don't you?" he said.

"Pig," Hans muttered under his breath.

Stan went to work again. At twelve o'clock he took off his coveralls and
slipped several parts into his coat pocket.

"Tell the boss I'm ready to go to bed," he said.

Hans made off and while he was gone Stan did a few things to the
supercharger. Hans came back quickly.

"Herr Domber will call for you," he said, then seated himself and
lighted a cigarette.

Domber appeared a half-hour later, dressed in evening clothes. He was
beaming.

"You have everything ready for a tryout in the morning?" he asked.

"Everything," Stan assured him.

"I must have a look at the machine," Domber said. He walked to the bench
and spent a half-hour studying the supercharger. Finally he turned to
Stan. "How much testing will be required to adjust it?"

"It can only be adjusted by running the motor," Stan said and did not
smile. "I should say the plane could be ready for flight by afternoon."

"You will run it that long?"

"It may take even longer," Stan said. "This is a delicate bit of
machinery and I am not too familiar with it. I have only had a general
course in its construction."

"In that case we will have the tanks connected and filled with
gasoline." Domber smiled broadly.

"That will save time, and I understand that's what you are interested
in," Stan said.

"Time, yes, we have to work fast."

Stan grinned. He knew that Herman Goering's Air Ministry was wild with
fear and grasping at every straw of help they could get for their
fighter planes. They had to have something that would stop the
Fortresses and Liberators, or their cities would be destroyed, and they
had to have it quick.

"Haven't you ever thought that I might sabotage this job?" he asked.

"I think not," Domber said. "I am a student of the human mind. When I
have studied a man I know just about what he will do. I know you do not
wish to be turned over to the Gestapo and given the treatment they use
to get information."

"No, I guess I'm not that much of a hero," Stan said.

CHAPTER XII

ZERO HOUR

As Stan worked on the supercharger he went over his plans carefully.
With everything about ready to make tests, he was beginning to wonder if
the story Swen had told him was not just the wild fancy of a scared kid.
He even thought of the possibility that Swen had been planted to get him
off on the wrong track. There had been so many crazy things happening
that he could not afford