and we have to
go right through it. Here we go, and a double-double to the blasted
Jerries!"

Though the two boys had wedged themselves down tight in the sidecar, the
soldier tore off in such a rush that he practically rode right out from
under them. Yelling any complaints would have been just a waste of
breath. Besides, the soldier wouldn't have heard them in the roar of his
engine. So the boys simply concentrated on trying to stay in the
sidecar, and breathed a prayerful hope that the soldier was an expert
driver.

He was more than that. He was a miracle man on a motorcycle. He raced
through the darkness without slackening his speed the fraction of a
mile. The rain slithered down and the street glistened in the faint glow
of his dimmed light. It looked like so much slippery black ice, and a
hundred times Dave closed his eyes and waited for the sickening crash
that never came. When, he dared open them again they were still hurtling
forward making as much noise as a whole division of tanks.

The two miles to the ancient Channel city of Dunkirk was covered in just
about as many minutes. In the last hundred yards the fog seemed to come
to an end, and the rain to pass on behind them. Dave looked ahead and
caught his breath sharply. Dunkirk looked like one gigantic
horizon-to-horizon wall of licking tongues of flame and billowing smoke
that towered high up into the sky. It was as though he had walked out of
a dark room straight into the open mouth of a blast furnace. He
impulsively cast a quick side glance at the soldier astride the
motorcycle seat expecting to see an expression of alarm and dismay pass
across the lean unshaven face. But no such thing did he see. The
soldier simply lowered his head a bit, and the corners of his eyes
tightened.

"Hang on, lads!" he bellowed without taking his eyes off the road. "Here
comes the first of it, and it ain't no ice box!"

No sooner had the last left his lips than the heat of the flaming
buildings seemed to charge forward right into their faces. Dave and
Freddy ducked their heads as the soldier had done, and in the matter of
split seconds they had the sensation of hurtling straight across the
mouth of a boiling volcano that shot up tongues of flame on all sides.

"Lean to the right, we're turning that way!" came the soldier's yell.

They leaned together and the motorcycle and sidecar went careening
around the corner of a street. It seemed to hesitate halfway around and
sta