"I'm jest fine, Ma. An' I did somethin' good, too, Ma. I just showed
these Army fellers what us Cromwells kin do with a rifle gun."

Jed lay in the warm sun and let the light filter through his closed
eyelids. He paid no attention to the clanging of truck hoods and the
muttered curses of a half dozen truck driver as they clambered over
the front of their vehicles trying to figure out what was causing them
to have engine trouble.

"What did you do, Sonny?" Ma asked.

"Tweren't really nothing, Ma," Jed replied. "I shot this here
newfangled gun they gave me at a big ol' target 'n hit it, Ma. Honest,
Ma, that black circle they got in that thing is jest 'bout as big as
the hind end of a black bear and it ain't no further away than the
bottom of the cornfield from the cabin door."

In the range control tower, Corporal Weisbaum was getting madder every
second.

"What's the matter with that switchboard operator," he screamed.
"Don't he hear the buzzer?" He shook the phone and roared again.
Finally, he slapped it down on the hook. "Gimme that radio," he said,
reaching for the handset. The operator shook his head sadly. "No use,
corp. It's deader'n doornail. Don't know what's the matter. It just
quit."

Weisbaum looked around and spotted one of the regular jeep drivers
standing at the foot of the tower. "Mahoney," he yelled. "Get in your
jeep and go back and get the old man. Tell him he's gotta see Cromwell
shoot. You can tell him what happened."

The jeep driver started towards his vehicle. "And Mahoney," Weisbaum
yelled after him, "while you're there, bring back another radio and
tell that idiot on the switchboard we got wire trouble." Mahoney
nodded and went to his jeep.

Back at the cabin, Ma Cromwell wiped her face with her apron skirt.
"Shore hot today," she thought. "You hot there, too, Sonny?"

"Kinda hot, Ma," Jed thought back. "Shore ain't like home. Not bad
though."

"You gettin' enough to eat, child?" Ma asked.

Jed frowned slightly and stepped up his mental output. A half mile
down range and a thousand feet up, an Army helicopter heading for a
maneuver area, coughed and quit. The blades went into autogyro as it
sank quickly to earth.

Vehicles all over the post came to a spluttering stop and office
lights and refrigerators went off.

"What did you say, Ma?" Jed asked. "Seemed like you got sorta weak."

"'Tain't me." Ma snorted. "Jest that nosy Miz Hawkins. She's gotta
listen in on everybody's pr