Part 19 (2/2)

”Stop it!” he ranted at himself ”Don't even let yourself think of it, you dope! Freddy will show up, or call you He's just got to He's--”

He cut the rest off short and stiffened in his seat as he caught sight of a plane ripping through the air toward hi up again with Freddy Farmer, his breath stuck in his throat

”But that can't be Freddy!” heplane ”That plane is co up froosh!+ That--that plane is _Gerhter plane, and heading right orous shake of his head, as though to clear his vision However, when he took another look, the plane was still a nazi Messerschht toward hih, just as Dawson instinctively slid the guard off the electric trigger button of his guns, the on-streaking Messersch up in a climb

”What the heck?” Dawson cried, as a faint sensation of disappoint cold feet so soon? Or didn't he see ht seemed to be proven true

The Messerschmitt pilot leveled off after he had climbed a couple of thousand feet, and Dawson could tell by the decrease in the plane's speed that the pilot has eased back to cruising throttle No more than a couple of h the Messerschher than the Lockheed, Dawson knew that he could close in on the nazi in no time, if he wished to

That was just the point Where a few er for battle, he was now filled with a sense of caution For one thing, as a nazi ME 109 doing over the Atlas Mountains? Was it close to its base--the same base used by the mysterious Junkers bo about in the North African heavens hundreds and hundreds of , why hadn't the nazi spotted hi itself until it ran out of gas?

”Or is this a smart trick, and I'ht aloud, and stared at the other plane that was now circling slowly about in the air ”Is he waiting forin, because he has so, or what?”

As he uess at an answer that ht be close to the truth, the Yank air ace searched the surrounding skies However, if he expected to see any other planes in the heavens, he was doomed to disappointment As far as he could see in every direction there was nothing but sun-tinted blue North African sky and a few mountains of clouds piled up here and there

”Maybe _I'ave a little shake of his head

”Maybe I', but don't realize it Well, one Geroes for that bird tooting around up there He'll--Well, for cat's sake! Nohat?”

The last was because the Messersch around and had swung onto a course due south at an increased speed And though Dawson gaped and stared in arow under his feet He instantly swung south and opened up his two Allison engines, but continued to maintain his altitude of some three thousand feet below the other plane

For a full five minutes, the nazi rocketed south with Dawson so steadily to the pace At the end of that five es of one of the towering mountains of clouds in the sky Impulsively, Dave opened his throttles so that he would not lose the Messerschmitt in the clouds The action was unnecessary for the German pilot swerved to the east just before he cae of speed showed that he had eased back to throttle cruising

Anger took the place of a up to give battle to the Messersche bo out fro for all the world as though they were rolling their wheels across the peaks of the Atlas Mountains

So suddenly and so weirdly did they appear that for a second or so Daas unable to realize what they were When truth caht in the seat and let out a yell of excited relief

”Goering's Snoopers!” Dave cried ”There they are, the bu! And on their way back to their base No doubt of it, and, so help me, that Messerschmitt must be some kind of a lone escort cooes sliding down, now

But--but where is Freddy? Where is good old Freddy? He ht south, so he must have crossed their path He--!”

He cut his oords off abruptly as a squealing noise sounded in his earphones It rose and fell, and rose and fell again Although he worked furiously over the tuning knobs of his panel set, he could get nothing but the squeal's That is, nothing but squeals for the nextsound stopped, and a single spoken word cale word made Dave's heart pound furiously, because it was his own last nanal call Freddy Far in radio contact with him No sooner had he heard the code call spoken once, than the squealing sound filled his ears again Whether it was Freddy's set or his that had gone haywire, he could not tell at the moment He simply put his lips to his own mike and shouted Freddy's code call at the top of his voice

”Remraf! Remraf!” he shouted ”Can you hear me, Remraf? Over!”

The only reply that he received was the continued squeal in his earphones Once again he called Freddy, but the result was the same

Impulsively, he checked his own set as best he could, but found nothing wrong with it As a matter of fact, toorder, he sent out a signal call to Casablanca Base and instantly received a reply that carunted ”Freddy's set has gone haywire He probably picked up those Snoopers long ago and hasn't been able to contact me up to now He's around I can't see hi those Snoopers back to their base With his eagle eyes, I'll bet awith joy at the knowledge that Freddy Far, Dawson left his set tuned as fine as possible and gave all of his attention to the Messerschh the air over the mountain peaks

They were all well beloson's altitude now, and all he had to do was to throttle to their speed and hug the sides of the cloud banks True, there was a sainst the clouds as he was, but that was the chance he had to take If he was sighted, he knew that it would be the Messerschmitt 109 that would turn back to drive hiaze on that plane and paid little or no attention to the bombers