CIA Area 51 Chronicles 1 - The Angels

T.D. Barnes
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/cia-area-51-chronicles-1-the-angels-t-d-barnes/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

CIA Area 51 Chronicles 2 - The Archangels T.D. Barnes

https://textbookfull.com/product/cia-area-51-chronicles-2-the-
archangels-t-d-barnes/

Where Is Area 51 Paula K. Manzanero

https://textbookfull.com/product/where-is-area-51-paula-k-
manzanero/

The Angels (Raven River Academy #1) 1st Edition Ruby

Vincent

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-angels-raven-river-
academy-1-1st-edition-ruby-vincent/

TIME TRAVELER AND THE INFERNAL BASE From the Future

Dimension to Area 51 and Dulce Base 10th Edition
Maximillien De Lafayette

https://textbookfull.com/product/time-traveler-and-the-infernal-
base-from-the-future-dimension-to-area-51-and-dulce-base-10th-
edition-maximillien-de-lafayette/
The Camorra Chronicles Boxset (Books 1-3) 1st Edition
Reilly

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-camorra-chronicles-boxset-
books-1-3-1st-edition-reilly/

Tyrant Rise of the Beast Chronicles of the Apocalypse 1

Godawa

https://textbookfull.com/product/tyrant-rise-of-the-beast-
chronicles-of-the-apocalypse-1-godawa/

Court of Command Age of Angels 1 1st Edition Milana

Jacks [Jacks

https://textbookfull.com/product/court-of-command-age-of-
angels-1-1st-edition-milana-jacks-jacks/

The Daughter of Earth The Dryad Chronicles 1 1st

Edition Callie Pey

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-daughter-of-earth-the-dryad-
chronicles-1-1st-edition-callie-pey/

Forgotten Kingdom The Winter Court Chronicles 1 1st

Edition Stephany Wallace

https://textbookfull.com/product/forgotten-kingdom-the-winter-
court-chronicles-1-1st-edition-stephany-wallace/
 THE ANGELS

BOOK ONE, THE CIA AREA 51 CHRONICLES

The Complete Illustrated History of the CIA at Area 51

By

TD Barnes

Smashwords Edition

T.D. Barnes Copyright 2018

1
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1- Why the Need for Intelligence
Chapter 2 – Why the Need for a CIA
Chapter 3 - The Proxy War w/Russia in Korea
Chapter 4 - Searching for New Aerial Reconnaissance
Chapter 5-The CIA U-2 Project AQUATONE
Chapter 6--Funding Project AQUATONE
Chapter 7-Why Nevada for Testing the U-2
Chapter 8 - Organizing Project AQUATONE
Chapter 9 - The Pilots
Chapter 10 - Sheep-dipping the Pilots
Chapter 11 - High Flight
Chapter 12 -Mount Charleston Crash
Chapter 13 – CIA’S Area 51 Watertown Goes Operational
Chapter 14 - Deployment
Chapter 15 - The Air Force Competing
Chapter 16 – The Black Cats
Chapter 17 - The Black Bats
Chapter 18 - NASA and the U-2
Chapter 19 - Epilog of the CIA U-2
Chapter 20 - Project GUSTO
About the Author
Other Books by the Author
Bibliography & Published Sources

2
 Dedication
The author dedicates this book to all who served the Central Intelligence Agency at its Groom Lake
flight-test facility in Area 51, Nevada. I include the unknown participants who participated surreptitiously
at Area 51’s affiliated power projection locations throughout the world.

Acknowledgments
I first acknowledge my family who for years dropped me off in a secured area at Nellis AFB to catch
a plane on Monday morning and picked me up when I returned Friday evening, not knowing where I
went or what I did. I especially acknowledge my Area 51 CIA contemporaries referred to as the
Roadrunners for whom I have served as the alumni president for many years. These were the CIA, Air
Force, and contractors working at or directly affiliated with the CIA projects at Area 51, many of them
named in this book.
Herbert I. Shingler, III, son of Col Herbert Shingler provided considerable “never before told”
information about his father who served with the 4070th Support Wing as Director of Material and later
as the Wing Commander, stationed at March Air Force Base, California. James L. Gibbs likewise
provided a treasure trove of declassified information about his father, BGen Jack Gibbs who served as
deputy to the CIA U-2 AQUATONE boss, Richard “Dick” Bissell Jimmy Rose son of CIA U-2 pilot
Wilburn S. Rose who died in the crash of his U-2 plane near Mercury, Nevada, likewise contributed this
book in every respect. He provided documents, information, and was invaluable with his editing
everything to ensure it was right.
Lastly, I acknowledge all his contemporaries affiliated with those serving the CIA at Area 51. They
include the unnamed agency, military, and civilians whose participation are unknown or lost beneath the
shroud of compartmentalized secrecy. Together, we undertook an endeavor more highly classified than
the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. Many have remained unknown and destined
never to receive the acknowledgment deserved.
****

Declassification
The CIA Area 51 Chronicles shares an insider’s account of the Central Intelligence Agency’s era at
Area 51 now declassified from Top-secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) to
Unclassified. Sources include the Agency report titled The CIA, Directorate of Science and Technology
[DST History of the Office of Special Activities (OSA From Inception to 1969 by Helen Kleyla and
Robert O'Hern. The CIA released this declassified report on 1 March 2016.
During September 1997, the National Air Intelligence Center declassified the formerly top-secret
HAVE DOUGHNUT, HAVE DRILL, and HAVE FERRY FTD reported that the author references in this
book.
On 16 August 2013, the CIA acknowledged its role in the MiG exploitation projects with the release
of “The Area 51 File” titled by the National Security Archive as, “The CIA Declassifies Area 51.” The
National Archives credited the author in the CIA document declassification of August 16, 2013.
https://nsarchive. wordpress. com/2013/08/16/the-cia-declassifies-area-51/

****

3
 Foreword
CIA pilot Wilburn Rose made the ultimate sacrifice for which the CIA carved a star into the marble
of the CIA Memorial Wall that stands as a silent, simple memorial to those employees “who gave their
lives in the service of their country.” The CIA would carve five more stars on the wall, five more entries
in the CIA Book of Honor, for Area 51 pilots, three lost in the U-2 and two in the A-12 planes to follow.
In the years to follow, the CIA would release the names of 84 employees. The names of the
remaining 33 officers remain secret, even in death.
One can never overstate the risks assumed by the brave men who piloted the U-2 and the A-12 at
Area 51 or the untold sacrifices of their families. Each time a pilot climbed into the cockpit, he headed to
the very edge of the technical horizon—a place of unknown yet palpable danger as he and his
contemporaries heralded the Agency into the world of overhead reconnaissance.
CIA pilots Wilburn S. Rose, Frank G. Grace, and Howard Carey each died in the crash of his U-2
aircraft during test flights in 1956. Eugene “Buster” Edens and Walter Ray, also Agency pilots, lost their
lives when the U-2 and A-12 aircraft they were piloting crashed in 1965 and 1967 respectively as these
brave pilots heralded the Agency into the world of overhead reconnaissance.
The CIA honored each of these pilots with stars on the CIA Memorial Wall and remembered them
for their bravery and dedication by having their names inscribed in the CIA Book of Honor.
All served in the CIA’s Directorate of Plans, now known as the Directorate of Operations, the
clandestine arm of the CIA and the national authority for the coordination, deconfliction, and evaluation
of clandestine operations across the intelligence community of the United States. These losses of
America's elite occurred as the CIA protected the United States from an attack by communist Russia who
had already killed over 200 American aircrews flying ferret flights to see what the Soviet Union was up
to behind its closed borders. Wilburn Rose left behind a young wife, a son, and two daughters, the
youngest 18 months of age. Frank Grace left four children when he lost his life in 1956. Most likely,
Howard Carey, Buster Edens and the other pilots who lost their lives left behind families as well.
These pilots were not the only casualties at Area 51 during the U-2 AQUATONE and A-12
OXCART projects at Area 51. On November 17, 1955, Skymaster 44-9068 crashed while en route to
Area 51, killing five military personnel and nine civilians, five CIA, two Hycon, and three Lockheed.
Two F-101 pilots would die, one flying chase for the A-12 and one conducting a weather flight.
This book, The Angels, is the first book in the CIA Area 51 Chronicles series. It is not about the
mythical Area 51 publicized by conspiracy theorists around the world. Instead, it is an insider’s account
of the recently declassified legacy of how the CIA became the world’s leader in secret military aviation
technology and aeronautical engineering. Because it is about military aircraft, logically it should
recognize the efforts of the United States Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or National
Guard. However, while this book references these military services, it is primarily about the CIA's
creation of Area 51, secret high-flying spy planes, the development of stealth technology, and the
exploitation of enemy assets. Recent declassification of CIA documents now allows the author, an Area
51 veteran, to answer the questions Who, What, Where, When, and Why about Agency activities there.
This first volume of the CIA Area 51 Chronicles tells the genesis of the CIA, the politics involved,
and why it became involved in aerial reconnaissance. It answers many of the above-stated questions as
revealed in the March 2016 declassification by the CIA of a report titled: CIA, Directorate of Science and
Technology (DST), History of the Office of Special Activities (OSA) From Inception to 1969.
.
****

