"Well, my little fool friends! You don't seem to realize that I have saved your useless lives, do you? Well, I have, and you should be very grateful and thankful. None of your swine comrades would have come into these waters to pick you up."

The Nazi had stared so long, and been silent for so long, that the sudden explosion of his voice made both youths start a little. Dawson quickly got control of himself, and shrugged.

"We're very glad to be rescued," he said in a flat voice. "But in another couple of days the fleet would have been back from up north, and we'd probably have been sighted."

The Nazi arched his eyebrows and looked politely impressed. That is, save for his eyes. In their depths flickered pin points of polished steel.

"From up north, eh?" he murmured. "All the five carriers are returning in two days, yes?"

"That was the plan of operation, and—" Dave said, and then stopped himself, and bit his lip.

Freddy Farmer had of course been waiting for just such an opening, and he quickly took advantage of it.

"Keep your mouth shut, Dave!" he cried in an expert burst of anger. "Besides, it all depends upon their rendezvous with Task Forces Seven and Ten."

"Now who's blabbing?" Dave snarled, and whirled on him. "Why don't you keep your big mouth shut, too?"

Freddy started to make a blistering retort but simply went through the facial motions of being about to say it.

"Oh, what does it matter, anyway?" he finally said sullenly. "If they've been patrolling these waters they know as much about these things as we do. Quite a bit more, I fancy."

"Ah!" the Nazi breathed hard. "So you are English, yes? Now I understand your words. The English always quit before the battle is completely lost. Look at Dunkirk. They ran from us there. And Greece, and Crete. And even at Singapore and Malaya you ran from the brave Japanese. Yes, yes. What does it matter now? You English know in your dirty hearts that you can never win!"

Real, honest to goodness anger blazed up in Freddy's face, and for one terrible moment Dawson feared that his English pal was going to hurl himself bare-handed at the Nazi. Freddy, however, managed to keep a firm grip on himself, and he eyed the German coldly.

"The opinion of a Nazi is unimportant," he said in a scathing voice. "It always has been among the peoples of the civilized world."

The U-boat commander, however, was not to be excited into anything. Perhaps he was too comfortable in his chair. Perhaps for once in his baby-killing life he decided that brute violence wouldn't gain him what he wanted. So instead he laughed at Freddy as one might laugh at a little boy who has suddenly flown into a childish tantrum.

"Even save the life of an Englishman, and he is still an ungrateful dog," he finally sneered. "But all this does not interest me. So you have five carriers, eh? And they are up north meeting two other task forces, eh? That is interesting. What are they doing up there?"

Dave looked at the scowling Jap naval officer, grinned, and then returned his gaze to the Nazi's face. He shrugged and gave a little shake of his head.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe it's Tokyo, and for keeps this time. We were to get our orders later."

The Jap made a sound like air coming out of a punctured tire, and wild hatred seemed to come out all over him in lumps.

"Lies, all lies!" he screamed. "Never again will Tokyo be bombed by you American dogs. We have seen to it, yes! You will all be dead and in the water before you even sight our shores!"

Dawson shrugged again but kept his gaze on the German's face.

"Were you on the surface for very long last night?" he suddenly asked.

The Nazi started, and blinked.

"What?" he demanded. "What's that?"

"I asked if you were on the surface much last night?" Dave repeated. "Was your radio open all the time?"

The German hesitated as though reluctant to reveal even that bit of utterly useless information. Then he made up his mind, and nodded curtly.

"Yes, we were," he said. "And the radio was open. Why?"

"You didn't hear the Tokyo station, did you, by any chance?" Dave asked softly, and leaned forward slightly. "Did you hear any Tokyo broadcast? Say from midnight on?"

The Jap hissed some more, but Dawson didn't so much as look at him. He kept staring at the Nazi, who was all scowls now. And there was a queer, unfathomable look in his eyes. Then suddenly he blurted out the question.

"You mean that Tokyo was bombed last night?"

Dawson calmly hunched one shoulder and gestured with his two hands, palms upward.

