Chapter 42

The next great mining discovery were the K-Rations. These were the dehydrated foods combat soldiers were supposed to carry with them into battle. They were so unpalatable, that even the natives were not anxious to have them. The only edible items the two Americans could handle were nicknamed “sawdust biscuits.”

“I think these are what old time sailors used to call hardtack,” McDuff said, trying to bite down on one,” ... with the emphasis on ‘hard.’ No wonder they mutinied.”

“Fortunately, they come with these little tins of grape jelly,” John said, picking up a small disk that looked like a shoe polish can. “I think I’ll just eat the jelly and forget the biscuits. There aren’t any dentists around here.”

What made the K-Rations valuable was what else they found in the packages. They had made a table of one of the crates and had several empty cartons on the deck. Into these John and McDuff tossed certain valuable cultural items money could not buy in this part of the world. They agreed they would be totally wasted on the natives — toilet paper packets, cigarettes, and coffee.

When the treasures had been removed, Yani carried the boxes to a waiting party of natives and they gratefully received the Big Man's gifts. But they made no movement toward leaving the beach. They were apparently waiting for something.

"What's the problem?" John called to Yani seeing an animated discussion in progress.

"No problem. Kanaka greedy fella. Want more."

"We have plenty. What do they want?"

One of them shouted to John over Yani's protests. "Tinken geko! Tinken geko!"

He listened to the words and recognized that the man was saying, "Tin-can geko." Recalling the episode with Poon, geko was long pig.

"Do they want some cans of Spam?" John called.

"Yes," Yani answered.

"Give them two hands Spam cans," meaning ten cases, enough for the whole village. “Hell we’ve got tons of the stuff. But Yani chose to misunderstand and fetched up ten cans of Spam from his treasure trove, instead. When he gave them to the waiting collection party John could not see Yani peel the little keys off the bottoms of each of the odd-shaped cans. He would charge the villagers later to open them.

***

The speed with which the jungle grew back was amazing. Some of the gardens were uncovered from the layer of sand that had been deposited on top of them. Yams and taro seemed to have survived the inundation. The fish returned to the lagoon, and two weeks after the tsunami, it was hard to tell there had been one.

McDuff preferred the clearing on the mountain, where he continued to work on his generator and radio. John passed the days walking along the beach, smoking his K-Ration cigarettes and reading the books he found among the “Red Tag Specials” as he called the Admiral’s personal possessions. He found a War Department circular and used it for a bookmark. He read it as he stood on the beach:

“Ironically, the South Pacific with all its beautiful beaches affords little good ocean swimming. Coral reefs are everywhere to gash unwary toes, sharks and barracudas lend doubts to the stoutest hearts, and the tropic sun adds a further hazard. So, on many of the forest-covered islands swimming is centered about shaded streams.”

“I gotta get Yani to take me and the Marys for a picnic inland at the lake Dr. McDuff mentioned,” and sat with his back leaning against a boulder embedded in the sand to read more comfortably. In a matter of minutes, Yani came running up the beach toward him, carrying something.

“John Frum!” he yelled, “John Frum!”

John closed the book and stood up. Apparently, something had happened Yani thought he should know about.

When he was about ten feet away, he said, “Kanakas hunt for wild pig, find Japanese solider. Him not die in Hevehe water mountain. Him hide on volcano.”

“What do you have there,” John asked, pointing to the object he was carrying.

Wrapped in a Japanese officer’s tunic was a Samurai sword. If John were able to read Japanese, he would have found it belonged to Lieutenant Isoroku Shakaru, who had left his men to follow the natives up the mountain.

“Wow!” John said handling the sword. “This is neat.”

"Kill last of bad Japfella. Blackfella have own island again. We have big feast ...”

“Sort of what Americans call an Independence Day Celebration!” John suggested.  

“Yes, Independence Day,” Yani said liking the sound of the word. “Yes, also funeral for Ooma, Blackfellas taken by Hevehe.” Then remembering he had a message, Yani said, “Kanakas say I bring John Frum. We celebration John Frum, he come.”

“Well, I can’t very well stay away from my own party, now can I,” John smiled. “Will Marys come to the party, or is this a stag affair?”

“Stag affair?” Yani asked?

“Is it just men, or do women come, too.”

Yani frowned in disbelief. “No women. No Marys. Geko feast make women sick.”

“Oh,” said John, a little disappointed.  

___

McDuff and John made a point of having lunch on board the landing craft every day. Today, the Coast Watcher’s excitement was evident in his grinning face. He had a surprise. When John saw him unpack the generator and radio, he knew immediately — he had it working.

“I know the tubes are broken in the ship’s radio, but the aerial certainly must work,” McDuff said. “Let’s try hooking it up to the mast antenna.”

John made the connections and began turning the handle on the generator. They were rewarded with a blue spark on the telegraph key. McDuff checked the proper date-code information and tapped out: “Mo/Exodus 14,” three times, and waited for a response. Just when he was about to declare the effort a failure a message came through.

“Mo. Good to hear from you. Feared Japs had caught you.”

McDuff tapped back, “Japs all dead from tidal wave. Have American LSM #666 beached here in lagoon. One survivor. American sailor named John Bartlett. Can someone rescue him?”

“Will contact U.S. Navy and report back. Any Jap ship activity?”

“None seen since tidal wave.”

McDuff sent along a personal message to Leslie Gale, who was out on patrol at present. There was a little more chatter back and forth, and radio contact time was set for the next day.

Moses McDuff took off his earphones and said, “They’re contacting the Navy and will send us a message tomorrow. I guess you can start packing.”

“Do you really think they’ll send a ship just to pick up the likes of me?”

“I should think so,” McDuff said.

“Yeah, maybe at the end of the war.”