Introduction

The Need for Aerial Reconnaissance

4
 Aerial reconnaissance originated with manned tethered balloons as platforms for gathering
information during the French conflict with Austria in 1794. During the American Civil War of the
1860s, balloon-borne observers employed aerial photography for the first time. Twenty years later, aerial
reconnaissance techniques expanded to include tethered kites and pigeons carrying small cameras with
timers. A century later, armies lofted cameras lofted into the sky using large-caliber artillery projectiles
and rockets.
The invention of the airplane, however, truly revolutionized both warfare and intelligence
collection. During the war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire in 1911, the Italian Air
Force employed airplanes for scouting over enemy territory. The first such mission involved an Italian
overflight of the Ottoman army in Thessaly, Greece. That same day, German mercenaries on the Thracian
front flew a similar mission against the Bulgarians. A few days later, a Bulgarian aircraft performed one
of Europe’s first combat reconnaissance missions over the Turkish lines on the Balkan Peninsula. It didn't
take long for both sides to recognize the airplane as a weapon. An Italian scout pilot became the first to
use an aircraft as a platform for aerial bombardment when he tossed four grenades from the open cockpit
of his monoplane.
The British made significant advances in aerial reconnaissance with the discovery of stereoscopic
photography. In 1912 the British Royal Air Force (RAF) flew the dirigible Beta on a reconnaissance
mission, taking vertical photos with a 60% overlap. Analysts found that this created a three-dimensional
effect when viewed through a stereoscope. This discovery eventually inspired the RAF to form the first
aerial reconnaissance unit of fixed-wing aircraft. Germany already used airborne cameras for scouting
missions, and France soon followed with several squadrons of observation planes.
These developments proved significant during World War I, which devastated Europe from July
1914 to November 1918. Throughout the war, the Wright brothers’ invention of the flying machine
proved invaluable as a means of reconnaissance support. German and British combat strategists alike
used aerial photography for strategic targeting, tactical planning, and battle damage assessment. General
Werner von Fritsch, commander-in-chief of the German forces felt an army’s knowledge of its enemy’s
forces as its best weapon. He predicted the nation with the best aerial reconnaissance capabilities winning
the next war. The use of aerial photography matured rapidly during the war with aircraft carrying cameras
to record enemy movements and defenses. By 1918, both sides were photographing the entire front twice
a day. Overall, the combatants took more than half a million photos during the conflict.
The United States formalized aerial reconnaissance during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in
1916 when the US Army formed the 1st Aero Squadron. The unit's primary mission involved
communications and observation that enabled Gen John J. Pershing to keep in touch with his thinly
spread, fast-moving troops during the first phase of the Punitive Expedition. The squadron also performed
several reconnaissance missions but failed to locate the enemy forces. As an interesting side note, half a
century later the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force – a direct descendant of the 1st Aero
Squadron – flew the Lockheed SR-71, the most advanced reconnaissance aircraft of the twentieth
century.
Developments during World War II, which raged across the globe from 1939 to 1945, included
aircraft that could fly higher and faster than their predecessors. But the most significant advances came
during the post-war era that became known as the Cold War.
.
****

Chapter 1- Why the Need for Intelligence

The year 1947 found the battlefields silent at last and the world recovering from World War II, with
670,846 servicemen and women killed, and 30,314 missing.

5
 The devastating conflict left the world in a state of political and military tension between the
dominant powers in the Western and the Eastern Blocs. Thus, the United States remained in a new kind
of conflict, a war of ideals, culture, power plays, and espionage called the Cold War, called so because of
no military forces actively engaging in battle. The aftermath of World War II, found the United States
facing the most powerful adversary ever.
When Germany attacked Stalin’s country without warning in 1941, already his policies over the
previous fifteen years had killed millions of people and inflicted enormous suffering upon the Soviet
Union. On VE Day in 1945, Soviet armies occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria,
Romania, and a third of Germany, including the eastern half of Hitler’s capital, Berlin. By the time of
Japan’s surrender on August 14, 1945, Moscow had added a military presence in Manchuria, the northern
islands of Japan, and the northern part of Korea. But it all had come at great cost. No military victor had
ever suffered as much as the Soviet Union did in World War II. The Nazis destroyed an estimated
seventeen hundred Soviet towns and seventy-thousand villages, in all about a third of the wealth of the
Soviet Union. The human toll remains beyond reckoning. Battlefield deaths, twice those suffered by
Nazi Germany, reached about seven million. The civilian loss was even higher, estimated somewhere
between seventeen and twenty-million people.

“Yet what might have turned other civilizations inward seemed to propel the Soviet
Union onto the world stage. Within five years of the end of World War II, Russia
would detonate its own atomic device, threaten its neighbors, assist a Communist
regime’s rise to power in China, and participate in North Korea’s invasion of South
Korea. This spectacular case of imperial stretch inspired fear and concern that not only
was the Soviet Union’s political influence worldwide, but its military ambitions were
boundless…” Fursenko, Aleksandr & Naftali, Timothy, Khrushchev’s Cold War: The
Inside Story of an American Adversary, NY, Norton, 2006, p. 5-8

From the devastating war itself against the Nazis, the official figure is that
27,000,000 Russians perished (some suggest as many as 34,000,000 did). One book
offers these statistics: the survival rate of 22 and 23 year old Russian men was 3%; half
of all draftees were killed or wounded. Of farm animals, of 23 million pigs only 3
million survived. Of 11 million horses only 4 million survived but many stayed in
army service instead of working to help farm for food. Since half the housing in
Western USSR had been destroyed, many people were “living in holes in the ground
and whole areas of the country were on the brink of starvation.” Steven Zaloga, Target
America – The Soviet Union and the Strategic Arms Race, 1945-1964, 1993, p. 30;
compare also Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun, 1986, p.179 in the chapter ‘Provide the
Bomb’

Three years later, the United States again found itself in a shooting war, a domestic conflict between
the North and South Korea that became a proxy war between superpowers in the East and West. The
United Nations, with the United States providing the principal military force, came to the aid of South
Korea. The Communist powers, which included the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union,
provided military assistance to the North.
President Harry S. Truman attempted to assuage the concerns of the war-weary American public by
describing this undeclared war as an international "police action." Nonetheless, those who fought
considered it a war, a bloody war that ended in a stalemate (without a formalized peace treaty) in July
1953, with some 36,574 Americans killed, 7,984 missing in action, 4,714 of them listed as prisoners of
war, many believed taken to the Russian-dominated Soviet Union.

6
 To a much greater extent than Communist China, the Soviet Union became the most significant
threat to Western democracy and as an existential threat to the United States. Time after time, the Soviets
opposed the US, either as a proxy enemy combatant or as an adversary at the United Nations. Moreover,
the Soviet Union, an ideological adversary became a powerful military opponent with a nuclear arsenal.
US officials feared and prepared for a preemptive nuclear attack preceding a possible invasion. The
Truman administration, therefore, established a nationwide emergency radio broadcast alert system to
warn US citizens of a Soviet invasion, should it occur. In the event of an attack, after transmitting an alert
message, all radio communication transmissions stopped except for two designated low power AM
frequencies (640 and 1240 kHz). This radio silence prevented enemy planes from using radio transmitters
as navigation aids for direction finding.
American citizens took precautions to protect themselves from exposure to radiation and made
preparations for a nuclear winter. They built fallout shelters in their cities and their backyards, stocking
them with food, water, and survival necessities. Air raid sirens sprouted up in cities and towns across
nationwide, and the warbling sounds of Civil Defense klaxons heralded monthly drills. The US
established the National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) program to supplement the existing siren
warning systems and radio broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack. American schools conducted duck
and cover drills where students took cover beneath their school desks with instructions not to look at the
blinding light of the nuclear fireball.
High-ranking government officials had nuclear-proof bunkers into which to retreat. The military built
its crucial military facilities deep inside mountains and sealed behind thick steel blast-proof doors.
Everywhere citizens knew to look for the ominous placarded yellow and black trefoil warning signs that
identified public fallout shelters stocked with food and water. Throughout America, citizens prepared for
an apocalyptic nuclear sneak attack or surprise invasion by the Soviet Union.
In 1955, the United States became embroiled in a military conflict in Southeast Asia. As with Korea,
it started as a civil war in 1950 but this time in Vietnam, then known as French Indochina. American
involvement began with the US providing military advisors and support to the French troops against
communist forces in North Vietnam. A decisive defeat in 1954 effectively ended a century of French
colonial rule and split Vietnam in two.
In many ways, the civil war resembled the Korean conflict, wherein the North Vietnamese
government and the Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front) fought to reunify their
country. Also, like what happened in Korea, it immediately became another Cold War proxy conflict
between the superpowers. The US government viewed its involvement in the war to prevent a communist
takeover of South Vietnam—as part of a more comprehensive containment policy aimed at stopping the
spread of communism by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies who did so by providing
advisors and material support to the North. The communist countries supported the North while the US,
South Korea, Australia, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies supported the South. The war
continued to escalate throughout the 1960s and ended with a North Vietnamese victory in April 1975. By
that time casualties included 58,315 Americans dead, 303,644 wounded, and more than 1,600 listed as
missing in action. Estimates of Vietnamese military and civilian casualties vary from 966,000 to 3.1
million, plus thousands more in neighboring Cambodia and Laos.
As the Cold War heated up, it became increasingly vital for US military leaders to understand their
adversaries' capabilities. The closed societies of the Communist nations made it nearly impossible to
collect intelligence at ground level. Therefore, it became necessary to observe them from above, which
the US Air Force and Navy attempted by flying reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union only to
lose many pilots and crews to Russian antiaircraft guns. Avoiding these losses and succeeding with the
urgently needed observation called for a spy plane that the Soviet Union could not shoot down.

7
 President Dwight Eisenhower wanted to develop such a plane. However, his Air Force chief of staff,
Gen Curtis LeMay refused to support the procurement of an aircraft that did not shoot guns or drop
bombs. He also jealously protected his turf by opposing any agency that wished to conduct such
operations other than the Air Force. Consequently, the president faced with a stalemate with the Air
Force. He saw no choice but to turn to the recently formed CIA to secretly build such a plane. The mere
thought of the CIA’s replacing the Air Force and Navy for such missions sparked a political battle in
Washington that continued through 12 directors of Central Intelligence and all the way to the Oval Office
of six US presidents.

Why the OSS, Office of Strategic Services

Truman wasn’t the first American president who sought to establish an intelligence agency. In July
1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, a World War I veteran, lawyer,
intelligence officer, and diplomat as his Coordinator of Information (COI). As such, Donovan headed the
nation’s first peacetime, non-departmental intelligence organization. However, this appointment occurred
too late for Donovan to develop the necessary knowledge to prevent the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl
Harbor that drew the United States into World War II.
The surprise attack by Japan prompted Roosevelt to reevaluate the role of the Coordinator of
Information. In 1942, he placed the COI under the aegis of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and renamed the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (Jokingly called the “Oh So Social.”). The military services, Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of State, and other agencies with their separate intelligence
units jealously guarded their turf. The president, therefore, tasked the OSS specifically with collecting
and analyzing strategic information required by the joint chiefs and as restricted to conducting special
operations not assigned to other agencies.

