CHAPTER ELEVEN
_Give and Take_
"Well, my little fool friends! You don't seem to realize that I havesaved your useless lives, do you? Well, I have, and you should be verygrateful and thankful. None of your swine comrades would have come intothese waters to pick you up."
The Nazi had stared so long, and been silent for so long, that thesudden explosion of his voice made both youths start a little. Dawsonquickly got control of himself, and shrugged.
"We're very glad to be rescued," he said in a flat voice. "But inanother couple of days the fleet would have been back from up north, andwe'd probably have been sighted."
The Nazi arched his eyebrows and looked politely impressed. That is,save for his eyes. In their depths flickered pin points of polishedsteel.
"From up north, eh?" he murmured. "All the five carriers are returningin two days, yes?"
"That was the plan of operation, and--" Dave said, and then stoppedhimself, and bit his lip.
Freddy Farmer had of course been waiting for just such an opening, andhe quickly took advantage of it.
"Keep your mouth shut, Dave!" he cried in an expert burst of anger."Besides, it all depends upon their rendezvous with Task Forces Sevenand Ten."
"Now who's blabbing?" Dave snarled, and whirled on him. "Why don't youkeep your big mouth shut, too?"
Freddy started to make a blistering retort but simply went through thefacial motions of being about to say it.
"Oh, what does it matter, anyway?" he finally said sullenly. "If they'vebeen patrolling these waters they know as much about these things as wedo. Quite a bit more, I fancy."
"Ah!" the Nazi breathed hard. "So you are English, yes? Now I understandyour words. The English always quit before the battle is completelylost. Look at Dunkirk. They ran from us there. And Greece, and Crete.And even at Singapore and Malaya you ran from the brave Japanese. Yes,yes. What does it matter now? You English know in your dirty hearts thatyou can never win!"
Real, honest to goodness anger blazed up in Freddy's face, and for oneterrible moment Dawson feared that his English pal was going to hurlhimself bare-handed at the Nazi. Freddy, however, managed to keep a firmgrip on himself, and he eyed the German coldly.
"The opinion of a Nazi is unimportant," he said in a scathing voice. "Italways has been among the peoples of the civilized world."
The U-boat commander, however, was not to be excited into anything.Perhaps he was too comfortable in his chair. Perhaps for once in hisbaby-killing life he decided that brute violence wouldn't gain him whathe wanted. So instead he laughed at Freddy as one might laugh at alittle boy who has suddenly flown into a childish tantrum.
"Even save the life of an Englishman, and he is still an ungratefuldog," he finally sneered. "But all this does not interest me. So youhave five carriers, eh? And they are up north meeting two other taskforces, eh? That _is_ interesting. What are they doing up there?"
Dave looked at the scowling Jap naval officer, grinned, and thenreturned his gaze to the Nazi's face. He shrugged and gave a littleshake of his head.
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe it's Tokyo, and _for keeps_ this time.We were to get our orders later."
The Jap made a sound like air coming out of a punctured tire, and wildhatred seemed to come out all over him in lumps.
"Lies, all lies!" he screamed. "Never again will Tokyo be bombed by youAmerican dogs. We have seen to it, yes! You will all be dead and in thewater before you even sight our shores!"
Dawson shrugged again but kept his gaze on the German's face.
"Were you on the surface for very long last night?" he suddenly asked.
The Nazi started, and blinked.
"What?" he demanded. "What's that?"
"I asked if you were on the surface much last night?" Dave repeated."Was your radio open all the time?"
The German hesitated as though reluctant to reveal even that bit ofutterly useless information. Then he made up his mind, and noddedcurtly.
"Yes, we were," he said. "And the radio was open. Why?"
"You didn't hear the Tokyo station, did you, by any chance?" Dave askedsoftly, and leaned forward slightly. "Did you hear _any_ Tokyobroadcast? Say from midnight on?"
The Jap hissed some more, but Dawson didn't so much as look at him. Hekept staring at the Nazi, who was all scowls now. And there was a queer,unfathomable look in his eyes. Then suddenly he blurted out thequestion.
"You mean that Tokyo was bombed last night?"
Dawson calmly hunched one shoulder and gestured with his two hands,palms upward.
