knife, then lighted
the weed and looked at Stan.

"Allison tells me you have had a lot of experience with various types of
fast planes. Testing over in Canada. Most of the American ships have
been going through trials up there. Did you have a chance at any of
them?"

Stan breathed more freely. "Yes, sir," he said.

"We have a new type American plane here." The Commander fished through
some papers, found a blue sheet and studied it for a minute. "They call
this one the Hendee Hawk. We have tested it and found it to be rather
fast but very tricky." The Commander frowned at the report, then looked
up at Stan.

Stan could hardly hold back a grin and a whoop. Did he know the Hendee
Hawk? He knew the Hawk from her prop to her tail assembly. The Wing
Commander was being very conservative when he said the Hawk was rather
fast. Stan had squinted at her air-speed indicator when it was jiggling
crazily at 600 miles per hour. He waited for the Wing Commander to go
on.

"Ordinarily we would train enough special men to handle these ships, but
we are pressed for fighting ships at the moment."

Stan's face did not reveal anything of what he was thinking. The
Britisher was talking calmly and appeared not to be worried. Stan knew
the need for Hendee Hawks was desperate, and he knew the ships would
deliver.

"Have you many of them, sir?" he asked.

"No. This ship is a test job." The Wing Commander dropped the blue
sheet. "Have you ever flown a Hendee Hawk?"

"Yes, sir."

The question Stan expected to follow did not come. Wing Commander
Farrell said nothing for more than a minute.

"Would you like to take this one? Into action?"

Stan restrained a smothering eagerness. He wanted to jump up and down
and shout, to slap the Commander on the back. A lot of experts had
turned thumbs down on the Hawk. But the saboteur boys had known she was
the super-plane and had done everything they could to get her junked,
including a nice frame-up on himself. He knew they had just about
succeeded if there was only one ship here in Britain.

"I'll fly her, sir," he said and added eagerly, "she is the greatest
combination of fighter and strafing plane ever built. She packs enough
bombs to do real damage, as well."

The Wing Commander smiled. "We shall see," he said.

The way he said it convinced Stan it was up to him to show both the
British and the Jerries just what the Hendee Hawk could do. If this ship
failed, there would be no more of