8
 One such operation involved the collection of radar signal data. In March 1943, the crew of a
specially equipped B-24 overflying Japanese-held Kiska Island in the Aleutians intercepted emanations
from radar sites on the island. Throughout the war, such missions, known as “ferret” flights, enabled the
OSS to supply policymakers with the intelligence needed to aid military campaigns.
Although the president dissolved the OSS immediately following the war, the fledgling agency
helped shape the US intelligence hierarchy and created a blueprint for sharing authority over foreign
intelligence activities with the FBI. Meanwhile, the president left it to the military branches to conduct
intelligence operations within their areas of responsibility.

Why the Cold War

The globe-spanning conflict of World War II left vast areas of Europe and Asia in ruins. Nazi
Germany surrendered to the Allied powers (American, British, French, and Russian) in May 1945 but the
Empire of Japan continued fighting until the middle of August, only surrendering after US atomic bombs
destroyed two Japanese cities. In less than a decade the war had reduced the world population of 2 billion
by 4 percent, with the deaths 80 million people, the shifting of the balance of power redrawing many
borders. In October 1945, a coalition of world governments established the United Nations (UN), an
intergovernmental organization tasked with promoting international cooperation in the hope of avoiding
future global conflicts.
Winning peace proved evasive to achieve as the Allies carved up the territories they occupied, each
seeking to exert its influence as much as possible. Europe quickly divided into regions of Western and
Soviet domination. The country split in two with East Germany going to the Communists. The German
capital, Berlin, divided into four parts with the Americans taking control of the Tempelhof sector; the
British taking the Gatow, the French the Tegel, and the Soviets the Karlshorst sector of the occupation
zone. To complicate matters, Berlin lay deep within East Germany, and thus it became a centerpiece in
the new Cold War where strained relations existed even before the end of World War II. Truman
succeeded President Roosevelt, who died of a stroke in April 1945 and immediately alienated Soviet
foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov by announcing his intent to take a “tougher” stance with the Soviets
than his predecessor had. After the war, the Soviet Union annexed the Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and
sought to expand its territory further. Tensions between the East and West increased as the Soviets
invaded Poland and Budapest and sought revenge for the millions of Russians killed during Operation
Barbarossa, the most massive German military operation of World War II.

Why and What the Fear of Russia

Geography always played a role in Russian history. For eight centuries, Russia had endured a cycle
of chaos that saw it rise as an aggressive global power, only to collapse into a coalition of independent
states, and then rise again. This cycle occurred more about geographic constraints than political ideology.
Geographically speaking, Russia suffered from an inherently weak position. It, the largest country in
the world, covered 13 time zones (split now into four mega-zones). Some 75 percent of its landmass
consisted of uninhabitable tundra that became marshland in the summer, making domestic trade difficult.
Russia found maritime trade difficult given that its rivals, including Turkey, blocked its only warm-water
port on the Black Sea. Thus, the nation struggled to develop economically.
Furthermore, Russia’s heartland stretched from St. Petersburg south through Moscow and into the
Volga region. It lay on a series of open plains that made it vulnerable from all sides, forcing Russia to
expand its borders and influence outward to create a buffer zone between its heartland and rival regional
powers. As Catherine the Great famously put it: “I have no way to defend my borders except to extend
them.” The most extended sustained example of this expansion occurred during the Soviet era, which
lasted from 1922 to 1991 where the cold wastes of Siberia shielded the Russian heartland, 14 other Soviet
republics, and seven Eastern Bloc countries.

9
 Thus, Russia existed in a perpetual cycle divided into three parts: collapse, resurrection, and fragility.
It started with a catalyst that caused governance to break down and disrupt the social order, leading to
collapse. Historically, this catalyst took many shapes. The 13th century brought the Mongol invasion; in
the seventeenth century, the Time of Troubles; and in the twentieth century, the Russian Revolution.
From each collapse came the next stage of Russia’s cycle: resurrection.
Typically, the predominant system of government during each crisis transformed into something new
— usually with a strong personality at the fore. Such transformations tended to create a stable system in
which Russia could consolidate itself and its borderlands, fostering a sense of national identity, uniting
Russians and allied populations under a common patriotic philosophy.
Ivan III represents an excellent example. He threw off the Mongol yoke and a united Russia.
Another, the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail I, led Russia out of the civil wars of the sixteenth century. The
“greats,” Peter and Catherine, transformed Russia into a global empire, and communist revolutionary
Vladimir Lenin turned Russia into what the world knew as the Soviet Union.
None, however, overcame Russia’s geographic challenges. The problematic pattern of trying to
consolidate the heartland while expanding Russian influence practically ensured an eventual collapse. As
inevitable stress points emerged — political, social, national security, and economic — Moscow
tightened its grip and acted more aggressively within and along its border.
Those leaders who survived the turmoil, once seen as the saviors of Russia, evolved into more
authoritarian and often ruthless dictators. They quashed dissent and aggressively defended Russia’s
borders and borderlands. A fragile situation developed when Russians leaders found they lacked the
stability their predecessors enjoyed and that they had less time to devote to consolidation and nation-
building.
Brutal leaders often emerged from these crumbling systems. These authoritarian despots used
extreme measures in times of crisis. Droughts and famines followed Ivan III’s and his successor’s
successful tenures, Ivan IV — aka “The Terrible” — severely restricted freedom of movement and lashed
out in a series of wars against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth This eventually led to civil war after
his death. The most famous, or perhaps infamous, autocrat, Josef Stalin, led the Soviet Union from 1929
to 1953, transforming the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower.
Unfortunately, he ruled by terror, and millions of his citizens died during his brutal reign. He
collectivized farming and executed or sent potential enemies to forced labor camps, and his policy of
forced industrialization resulted in the most significant human-made famine in history.
Stalin suppressed all domestic dissent and anything that smacked of Western influence. He sought to
promote Soviet control across the globe by helping establish communist governments throughout Eastern
Europe. He directed Soviet scientists to develop nuclear weapons, so the US would not have a monopoly
on the super weapons and oversaw an aggressive campaign of foreign espionage. Stalin's leadership set
the stage for the Cold War.

What and Who Ended World War II

During the Potsdam Conference, held at Cecilienhof, occupied Germany, in July 1945, President
Truman informed Stalin that the US possessed a new weapon, one more powerful than any other. Though
this development shifted the balance of power and posed a potential threat to the Soviet Union, Stalin
professed to be unimpressed. In fact, the Soviet leader already knew about it as he had spies deeply
embedded with the US atomic weapons program.
Stalin nonetheless honored his agreement to declare war on Japan and subsequently invaded
Manchuria, its Soviet forces swiftly taking possession of the Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
Soviet influence and expansion continued with the installation of a Communist government in Poland and
the annexation of several occupied nations as Soviet Socialist Republics and others in Eastern Europe
converting into Soviet-controlled satellite states.

10
 Korea had been under Japanese rule since 1910. An agreement between the US and Soviets on the
surrender of Japanese forces in Korea left the peninsula split in two at the 30th parallel. The North found
itself under Soviet occupation while US forces occupied the South. The subsequent inability of the two
superpowers to agree on terms for Korean independence led to Korea's division into two political entities.
North Korea (formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) received backing from the Soviet
Union in opposition to the pro-Western government of South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea).
Tensions between the two resulted in the outbreak of the Korean war and had repercussions that continue
well into the twenty-first century.
Soviet intervention in Manchuria coupled with Truman's decision to authorize the use of atomic
weapons against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought a swift Japanese unconditional
surrender that ended the World War II.

Vietnam a Supporting Ally of the Office of Strategic Services

On July 16, 1945, a seven-man OSS advance team parachuted into a jungle camp called Tan Trao
near Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. They met with Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh independence
movement, for organizing a guerrilla force of 50 to 100 men to attack and interdict the railroad from
Hanoi to Lang Son to prevent the Japanese from entering China. They also received the tasks of locating
Japanese military bases and depots and sending intelligence reports to OSS agents in China.
On 22 August 1945, OSS agents Archimedes Patti and Carleton B. Swift, Jr., in Hanoi, Vietnam, on
a mercy mission to liberate allied POWs. The Japanese detained upon arrival Jean Sainteny, a French
government official who accompanied the team. Although formally surrendered, the Japanese forces in
Vietnam remained the only local authority capable of maintaining law and order. Thus, even with the war
ended, the Imperial Japanese military remained in power to some degree. They detained French troops
and Sainteny until the Viet Minh took control. In what became known as the "August Revolution," the
Viet Minh toppled the French colonial government.

11
 Within two weeks the Viet Minh seized control of most rural villages and cities throughout the
country including Hanoi, and on September 2, Ho announced the formation of the Provisional
Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In the more politically diverse southern part of the country, various
groups vied for control. This divisiveness gave the French an opportunity to push back and regain control
in South Vietnam. By March 1946, with the country essentially split in half, the French signed an accord
they never intended to honor. Relations began to deteriorate almost immediately, and Vietnam
succumbed to a full-scale guerrilla war against the French colonialists. The resulting First Indochina War
lasted until July 1954 with the United States supporting France and paying 80% of their cost of the war.
One should note that before the end of World War II, President Roosevelt opposed the French returning
to resume colonial rule of Indochina. President Truman, however, did not resist the return of the French.
With the surrender of Japan, Vietnam, for the first time in 2,000 years, became free of occupation, if
only briefly. Following Roosevelt's death, Ho Chi Minh sought military aid from President Truman to
stop the French from returning to rule his country. Truman ignored this request, sending Ho only a set of
dueling pistols and a small number of Colt .45 semi-automatic pistols instead to make a symbolic show of
US support.