"Maybe it wasn't Tokyo," he said quietly. "We didn't have a radio in ourraft. Maybe other objectives were selected at the last minute. I justthought that maybe you had heard, and could tell me. Then you didn'thear the Tokyo radio last night, eh? And maybe it was _off_ the air?"
"Lies, all lies!" the Jap screamed again, and actually jumped up anddown in his fury. "Not one enemy bomber will ever get within sight ofour shores."
Dave was tempted to turn and snap, "Quiet! small fry!" but instead hekept looking at the Nazi commander. He could tell that the German had ahead full of thoughts, all bad. He and Freddy had planted the seeds ofdoubt and worry in the German's brain. And if they played it verycarefully they might do more to help the Guadalcanal attack from righthere in the U-boat than they would have if they had been able to make ahundred scouting patrols off the flight deck of the carrier Carson. Atany rate, it was plain to see from the Nazi's face that the little"tete-a-tete" wasn't exactly working out the way he had planned.Something had gone off the track somewhere along the line.
Suddenly the Nazi took his eyes off Dawson and looked at the Jap.
"Watch these two, and don't lose your head," he spoke in German. "Forthe present they are more valuable alive. I am going to surface, if it'sclear, and see if there is anything on the radio. I won't be long."
The Nazi nodded, pushed up onto his feet and brushed past Dawson andFarmer and out the door. For the first couple of seconds after that Daveheld his breath and watched the Jap out the corner of his eye. It wasall very well for the Nazi commander to warn the slant-eyed one not togo off half cockeyed, but that didn't mean that the killer wouldn'trevert to type at the drop of the hat. As it was, he was stilltrembling with savage anger, and there was definitely cold, ruthlessslaughter in his glittering eyes. However, the first few moments tickedby, and nothing happened. The Jap just stared at them like a hesitantcobra, and that's as far as it went.
Ten minutes, that seemed to take ten years in passing, finally came toan end. Then the door was opened and the Nazi commander came backinside. Dawson looked quickly at his face, and was more than pleasedwith what he saw. The scowl on the Nazi's face was darker than ever, andhe had all the appearance of a man who has received a setback that hecan't quite understand. It was on the tip of Dave's tongue to ask if hehad heard anything on the radio, but he remembered just in time thatneither Freddy or himself were supposed to understand German. Thereforehe just kept his mouth shut, and silently waited. And he didn't have towait long. The Nazi looked at the Jap and shook his head.
"Nothing!" he growled. "Too much static. I could not even raise AdmiralSasebo's flagship. The air is full of nothing but whines and squeals."
At the mention of the name, Admiral Sasebo, Dawson jumped inwardly. Andhe could almost feel Freddy Farmer start at the mention of the name,too. Out there in the Southwest Pacific that Jap Navy man had "won" forhimself the title of "Suicide" Sasebo. Losses meant nothing to him. Togain and hold an objective was all that mattered, regardless of whetherthe objective was important or not. Once on a Tokyo scare broadcast tothe world, Sasebo had stated, "We will win because we are prepared tolose ten million soldiers, if we have to." And that was exactly the wayAdmiral Sasebo had fought his part of the war. He was a madman who neverstopped to count the cost in troops, and ships, and planes, andequipment. In time, if he still held his high office, he would lose thewar for Japan by simply bleeding his country white. But though heconsta
ntly sacrificed thousands of his own forces, that did not mean hedidn't inflict damage. He did. And so, if Admiral Sasebo was at sea, andon the loose again, it could well mean a lot of trouble, and then some.
"Perhaps you can make the contact later, _Herr Kommandant_," the Jap'svoice cut through Dawson's thoughts. "But what about these two dogs.They speak nothing but lies. That's all they know. Nothing but lies. AllAmericans are stupid fools. I should have killed them yesterday whenthey were in the water."
Once again Dawson started inwardly, and in spite of himself he shot theJap an agate-eyed stare. Fortunately the so-called Son of Heaven'sfollower was not looking at him, and so did not see that Dawsonunderstood the words he spoke in German. Just the same, the realizationthat this slant-eyed, pint-sized rat had been in that tricky seaplaneyesterday was a shock to Dawson. He recovered from his shock instantly,though, and longed for about five minutes with that double-crossing Japin a locked room. He had a score to pay off, and he would have likednothing better than the opportunity to do just that.
