CHAPTER TEN
_Invisible Eyes_
No sooner had the North American B-25 bomber braked to a full stop infront of the Administration Building than the fuselage door swung openand Colonel Welsh disembarked. The Intelligence officer's thin face wasdeeply lined from worry and loss of sleep, but his eyes were sharp andclear as he swept them over the group that had sprung to attention. Whenhis eyes came to Dawson and Farmer, a light of relief seeped into them,and he gave a little nod of his head as a sign of recognition, andperhaps approval.
"Get inside, you two, at once!" the colonel ordered. And then, as hiseyes picked out Major Parker, he added, "You, too, Parker. Everybodyelse, back to your posts!"
With a million and one speculative thoughts dancing and racing aboutinside their heads, Dawson and Farmer climbed up into the bomber, withMajor Parker at their heels. Once inside, they saw that the bombcompartment had been fitted out as an aerial office. Instinctively theyheaded that way. By the time they reached that compartment, Major Parkerhad joined them. The senior officer wigwagged a finger to check anyquestions that might be asked and waved the three of them to the littleseats fitted to either side of the fuselage. He seated himself behind asmall table bolted to the bomb compartment flooring and stared intospace as the B-25's engines were revved up a little, and the bomberstarted to trundle forward.
Automatically, Dawson braced himself for a take-off, but the ship didnot leave the ground. The pilot trundled the bomber over toward one ofthe hangars, braked it to a stop, and cut his engines. A moment later,the field's ground crew was busy filling the aircraft's tanks. StillColonel Welsh sat staring into space without speaking a word. Thesuspense, and the mystery of it all, were like butterflies in Dawson'schest. Again and again he glanced at the colonel, hoping to catch thesenior officer's eyes, believing that if he did so the colonel mightgive him some kind of a sign that would at least relieve the tension.
He had no luck, though. The colonel sat like a man of stone while theB-25's fuel tanks were being filled to the brim. When they were filled,the engines were started, and the bomber was trundled out to thetake-off end of the runway.
"A take-off sure, this time!" Dawson thought to himself. "I wonder wherewe're headed? In fact, I'm wondering a whole lot of things right now.Something has certainly happened, because the colonel looks in a badway. He looks about as bad as I felt a few hours ago."
But there was no take-off. When the bomber was swung around into thewind, the engines were throttled to idling speed. Then and then only didColonel Welsh come out of his trance. He looked at Dawson and Farmer,and reached out his hand.
"Give me the rest of those envelopes," he said.
Dawson shook his head and spoke quickly as a look of utter horror spreadover Colonel Welsh's face.
"We haven't got them, sir," he said. "Right after receiving your codemessage, we decided it was best to destroy them, so we did."
Horror vanished from the Intelligence Chief's face and thankful relieftook its place.
"Good lads!" he said. "Now give me a detailed report of your flight fromWashington."
Dave Dawson glanced impulsively at Freddy Farmer, but the English-bornair ace shook his head and made a sign for Dave to do the talking. Daveturned to Colonel Welsh and began to relate everything that had happenedfrom the Washington take-off to the moment of the colonel's arrival. Hedidn't leave out a thing. However, in the event he might have missedsomething, he shot a questioning look at Freddy Farmer when he hadfinished.
"No, I can't think of a thing to add," the English youth said. "You'vecovered everything, I'm sure."
During all the time Dawson was talking, Colonel Welsh sat leaningforward slightly and listening as though his life depended upon everyword. Eventually he straightened up and looked at Major Parker.
"Have you anything to add?" he asked.
"Nothing, sir," the major replied. "Dawson covered my end of it all incomplete detail."
"You had never seen the dead man before, Parker?" the colonel thenasked.
"No, sir," Major Parker replied. Then, with a faint gesture, he added,"I may have seen him, sir, in the course of my work, but the nativeshere all look more or less alike."
Colonel Welsh grunted, scowled down at the little table in front of him,and suddenly shot a sharp look at Dawson.
