f a native's, sir," Dave replied
after a quick apologetic look at Major Parker, "but there was something
about his features that sort of struck me as queer. The forehead looked
a little too wide for a native's, and I was suddenly struck by the
hunch that he was--No, I _must_ have been wrong!"

"Never mind what you must have been!" Colonel Welsh said sharply.
"Finish what you were going to say! You had the hunch that he was--"

Dawson hesitated a second and then took the plunge. "That he was a
German, sir!"

A moment of tingling silence settled over the made-over bomb
compartment. Then Colonel Welsh broke it with an order to Major Parker.

"Come with me and show me this dead man, Parker," he said. "Dawson, you
and Farmer wait right here for me."

Three seconds later the colonel and the major had climbed out of the
bomber, leaving Dawson and Farmer to twiddle their fingers.

"I am going stark, raving mad!" young Farmer suddenly exploded in a low,
vibrant voice. "If I don't find out something soon, I don't know what
I'll do!"

"I'll join you in a throat-cutting act, pal!" Dawson said, and sighed
heavily. "If this isn't the most mixed-up business we ever got into,
then I don't know what! The colonel's been here half an hour, and we
don't even know why he came down here in the first place. We can thank
the gods for one thing, anyway."

"What's that?"

"That Colonel Welsh was relieved and not burnt up when I told him we had
destroyed those envelopes," Dawson replied. "Envelopes! Phew! I'll be
seeing those darn things in my dreams for the rest of my life. Gosh! One
would think they contained the complete plans of Allied High Command for
the invasion of the European Continent, or something!"

"Maybe they did," Freddy Farmer said with a shrug and a sigh. "Maybe
they did."

With that the pair lapsed into brooding silence. Each was perfectly
content to remain silent, because words were just a waste of breath now.
They had talked themselves black and blue in the face as to the what and
the why of this crazy business. For all their talking, they were right
back where they had started in regard to anything concrete and definite.
Why talk about it any more? It was far, far better to go quietly nuts
waiting for Colonel Welsh to return and throw a little light on the
subject.

They sat and waited for a good fifteen minutes, mulling over their own
thoughts and listening absently to the even murmur of the idling
Wright-Cyc