. The
action was unnecessary for the German pilot swerved to the east just
before he came to the clouds. Once again his abrupt change of speed
showed that he had eased back to throttle cruising.

Anger took the place of amazement in Dawson, and he was on the point of
slamming up to give battle to the Messerschmitt, when suddenly twelve
Junkers 88 long-range bombers came sliding out from under the mountain
of cloud, looking for all the world as though they were rolling their
wheels across the peaks of the Atlas Mountains.

So suddenly and so weirdly did they appear that for a second or so
Dawson was unable to realize what they were. When truth came to him, he
sat up stiff and straight in the seat and let out a yell of excited
relief.

"Goering's Snoopers!" Dave cried. "There they are, the bums, as sure as
shooting! And on their way back to their base. No doubt of it, and, so
help me, that Messerschmitt must be some kind of a lone escort come out
to meet them and lead them home. Sure! There he goes sliding down, now.
But--but where is Freddy? Where is good old Freddy? He made his flight
south, so he must have crossed their path. He--!"

He cut his own words off abruptly as a squealing noise sounded in his
earphones. It rose and fell, and rose and fell again. Although he worked
furiously over the tuning knobs of his panel set, he could get nothing
but the squeal's. That is, nothing but squeals for the next minute or
two. Then, suddenly, the squealing sound stopped, and a single spoken
word came through as clear as a bell.

"Noswad!"

That single word made Dave's heart pound furiously, because it was his
own last name spelled backwards; because it was the signal call Freddy
Farmer was to use when getting in radio contact with him. No sooner had
he heard the code call spoken once, than the squealing sound filled his
ears again. Whether it was Freddy's set or his that had gone haywire, he
could not tell at the moment. He simply put his lips to his own mike and
shouted Freddy's code call at the top of his voice.

"Remraf! Remraf!" he shouted. "Can you hear me, Remraf? Over!"

The only reply that he received was the continued squeal in his
earphones. Once again he called Freddy, but the result was the same.
Impulsively, he checked his own set as best he could, but found nothing
wrong with it. As a matter of fact, to make definitely sure that his own
set was in perfect working order, he sent out a signal call to
Casabl