nation of purpose.

He whipped out his hand and eased back the throttle and let the nose
drop. At the same time he applied stick and rudder as though he was
going to send the plane around and down in a gliding turn that would
take them back east. As the plane started to turn he shot a quick side
glance at the Messerschmitt. His heart was ready to explode with joy.
The German observer had seen the movement of the Arado and wrongly
guessed its meaning! The man nodded his head, and let go of his gun and
sank down on his seat.

The instant Dave saw the German sink down on the seat he belted the
throttle wide open again and shoved the stick forward until the Arado
was prop howling down in an almost vertical dive.

"Hold fast!" he shouted at Freddy without turning his head. "They
haven't got us yet, and they won't get us if I've got anything to say
about it."

Bracing himself against the speed of the dive, and keeping his mouth
open so that his eardrums would not snap and perhaps break, he held
himself hunched forward over the controls, and fixed both eyes on the
flame and smoke smeared ground below. The smoke and flames seemed to
leap up toward him at rocket speed. Out of the corner of his eye he
caught flash glimpses of Stuka dive bombers cutting through the air at
terrific speed. Then from up in back of him he heard the deadly chatter
of German aerial machine guns.

He didn't bother to look back to see if the Messerschmitt was on his
tail. That would be but a waste of effort. Instead he jammed hard on the
left rudder and sent the Arado swerving crazily off to the side. The
guns above him continued to hammer and snarl, but he heard no bullets
snicking past his ears. He could hear only the thunderous roar of his
own B.M.W. engine.

Then suddenly the Prince Albert Canal flashed by under his nose and was
gone from view. He was safely across it and right over the Belgian
troops! However, it was simply a case of roaring out of one danger zone
into another. He completely forgot he was flying a plane with German
markings. Naturally, when the Belgian soldiers saw the Swastika painted
plane streaking down at them they let go at it with everything they had.

Perhaps it was one of those freak things of war, or perhaps the gods
were truly smiling upon Dave Dawson and Freddy Farmer. At any rate not
a single Belgian bullet hit the diving Arado, and a moment later Dave
hauled the ship out of its mad dive and went streaking along t