An Opportunity Lost to Prevent the Vietnam War

The withdrawal of OSS teams from Vietnam presaged a lost opportunity for the United States. Ho
Chi Minh viewed this and Truman’s pistol gift as an insult and proof that America had no intention of
helping him or his country. Desperate to keep Vietnam free of occupation, Ho declared the independent
Democratic Republic of Vietnam and sought the assistance of Communist Russia to keep the French out.
Thus, North Vietnam emerged from World War II as a communist and nationalist liberation movement
under the Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.

President Truman Feared Wild Bill Donovan’s Office of Strategic Services

For most Americans, the end of World War II offered hope that the United States would return to a
climate of normalcy and peace. For the Truman administration, this included demobilizing wartime
agencies such as the OSS. William Donovan’s political and military rivals feared the man they called
“Wild Bill,” and worried about the possible consequences of creating a peacetime intelligence service
modeled on the OSS.
But the US and its allied leaders had much more to fear than Donovan or to protect their turf. They
quickly learned that the Soviet Union had international ambitions that would likely plunge the worlds into
more wars.
Even before the surrender of Japan, Soviet amphibious forces had landed in Korea. Soon they had
captured Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo, and five days later Soviet troops captured Sakhalin’s
capital, thus bringing Communism to the Far East.

The Cold War Began with No US Intelligence Capability

Shortly after accepting the Japanese surrender the US became embroiled in the conflict between
France and Vietnam as the provisional government of the French Republic’s Far East Expeditionary
Corps attempted to resume its pre-war colonialism in Indochina.

12
 Unfortunately for the US and its allies, President Truman had signed an Executive Order terminating
the OSS, effective 1 October 1945. Consequently, the US government chose to support the French in
Vietnam while once again weakening American intelligence gathering capabilities. Truman had repeated
the same error that encouraged the attack on Pearl Harbor. The president had in effect eliminated the one
intelligence service that could best advise him and the nation of an impending enemy attack.
Why?
Was it to prevent the OSS from producing intelligence to show that Japan had surrendered because of
the Russians entering the war and not because of the US dropping the atomic bombs?
Was it to prevent the OSS gathering information counter to the stated reasons for the US propping up
the French at the beginning of the war in Vietnam?
America's lack of intelligence information on activities in North Korea encouraged the invasion that
sparked the Korean War. An American president choosing to abandon his best intelligence asset at such a
crucial time seemed unthinkable, but he did. This same lack of intelligence gathering led the US to
support France in its war in Vietnam.
Historically, organized intelligence, both overt and clandestine, at best considered a tolerable
wartime necessity, became a thing viewed as unsavory in peacetime. Truman thought the OSS a thing
without permanent status in the American governmental system. An organized intelligence agency would
likely have advised Truman to stay out of Vietnam as the CIA did later for President Lyndon Johnson,
who hated the Agency for not supporting his excuse for war.
Despite the Soviet Union continuing its conquest of other nations, Truman abolished all OSS
analysis and collection activities. He transferred the OSS counterintelligence services to the Department
of State and the War Department (later renamed the Department of Defense). Worse yet, Truman reduced
the scale of intelligence collection, as if he thought intelligence gathering caused wars.
While the previously stated reasons for disbanding the OSS are speculation, disbanding that office is
known to have eliminated the central sources of Cold War intelligence needed against the powerful
communist Soviet Union. Unfortunately, disabling the nation’s intelligence agency did not stop the Soviet
threat to the US or its allies. If anything, Truman’s shutdown of the country’s intelligence service showed
a weakness that emboldened the Soviet Union.
Truman soon realized, however, that terminating intelligence collection activities did not eliminate
the spread of communism. He reluctantly realized that the nation needed a peacetime centralized
intelligence harvesting system to keep the peace. This time, he and other national leaders realized the
need to have an agency independent of any of the policy-making branches of government.
By 1947, two years after the end of World War II, many nations were making significant changes
throughout the world. In the Republic of Korea, Syngman Rhee became the president following a left-
wing boycott, and in Malaya, a communist insurgency began against British and Commonwealth forces.
The Americans and British united their zones of control in Germany to form the Bizone also known
as Bizonia. Rigged elections in the UN gave the Communist bloc 80 percent of the vote while Truman
fueled the political and military tension between the US and the Soviets by announcing the Truman
Doctrine that explicitly opposed the Soviet Union’s expansion of communism. The Doctrine provided aid
to Greece and Turkey to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere of influence and further pledged
support of all nations threatened by Soviet expansionism. This difference in policy brought the Cold War
to a head as the Soviets consolidated control over the Eastern Bloc states. The US countered this with a
strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power by extending military and financial aid to the
countries of Western Europe.
The creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the supreme allied
commander, replaced previous temporary wartime alliances against Nazi Germany. Based in Brussels,
Belgium, NATO became an intergovernmental military alliance based on a treaty signed on 4 April 1949.
The coalition left the two superpowers with profound economic and political differences.
Neither side faltered. The US continued extending its military and financial aid to anti-communist
governments, and the Soviet Union kept spreading its aggressive Communism.

13
 The world continued to experience radical change as Europe slowly recovered from World War II
and the Cold War escalated. The two sides became locked in a stalemate as the Communist Party took
control in Czechoslovakia. At this point, the Cold War became more of a contest of wills than an actual
conflict between the two superpowers. However, the threat of nuclear weapons continued to underpin the
mutual suspicions and reactionary foreign policy of both sides.
This threat prompted Secretary of State George C. Marshall to outline plans for a comprehensive
program of economic assistance to the war-ravaged countries of Western Europe. Truman signed the
Marshall Plan into effect, which eventually cost the US government $12.4 billion. The Soviets refused an
offer to participate in the Plan and barred Eastern Bloc countries such as East Germany and Poland from
reaping the benefits.
The Cold War heated up the following month with the defection of Igor Gouzenko, a clerk working
at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, who provided proof to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of a
Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and other western countries. If any still doubted that the Soviets were
more foe than an ally to the West, the Gouzenko affair changed their perceptions.
In Germany, the city of Berlin still suffered from the enormous damage sustained during the war. It
found its prewar population of 4.3 million people reduced to just 2.8 million.
Adding to their woe, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin ordered the blockade of all land routes from West
Germany to Berlin to starve out the French, British, and American forces in the city. Stalin wanted it all.
The Soviets launched a massive propaganda campaign condemning Britain, America, and France by
radio, newspaper, and loudspeaker. They severed land and water connections between non-Soviet zones
and Berlin. At the same time, Russia halted all rail and barge traffic to and from the city, stopping the
supply of food to the civilian population in sectors other than the Soviet sector. The German people were
starving, and the three Western powers responded by launching a massive resupply effort by air known as
the Berlin airlift.
During the Berlin airlift, an Allied supply plane took off or landed in West Berlin every 30 seconds.
At the beginning of the operation, the air fleet delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every
day. The planes made nearly 300,000 flights in all. For more than a year, hundreds of American, British,
and French cargo planes flew in provisions from Western Europe. By the end, those daily loads had
increased to about 8,000 tons. The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo in all over the course of
the airlift.
The eyes of the world watched tensely throughout the Berlin blockade. The West celebrated as the
airlift defeated the Soviet’s attempt to starve West Berlin. The Soviet blockade of Berlin finally ended
with the re-opening of access routes on 12 May 1949. Nonetheless, the US continued the airlift until
September for fear of the Soviets re-establishing the embargo. Germany remained split with the Bizone
merging with the French zone of control to form the Federal Republic of Germany with Bonn as its
capital.
While the US announced new occupation policies in Germany and India, Pakistan gained
independence from the United Kingdom. A month later, the Soviet Union formed the Communist
Information Bureau to dictate the actions of leaders and communist parties across its spheres of influence.
Communist Russia remained entrenched in the Far East.
The United Nations responded to the Soviet’s Communist Information Bureau actions with a
resolution calling for the withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Korea. The UN called for free elections in
each of the two administrations and unification of the peninsula. The United States and its coalition
removed their troops, but the Soviet Union did not. Why?

****

Chapter 2 – Why the CIA Established

14
 With World War II over and the OSS disbanded, America found its knowledge of Soviet intentions
badly hampered. The world saw Russia engaged in brutal military conquests against their neighboring
countries and Communism spreading across the globe like cancer.
The American people feared Soviet Russia, expecting any day to see parachutes floating earthward
carrying armed troops waving the red hammer-and-sickle flag of the Soviet Union. American
communities conducted air defense drills where everyone ran for the nearest bomb shelter. School
children hid beneath their desks.
Paranoia erupted when a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a fleet of nine
unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, flying past Mt. Rainier, Washington, at speeds he estimated to be
more than 1,200 miles per hour. Military officials and the FBI took seriously the numerous UFO
sightings occurring across the country over the next several weeks. Many people wondered if these
objects represented a new Soviet threat. Debris found on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, caused brief
excitement when the Army Air Corps initially identified it as being from one of these mystery objects.
Over time, in popular culture UFOs came associated with possible extraterrestrial visitors. In fact, many
science fiction films of the Cold War era were thinly veiled allegories for Soviet infiltration and invasion
fears.
Truman sought advice from Bill Donovan and Admiral William D. Leahy, who helped hammer out
details for the creation of a new intelligence agency. The president also asked for advice from the military
services, the State Department, and the FBI. In January 1946, he established the Central Intelligence
Group (CIG) at a critical time when a full-scale civil war broke out in Asia between the Kuomintang-led
Republic of China of the Communist party of China.
The formation of the CIG provided strategic warnings to US defense analysts and conducted
significant clandestine collection activities. Unlike the OSS, the CIG enjoyed access to all-source
intelligence as it functioned under the direction of a National Intelligence Authority composed of a
presidential representative and the secretaries of State, War, and the Navy. The president appointed the
first deputy of Naval Intelligence, RADM (rear admiral) Sidney W. Souers, USNR (United States Navy
Reserve), as the first Director of Central Intelligence.

