rvice. He's
no fit leader and the squadron will go into a funk under him."

"How will we do it?" Mac asked.

"I don't know, but it has to be done. A decent leader would have wiped
the floor with O'Malley and then grounded him for the rest of the war.
A yellow streak has no place in this outfit."

The men nodded their heads. What they could not understand was how
Garret had gotten the job. They felt helpless because they had always
depended upon the men at headquarters. Finally the group broke up
without anyone offering a workable plan.

Just after noon the next day the O.C. sent for Stan. He was alone in his
office and in very good spirits. Stan sat down beside his desk and
waited.

"We have a few Hendee Hawks coming in," Farrell beamed happily. "You are
the man to handle them and to show the boys their fine points. In fact,
you're the only man we have who can do it quickly. We need those
superfighters badly. Headquarters would like to do a little daylight
bombing. Do you think a flight of Hawks could take a squadron of
Liberators through?"

"They could," Stan assured him. "Give me nine Hawks and my pick of
pilots and well ride right in over Berlin."

"You won't get nine for a while, but we have three coming in." The Wing
Commander seemed interested in what Stan thought of that.

"Three will take a small flight through," Stan said.

"I have to depend on you, Wilson. Without you, it will take several
weeks to get them lined out and set for action."

"We need train only one man. Allison can learn quickly." Stan smiled
broadly. "O'Malley learned in a couple of flights."

The O.C. smiled, too. "Yes, your pie-eating friend will handle one, if
we can drill some sense into his head."

"O'Malley's crazy but it's the sort of lunacy we need," Stan answered
dryly.

Farrell nodded. He was already thinking about other things. "The Royal
Air Force considered this shipment so important they routed the
freighter north to avoid submarines and Stukas. It seems Nazi agents
found out when she left. She had quite a trip and was chased far north,
damaged by a sub and finally landed at our naval base in the Shetlands."

"We pick them up up there?"

"I'm sending you up there to service them and get them ready. When you
have them set up and ready to fly, I'll send Allison and O'Malley up
there to help you bring them back."

Stan waited but the O.C. had nothing more to say, so he got to his feet.

"When do I leave?"

"As