"Maybe it wasn't Tokyo," he said quietly. "We didn't have a radio in our raft. Maybe other objectives were selected at the last minute. I just thought that maybe you had heard, and could tell me. Then you didn't hear the Tokyo radio last night, eh? And maybe it was off the air?"

"Lies, all lies!" the Jap screamed again, and actually jumped up and down in his fury. "Not one enemy bomber will ever get within sight of our shores."

Dave was tempted to turn and snap, "Quiet! small fry!" but instead he kept looking at the Nazi commander. He could tell that the German had a head full of thoughts, all bad. He and Freddy had planted the seeds of doubt and worry in the German's brain. And if they played it very carefully they might do more to help the Guadalcanal attack from right here in the U-boat than they would have if they had been able to make a hundred scouting patrols off the flight deck of the carrier Carson. At any rate, it was plain to see from the Nazi's face that the little "tÊte-À-tÊte" wasn't exactly working out the way he had planned. Something had gone off the track somewhere along the line.

Suddenly the Nazi took his eyes off Dawson and looked at the Jap.

"Watch these two, and don't lose your head," he spoke in German. "For the present they are more valuable alive. I am going to surface, if it's clear, and see if there is anything on the radio. I won't be long."

The Nazi nodded, pushed up onto his feet and brushed past Dawson and Farmer and out the door. For the first couple of seconds after that Dave held his breath and watched the Jap out the corner of his eye. It was all very well for the Nazi commander to warn the slant-eyed one not to go off half cockeyed, but that didn't mean that the killer wouldn't revert to type at the drop of the hat. As it was, he was still trembling with savage anger, and there was definitely cold, ruthless slaughter in his glittering eyes. However, the first few moments ticked by, and nothing happened. The Jap just stared at them like a hesitant cobra, and that's as far as it went.

Ten minutes, that seemed to take ten years in passing, finally came to an end. Then the door was opened and the Nazi commander came back inside. Dawson looked quickly at his face, and was more than pleased with what he saw. The scowl on the Nazi's face was darker than ever, and he had all the appearance of a man who has received a setback that he can't quite understand. It was on the tip of Dave's tongue to ask if he had heard anything on the radio, but he remembered just in time that neither Freddy or himself were supposed to understand German. Therefore he just kept his mouth shut, and silently waited. And he didn't have to wait long. The Nazi looked at the Jap and shook his head.

"Nothing!" he growled. "Too much static. I could not even raise Admiral Sasebo's flagship. The air is full of nothing but whines and squeals."

At the mention of the name, Admiral Sasebo, Dawson jumped inwardly. And he could almost feel Freddy Farmer start at the mention of the name, too. Out there in the Southwest Pacific that Jap Navy man had "won" for himself the title of "Suicide" Sasebo. Losses meant nothing to him. To gain and hold an objective was all that mattered, regardless of whether the objective was important or not. Once on a Tokyo scare broadcast to the world, Sasebo had stated, "We will win because we are prepared to lose ten million soldiers, if we have to." And that was exactly the way Admiral Sasebo had fought his part of the war. He was a madman who never stopped to count the cost in troops, and ships, and planes, and equipment. In time, if he still held his high office, he would lose the war for Japan by simply bleeding his country white. But though he constantly sacrificed thousands of his own forces, that did not mean he didn't inflict damage. He did. And so, if Admiral Sasebo was at sea, and on the loose again, it could well mean a lot of trouble, and then some.

"Perhaps you can make the contact later, Herr Kommandant," the Jap's voice cut through Dawson's thoughts. "But what about these two dogs. They speak nothing but lies. That's all they know. Nothing but lies. All Americans are stupid fools. I should have killed them yesterday when they were in the water."

Once again Dawson started inwardly, and in spite of himself he shot the Jap an agate-eyed stare. Fortunately the so-called Son of Heaven's follower was not looking at him, and so did not see that Dawson understood the words he spoke in German. Just the same, the realization that this slant-eyed, pint-sized rat had been in that tricky seaplane yesterday was a shock to Dawson. He recovered from his shock instantly, though, and longed for about five minutes with that double-crossing Jap in a locked room. He had a score to pay off, and he would have liked nothing better than the opportunity to do just that.