Why the CIA’s Importance

Less than two years after its formation, the CIG struggled to keep up with the world's turmoil. The
Soviets were racing to build their atomic bomb, citizens around the world claimed to have spotted flying
saucers in the sky, and Truman feared the growing threat of a Soviet nuclear Pearl Harbor. On September
18, 1947, he signed the National Security Act of 1947, which established the US Air Force as a separate
military service on equal footing with the Army and Navy and established the National Security Council.
The Act also allowed Truman to create a civilian foreign intelligence service tasked with gathering,
processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, using both human and
technical intelligence.
He disbanded the National Intelligence Authority and the CIG and created the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). In 1949, the Central Intelligence Agency Act authorized the agency to use confidential
fiscal and administrative procedures and exempted it from most limitations on the use of Federal funds.
At the outset of the Korean conflict, the CIA had only a few thousand employees and lacked its
intelligence gathering capabilities. Instead, it relied heavily upon the Office of Reports and Estimates,
which drew upon State Department telegrams, military dispatches, and other public documents.

The Truman Doctrine

15
 Truman also created an American foreign policy doctrine to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion.
He initially announced the Truman Doctrine to Congress on 12 March 1947 and developed it further in
July 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey and to support other nations
threatened by Soviet communism.
The president shouldered the CIA with watching threats worldwide but with a focus on Russia. He
tasked the CIA with determining what kinds of strategic weapons, and how many of them, the Soviet
Union had. He also wanted to know if and how the Soviets intended to use them.
The Communist Party ruled the Soviet Union, a Marxist–Leninist State with enforcement by the
secret police, the dreaded KGB. Power lay in the hands of a dictator (such as Stalin) or a small committee
called the Politburo. The party controlled the press, the military, the economy, and numerous other
organizations. It also managed the client states in the Eastern Bloc. The Supreme Soviet-funded
Communist parties around the world, sometimes in direct competition with similar efforts by the Peoples'
Republic of China.
In an election speech, Joseph Stalin stated that capitalism and imperialism made future wars
inevitable. He accused the United States of “striving for world supremacy.” The West, predominantly
democratic and capitalist with a free press and independent organizations, stood in opposition to the
Communists. A small neutral bloc of nations, treading a fine line in between, arose with the Nonaligned
Movement that sought good relations with both sides. As in the Korean proverb, "When the whales fight,
the shrimp get squashed,” “When the elephants fight, the mice suffer.”

The CIA Becomes Technical

Those in the intelligence business recognized the Soviet Union as an extremely hard target for
traditional espionage operations. Accordingly, the CIA turned to the technical means of collection to peer
beyond what had come to be known as the "Iron Curtain."
During the first 15 years of its existence, the CIA primarily deployed collection and analytic assets to
detect and preempt a Soviet nuclear first strike.
In the United States, the Red Scare ran rabid with Sen. Joseph McCarthy accusing numerous
American celebrities of being members of the Communist Party. McCarthy also targeted alcoholics and
what he saw as sexual deviants.
He eventually became the chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate,
widening his scope to “investigate” accused dissenters. He continued for over two years, relentlessly
questioning numerous government personnel in various departments. This rampant witch-hunt dubbed
"McCarthyism" caused panic and increased public fear of communism.
On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb known to Americans as "Joe 1,"
named after Joseph Stalin. Suddenly, the Soviets ranked as the world’s second nuclear power.
The Soviet representative to the UN followed this demonstration of power by vetoing the United
Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, and Portugal.
The Cold War escalated on October 1, 1949, when Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong
proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The establishment of this populous
single-party state added a quarter of the world's population to the communist camp. Additionally, Mao's
forces had been holding the American consul in Mukden and his staff as virtual hostages for nearly a year
during the revolution against the Nationalist Chinese government. The Chinese communists accused the
Americans of being spies. By the time the crisis ended, US relations had suffered severe damage with the
new Chinese communist government to the extent the calamitous prospect of war had included conflict
with the PRC as well as with the Soviet Union.

16
 Elsewhere in the world the Greek Civil War, which had been raging since 1946, finally ended. In
what might legitimately be the first proxy war of the Cold War era, the Greek government (backed by the
US and England through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan) fought the Democratic Army of
Greece (backed by the Communist governments of Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria). When
government forces ultimately defeated the communist insurgents, a major Cold War victory for the West.
Indonesia, a Southeast Asian nation made up of thousands of volcanic islands and home to hundreds
of ethnic groups had been a Dutch colony until it succumbed to Japanese occupation during World War
II. After the war, an armed and diplomatic struggle ensued when the Netherlands attempted to re-establish
Dutch rule. In December 1949 international pressure forced the Dutch to recognize Indonesian
independence under the rule of Sukarno, the founding father and first president of the island nation.
During the 1950s, however, Sukarno moved Indonesia from democracy towards authoritarianism,
maintaining his power base by balancing the opposing forces of his army and the Communist Party of
Indonesia. All this forced US intelligence agencies devote more resources to watching the region for any
signs of Soviet influence.
“The wineglass, Khrushchev explained in his characteristically colorful way, was not to overflow,
but so long as the Soviet Union was the weaker superpower, it had to practice brinkmanship to keep its
adversary off-balance. A dangerous strategy at any time in history, but in the nuclear age this approach
was potentially suicidal. Rarely had a single world leader shown this much hubris. Yet the strategy that
Khrushchev announced in 1962 was one that he had been practicing in various forms since he had come
to dominate the Kremlin’s foreign policy in 1955.”
The National Security Council first became secretly involved in the Italian elections. At the same
time, the US extended $400 million of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signaling its intent to contain
communism in the Mediterranean.
Cold War tensions also increased in the Middle East where British and Soviet troops had occupied
Iran to secure oil fields during World War II. The British withdrew after the war, but the Soviets
remained as Joseph Stalin expanded Soviet political influence in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. Additionally,
the Soviets were instrumental in establishing the communist Tudeh Party of Iran. Soviet-backed uprisings
led to the establishment of the People's Republic of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish People's Republic.
In Southeast Asia, the Soviet Union had declared the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the
legitimate government of the entire Korean peninsula and backed Kim Il-sung up as the rightful leader.
European borders and allegiances continued to shift. The Republic of Austria divided into four zones
of control: American, British, French, and Soviet. Enver Hoxha established the People’s Republic of
Albania, with himself as Prime Minister.
In the West, the global spread of Soviet-style communism engendered fears like those inspired by
the German Nazi movement of the late 1930s. Any notions of a lasting world peace faded as wartime
alliances crumbled, giving way to suspicion and dread. This came as no surprise to those who paid
attention to world events. As early as 1946 former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had
condemned the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declared, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in
the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." From that day forward the term "Iron
Curtain" became synonymous with the Communist Bloc and the West became known as the "Free
World.” Robert Hopkins III, a reconnaissance pilot provides a detailed account of Spitfires, P-80s, F-86s,
RB-29s, RB-50s, etc., and other reconnaissance aircraft after WWII in his book: “Spyflights and
Overflights: US Strategic Aerial Reconnaissance 1945-1960.”

A decade after leaving office, Harry Truman wrote a letter to the Washington Post
decrying the CIA's clandestine "cloak and dagger" activities. He claimed the Agency
"was intended merely as a center for keeping the President informed on the world at
large and the United States and its dependencies in particular." He added, "It should not
be an agency to initiate policy or to act as a spy organization." But that's precisely what
it did, and throughout the Cold War, the CIA undertook numerous covert intelligence
operations in support of foreign policy objectives on an ever-broadening scale.
17
 Leghorn transferred to the Pentagon in early 1952 where he planned the Air Force reconnaissance
requirements for the next decade. There, Leghorn worked for Col Bernard A. Schriever, assistant for
Development Planning to the Air Force deputy chief of staff for Development. In this position, he
collaborated with Charles F. "Bud" Weinberg, a colleague from Wright Field, and Eugene P. Kiefer, a
Notre Dame graduate in aeronautical engineering who had designed reconnaissance aircraft at the Wright
Air Development Center during World War II. Leghorn felt these three reconnaissance experts working
together might promote high-altitude photoreconnaissance, and eventually garner high-level Air Force
support.

