, we...."

Dave cut himself off short as the Chief of Staff shook his head and gave
him the ghost of a smile.

"On the contrary, not at all, my boy," he said. "As they would say in
the States, I was just checking up. You two most certainly saw the
German plan of invasion attack and execution."

"We could be a bit mistaken about the dates, sir," Freddy said in a
hesitating voice. "But I'm pretty sure those we gave you were correct."

"They were," the General said, and there was a faint ironic edge to his
voice. "You saw what the Germans _planned_ to do. We saw them _do_ it!
They occupied Spontin on the Sixteenth, Vervins on the Eighteenth, and
Guise on the Nineteenth. That's a matter of history, now."

"Good grief!" Freddy exclaimed with a sob in his voice. "They've gained
that much, sir?"

"And much more," General Caldwell said grimly and took a little box from
his tunic pocket. "Now, I have a very important job for you two. Very
important! A whole lot depends on your memories, so sharpen them up
well. Here is a box of pins. I want you two lads to try and put a pin in
this map for every pin you saw in that Intelligence map. Colors don't
matter. These here are all the same. All white, as you see. Now, study
this map and shake up your memories well. And here's a couple of
pencils, too. Write down all the dates you can remember. And put them
under the right pins, of course."

"Gosh, there must have been a couple of hundred pins on that map, sir!"
Dave said in a weak voice.

"Just stick in the pins you remember," General Caldwell said quietly.
"And the dates, too. All right, let's get at it, shall we?"

It was well over an hour later when Freddy and Dave leaned back from the
map well nigh mentally exhausted.

"Anything else would be just a wild guess, sir," Freddy said. "I
wouldn't be sure of it at all."

"Me too," Dave said. "I'd just get all balled up. Those are all I can
remember."

General Caldwell seemed not even to hear them. Once again he was like
something made out of solid rock. He sat forward a little, an elbow on
the edge of the table and his broad chin cupped in the palm of his hand.
His eyes were fixed on the map, moving from pin to pin. The other
officers, and the medical captain stood like statues, almost not daring
to breathe. The silence that hung over the office was so charged that
Dave was filled with the crazy desire to let out a yell, just to see
what would happen. But, of course, he didn