddenly Barney’s voice spoke out clearly and came into the living room as if he had just walked in at the door.

  “Friends, I’m glad to greet you and to say hello to all my native land.”

  Margaret looked up and caught her breath, exclaiming, “Why! There’s Barney now! Listen! That’s Barney talking!”

  Her eyes were bright with joy and her cheeks a lovely shy pink. Cornelia looked up interested and began to listen, and also to watch this other girl whom she was just beginning to know.

  But almost at once Cornelia Mayberry knew she was listening to a very unusual voice and did not wonder that her brother had written so enthusiastically of Barney.

  “Friends, I don’t like to talk about myself, nor what happened to me over there in the war, but they have asked me to tell you about the most thrilling experience I had while I was serving, and though I shrink from talking about it, yet I guess you have a right to know. For it was your war I was fighting, and I was glad to be able to do what I could to attain the victory for which we are all waiting so anxiously.”

  “Oh!” said Cornelia. “That is what I wanted to hear!”

  But Margaret said nothing, only listened with her heart in her eyes and her breath bated, as if she feared to lose a single syllable.

  Barney’s clear ringing voice went on, describing vividly in a few words the day and the command that sent him out on that most thrilling experience of his life, until the listeners almost felt they heard the bursting of bombs, the heavy firing, and seemed to see the thick smoke that filled the air, the strain and excitement of the moment when the enemy was met. Oh, they had heard other returned soldiers tell on the radio about such experiences, but this was different, hearing somebody they knew, or knew of, talk! And Barney’s way of telling was different from any other they had heard.

  Out across the road in Amelia’s home, somebody yelled over from the Harper house. “Amelia, is Hortense there? Tell her to turn on Washington. Tell her Barney Vance is speaking on the radio!”

  The girls in the Kimberly house did not hear that outcry, but Amelia did, and there was immediate action. Then the radio spoke out, and the girls w
ho had assembled at Amelia’s house to arrange for that public reception they were planning to put on for Barney as soon as he came home, stopped talking to listen. But all plans ceased while Barney’s voice held the audience breathless.

  “It was that last plane shot that got me,” went on Barney. “I was just thanking God that the attack was over and I could go back again to my outfit and feel that I had done my duty and both myself and my plane were without injury, when I got the warning. There was another plane coming, and coming fast. I had only time to cry to God for help. I somehow knew this was going to be worse than all the others. But I worked fast and did my best till just at the end when I felt that sharp burning pain strike my shoulder and run down my arm, and I knew I was helpless so far as further fighting was concerned.”

  Margaret sat there gripping her small hands together, her lips pressed, her eyes like great dark pools of horror; Cornelia, watching her, said to herself, How very much she cares! And no wonder! A man like that!

  But Barney’s voice went on: “Somehow I got my plane down, for the other plane had gone on after it had done its deadly worst, and just there, there was no more enemy in sight. Afterward I was weak with the pain and loss of blood and probably unconscious for a long time. But later, when the sun went down, I came back to myself. I knew when I saw my plane that I could not fly back. I knew there was damage to my pipe line and that I must start at once and try to get back under my own power. So I just cried out to God and told Him how I was fixed and asked Him to help me back. I crept out and crawled along the ground till I got to a woods and knew I was on the right way, but every foot I went was agony, and I did not know how long I could hold out. I found a brook and drank, but it was hard for me to reach. That helped a little, and I got to my feet and went on a little way, but I was faint and dizzy from loss of blood and soon I ran against a tree in the dark and fell, striking my head on a stone perhaps. I must have been unconscious for a long time, but finally I came to again and tried to creep on, but I couldn’t make it. I went out like a light and lay there, with my last conscious thought that this was the end. Then, what seemed a long time after that I felt a hand touch my face gently. I felt a light strike my eyelids, a flashlight perhaps, and then I felt myself lifted to a shoulder and carried on over the rough ground, slowly, along the trees, stumbling but still going on. And I found out afterward that the man who was carrying me was my old buddy, Stormy Applegate, and that he was badly wounded himself when he picked me up. But yet he carried me back to my outfit, all the way back. And, friends, I’m glad to tell you of that great thing my friend did for me. I wouldn’t be living today if he hadn’t brought me in in spite of his own injury and pain.

  “I was a long time getting well. At first they thought I never would. But my buddy, Stormy, got well before I did, and they sent him out again on a special assignment involving great risk and calling for much skill and cleverness. He said good-bye to me, knowing we might never again meet on earth, and he has never yet come back! They think he was either killed or taken prisoner by the enemy, and they say there is nothing more that they can do. But I believe that he is still alive, because he told me he was going in the strength of the Lord. I would ask no greater privilege than if I might go myself out there in the enemy land to find him. But since I have not obtained permission yet to do that, friends, I’m asking you if you will pray for Stormy Applegate, for I believe he is still alive! I thank you for listening to me.”

