nd orange and yellow flame. It was as though the whole of
Belgium was on fire. Closer to him was a long even-banked river that cut
down across the countryside from the northwest to the southeast. He was
staring hard at it thinking it was a very peculiar looking river when he
suddenly felt Freddy hitting him on the shoulder again.

"That's the famous Prince Albert Canal!" the English youth shouted above
the roar of the engine. "It's very strongly fortified. A sort of Belgian
Maginot Line. The Germans can't possibly have crossed it, yet. If we can
just get by there, Brussels is not very far off. We could land there."

"Germans not crossing it?" Dave yelled and pointed. "Look down there to
the left. They're swarming across it like bees. Gee, there must be a
million pontoon bridges thrown across that canal. And, gosh, look at all
those Stuka dive bombers!"

It was all too true. Hitler's relentlessly advancing forces had smashed
the Albert Canal defenses to smoking rubble, thus forcing the Belgian
army to retreat to the south side of the Canal. And now as German
troops, and their swiftly striking Panzer division were rushing across
pontoon bridges to strike more blows at the Belgians, hundreds of Stuka
dive bombers were blasting death and destruction into the ranks of the
enemy. The sight of it all made Dave's heart turn to ice in his chest.
History, terrible History was being written down there by the Albert
Canal, and his heart was on fire with an even more blazing desire to do
something for the cause of justice and civilization.

But first he had another job to do, and he lifted his gaze and peered at
the smoke and flame filled sky ahead. Besides smoke and flame there were
countless numbers of planes streaking and darting around in all
directions. The air was practically filled with them. There was layer
after layer of planes reaching from low down over the battle grounds
right up to the sun. And insofar as he could tell at the distance not a
single one of them was of Allied design. They were all German.

At that moment Freddy pounded on his shoulder for the third time. And
the voice that screamed in his ear rang with fright and alarm.

"More speed, Dave! Look behind us. There's a plane, a Messerschmitt. I
think it's chasing us. They might even try to shoot us down. What'll we
do, Dave?"

"What'll we do?" Dave echoed and glanced back at the sleek needle shaped
plane with its low monoplane wing. "We'll keep on going.