However, for the present, it was just so much wishful thinking as far asDawson was concerned. Also, there were other things of far moreimportance than the item of knocking that Jap for a flock of outsideloops. As a matter of fact, when the Nazi commander spoke again Dawsoncompletely forgot about his private war with the Jap naval officer.
"That may be as you say," the Nazi said, addressing himself to the Jap."These two may be young fools, like their countrymen. However, evenfools can be useful. That is why I ordered you to trick them down intothe water yesterday. Their plane was of the type used on Americancarriers. That proves that an American carrier force was not more thana few hundred miles distance from the point where you shot them down.But just exactly where? Is that force south of here and advancingthrough waters we control? Or have they spoken the truth, and is itnorth on some mission we know nothing about? We must obtain the answerto one or both of those questions, Honorable Comrade, you see?"
The Jap made a face and waved one hand in a careless gesture.
"I speak as a Japanese, and laugh in their faces!" he replied with ahissing note in his voice. "Where they are, or what they plan to do, isof no matter. They are doomed. The mighty forces of the Emperor willcrush them. If they have a force moving north, Admiral Sasebo will trapthem and cut them to pieces. And if their force is already north of us,then Admiral Kusiro will shoot their planes into the sea, and sink allof their ships. Japan is too strong for her enemies. We have alreadyproved that many times."
"Yes, true, of course," the Nazi commander said as though he were tryingto soothe an upstart brat. "But unless we know everything, it may makeit difficult for Admiral Sasebo's force. The American attack onGuadalcanal is to start soon. Perhaps it has already begun. If AdmiralSasebo is to wipe out any successes the Americans might gain, andannihilate their forces, and cut off all reenforcements, he must haveknowledge of what is going on _elsewhere_. For him to run into anunknown enemy task force might complicate things a lot. At least itwould bring about a serious delay in his own operations. If we can aidhim in any way, we must. That was what I was thinking of yesterday whenwe surfaced and sighted their plane on scout patrol."
The Jap nodded reluctantly and spoke something in reply, but it was loston Dawson's ears for the simple reason that his brain was spinning, andhis head filled with roaring sound. _The Japs knew of the American plansto attack Guadalcanal!_ That bit of news just about knocked him off hisfeet, and for a few seconds he could hardly breathe, much less think.And when his brain started functioning again, every thought was like atwisting knife buried deep in his heart.
The Japs knew of the American plan to attack Guadalcanal! Admiral"Suicide" Sasebo was obviously on his way with a huge task force tocatch the Americans by surprise and wipe them out completely beforesufficient reenforcements could be rushed to the Solomons. Sasebo'sforce was headed southward, and Admiral Jackson's task force was comingup from the south to intercept. Maybe they wouldn't meet. Maybe the Japswould pass right on by and leave Jackson's ships and planes searching anempty ocean. It might be a case of check and double-check, but thebreaks were mostly on Suicide Sasebo's side. _He_ knew what theAmericans were up to, and the Yanks _didn't_ know Sasebo's reason formoving southward from Truk. In fact, they didn't know _for sure_ thatSasebo _was moving south_, to say nothing of smashing the Americanattack on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
A hundred and one thunderbolts were crashing through Dawson's brain. Hedidn't even dare glance sidewise at Freddy Farmer's face for fear hewould see there the expression of wild alarm he was struggling to keepfrom showing on his own face. And then, suddenly, he became conscious ofthe U-boat commander speaking to the Jap again.
"... And we Germans have ways to make our prisoners talk, too," he wassaying. "But I do not think that is best, right now. Tonight we willmake a rendezvous with Admiral Sasebo's force. However, it is severalhours until night. Also, even though we should get them to tell us whatwe should know, the radio might still be jammed with static. And so Ithink it is best for you to take them to Admiral Sasebo. Then he can doas he wishes. Meanwhile I will continue to patrol this area. And perhapsat the rendezvous I will have something interesting to report. Yes, Ithink the best plan is to surface, and launch the seaplane, and fly themdirect to Admiral Sasebo's ship."