The Flying Cavalier

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Will there be charges, sir?” Lewis asked quietly.

  “No charges. Just stay with him and make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.”

  Lance found that he missed his distant kinsman more than he had thought possible, and every time he went to the house, everyone was somber and quiet. Pierre and Katherine had become very fond of Logan. Jo wrote the story up as best she could for the papers back home. She could not find the words, however, and struggled to put what she felt into the story. She had spoken with Rev, and the two of them had been filled with memories of how they had met.

  “I just can’t believe it’s true,” Jo said, biting on her lip. “It’s hard to believe he’s gone.”

  Revelation Brown said, “I don’t believe it.”

  Jo stared at him. “What do you mean you don’t believe it?”

  “I mean I don’t believe it, and I won’t until I see the body!”

  “But, Rev, why would the Germans do such a thing?”

  “I don’t know anything about that. All I know is I don’t have any kind of go-ahead in my heart for grieving for Logan. And that ain’t natural. I can’t explain it, but I’m just going to keep on believing the impossible.”

  It was Danielle who took the loss of Logan the hardest. She could not eat, and she slept only fitfully. She went about her work at the hospital mechanically, and her father said more than once, “Take a break, daughter. Go somewhere on a trip. Get away from all this.” He had put his arms around her and said, “You cared for him. We all knew that.”

  “Yes, I did, Papa,” she said. She clung to him for a time and then straightened up and pulled her shoulders back. “I grieve over him more than I thought possible.”

  “Did you tell him you loved him?”

  Danielle thought of how she had slipped the paper into Logan’s hand. That now seemed a frail and pathetically unacceptable gesture. “No,” she whispered, “I didn’t tell him—not as I should have.”

  Every day after getting off from work, Danielle took long walks. She found that walking in the countryside somehow, at least, made the grief bearable. Still she could not help going over and over in her mind her relationship with Logan. It was like seeing the same scene in a movie again and again. As she made her way down the country lanes, oblivious to the beauty of the natural world, she could see plainly now how she had fallen in love with Logan almost against her will. I had to get Lance out of my system, she thought. What a foolish girl I was, and it didn’t end with childhood. Why couldn’t I see what I was doing?

  Each night she would go to bed reluctantly, dreading the long hours she would lie awake keeping her eyes closed by force of will. Once again she thought of how she had met Logan and disliked him at first. Slowly she began to unravel their relationship, and she began to realize that it was the depth of his character she had grown to love. He was handsome enough, but she was wise enough not to let that be the basis of her relationship. There was something in him strong and good, and now she knew that she had been foolish to be so slow to recognize those qualities.

  Tossing on her bed, she remembered the kiss they had shared, and grief swept over her then like a turbulent river. Once she awoke from a nightmare drenched in sweat when the dream had been so vivid. He had been holding her in his arms when suddenly a huge hand had jerked him away. She had seen him disappear as she cried out, “Come back, Logan! Come back!” She had awakened to find herself calling out “Come back!” aloud, and then as recognition of the dream came over her, she began to weep. It was the first time Danielle had wept since the news had come. Forcing her face into the pillow, her body shook with the ravages of grief that now pierced her broken heart.

  The sun dawned bright the next morning, and Danielle rose and dressed. She sat down in the chair by her bed and read a chapter in the Book of Psalms. It had become a precious book to her, and she had gotten to the sixty-ninth psalm. The first two verses seemed to reach out and go right to her heart. “Save me, oh God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come unto deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”

  She had that sudden feeling that God was speaking to her somehow, and she continued to read. When she got to verses sixteen and seventeen she read them aloud. “ ‘Hear me, O Lord; for thy loving kindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.’ ”

  A great weight came down upon her, and she fell on her knees and for some time simply prayed the prayer over and over again. And as she prayed, the heavy burden miraculously seemed to lift, and the dark grief, almost palpable, that surrounded her seemed to break. She had the Bible before her, and as she read verses thirty-two and thirty-three, she began to know some strange sort of assurance. “ ‘The humble shall see this and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.’ ”

  For a long time Danielle knelt with her eyes shut, and at times she cried out in her spirit to God. She repeated the promise, “ ‘Lord, you will hear the poor and despise not your prisoner,’ and, Lord, I’m a prisoner. I have been foolish, but I pray that your Spirit would bring peace to my heart.”

  Finally Danielle arose. There was a stillness in her she had never known before. Trouble had come in her life, and she had prayed and found some relief. But what she now sensed was different. She left the house, went to work, and all day long it was as if God had put a hedge of protection around her. Outside there was trouble and grief and sorrow, but inside Danielle felt calm and a sense of the presence of God.