29
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER XX
THE TRY-OUT

B y the first of June Hillman’s baseball team had settled into its
stride. Four successive victories had restored the confidence of
players and adherents alike, and the final test of the season, the
game with Farview Academy, played this year at Orstead, was being
viewed in prospect with less apprehension. Laurie had somewhat
solved the science of throwing to bases from the plate and was
running a very even race with Elk Thurston, a fact that did nothing to
increase the entente cordiale between those two. Elk seldom missed
an opportunity to make himself disagreeable to his rival, and since
Elk was both older and bigger, and possessed also the prestige of
being a member of the upper-middle class, Laurie had to keep his
temper many times when he didn’t want to. After all, though, Elk’s
offenses weren’t important enough to have excused serious
reprisals. He made fun of the younger boy and “ragged” him when
he was at work. Sometimes he got a laugh from his audience, but
more often he didn’t, for his humor was a bit heavy. His antagonism
was largely personal, for he did not accept Laurie seriously as a
rival.
He liked best of all to tease the other on the score of the latter’s
failure to make good his boast of transforming the impossible Kewpie
Proudtree into a pitcher. Elk, like about every one else, had
concluded that Laurie had given up that task in despair. But whereas
the others had virtually forgotten the amusing episode, Elk
remembered and dwelled on it whenever opportunity presented.
That Laurie failed to react as Elk expected him to annoyed him
considerably. Laurie always looked cheerfully untroubled by gibes on
that subject. Any one but Elk would have recognized failure and
switched to a more certain method, but Elk was not very quick of
perception.
 On a Saturday soon after the beginning of the month the Blue met
Loring in a game remarkable for coincidences. Each team made
eleven hits and eleven runs in the eleven innings that were played—
errors and brilliant plays alternating. George Pemberton started for
Hillman’s but gave way to Nate Beedle in the second. Elk caught the
final two innings in creditable style, and Laurie again looked on from
the bench.
On the following Monday afternoon Laurie laid in wait for Mr.
Mulford on the gymnasium steps. “We’re ready for that try-out
whenever you are, sir,” he announced.
“Eh? What try-out is that?” asked the coach.
“Proudtree’s, sir. You know you said you’d give him one.”
“Proudtree? Why I understood he’d quit long ago!”
“No, sir, he didn’t quit. He’s been practising at least an hour every
day, except Sundays, for more than two months.”
“He has? Well, well! And you think he can pitch some, do you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Laurie firmly.
“All right. Now, let’s see. I don’t believe I’ll have time to look at him
to-day, Turner. How about to-morrow morning?”
“Tuesday? He hasn’t anything from eleven fifteen to twelve, sir.”
“Good. Tell him to be over at the field at eleven twenty. You’ll catch
for him? I hope this isn’t just a flivver, my boy, for from present
indications we’re going to need pitchers next year.”
“Wouldn’t we be able to use another this year, if we had him?”
asked Laurie, grinning. Mr. Mulford smiled responsively.
“Hm, we might, and that’s a fact,” he acknowledged. “Well, have
your champion on hand to-morrow morning, Turner.” He hurried on
into the gymnasium, and, after a thoughtful stare into space, Laurie
followed him.
“Next year!” scoffed Kewpie when, after practice, Laurie reported
the gist of his talk with the coach. “He’s crazy! What’s the matter with
this year? I’ll bet you I can pitch as good ball as Orville Croft right
now.”
“And that wouldn’t be saying much, either,” assented Laurie.
“Well, they’ve got him on the team,” grumbled Kewpie. “Pinky’s got
a nerve if he thinks I’m going to wait around for a whole year after
the way I’ve been working all spring!”
“Yes, he ain’t so well in his nerve,” mused Laurie. “Ought to see a
doctor about—”
“Well, didn’t you tell him I wanted to play this year?” demanded
Kewpie impatiently. Laurie shook his head.
“No, you see, dear old lad, I didn’t want to overtax his brain. You
know how these baseball coaches are. They can wrestle with one
idea, but when it comes to two at the same time—” Laurie shrugged
eloquently. Kewpie viewed him doubtfully.
“Oh, shut up,” he said, grinning. “Well, anyway, he’s got to give me
a chance with the team this year. If he doesn’t he won’t get me next.”
“I’ll mention that to him to-morrow,” replied the other soberly. “I
dare say if we take a firm attitude with him he will come around.
Well, eleven twenty, then. I’ll wait for you in front.”
“In front” at Hillman’s meant the steps of School Hall or their
immediate vicinity, and on the steps the two met the next forenoon.
Laurie had brought his mitten, and Kewpie had his glove and a ball
in his pockets. On the way along Summit Street to the athletic field,
which was a quarter of a mile to the south, Kewpie was plainly
nervous. He didn’t have much to say, but at intervals he took the ball
from his pocket, curved his heavy fingers about it, frowned, sighed
and put it away again.
Mr. Mulford was awaiting them, and Kewpie, for one, was glad to
see that he was alone. After greetings the boys laid aside their coats,
and Kewpie rolled his shirt-sleeves up. Mr. Mulford seated himself on
a bench near the batting-net, crossed his knees and waited. His
attitude and general demeanor told Laurie that he was there to fulfill
a promise rather than in the expectation of being thrilled.
 “Start easy,” counseled Laurie. “Don’t try to pitch until you’ve
tossed a few, Kewpie.”
Kewpie nodded, plainly very conscious of the silent figure on the
bench. He wound up slowly, caught sight of Laurie’s mitten held
palm outward in protest, and dropped his arms, frowning.
“Yes,” said Mr. Mulford, “better start slow, Proudtree.”
Kewpie tossed five or six balls into Laurie’s mitt without a wind-up
and between tosses stretched and flexed the muscles of his stout
arm.
“All right,” said Laurie finally. He crouched and signaled under the
mitten. Kewpie shook his head.
“I don’t know your signals,” he objected. “You tell me what you
want.”
“Pitch some straight ones,” suggested the coach.
Kewpie obliged. His stand in the box and his wind-up were
different from what they had been when Laurie had last caught him.
Considering his build, Kewpie’s appearance and movements were
easy and smooth. He had a queer habit of bringing the pitching hand
back close to the left thigh after the delivery, which, while novel, was
rather impressive. Kewpie’s deliveries were straight enough to
please any one, but Mr. Mulford called:
“Speed them up, son. You’d never get past the batsman with
those!”
Kewpie shot the ball away harder. Laurie returned it and thumped
his mitt encouragingly. “That’s the stuff, Kewpie! Steam ’em up! Now
then!”
Kewpie pitched again and once more. Mr. Mulford spoke. “You
haven’t any speed, Proudtree,” he said regretfully. “The weakest
batter on the scrub could whang those out for home runs. Got
anything else?”
Kewpie had recovered his assurance now. “Sure,” he answered
untroubledly. “What do you want?”
 Mr. Mulford replied a trifle tartly. “I want to see anything you’ve got
that looks like pitching. I certainly haven’t seen anything yet!”
“Curve some,” said Laurie.
Kewpie fondled the ball very carefully, wound up, and pitched. The
result was a nice out-shoot that surprised even Laurie, who nearly let
it get past him into the net. “That’s pitching,” he called. “Let’s have
another.”
Kewpie sent another. Mr. Mulford arose from the bench and took
up a position behind the net. “Let’s have that out-curve again,” he
commanded. Kewpie obeyed. “All right,” said the coach. “Not bad.
Try a drop.”
Kewpie’s first attempt went wrong, but the next one sailed to the
plate a little more than knee-high and then sought to bury itself in the
dust. Laurie heard the coach grunt. A third attempt attained a similar
result. “What else have you got?” asked Mr. Mulford. Laurie detected
a note of interest at last.
“Got an in-shoot,” replied Kewpie with all of his accustomed
assurance, “and a sort of floater.”
“Show me,” answered the coach.
The in-shoot was just what its name implied, and Kewpie
presented two samples of it. The “floater,” however, was less
impressive, although Laurie thought to himself that it might prove a
hard ball to hit if offered after a curve. Mr. Mulford grunted again.
“Now pitch six balls, Proudtree,” he said, “and mix ’em up.”
Kewpie pitched an out, a straight drop, an out-drop, a straight ball,
an in, and a “floater.”
“That’s enough,” said Mr. Mulford to Laurie. “Come over to the
bench.” Laurie dropped the ball in his pocket, signaled to Kewpie,
and followed the coach. Kewpie ambled up inquiringly. “Sit down,
son,” said Mr. Mulford. Then, “Where’d you learn that stuff?” he
asked.
With Laurie’s assistance, Kewpie told him.
 “Wilkins,” mused the coach. “Must have been the year before I
took hold here. I don’t remember any game with High School in
which we got licked that badly. He must be all he says he is, though,
if he can teach any one else to pitch that stuff. Well, I’m not going to
tell you you’re a Christy Mathewson, Proudtree, for you’ve got a long
way to go yet before you’ll be getting any medals. I guess I don’t
have to tell you that you aren’t built quite right for baseball, eh?”
“Oh, I’m down to a hundred and fifty-four,” answered Kewpie
calmly, “and I’m not so slow as I look.”
“I don’t mean your weight,” said the coach, suppressing a smile. “I
mean your build. You’ll have to work just about twice as hard as
Beedle would, for instance, to get the same result. You’re—well,
you’re just a little bit too close-coupled, son!”
“I’ve seen fellows like me play mighty good baseball,” said Kewpie.
“I dare say. If you have, you’ve seen them work mighty hard at it!
Well, I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m only telling you this to
impress you with the fact—and it is a fact, Proudtree—that you’ll
have to buckle down and work mighty earnestly if you want to be a
really capable pitcher next year.”
“Well, what about—” Kewpie glanced fittingly at Laurie—“what
about this year, sir?”
Laurie saw the coach’s gaze waver. “This year?” he echoed. “Why,
I don’t know. We’re fixed pretty well this year, you see. Of course I’m
perfectly willing to let you work with the crowd for the rest of the
season. Pitching to the net will teach you a whole lot, for you can’t
judge your stuff until you’ve got some ambitious chap swinging at it.
Some of that stuff you’ve just showed me would be candy for a good
hitter. You’ve got one weakness, Proudtree, and it’s an important
one. You haven’t speed, and I don’t believe you’ll have it. That’s your
build; no fault of yours, of course.”
“I know that,” agreed Kewpie, “but Brose Wilkins says I don’t need
speed. He says I’ve got enough without it. He says there are heaps
of mighty good pitchers in the Big League that can’t pitch a real fast
ball to save their lives!”
 “Maybe, but you’re not a candidate for the Big League yet. If
you’ve ever watched school-boy baseball, you’ve seen that what
they can’t hit, five times out of seven, is a really fast ball. They like to
say they can, and I guess they believe it, but they can’t. Maybe one
reason is that they don’t often get fast ones, for there aren’t many
youngsters of your age who can stand the strain of pitching them.
Mind, I don’t say that you won’t be able to get by without more speed
than you’ve got, but I do say that not having speed is a weakness.
I’m emphasizing this because I want you to realize that you’ve got to
make your curves mighty good to make up for that shortcoming.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Kewpie almost humbly. “I understand.”
“Good. Now, then, let’s see. Oh, yes, about that ball you call a
‘floater.’ Did Wilkins teach you that?”
“No, sir, I—I got that out of a book. It—it isn’t as good as it might
be, I guess, but I’m getting the hang of it, sir.”
“Well, I wouldn’t monkey with it just now. It’s a hard ball to pitch—
hard on the muscles. You don’t want too many things. If I were you,
son, I’d stick to the curves and drops. That out-drop of yours isn’t so
bad right now, and I guess you can make it even better. If you have
five things to offer the batter, say, an in, an out, a drop, a drop-curve,
and a slow ball, you’ve got plenty. If you’ve got control and can
change your pace without giving yourself away you’ve got as much
as the most successful pitcher ever did have. It’s control, son, that
counts. All the fancy stunts ever known aren’t worth a cent unless
you can put the ball where you want it to go. And that’s that.”
There was a moment of silence. Then Kewpie said: “Mr. Mulford, if
I work hard and pitch to the net and all that couldn’t I get into a game
some time? I mean some game this spring?”
“Why, I don’t know,” said the coach slowly. “What’s the idea? Want
to get your letter?”
“No, sir, but I’d—why, I’d just like to, sir, awfully.”
“There are only four games left before the Farview game,” was the
answer, “and I don’t want to promise anything like that, Proudtree.
But I will agree to put you in if the chance comes. Look here, you
chaps, why don’t you work together and get to know each other?
There’s a lot in the pitcher and catcher being used to each other’s
ways. Then, perhaps, I can give you both a whack at a couple of
innings some day. I’d do that, I think. You look after Proudtree,
Turner. Make him work. Keep his nose to the grindstone. Remember
that there’s another year coming, eh?”
“I’ll make him work,” laughed Laurie.
“Then do I—do I get on the team?” asked Kewpie anxiously.
“You get on the squad,” was the answer. “Report to-morrow
afternoon. There’s a game on, and you won’t get much work, but you
can pitch to Turner a while and learn the ropes. Let’s get back now.”
Coach Mulford arose. “Turner, I suspected that you were going to
waste my time this morning, but I was wrong. Your dark horse looks
to me well worth the grooming!”
He set off across the field toward the gridiron on a short cut to the
village, and the two boys walked back to school. For the first dozen
paces nothing was said. Then Kewpie laughed and turned to his
companion. “Told you I’d do it!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Told you
I could pitch ball as well as the rest of them! Didn’t I, now?”
“You told me a lot of things, you poor cheese,” answered Laurie
crushingly, “but where’d you be if Ned and I hadn’t managed you? I’ll
tell you. You’d still be lying on your window-seat, like a fat seal,
reading ‘How to Pitch’!”
“Huh, is that so? I guess if it comes to that, you fat-head, Brose
Wilkins is the guy—”
“He sure is,” agreed Laurie, “he sure is! And, prithee, you half-
baked portion of nothing at all, who discovered Brose? Who
persuaded him to waste his time on a big, fut lummox like you?”
“Well, anyway,” replied Kewpie, quite unaffected by the insults,
“neither you nor Ned nor Brose Wilkins could have made a pitcher
out of me if I hadn’t had the—the ability!”
“You ain’t so well in your ability,” said Laurie scathingly. “All you’ve
got is a start, old son, and so don’t get to thinking that you’re a Big
Leaguer! Maybe with prayer and hard work I’ll make you amount to
something by next year, but right now you’re nothing but a whispered
promise!”
“Oh, is that so?” said Kewpie, and again, “Is that so?” He wasn’t
quick at repartee, and just then that was the best he could do.
 CHAPTER XXI
THE DEAD LETTER

