'll know about
it soon enough."

"Now, isn't that a sweet thought to go to sleep on?" Dave growled, and
rolled over on his side. "See you in the morning, sweetheart. Stay up
and worry if you want to. But not me!"

"Who said who was worrying?" the English youth snapped. "I was only
remarking that--"

Freddy cut himself off short and glared at Dawson's bunk. A faint snore
told him that he was addressing an audience that consisted of only
himself. He made a face, snapped off the light, and pulled aside the
blackout curtains over the ports to let in the night air, and then
stretched out himself and thought of his homeland many thousands of
miles away. However, he didn't think of England for very long. Sleep
soon pulled down his eyelids and off he drifted.

The next thing either of them knew was the blaring of the inter-ship
alarm siren, and the hubbub and scuffle of activity on the deck above.
Instantly both were wide awake and leaping out of their bunks.

"Trouble!" Dave snapped. "Let's go. Hey! It's light! We must be past the
Solomons!"

"There's one way to find out!" Freddy shot back at him, and grabbed up
his helmet and goggles.

Dawson, also, had slept in his clothes so as to be ready for any
emergency. So he grabbed his helmet and goggles and followed Freddy out
of the cabin. When they reached the flight deck it was to find that all
the commotion was caused by the carrier's early patrol getting off for a
quick look-see ahead. There was no sign of enemy planes in the
dawn-tinted heavens. In fact, as Dawson took a good look toward all four
points of the compass he realized that there was no sign of anything
save the flock of ships that made up the task force, and countless
square miles of rolling blue-green ocean. He turned to Freddy to make
some remark about the situation, but checked the words as Donald Duck
blared out an announcement.

"All pilots assigned to special duty will go below for breakfast, and
then report to the Ready-Room for briefing!"

"That's us, Freddy, old--" Dave began, and stopped short.

The English youth was already on his way down to eat. Dave chuckled,
gave a little shake of his head, and followed his pal. And just thirty
minutes later all of the special assignment pilots were gathered in the
Ready-Room. Colonel Welsh and the executive flight officer were there,
and the colonel started talking as soon as the last pilot to arrive had
seated himself.

"Well, we made it, we think,"