  As she did her job, her father noticed there was a new spirit in her. He said nothing but thought to himself, She’s learning to accept Logan’s death. Thank God for that.

  When Danielle got off her shift, she went home at once, and Katherine said, “Lance called. His car won’t start. Could you go pick him up?”

  “Of course,” Danielle said quickly. “I’ll go right away.”

  Leaving the house, she got into her car and drove out to the airfield. As she drove by, she noticed that the late afternoon sky was a beautiful azure blue. She even noticed the greenness of the earth and the smell of the trees and the earth itself as she passed by open fields.

  Pulling into the aerodrome, she parked the car and started for headquarters. She passed by the hangar and saw Rev, who was sitting outside reading his Bible. She stopped long enough to say “Hello, Rev.”

  “Why, hello, Miss Dani,” Revelation said, getting to his feet. “Just been getting a little word from the Lord here.”

  Danielle said, “It’s a strange thing. I was reading the Scriptures this morning when I first got up. I’ve been in pretty bad shape, Rev, but God seemed to come to me and give me peace in spite of everything.”

  “That’s His business,” Rev nodded quickly. “And we have to live with that day by day. When we get saved, we get the Spirit of God in us, but every day we have to go back for more. The children of Israel didn’t eat manna once. They went every day and gathered it, so we have to keep going back to the Lord Jesus. The Scripture says, ‘My flesh and my heart faileth but God is my strength and my portion forever.’ ”

  Smiling, Danielle reached up and patted the gangly mechanic on the shoulder. “You must come out and spend some time with Gabby. She misses you.”

  “I’ll do that, Miss Dani. I’ll surely do that.”

  Moving toward headquarters, Danielle entered and found Lance seated at his desk. He got up and went over and took her hand. “Sorry to be such a bother,” he said.

  “It’s no bother. Are you ready?”

  “Just let me get a few things together.” He moved swiftly, putting papers into a briefcase, then snapped it shut. “All right. I’m ready.”

  The two stepped outside and started across to where Dani had parked. Suddenly Lance stopped dead still. “Wait a minute!” he said and stared at the south end of the airfield.

&n
bsp; “What is it, Lance?” Danielle asked curiously. She saw his face tense up, and she watched an approaching plane as it came in.

  Lance did not answer for a moment, and then he exclaimed, “Why, that’s a German plane!”

  Shocked at his words, Danielle stared at the plane. She had never seen one like it. It had three wings and was painted a violent yellow color. “A German!” she exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure! We don’t have anything that looks like that. It’s a Fokker triplane.” Lance began running and shouting orders. Men began to pour out of the hangar, and he yelled, “Get some guns, rifles, shotguns, whatever you can find!”

  The triplane came down to a graceful landing, and Rev suddenly came running up to stand beside Lance. “You think he’s come to surrender, Captain?”

  “I don’t know, but be careful.” A peculiar expression swept across his face. “Since the German’s here, we’ve got one of those planes now. Headquarters has been wanting to get ahold of a Fokker triplane. We can try it out and find out its weakness. Then maybe we can shoot more of them out of the sky.”

  Everyone watched as the triplane taxied up the field, and then the engine shut off. Lance glanced quickly around to see that several of the mechanics had side arms, and he said quickly, “Don’t shoot now! He’s probably run out of fuel or come to surrender. Who knows.”

  The pilot climbed out of the plane, and Rev said, “I never saw a pilot dressed like that.”

  Danielle saw the pilot was wearing a pair of baggy overalls and rough shoes like many farmers she had seen.

  Everyone watched as he came to the ground and turned, then started toward them. He was no more than thirty feet away when he reached up and pulled his goggles off and then his helmet.

  Danielle stared and shock ran over her. Then she cried out, “Logan!” She flew at once across the tarmac toward him and threw herself into his arms.

  “I thought you were dead!” she cried, and tears stung at her eyes. She clung to him fiercely and felt his arms around her, holding her fast.

  Logan held her, smelling the sweetness of her hair and feeling the strength of her womanly figure pressed against him. He could not speak for a moment, then he said, “I read your note a thousand times, sweetheart. It changed everything for me. Up until that time, I didn’t do anything right. But afterward I knew I had to live.”

  Lance had warned the others, “Stay back! Give them a minute, will you!”

  Rev Brown said, “Looks like they’re gonna need more than a minute, Captain.”

  Logan turned but kept his arm around Danielle. “I guess I’d better report in, but you stay with me. I’m not letting you get away.”

  “No. I won’t go away,” Danielle whispered. She held to his hand and clung to him as he advanced. He saluted with his right hand. “Reporting back, Captain Winslow.”

  “Well,” Lance said, trying to keep an even tone, “I see, as the American Mark Twain said, the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated.”

