e plane is flying away!_"

And that was the truth! The strange-looking seaplane had circled down to
some five hundred feet above the floating life raft, and then suddenly
flattened out and was now making tracks toward the northeast.

"No, it's no mirage, Dave," Freddy said in an awed voice. "The blighters
are certainly leaving us. But why, I wonder? Dave! Maybe they've sighted
one of our planes, or one of our ships, or something!"

Dawson didn't make any reply. Wild hope choked up in his throat, and he
eagerly searched both sky and water. However, that's all he saw. Just
sky and water, save for the seaplane that was fast becoming a
disappearing dot in the northeast. Freddy helped him look, and for ten
minutes neither of them spoke. Then Dave groaned and gave a little shake
of his head.

"Well, if it was a ship or a plane, it's gone now," he grunted. "So it
looks like we'll have to keep each other company for a spell longer,
pal."

"Oh, yes, quite," Freddy Farmer murmured, and nodded absently. "A
blasted funny business this, though. I still can't make up my mind if
those seaplane beggars _were_ Japs. Why did they just force us down, and
then let us alone? That's definitely not Jap style. And to say that that
seaplane was--But, man! That's impossible! Definitely!"

"What is?" Dave wanted to know.

"That it was one of our planes, and they shot us down by mistake,"
Freddy said. "But that couldn't be. Our markings were as plain as day
for anybody to see."

"Yeah," Dave said, and sighed. "But maybe we _look_ like Japs, and they
figured we'd swiped the Dauntless."

Freddy Farmer's comment on Dave's wisecrack was a pronounced snort. Then
both lapsed into brooding silence and stared more or less unseeingly out
across the limitless expanse of ocean.

CHAPTER TEN

_Steel Sharks_

The sun was a shimmering ball of brass that seemed to hang motionless in
the high heavens forever and ever. At least it seemed forever to Dawson
and Farmer, huddled down in the small rubber life raft that rose and
fell with maddening monotonous regularity under the urging of the long,
rolling swells of the Southwest Pacific. Brassy sun on high, all about
them, and even dancing up off the waters straight into their eyes.

"Oh, for a shack about six miles this side of the North Pole!" Dave
groaned, and licked his cracked lips. "What I wouldn't give for a spot
like that, right now!"

"Yes, quite," Freddy answered listlessly. "And, o