Colonel Comstadt, and the three other pilots of his four plane group, walked up to within a few yards of the two boys. There the big man halted, rested his big hands on his hips and stared at them out of eyes that were like two smouldering coals of fire. Then suddenly his thick lips curled back over his teeth in a sneer.

"Two little boys!" he boomed out in his native tongue. "Himmel! Just two little boys. I thought England had men in her army!"

"She has!" Dave shot back at him. "Try to invade England any time, and you'll find out!"

Thunder heads showed in the German's face for a moment. Then he laughed harshly and jabbed a big finger at Dave.

"American, eh?" he roared. "Ah, yes! You must be this Dawson swine I've heard tell about. Am I right?"

"Take five points for it," Dave said. "Who cares?"

"What?" the Luftwaffe morale builder bellowed. "What kind of talk is that?"

"I give up," Dave said. "What kind?"

The Nazi looked both puzzled and angry. The look he gave Dave made the young Yank regret just a little that he had spoken in that manner.

"So, you would make a joke of it, eh?" the Nazi suddenly roared. "I advise you not to. I can crush an infant like you with one hand. What were you three doing over here?"

"Three?" Freddy spoke up before Dave could open his mouth. "What three? There's only the two of us."

"I can see that!" the Gestapo Colonel snarled. "I have eyes, you little fool. There was a third plane. The one that tried to get away. What were you doing over here, eh?"

Dave's heart skipped a beat. The one that tried to get away? Did that mean Barker had been caught and shot down?

"Oh, him?" Dave echoed and forced a grin to his lips. "He not only tried to get away, he did get away. Too bad for you. He was the important man in the patrol."

"So?" the German said with a slow smile. "The important man of your little patrol, eh? Then it is too bad for the ones who sent you out here. He will never return to England. He is dead, the swine!"

"You're a cockeyed liar!" Dave shouted at him with more conviction than he felt. "He left you birds fanning thin air, and he's well over England by now."

The German regarded Dave as though he were some strange species of something or other. Then his big body shook with silent laughter.

"You Americans are a stupid people," he finally said. "You have no sense. You do not realize that you are asking for punishment every time you open your dirty mouths. You have to be taught a lesson, always!"

As the man shouted the last his big hand flashed out with the speed of a striking cobra. Dave didn't even see it coming. He only felt the stunning blow on the side of his head. And the next thing he knew he was flat on his back on the ground, blinking goggle eyed up at the sky. The toe of a boot dug into his ribs.

"Get up, infant swine!" he heard the voice of Colonel Comstadt. "I hardly touched you. So you are the American, Dawson, I have heard about? Bah! You haven't the strength of a chicken. Get up!"

Dave got shakily up onto his feet. Red fire was sweeping through his brain, and white fury was boiling up in his chest. He had just enough sense left, though, to refrain from hurling himself at the big hulk of a Nazi. You can't chop down an oak tree with a straw, and Dave had enough sense to realize it. However, as he met the Nazi's leering gaze he made a silent promise to himself that if the chance ever came...!

"Now, let that teach you to behave, and answer my questions!" Colonel Comstadt growled. "So! What were you three pilots doing over here?"

Dave didn't attempt to answer. A hunch he had had for some time was growing stronger and stronger. Was the reason the Nazis didn't shoot, when they had the chance, because they wondered what Freddy, Barker, and he were doing over the area? They really didn't know, or even suspect?

If that were true then there was even greater hope that he and Freddy might get out of this jam. As long as they kept the Germans wondering and guessing the longer the Germans would keep them alive. There was one thing the war had proved about the Nazi breed. They never threw away a man's life until they had drained the last drop of usefulness from his body. And that went double for espionage agents they caught in their traps.

"We were on patrol," Dave answered the question aloud. "We were on our way to contact some of our bombers."

"That's perfectly true," Freddy spoke up, instantly catching onto Dave's line of thought. "What other reason, for heaven's sake? And why such a lot of you chaps? You certainly do believe in superior numbers, don't you? But, then, you must have learned many startling things about the Royal Air Force, eh?"

The Nazi acted as though he had not heard. He ignored the English youth, and kept his gaze fixed on Dave. When he spoke his voice was surprisingly soft. Yet there was a deadly undertone to it.

"You have perhaps heard of Colonel Comstadt?" he asked. "You have perhaps heard of him?"

Dave plucked at his lower lip and screwed up his face in a gesture of deep thought.

"Comstadt?" he mum............