"Yes?" he asked. "You've got something on your mind, Dawson?"
Dave started slightly, because he did have something on his mind and wasdebating if he should mention it. He could feel the red seeping up intohis face as he looked at Colonel Welsh.
"Just a hunch, sir," he said. "I'm probably all wrong. The dead man isundoubtedly a native, as Major Parker says, but--"
"But what?" Colonel Welsh pressed as Dawson let the rest go unspoken.
"Well, his skin was dark like that of a native's, sir," Dave repliedafter a quick apologetic look at Major Parker, "but there was somethingabout his features that sort of struck me as queer. The forehead lookeda little too wide for a native's, and I was suddenly struck by thehunch that he was--No, I _must_ have been wrong!"
"Never mind what you must have been!" Colonel Welsh said sharply."Finish what you were going to say! You had the hunch that he was--"
Dawson hesitated a second and then took the plunge. "That he was aGerman, sir!"
A moment of tingling silence settled over the made-over bombcompartment. Then Colonel Welsh broke it with an order to Major Parker.
"Come with me and show me this dead man, Parker," he said. "Dawson, youand Farmer wait right here for me."
Three seconds later the colonel and the major had climbed out of thebomber, leaving Dawson and Farmer to twiddle their fingers.
"I am going stark, raving mad!" young Farmer suddenly exploded in a low,vibrant voice. "If I don't find out something soon, I don't know whatI'll do!"
"I'll join you in a throat-cutting act, pal!" Dawson said, and sighedheavily. "If this isn't the most mixed-up business we ever got into,then I don't know what! The colonel's been here half an hour, and wedon't even know why he came down here in the first place. We can thankthe gods for one thing, anyway."
"What's that?"
"That Colonel Welsh was relieved and not burnt up when I told him we haddestroyed those envelopes," Dawson replied. "Envelopes! Phew! I'll beseeing those darn things in my dreams for the rest of my life. Gosh! Onewould think they contained the complete plans of Allied High Command forthe invasion of the European Continent, or something!"
"Maybe they did," Freddy Farmer said with a shrug and a sigh. "Maybethey did."
With that the pair lapsed into brooding silence. Each was perfectlycontent to remain silent, because words were just a waste of breath now.They had talked themselves black and blue in the face as to the what andthe why of this crazy business. For all their talking, they were rightback where they had started in regard to anything concrete and definite.Why talk about it any more? It was far, far better to go quietly nutswaiting for Colonel Welsh to return and throw a little light on thesubject.
They sat and waited for a good fifteen minutes, mulling over their ownthoughts and listening absently to the even murmur of the idlingWright-Cyclone engines that powered the North American B-25.
At the end of that fifteen minutes, however, the colonel returned. ToDawson's relief and pleasure, he saw that a lot of the worry had leftthe Intelligence officer's face. In fact, there was an almost happy lookin his eyes. He came straight into the bomb compartment, seated himselfat his little table, and took the inter-com phone mike off the wall hookat his side.
"Take off, Captain," he spoke into it. "Fly north for twenty minutes andthen take up the course I gave you. Eh? Right!"
The colonel put the inter-com mike back on the hook, looked at Dawson,and smiled faintly.
"Thank heaven for your hunch," he said. "You were absolutely right. Hewas a German."
"A spy, sir?" Dave blurted out before he could check himself.
"Naturally," the colonel replied. "Just about the best in the Naz
is'gang. Colonel Baron Franz von Steuben is his name. Or was. Frankly,we've been after him for a long time. The world is well rid of his kind.What's the matter, Dawson?"
"Major Parker, sir," Dawson replied, and reddened slightly. "I hope hedidn't think that I--"
"Not a bit of it!" the colonel interrupted quickly. "The major admiresyou for your hunch. He'd be the last one in the world who would want youto keep it to yourself. As a matter of fact, he suspected that you mightfeel embarrassed and asked me to give you his compliments and to say hewas sorry he couldn't go along with you."
