Vultee was well out of sight of all land, and Dawson was
keeping it on course with instruments. At the end of that time, too, the
southern part of the heavens began to mist and fog up and gradually
change to a copperish gray. The straight line that marked where the blue
of the sky ended and the copperish gray began told Dawson that a line
squall was moving across the Caribbean. But five minutes later the
little twinge of uneasiness that had come to him melted away, because
the copperish gray moved westward and not up northward toward the
Vultee. However, because of the silly mood that had gripped him since
leaving Puerto Rico, he had to voice a crazy thought.

"Wouldn't you know, not even a storm to give us something extra to do!"

"Eh, Dave?" he heard Freddy Farmer say. Then a second later, he felt
Farmer's hand tapping him on the shoulder, and heard his pal's excited
voice crackling in his inter-com phones. "Bear ten degrees eastward,
Dave! There's something down there on the water. Can't see it clearly
yet. Looks like a bit of rag being waved about by somebody."

Dawson changed the Vultee's course, and at the same time twisted around
in the seat and glanced back at Freddy. Then he turned front and peered
ahead and down in the direction of the English youth's pointed finger.
He squinted his eyes slightly and even shielded them against the golden
sun with his free hand. But for all he could see, he might just as well
have kept both eyes shut. There was just blue Caribbean, turned golden
here and there by shafts of sunlight dancing off the surfaces of the
rolling swells.

"I know you can see through a brick wall, Freddy," he said, "but if you
can see anything down there, then I'll eat it!"

"It will be quite a meal!" Freddy Farmer cried. "Because it happens to
be a life raft! And there are chaps on it. Yes, four chaps! And one is
waving his shirt, or something. Blast those dirty U-boat blighters!"

"Never mind the U-boats!" Dawson growled. "Just stick to the raft. Where
the heck is it? I think you're seeing things. I--Hold it, everybody;
hold it! I see it now, Freddy! I wasn't looking far enough out. Yeah!
That's a raft sure enough. Boy! I bet this sun is doing plenty to those
birds!"

As Dawson spoke, he watched the small raft riding the rolling swells of
the blue Caribbean, as helpless as a leaf. As he stared at the four
figures in the raft, his anger boiled and the blood throbbed in his
temples. Dirty U-boat