ll insane.

O'Malley said eagerly, "Spill it. Escape is what I'm lookin' for."

Sim went to the door and opened it. He looked up and down the hall, then
closed the door.

"I was going to try it alone, but I may be able to take you fellows
along." He spoke slowly.

"Sure, three can make a getaway easier than one," O'Malley said. Stan
said nothing.

"Germany is cracking up fast," Sim went on. "Rotten inside with half of
the guards scared they'll be stood up against a wall and shot when the
invasion comes."

"They didn't seem to be slipping much where we landed," Stan said.

"But they are," Sim insisted. "I have a man fixed to take me out of here
and across Germany. I'm to get him out of the country and guarantee
he'll be safely kept over in England."

"Swell," O'Malley put in. "When do we get going?"

"It will take a day or so. He's no small fry either, he's a
non-commissioned officer with some authority. He thinks the Gestapo is
about to pick him off for not being tough enough."

"It sounds a bit too easy to me," Stan said. "But I'd take any sort of
chance to get back into action."

"Tomorrow I'll let you know if you can go along," Sim promised. "Now you
better hook that listening gadget up again."

CHAPTER VII

ESCAPE

When Stan awoke the next morning Sim was gone from his bunk. He sat up
quickly, then lay back and let his stiff, sore muscles relax. There was
no hurry. He was not going any place that day, perhaps not for a long
time. Lying there he listened to O'Malley's deep snores and thought back
over the events of the past few hours.

Those events had happened so swiftly and so explosively that they seemed
like the shadowy memory of a nightmare. He recalled that he had not
asked O'Malley how he had been captured. He had just taken it for
granted his pal had been through an experience the same as his own. It
was odd, too, the way things fitted together. The oddest of all was
finding Sim Jones billeted in the same prison.

A knock sounded upon the door. "Come in," Stan called.

O'Malley sat up in bed suddenly, pawing the blankets away from his
shoulders. He stared around the room, then scowled. The door opened and
a Nazi corporal entered.

"Heil Hitler!" he said very loudly and clicked his heels together.

"Good morning," Stan greeted.

O'Malley just glared at the corporal.

"I am Hans." The Nazi looked behind him, sticking his head out so that
he could see up and down the hall. He