lone engines that powered the North American B-25.

At the end of that fifteen minutes, however, the colonel returned. To
Dawson's relief and pleasure, he saw that a lot of the worry had left
the Intelligence officer's face. In fact, there was an almost happy look
in his eyes. He came straight into the bomb compartment, seated himself
at his little table, and took the inter-com phone mike off the wall hook
at his side.

"Take off, Captain," he spoke into it. "Fly north for twenty minutes and
then take up the course I gave you. Eh? Right!"

The colonel put the inter-com mike back on the hook, looked at Dawson,
and smiled faintly.

"Thank heaven for your hunch," he said. "You were absolutely right. He
was a German."

"A spy, sir?" Dave blurted out before he could check himself.

"Naturally," the colonel replied. "Just about the best in the Nazis'
gang. Colonel Baron Franz von Steuben is his name. Or was. Frankly,
we've been after him for a long time. The world is well rid of his kind.
What's the matter, Dawson?"

"Major Parker, sir," Dawson replied, and reddened slightly. "I hope he
didn't think that I--"

"Not a bit of it!" the colonel interrupted quickly. "The major admires
you for your hunch. He'd be the last one in the world who would want you
to keep it to yourself. As a matter of fact, he suspected that you might
feel embarrassed and asked me to give you his compliments and to say he
was sorry he couldn't go along with you."

"To where, sir?" Freddy Farmer fairly shouted. And then he blushed so
flamingly that both Dawson and the colonel had to laugh.

"That's all right, Farmer," the Intelligence officer said, still
chuckling. "Don't blame you at all. I can see it in both your faces that
you're practically ready to blow up with questions. Well, things have
happened that I didn't want to happen, so I guess it's time for me to do
a little explaining. Do you remember that technical sergeant in the
hangar at Bolling Field?"

The two air aces nodded.

"He's dead," Colonel Welsh stated grimly. "He, too, was a Nazi spy. And
working right under my very nose, which doesn't make _me_ feel very
proud. Shortly after your take-off, one of the mechanics who helped to
roll out your plane came to me with the information that the technical
sergeant had been standing right outside that office while I was giving
you your instructions. I can tell you that that was the closest I ever
came to having a case of heart failure.