However, for the present, it was just so much wishful thinking as far as Dawson was concerned. Also, there were other things of far more importance than the item of knocking that Jap for a flock of outside loops. As a matter of fact, when the Nazi commander spoke again Dawson completely forgot about his private war with the Jap naval officer.

"That may be as you say," the Nazi said, addressing himself to the Jap. "These two may be young fools, like their countrymen. However, even fools can be useful. That is why I ordered you to trick them down into the water yesterday. Their plane was of the type used on American carriers. That proves that an American carrier force was not more than a few hundred miles distance from the point where you shot them down. But just exactly where? Is that force south of here and advancing through waters we control? Or have they spoken the truth, and is it north on some mission we know nothing about? We must obtain the answer to one or both of those questions, Honorable Comrade, you see?"

The Jap made a face and waved one hand in a careless gesture.

"I speak as a Japanese, and laugh in their faces!" he replied with a hissing note in his voice. "Where they are, or what they plan to do, is of no matter. They are doomed. The mighty forces of the Emperor will crush them. If they have a force moving north, Admiral Sasebo will trap them and cut them to pieces. And if their force is already north of us, then Admiral Kusiro will shoot their planes into the sea, and sink all of their ships. Japan is too strong for her enemies. We have already proved that many times."

"Yes, true, of course," the Nazi commander said as though he were trying to soothe an upstart brat. "But unless we know everything, it may make it difficult for Admiral Sasebo's force. The American attack on Guadalcanal is to start soon. Perhaps it has already begun. If Admiral Sasebo is to wipe out any successes the Americans might gain, and annihilate their forces, and cut off all reenforcements, he must have knowledge of what is going on elsewhere. For him to run into an unknown enemy task force might complicate things a lot. At least it would bring about a serious delay in his own operations. If we can aid him in any way, we must. That was what I was thinking of yesterday when we surfaced and sighted their plane on scout patrol."

The Jap nodded reluctantly and spoke something in reply, but it was lost on Dawson's ears for the simple reason that his brain was spinning, and his head filled with roaring sound. The Japs knew of the American plans to attack Guadalcanal! That bit of news just about knocked him off his feet, and for a few seconds he could hardly breathe, much less think. And when his brain started functioning again, every thought was like a twisting knife buried deep in his heart.

The Japs knew of the American plan to attack Guadalcanal! Admiral "Suicide" Sasebo was obviously on his way with a huge task force to catch the Americans by surprise and wipe them out completely before sufficient reenforcements could be rushed to the Solomons. Sasebo's force was headed southward, and Admiral Jackson's task force was coming up from the south to intercept. Maybe they wouldn't meet. Maybe the Japs would pass right on by and leave Jackson's ships and planes searching an empty ocean. It might be a case of check and double-check, but the breaks were mostly on Suicide Sasebo's side. He knew what the Americans were up to, and the Yanks didn't know Sasebo's reason for moving southward from Truk. In fact, they didn't know for sure that Sasebo was moving south, to say nothing of smashing the American attack on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

A hundred and one thunderbolts were crashing through Dawson's brain. He didn't even dare glance sidewise at Freddy Farmer's face for fear he would see there the expression of wild alarm he was struggling to keep from showing on his own face. And then, suddenly, he became conscious of the U-boat commander speaking to the Jap again.

"... And we Germans have ways to make our prisoners talk, too," he was saying. "But I do not think that is best, right now. Tonight we will make a rendezvous with Admiral Sasebo's force. However, it is several hours until night. Also, even though we should get them to tell us what we should know, the radio might still be jammed with static. And so I think it is best for you to take them to Admiral Sasebo. Then he can do as he wishes. Meanwhile I will continue to patrol this area. And perhaps at the rendezvous I will have something interesting to report. Yes, I think the best plan is to surface, and launch the seaplane, and fly them direct to Admiral Sasebo's ship."