-11. And each time Dawson turned front a few more cold shivers
rippled through his body. And the lumps of lead in his stomach did some
more bouncing around.

And so little by little he was forced to admit that maybe there was
something in what Freddy Farmer had said. Yet it still didn't make sense
to him. Heck! How did the Japs _know_ that they planned to escape? And
darn it, why did the Japs let them get away without a struggle? Finally
Dawson turned around and caught Freddy's eye again.

"Okay, okay, maybe," he said. "But tell me this, kid? How the heck did
they know we would plan to escape? And why?"

"I can only guess, Dave," the English youth replied with a frown. "But I
have a very strong feeling that it is the truth. Look at the facts,
Dave. They had a pretty good idea that we knew where our task force was.
They figured that we would head straight for it if we ever got our hands
on a plane. Fact is, Dave, they knew we'd do just that because they
_heard_ us talking about it!"

"What?" Dawson exploded. "Heard us? What in thunder are you raving
about?"

Freddy Farmer made a little impatient motion with one hand and leaned
farther forward.

"Look, Dave," he said, "right after you went to town on that Sasebo he
said something to that other Jap. The other Jap answered him. Then
Sasebo nodded, and spoke again. And _then_, with not so much as a how do
you do, or why, we were taken back to that empty cabin. There we talked
over our plans of how we might manage an escape. We agreed to give it a
good try, and then what happens? Everything works out as smooth as can
be. We're not stopped, an aircraft is in take-off position practically
waiting for us, and not a shot is fired at us from any of the task force
ships. But now two things we didn't count on pop up. One, neither of us
can raise Admiral Jackson's task force because the speaker units have
been removed from both sets. And, two, three faster Jap Zeros are
trailing us, and making no effort to catch up! Why? Because they hope
for _us to lead them_ to Jackson's force. Then they can send the news
back to Sasebo, and shoot us down. As the saying goes, old thing, dead
men tell no tales. Sasebo will know where Jackson is, but Jackson won't
know where Sasebo is. And knowing _where_ the other chap is, so that you
can sneak up on him in surprise, is half the battle with aircraft
carrier task forces, you see?"

"That much, yes," Dawson replied with a frown. "Yes, you're s