to me, but don't ever tell it to a
general," Stan said. "Did they all take to the air?"

"Nary a plane in the air. It's some black magic them Krauts have
conjured up, if ye ask me."

It was clear that O'Malley was in dead earnest. Stan believed O'Malley
had seen the planes. He also believed there was some trick the Germans
had worked out to hide their fighter fields and to protect them.

"We'll have another look," O'Malley said. "I have the place spotted."

"Being able to get fighters out of sight so quickly would account for
our not being able to knock out their fighter fields," Stan said. "We'll
have to give this some thought."

"It ought to get us special duty," O'Malley said.

"I'll bet you slipped inside their warning system and caught them
flat-footed. But there must be some way they get parked planes moved so
fast."

"We'll be the b'ys to find that out," O'Malley answered.

"I doubt if we ever make anybody swallow your story," Stan said.

CHAPTER IV

SCOUTING MISSION

Stan and O'Malley had a visitor that night. Allison drove over to see
them. Looking around the Nissen hut, he grinned broadly.

"Sure, an' I'll call the butler," O'Malley said. "He just stepped into
the drawin' room."

"Sit down, pal." Stan motioned toward one of the cots.

"Homey spot you have here," Allison observed.

"How did it go today?" Stan asked.

"You fellows did a swell job, but why only six fighters?" Allison's
smile had faded.

"The brass hats knew I was goin' along," O'Malley replied.

"One of those little experiments," Stan explained grimly.

"Pretty expensive try, I'd say," Allison answered.

"O'Malley spotted a big fighter base all equipped with vanishing
planes." Stan got to the point he wanted to discuss at once.

"There must be dozens of them, but we have never been able to spot any
of them to knock them out. Those Me's and FW's just sprout out of the
ground as we go along." Allison frowned and shook his head. "If we could
spot the fields, we could send out separate missions ahead of a raid and
knock off those fields."

"O'Malley says they snap the planes out of sight in less than a minute.
He slipped in over one of them, circled, and when he came back there
wasn't a plane in sight."

"I figure there were at least seventy planes parked when I popped in
over the field. When I came back over they were gone." O'Malley shook
his head.

"Think anyone would believe such a yarn?" Stan asked.

"Eve