explain at Natal anyway,
I might as well explain now. You recall all that F.B.I. business in New
York? Remember my telling you of that list of names turned over to the
F.B.I. for checking?"

"Could we forget, sir?" Dawson chuckled. "Freddy and I have been going
nuts trying to add two and two. We got a zero every time, and I don't
mean a Jap Zero, either."

"Well, all that was simply a check and double-check, you might say,"
Colonel Welsh said as his face became grave. "Every name on that
approved list was to be connected in some way with--"

The colonel paused and ran his tongue across his lower lip.

"Every man on that list," he began again, "is to have something to do
with a proposed trip by President Roosevelt to a war conference with
Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Casablanca in Morocco, North
Africa!"

A moment of silence hung over the trio as the colonel finished speaking.
Then Dawson gave a little laugh and looked at Freddy Farmer. "Pick up
the marbles, Master Mind!" he said. "Pick them all up. You win!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN

_Midnight Raider_

"What?" Colonel Welsh exploded as he looked from Dawson to Farmer, and
back again. "What's this?"

"Farmer, sir," Dave explained. "We made about six million guesses apiece
as to what this was all about. One of his was that the President was
going to North Africa, or beyond, for a conference with Prime Minister
Churchill and Stalin."

"Nobody heard you make that guess, did they?" the colonel asked,
tight-lipped, as he fixed his eyes on young Farmer.

"No, sir!" the English youth replied. "Nobody."

"He's right, sir," Dawson spoke up quickly. "I remember when he made
that guess he spoke so low I could hardly hear him, and I was lying
right next to him. In case you're wondering, Colonel, it wasn't until we
were on our way back to the base that Colonel Baron von Steuben slugged
us. So it's certain he didn't hear Freddy."

"Yes, of course you're right," the colonel said, and smiled at Farmer.
"So don't feel bad. It just gave me a start that you had hit the nail on
the head. You were partly wrong, though. Joseph Stalin will not be among
those present this time."

"And those envelopes, sir?" Dawson asked when the colonel fell silent
and stared out the compartment window at the darkness of night sweeping
by. "They are still very hush-hush stuff, as far as we're concerned?
Could I ask if they contained information about the President's trip?"

The senior