ance showed bulges under their coveralls which looked a lot
like army pistols or automatics. The water boy moved toward Stan.
Looking past the boy Stan saw Swen. Swen began shaking his head as Stan
looked at the water pail. Stan pretended not to see him, though Swen was
squarely in front of him.

Reaching down he took the tin cup, filled it, and drank deeply. He had a
second drink, then tossed the cup to the boy. As he did so, he shot a
side glance at Herr Domber and almost burst out laughing. Domber's face
was red and his mouth was screwed into a snarl. Suddenly Stan felt sorry
for Swen. He nodded to Hans as he climbed up.

Looking down he saw the mechanics with their bulging coveralls crowding
in close. Several of them had ripped their suits open and had their
hands inside. Stan eased back against the shock pad. The left brake was
the one to kick down hard. He had shoved the chock out from under the
right wheel. He had a momentary feeling that the builders of the Mustang
should have extended the armor plate further forward. The men on the
ground would have a clean shot at him. They were well forward now and
watching him like cats at a rat hole.

Hans kicked the engine over to prime her. Stan got set and eased on the
switch. She turned over slowly, fired twice, idled, then fired again.
Sweat broke out over Stan's forehead. Below him the faces of Domber and
his men blurred. The engine kept on rumbling and sputtering. Stan
relaxed as he pretended to be working on the gas adjustment.

He gave the valve a turn and the Allison smoothed considerably. Leaving
it that way he looked down at Hans, a deep frown on his face. He shook
his head and motioned to the mechanic. Hans did not know what he
wanted, but he moved around to the side of the ship. Stan was sorry to
have to use Hans as a shield but he knew, now, that a quarter turn more
on the valve would set the Allison roaring. What he needed was a bit
more heat on his temperature gauge, and he wanted to keep Hans in line.

Bending over he bellowed at Hans, making his words jumble together. Hans
looked blank and shook his head. Stan scowled at him. Then he got a
bright idea. He looked over at Domber and beckoned to him. Domber came
over. He was shorter than Hans. Stan reached down and bellowed:

"Get up and I'll show you how to adjust this type of supercharger!"

He even gave Herr Domber a hand up on the step. Domber leaned into the
cockpit. Stan pointed to the valve. His