  A storm of applause followed the silence that fell as Barney ceased to speak. And over at Amelia’s house, Hortense’s voice came out sharp and clear. “For the love of Mike! Can you beat that! He certainly has got it bad! We’ll have to get him over that religious complex quick or he won’t be any good at all in our world. Imagine all that sob stuff about another soldier! That’s his mother coming out in him.”

  But over at the Kimberlys’ the two girls had tears on their cheeks, and the young brother appeared in the doorway with an excited face. “Wasn’t that great, Cousin Cornie?” he said, his voice all husky with feeling. “Imagine him wanting to go back! But that’s Barney for you. He was always that way.”

  “I should say it was great!” said Cornelia. “Was he always that way, Margaret, or is it the war that has made him so?”

  “No, he was always a good deal that way. He was a Christian, you know. He had a wonderful Christian mother. But still, I think the war has done a good deal, too. And you ought to hear him sing! He sang a solo in church last Sunday night. I think he’ll sing again next Sunday. He has a beautiful voice, but it’s the way he gets the words across that is so great. It’s just like a sermon preached when he gets done.”

  “I should like to hear him,” said Cornelia gravely. “I think I’ll stay and hear him. That will be something to tell Jim about.”

  Margaret looked at the beautiful girl before her, and a sudden qualm of jealousy shot through her. It had been hard to see Barney taken over by the set that went with Hortense; hard, worldly girls, that was different. They weren’t his kind. But here was a girl that was worthy of him, a girl so beautiful that she could not hope to compete.

  It was only an instant that such a thought flashed through her mind, and then Margaret, being what she was, put it instantly from her. Why shouldn’t Barney like to meet this girl and to take her for a very special friend? And who was she to feel badly about it? If this was what God was planning for Barney, why, she must be glad for him. She must not think of herself. Both she and Barney were God’s children, pledged to His service. And after all, Barney did not belong to her. He was just an old friend and would be, of course, all her days, no matter what else came to him. So quickly she smiled cordially.

  “Yes, do stay and hear him. I know you’ll think he is fine,” she said. “He really has a very unusual voice, and it will be nice to tell your brother about it, of course.”

  “I could see he had an unusual voice just from his speaking,” said Cornelia. “I will stay. My aunt was hoping I would stay longer, and since I know you and like you so much, perhaps I will.”

  “Oh, that will be wonderful!” said Margaret, smiling.

  Then suddenly Cornelia spoke again. “Say, tell me about Stormy. Have you met him? Do you know him?”

  “No,” said Margaret, “only by hearing Barney tell about him.”

  “Then you wouldn’t know much about his life, would you? I was wondering. . .is he. . .a religious man?”

  “Oh yes,” said Margaret positively. “He is a Christian. Barney told me about his experience. I think he was just a church member before he went to war. But afterward he became quite changed. When he first went across the sea and came into the region of actual war, where he saw death in all its ugly realities and the terrible possibilities of going out to do his duty, he said he met God. It was one night when he was flying through the sky, going into his first engagement, and he realized that he might be going straight into death. But he felt he didn’t know God well enough to stand in His presence with his life just as it had been on the old earth, living for himself. It was then that he felt God came to him. Of course, he had heard the way of salvation preached all his life but had never really accepted it, nor even fully understood how great God’s love had been to let Christ take his sins upon Himself and die for his soul. And he said that night in the clouds as he went forth to meet the enemy, God met him on the way and talked it all out with him, made him understand it, in just those few minutes. It didn’t take long, because one needed only to get that one glimpse of the Lord Jesus to understand it all. Just to know Him. And Barney says that Stormy always tells people that if you’ve never known Jesus you can’t understand, or you can’t be ready to face death without Him. After that, all fear is gone, and it makes all the difference in the world. That is why he is so eager and anxious to make other people know his Lord.”

  “That sounds very wonderful,” said Cornelia. “I didn’t know he was like that. You see, I met Stormy once myself. It was before my brother went across. Th
ey were in the same training camp. I went to camp to see my brother before he was being sent away, and Stormy was there. Only they didn’t call him Stormy then. It was Bill Applegate, and they hadn’t known each other very long. I don’t suppose they had talked about such things then. They were almost new acquaintances, but they liked each other from the start, and he was one of the first fellows Jim wanted me to meet. He said he liked him a lot. I liked him, too. He’s a very interesting fellow and awfully good-looking, a strong, fine face. One you can’t forget, even if you’ve never seen it much. I’ve never forgotten him. You haven’t ever seen him, you say?”

  “No,” said Margaret, “only a snapshot Barney carries around with him. He says he owes his life to him, you know. But Stormy is very handsome, I think, with a great wide, lovely smile. Of course, I’ve been praying for him, too, ever since Barney told me about him. But didn’t your brother tell you about his being a Christian?”