Circles in the Sand Read Online Free Page B

through a curtain in a large front room. No sign advertised business. The parking lot stood empty. Clint walked on. Another time he’d look into the Boar Pen.
    Early the next morning, Clint sauntered into the sheriff’s office. “Morning, Sheriff. Any chance I can use your phone now…to call Grand Eclipse?”
    “You sure can try. Don’t know if you can get through, but give it a shot.”
    Forty minutes later, Clint hung up the phone. “How many telephone systems between here and Grand Eclipse,” he asked the sheriff.
    “Oh I reckon between three and five. Depending on which ones are working.”
    “At this rate, I might not know my ride is coming until he gets here. Since I’m not going anywhere in a hurry, can I borrow Tommy and his Jeep again. I’d like to drive over as much of the site as reasonably possible.”
    On the way in Tommy’s Jeep, Clint said, “Do you know where any of the boundary markers are for the old range?”
    “No. I was never out here when it was in operation. Never had any fences up that I know of.”
    “Somebody around here must have some idea. Where are all the land records for this area kept?”
    “I reckon that’d be in the county courthouse over in Glasgow.”
    “Knew it couldn’t be anywhere close.”
    “If Radecker says okay, I could run you over there.”
    “Too soon for that. It appears to me the range was laid out along county grid lines. According to the map I’ve got, that east west dirt road we followed yesterday, must be close to the southern boundary of the range, and that north bound road about the center. If we drive up it for three miles, and then turn right for three miles, we ought to be about in the center of the first target. I’ve got a compass to keep us on heading. If you count the miles, I’ll concentrate on direction.”
    When Tommy said three mile were up, Clint looked around the featureless terrain. “Not much out here is there?”
    “Naw. If this is a target, how them airplanes gonna know how to drop their bombs here?”
    “We’re going to lay out some circles with white wash around this spot. Near as I understand, the plane first will pick up the RADAR reflector out here in the center, then off set their bomb sight to which ever of the four impact targets has been selected.”
    “How will they know if they hit the target?”
    “We have to build three towers near each impact target. The man in each tower will take an angle on the smoke from the dummy bomb. When all three angles have been called into a control center, someone there lays them out on a grid map, and can tell the airplane how close they came to the center.”
    “How big is this target circle?”
    “Two circles. One at two hundred feet and the outer one at four hundred feet radius.”
    “Yeah, what if they miss these circles all together…an’ hit one of them towers? Or drop it in town…or on some cows?”
    “Don’t even think about it. Those bombers can aim at something as small as a car and hit it every time,” Clint lied. He had no idea how to answer Tommy’s question. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to answer it in the future. “Let’s head back into town.”
    Tommy didn’t want to let go of stray bombs. “Say, supposing one of those bombers ain’t too sharp…an miss the target… wide. F’instance…turn a couple of Duetsch’s cows into barbeque?”
    “I don’t think Deutsch is dumb enough to leave his cattle out here.”
    “Don’t count on it. I don’t believe he’s going to move them. He expects he can stop you from settin’ up a bomb range.”
    “Yeah? He’ll have to bring in some big power to stop the Air Force.”
    “Don’t count on him waiting for help. When anyone crosses him, he’s one mean sonovabitch. If I was you…I’d be watchin’ my back.”
    “I’ve all ready got a hint of that notion. Thanks for the tip.”
    Clint ate steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes at the Gilman restaurant that evening. Lorena hung