o late. Fate had placed a huge
German bomb crater in the way. The plane slithered over the lip of the
crater and charged dizzily downward.

Memory of a wild ride on a Coney Island roller coaster streaked through
Dave's brain. And then the plane careened up on its side, and half up on
its nose. It swayed there with its tail pointing up at the sky. It
twisted twice around and then fell over on its back with a jarring thud.
An invisible giant reached out a fist and punched Dave hard on the
chest. The air in his lungs whistled out through his mouth, and for
horrible seconds colored lights whirled around in his brain, and the
entire universe was filled with roaring, crashing thunder.

The spell passed in a moment, and he found himself hanging head downward
on his safety harness. His first thought was for Freddy, and he
struggled to twist around and look back, but he couldn't make it.

"Freddy!" he yelled in a choking voice. "Are you all right?"

A heart chilling instant of silence greeted his question, and then came
Freddy's faint reply.

"Not hurt a bit, Dave! But the blasted safety harness broke, and I'm
down here in a beastly puddle of mud. Can you give me a hand?"

Reaction set in and Dave laughed hysterically, and tore at his safety
belt buckles. He got them unfastened and grabbed hold of the sides of
the cockpit before he went plunging down into the muddy bottom of the
bomb crater, himself. He twisted over and landed feet first. It was
then he had his first look at Freddy. The English lad was plopped down
on the seat of his pants in a good eight inches of mud. And there was
mud from the top of his head all the way down. He had obviously landed
square on his head but had managed to squirm around and sit up before
the sticky yellow ooze suffocated him. Right at the moment he was pawing
the stuff off his face so he could see.

Dave plowed around to him and caught him under the armpits, and heaved.
Freddy's body coming up out of the mud sounded like somebody pulling a
cork from a bottle. Still hanging onto him, Dave ducked under a section
of the crumpled wing and hauled and tugged them both up out of the
crater on to firm dry ground. Then he dug a handkerchief from his pocket
and started wiping off Freddy's face.

"Boy, do you look a sight, Freddy!" he chuckled. Then in a more serious
tone, "I'm darn sorry, Freddy. That sure was a rotten landing. I guess I
thought I was too good. I should have let you do the flying