  “Yes, sir. I couldn’t get word to you any other way.” He fumbled in his pocket, releasing Danielle’s hand as he did so. “It may be a little late, but here’re the reports I got.”

  Lance took the reports and said, “What happened, Logan?”

  The other fliers and mechanics came and gathered around, insatiably curious. Logan grinned and repeated how he had crashed and the French couple had taken him in and hid him.

  “I asked Jacques to make a coffin and bury it. And then the Germans came, and they had to dig it up again. Wanted to give their noble adversary, as they call me, a formal military funeral at St. Anne’s.”

  “But what if they had looked inside?”

  “Oh, there was something inside,” Logan laughed. He seemed younger now, and his eyes were clear. He suddenly reached out and pulled Danielle close into the embrace of his arm. “We burnt a rotting pig until it was crisp and put it inside. Anybody expecting a body couldn’t face that. I don’t think they opened it, though. They took Jacques’ word that he had removed the body and buried it.”

  “But how did you get this airplane?” Lance demanded.

  Pug Hardeston said, “He copped it, that’s what he did! That’s the way these Americans are.”

  “That’s about the way it was, Pug,” Logan said. “Jacques took vegetables over to the German aerodromes. He dressed me up like a helper, and we peddled the vegetables. He told them I was a half wit and a deaf mute, so I didn’t have to give myself away.” He glanced at Rev and said, “I did a lot of praying, Rev, and the mechanics were tuning up this Fokker. They started it up and were listening to it. I waited until the mechanic got out of the cockpit, then I bopped him over the head with a wrench and jumped in and took off.”

  “I bet that gave the Jerries quite a shock.”

  “Well, as it happened, I got out of there before they started a pursuit. Anyway, that’s my story.”

  “I’ll have to have all this in writing, Lieutenant,” Lance said.

  “Could you wait until tomorrow? I think I’m suffering from some sort of battle shock.” His face was straight, but he kept his arm around Danielle. “The nurse here probably needs to take me to the hospital and have me looked over.”

  A laugh went up, and Cecil said, “Hospital, my foot!”

  Then everyone came rushing around to beat Logan “Cowboy” Smith on the back. Lance stood there letting the pilots and the mechanics have their time. He moved over to Danielle and said, “It’s like one risen from the dead. Don’t let him get away.”

  “You can count on that, brother,” Danielle said, and her eyes shone.

  ****

  They did not go to the hospital nor did they go back to the house. Instead, they drove out to the river where they were now sitting together. Logan’s arm was around Danielle, and they had fallen silent. They had talked, it seemed, for hours and now she looked up and said, “I’ve been so foolish, Logan.”

  “No more foolish than I, but God loves foolish people just like He does the smart ones.” He saw that the curtain of reserve that had once kept her back from him was gone, and there was a teasing expression of gaiety and joy in her eyes. He thought again what a complex and striking woman she was. His arm tightened, and he said, “One of us is going to have to change.”

  “What do you mean, Logan?” Danielle asked.

  “I mean either I’m going to have to become a Frenchman, or you’ll have to become an American.”

  “Are you saying that you want to marry me?”

  “Of course. I wish I were a poet. I could say it other ways and better ways.” Logan pulled her close and kissed her. Her lips were sweet, soft, and yielding beneath his. He drew back and said, “I love you just as you are right now. Young and beautiful, full of fire, and whatever it is that makes a woman so necessary to a man. And I’ll love you just as much or even more when I’m walking with a cane and you have an ear trumpet. I’ll have to shout into it, ‘I love you, Dani, more than a man ever loved a woman.’ ”

  His words touched her, and she pulled his head down and kissed him again. Her hands stroked his cheek, and she said, “Which will it be? Shall I become an American, or do you want to become a Frenchman?”

  And then Logan Smith laughed. He pulled her to her feet and swung her into a wild dance until she gasped for breath. Then he caught her up so that her feet left the ground. He held her tightly against his chest and looked down. “I can’t eat snails,” he laughed, his eyes sparkling, “so I reckon you’ll have to become an American.”

  Then he lowered her, and she put her cheek against his chest, holding to him tightly. “Never let me go, Logan.”

  “I’ll never let you go, and you’ll never let me go,” he said. “Come on. We’ve got a lot of business to take care of.”

  They walked back over the soft grass, and overhead the sun beamed down on the pair as they got into the car and drove away.

  GILBERT MORRIS spent ten years as a pastor before becoming Professor of
English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. During the summers of 1984 and 1985, he did postgraduate work at the University of London. A prolific writer, he has had over 25 scholarly articles and 200 poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years has had more than 70 novels published. His family includes three grown children, and he and his wife live in Alabama.