A lthough Kewpie made no secret of his acceptance on the

baseball team, in fact gave a certain amount of publicity to the
fact, his appearance on the diamond the next afternoon created a
distinct sensation. Aware of the sensation, Kewpie became suddenly
taciturn, and when he did speak he clothed his words in mystery.
Laurie, seeing an opportunity to render Kewpie’s advent more
spectacular, seized it. During Craigskill’s practice on the diamond the
Hillman’s pitchers warmed up in front of the first base stand. Beedle
and Pemberton pitched to Cas Bennett and Elk Thurston. As Croft
was not to be used, Laurie’s services were not required, and he sat
on the bench. But when the opportunity was glimpsed he arose,
picked a ball from the old water-bucket, drew on his mitten, and
signaled to Kewpie. Then he took his place beyond Cas, and Kewpie
ambled to a station beside Nate Beedle, and a ripple of incredulous
delight ran the length of the bench. Kewpie tossed a ball into Laurie’s
mitten, and the bench applauded with a note of hysteria. Not until
then did Coach Mulford, who had been talking to the manager,
become aware of the fact that something of interest was taking
place. He looked, saw, stared. Then the ends of his mouth went up a
little, tiny puckers appeared at the corners of his eyes, and he
chuckled softly. Around him the players and substitutes were
laughing uproariously. They had reason, it seemed. The sight of the
short and rotund Kewpie in juxtaposition to the tall and slender
Beedle might have brought a smile to the face of a wooden statue.
But Kewpie seemed unaware of the amusement he was causing. He
pitched his slow balls into Laurie’s mitt gravely enough, finishing his
delivery with his hand close to his left side, as though, as one
facetious observer put it, a mosquito demanded attention.
Laurie laughed inwardly, but outwardly his expression and
demeanor were as sober and as earnest as Kewpie’s. Mr. Mulford’s
countenance showed him that that gentleman appreciated the humor
of the incident and that he was to be allowed to “get away with it.”
Beside him, Elk Thurston’s face was angry and sneering.
“Some pitcher you’ve got,” he said, speaking from the corner of his
mouth. “You and he make a swell battery, Turner.” Then, as he sped
the ball back to Nate, he called: “Guess it’s all up with you, Nate.
See what the cat brought in!”
Nate smiled but made no answer.
Then Hillman’s trotted out on the diamond, and the pitchers retired
to the bench. Laurie chose a seat well removed from Mr. Mulford,
and Kewpie sank down beside him. Kewpie was chuckling almost
soundlessly. “Did you see Elk’s face?” he murmured. “Gee!”
Laurie nodded. “He’s awfully sore. He thought we’d given up, you
know, and when he caught sight of you coming out of the gym his
eyes almost popped out of his head. There’s Ned over there in the
stand, and George and the girls. Say, Kewpie, you’ve just got to get
into a game before the season’s over or I’ll be eternally disgraced!”
“I’ll make it,” answered Kewpie comfortably. “You heard what he
said.”
“Yes, but he didn’t make any promise. That’s what’s worrying me.
Wonder how it would be to drop poison in Nate’s milk some day. Or
invite him to ride in Mr. Wells’s roadster and run him into a telegraph-
pole!” It was the sight of Mr. Wells coming around the corner of the
stand that had put the latter plan into his head. “Got to manage it
somehow,” he ended.
“That’s all right,” said Kewpie. “Don’t you worry about it. He’ll give
me a chance soon. He didn’t say much yesterday, Nod, but I could
see that he was impressed.”
“You could, eh?” Laurie viewed the other admiringly. “Say, you just
hate yourself, don’t you?”
Craigskill Military College took a three-run lead in the first inning
and maintained it throughout the remaining eight innings. The game
was mainly a pitchers’ battle, with the enemy twirler having rather the
better of the argument, and, from the point of view of the onlooker,
was decidedly slow and uninteresting. Kewpie’s presence on the
bench supplied a welcome diversion at such times as Hillman’s was
at bat. Almost every one liked Kewpie, and his performance as
center of the football team had commanded respect, but he came in
for a whole lot of good-natured raillery that afternoon. So, too, did
Laurie. And neither of them minded it. Elk glowered and slid in
sarcastic comments when chance afforded, but they could afford to
disregard him.
When the game was over the substitutes held practice, and the
few spectators who remained were rewarded for their loyalty if only
by the spectacle of Kewpie Proudtree sliding to first during base-
running practice! Kewpie at bat was another interesting spectacle,
for there was a very great deal he didn’t know about batting despite
having played scrub ball to some extent. But Kewpie believed firmly
in Kewpie, laughed with the others at his own expense, and stored
up knowledge. He was, however, heartily glad when the brief session
came to an end, for some of the requirements had been extremely
novel to him.
Saturday’s game, played down the river at Melrose Ferry, resulted
in a ten-inning victory for Hillman’s. To his surprise and chagrin,
Kewpie was not taken with the team, but he went along nevertheless
and viewed the contest with ironical gaze from a seat in the stand. It
is probable that he felt no consuming grief when, in the fifth inning,
Nate Beedle was forced to give way to Pemberton. It is equally likely
that he would have managed to dissemble his sorrow had
Pemberton been knocked out of the box and a despairing coach had
called loudly for “Proudtree! Find Proudtree! We must have him! He
alone can avert defeat!” Nothing of that sort happened, though.
George Pemberton finished the game nicely, even bringing in one of
Hillman’s four runs with a safe hit to the left in the eighth. It remained
to Captain Dave himself, however to secure the victory in the tenth
inning with a home run. Returning to Orstead, Kewpie attached
himself to Laurie and was very critical of the team’s performance.
Laurie, who had pinch-hit for Murdock in the eighth and had popped
up a weak in-field fly, was gloomy enough to relish the conversation
until Kewpie became too caustic. Then Laurie sat on him cruelly and
informed him that instead of “panning” the team he had better be
thinking up some way of persuading Pinky to let him pitch a couple
of innings in one or other of the two games that remained before the
Farview contest. Thereupon Kewpie subsided and gazed glumly
from the car window. His chance of pitching for the team that season
didn’t appear so bright to him to-day.
Sunday afternoon they took their accustomed walk, Polly, Mae,
Ned, Laurie, and Bob, and as usual they stopped for a while at the
Pequot Queen. The afternoon was fair and warm, and the Pequot
Queen—or the Lydia W. Frye, if you prefer—made a very attractive
picture. The new white paint and the golden yellow trim were still
fresh, the gay red and white awning stretched above the upper deck,
the flower-boxes were green and promising—there was even one
pink geranium bloom in sight—and the beds that Brose Wilkins had
made at each side of the gangway were filled with plants. Miss
Comfort wore an almost frivolous dress of blue with white figures and
her best cameo pin, the one nearly as large as a butter-chip, that
showed a cheerful design of weeping willow-tree and a tombstone. A
yellow and white cat sat sunning itself on the railing and submitted
indifferently to the caresses of the visitors. The cat was a gift from
Brose, and Miss Comfort who had lived some sixty-odd years
without such a thing, had not had sufficient courage to decline it. She
had however, much to her surprise, grown very much attached to the
animal as she frequently stated. She had named it Hector.
To-day Miss Comfort had news for them. The letter she had written
to her brother-in-law in Sioux City had returned. She handed it
around the circle. It had been opened, and its envelope bore an
amazing number of inscriptions, many undecipherable, the gist of
them being that Mr. A. G. Goupil had not been found. The missive
had now been sent back by the Dead Letter Office in Washington. It
was, Miss Comfort declared, very perplexing. Of course, she had
always written to her sister at her home address but the firm name
was just as she had told it.
“He might have moved away,” suggested Bob, “after your sister
died.”
 Miss Comfort agreed that that was possible, but Laurie said that in
that case he would certainly have left an address behind him,
adding, “Well, if he didn’t get that letter he probably didn’t get our
telegram, either!”
“Why, that’s so,” said Polly. “But wouldn’t they send that back, too,
if it wasn’t delivered?”
“I reckon so. I’ll ask about it to-morrow at the office. Maybe you
should have put the street and number on your letter, Miss Comfort.”
“Why, I never knew it. That’s the address my sister sent me. I
supposed it was all that was necessary.”
“It ought to be enough,” said Bob. “How big’s this Sioux City place,
anyway? Seems to me they ought to have been able to find the
Goupil Machinery Company, even if they didn’t have the street
address.”
“Well,” said Miss Comfort, “I’m relieved to get it back. I thought it
was strange that Mr. Goupil didn’t take any notice of it. Now I know it
was because he never received it. You see.”
“Tell you what we might do,” offered Laurie. “We might find out Mr.
Goupil’s address from the lawyers who wrote you about it and then
you could write to him again, ma’am.”
“Oh I shouldn’t care to do that,” replied Miss Comfort. “I’m settled
so nicely here now, you see, Laurie. In a great many ways it is better
for me than my other home was. There were so many rooms there to
keep clean, and then, in winter, there were the sidewalks to be
looked after, and the pipes would freeze now and then. No, I think
everything has turned out quite for the best, just as it generally does,
my dears.”
“Just the same,” quoth Laurie as they returned up the hill past the
telegraph office, “I’m going in there to-morrow and find out what
happened to that message we sent.”
“That’s right,” assented Bob. “They ought to give us our money
back, anyway!”
 They learned the fate of the message without difficulty the
following morning, although they had to make two calls at the office.
On the second occasion the manager displayed a telegram from
Sioux City. Laurie’s message had been delivered to A. T. Gompers,
Globe Farm Machinery Company, Sioux City. The date and even the
time of day were supplied. At first the manager appeared to consider
Laurie and Ned over-particular, but finally acknowledged that
perhaps a mistake had been made. If, he said, the sender cared to
put in a claim the company would take up the matter and make a
thorough investigation, and if it found there really had been an error
in delivery the price of the telegram would be refunded. But Laurie
shook his head.
“We’re a short-lived family,” he explained. “Few of us Turners live
to be over eighty, and so I guess there wouldn’t be time. Thank you
just as much.”
“What it amounts to,” said Ned, as they hurried back to a
recitation, “is that Miss Comfort got the fellow’s name wrong
somehow. Or maybe his initials. Or maybe the name of his
company.”
“Or maybe there ain’t no such animal,” said Laurie. “I always did
sort of doubt that any one could have a name like Goupil. It—it isn’t
natural, Ned!”
“Oh, well, as Bob says, ‘All’s swell that ends swell,’ and Miss
Comfort’s satisfied with the way it’s turned out, and so we might as
well be.”
“Sure,” agreed Laurie. “We don’t own it.”
In front of the school entrance Mr. Wells’s blue roadster was
standing, a bit faded as to paint, a bit battered as to mud-guards, but
having the self-assurance and poise of a car that has traveled far
and seen life. Laurie, to whom automobiles were ever a passion,
stopped and looked it over. “Nice old bus,” he observed, laying a
friendly hand on the nickeled top of the brake-lever. “Let’s take a
spin, Ned.”
“Nice old bus,” Laurie observed, “let’s take a spin, Ned”
 Ned laughed. “Think you could drive it?” he asked.
“Why not? I don’t believe it’s locked. Kick on the switch, push
down on the starter, put her into first—I wonder if the clutch works
the same way as dad’s car. Yes, forward, back and across—All right,
let’s go!”
Ned pulled him toward the gate. “You’d better come along. First
thing you know you’ll be yielding to temptation, old son.”
“I sure would like to try the old boat out,” acknowledged Laurie.
“Some time he’s going to look for it and find it missing. He’s always
leaving it around like that, putting temptation in my way!”
Examinations began two days later, and Laurie had other things to
worry about than blue roadsters or even Kewpie’s non-participation
in baseball games, for, just between you and me, Laurie and
mathematics were not on very friendly terms, and there was at least
one other course that caused him uneasiness. Yet, should I fail to
mention it later, he did scrape past, as did Ned and, I think, all others
in whom we are interested. But he wasn’t certain of his fate until a
week later, which accounts in part for the somewhat perturbed and
unsettled condition of mind that was his during the rest of the present
week.
On Wednesday Hillman’s scored another victory, and Laurie aided.
Mr. Mulford put him to catch at the beginning of the sixth inning, and
he performed very creditably during the remaining four. He made
one “rotten error”—I am repeating his own words—when, in the
eighth he pegged the ball a yard over Lew Cooper’s yearning glove
and so allowed a steal to second that, a few minutes later, became a
tally. But otherwise he did very well behind the bat and made one hit
in two times up. George Pemberton pitched the game through, and
Kewpie remained lugubriously on the bench. Afterward he had quite
a good deal to say about Mr. Mulford, none of which was very
flattering. Hillman’s had put the game on ice in the fifth inning,
Kewpie averred feelingly, and it wouldn’t have hurt Pinky or the
team’s chances to have let him pitch a couple of innings!
 “And there’s only Saturday’s game left,” mourned Kewpie, “and
that’s with Crumbie, and she’s better than we are and there isn’t one
chance in a hundred of my getting into it! Gee, I should think folks
wouldn’t make promises if they don’t mean to keep ’em!”
Laurie, who was half of Kewpie’s audience, Hal Pringle being the
other half, reminded the speaker that Pinky hadn’t really promised,
but his tone lacked conviction. He, too, thought that the coach might
have used Kewpie that afternoon. Kewpie was still plaintive when
Laurie remembered that the morrow held two examinations and
hurried off for a brief period of study before supper.
I have already intimated that Laurie was not quite his usual care-
free self that week, and the same is true to a greater or lesser
degree of most of the other ninety-odd students. Finals are likely to
put a fellow under something of a strain, and, as a result, normal
characteristics are likely to suffer a change. The sober-minded
become subject to spells of unwonted hilarity, the normally
irrepressible are plunged in deepest gloom, and the good-natured
develop unsuspected tempers. All this is offered as plausible partial
excuse for what happened on Friday.
 CHAPTER XXII
THE FORM AT THE WINDOW