"To where, sir?" Freddy Farmer fairly shouted. And then he blushed soflamingly that both Dawson and the colonel had to laugh.
"That's all right, Farmer," the Intelligence officer said, stillchuckling. "Don't blame you at all. I can see it in both your faces thatyou're practically ready to blow up with questions. Well, things havehappened that I didn't want to happen, so I guess it's time for me to doa little explaining. Do you remember that technical sergeant in thehangar at Bolling Field?"
The two air aces nodded.
"He's dead," Colonel Welsh stated grimly. "He, too, was a Nazi spy. Andworking right under my very nose, which doesn't make _me_ feel veryproud. Shortly after your take-off, one of the mechanics who helped toroll out your plane came to me with the information that the technicalsergeant had been standing right outside that office while I was givingyou your instructions. I can tell you that that was the closest I evercame to having a case of heart failure. I got to work at once checkingup on that technical sergeant. I won't bother you with the details, butwe caught him cold. Complete with a powerful short-wave sending set, andall the rest of it. That was _after_ he had had time to do his dirtywork, _if any_. I know, now, what that dirty work was, of course. Yourexperiences, and Major Parker's, made the picture clear. He simplyflashed word to other agents to get you two by hook or by crook. He knewyour course, and he knew what you carried, though I'm still positivethat he didn't know the contents of those sealed envelopes.
"Anyway, word was flashed along the network of Nazi spies on this sideof the Atlantic and to that U-boat lurking in the Caribbean. Heavens!That was a daring stunt those devils tried."
"I'm still shaking at how close it came to being successful!" Dawsonspoke up in a strained voice as the colonel paused.
"Amen, and let's not think of that any more," the Intelligence officeradded almost fervently. "As soon as I learned the truth, I flashed youa message to halt the flight and wait for me. I was too late at PuertoRico. I also took off in this plane at once to get down here and contactyou. I stopped at Puerto Rico, and Miami, too, and collected the twosealed envelopes you had already delivered. Then I came on here andfound out that you two had used your heads. Just in time, too, thankgoodness. That you beat Colonel Baron Franz von Steuben to the punch issomething you can congratulate yourselves on for the rest of your lives.If I had even dreamed that devil was down here, I would have hadnineteen different kinds of cat fits. But all's well that ends well.And, although we've got to change our plans, we're still a couple ofjumps up on the Nazis."
Colonel Welsh paused for breath and to take out his handkerchief andwipe imaginary beads of sweat from his forehead. Both Dawson and Farmersat on the edges of their seats waiting for him to continue, but after amoment or two of silence Dawson couldn't stand it any longer.
"Can't you tell us a little about all this, Colonel? Just a little thatmight help us--well, in case we got into another jam? Or are we on ourway back to Washington now? Is the job finished as far as Freddy and Iare concerned?"
"No, we are not heading back to Washington," Colonel Welsh answeredquietly. "As for you and Farmer, the job is just beginning. Well, you'veearned the right to know. Since I was going to explain at Natal anyway,I might as well explain now. You recall all that F.B.I. business in NewYork? Remember my telling you of that list of names turned over to theF.B.I. for checking?"
"Could we forget, sir?" Dawson chuckled. "Freddy and I have been goingnuts trying to add two and two. We got a zero every time, and I don'tmean a Jap Zero, either."
"Well, all that was simply a check and double-check, you might say,"Colonel Welsh said as his face became grave. "Every name on thatapproved list was to be connected in some way with--"
The colonel paused and ran his tongue across his lower lip.
"Every man on that list," he began again, "is to have something to dowith a proposed trip by President Roosevelt to a war conference withPrime Minister Winston Churchill at Casablanca in Morocco, NorthAfrica!"
A moment of silence hung over the trio as the colonel finished speaking.Then Dawson gave a little laugh and looked at Freddy Farmer. "Pick upthe marbles, Master Mind!" he said. "Pick them all up. You win!"
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