N ed had been through a hard session that had not ended for him
until after four o’clock, and he was very far from certain that his
answers to Questions V and VIII were going to please Mr.
Pennington. A game of golf with Dan Whipple arranged for four
o’clock had not materialized, and Ned had returned to No. 16 to
spend the remainder of the afternoon worrying about the Latin
examination. About 5:30 Laurie came in. Laurie had a bright-red
flush under his left eye and looked extremely angry.
“What did you do to your face?” asked Ned.
Laurie viewed himself in the mirror above his chiffonier before
replying. Then, “I didn’t do anything to it,” he answered a bit sulkily.
“That’s what Elk Thurston did.”
“For the love of mud!” exclaimed Ned. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone
and had a fight!”
“I’m not going to,” responded Laurie briefly, sinking into a chair.
“Well, then what—”
“Shut up and I’ll tell you,” said Laurie crossly. “We were playing the
scrubs, and Simpson had an exam and wasn’t there, and Pinky put
me to catching for them. Elk came sprinting in from third on a little in-
field hit, and I got the ball and blocked him easy. He was out a yard
from the plate, and that made him mad; that and the fact that he’d
made an ass of himself by trying to score, with only one out, on a hit
to short-stop. So he jumped up and made a great howl about my
having spiked him. Of course I hadn’t. All I had done was block him
off when he tried to slide. Cooper told him to shut up, and he went off
growling.”
“Well, how did you get—”
 “I’m telling you, if you’ll let me! After practice I was walking back
with Kewpie and Pat Browne, and just before we got to the fence
across the road down there Elk came up and grabbed me by the arm
and pulled me around. That made me mad, anyhow, and then he
began calling me names and saying what he’d do if I wasn’t too little,
and I swung for him. Missed him, dog-gone it! Then he handed me
this and I got him on the neck and the others butted in. That’s all
there was to it. How’s the silly thing look?”
“It looks punk,” answered Ned unsympathetically. “Better go down
and bathe it in hot water and then put some talcum on it. Gosh, son,
I should think you’d have more sense than to get in a brawl with Elk
Thurston. That rough-neck stuff doesn’t get you anywhere and—”
“For the love of limes, shut up!” exclaimed Laurie. “I didn’t start it!”
“You didn’t? Didn’t you just say that you hit him first—or tried to?”
“What of it? Wouldn’t you have struck him if he’d called you all
sorts of names, like that? I’ll say you would! You’re always strong on
the ‘calm yourself’ stuff, but I notice that when any one gets fresh
with you—”
“I don’t pick quarrels and slug fellows right under the eyes of
faculty, you idiot! For that matter—”
“Oh, forget it!” growled Laurie. “What difference does it make
where you do it? You give me a pain!”
“You give me worse than that,” replied Ned angrily. “You look like—
like a prize-fighter with that lump on your cheek. It’s a blamed shame
he didn’t finish the job, I say!”
“Is that so? Maybe you’d like to finish it for him, eh? If you think
you would, just say so!”
Ned shrugged contemptuously. “Guess you’ve had enough for one
day,” he sneered. “Take my advice and—”
“Your advice!” cried Laurie shrilly. “Your advice! Yes, I’m likely to,
you poor shrimp!” He jumped to his feet and glared at Ned invitingly.
“You make me sick, Ned, you and your advice. Get it? You haven’t
got enough spunk to resent a whack on the nose!”