CHAPTER TWELVE
_Helpless Heroes_
A brief moment of tingling silence seemed to hover in the air rightafter the Nazi U-boat commander stopped speaking. Then the Jap made moreof his punctured tire hissing sound and bobbed his head violently.
"Yes, a very good plan, _Herr Kommandant_," he said in the other'stongue. "I, myself, will fly them to the illustrious Admiral's ship, andobey his commands. He will learn all there is to learn, I can promiseyou. There is no one in all Japan so clever as the Honorable Admiral.And tonight he will receive you with praise. That I can promise, too. Ihave often heard it said that he admires you most of all your countrymenyour Honorable Fuehrer has sent to assist us."
That last statement was proof that the slant-eyed Jap was no dope. Heknew how to soft-soap the Nazi square-head type, and the feeling ofuneasiness in Dawson increased considerably. He half wished the Naziwould change his mind and decide to keep Freddy and him prisoners aboardthe U-boat. There was something in the Jap's face that didn't make himfeel even a little satisfied. On the contrary, he wondered plenty _if_the Jap _would_ fly them to Sasebo's ship! Neither Freddy nor himselfhad sold the Jap a thing, as they had the Nazi. Ten to one the Son ofNippon secretly regarded them as just two humans to slaughter at will,and with much pleasure. And so, steeling himself inwardly, and bearingdown hard to keep any of his feelings from showing on his face, Davewaited for the next move in this game of life and death in which thosefavoring death had most of the chips.
"I am honored to learn that your Honorable Admiral thinks so highly ofme," the Nazi said as his chest puffed out a little. "And the feeling ismutual, I assure you. Good, then. You will fly these two to the Admiral,and we will meet again tonight. We'll--"
The Nazi paused, frowned at his wrist watch, and then nodded.
"In an hour," he said, looking back at the Jap. "We will run submergedfor an hour longer. Then we will surface, and if all is well we willlaunch the plane. In the meantime you can lock them up forward. Theywill be safe, if _not_ comfortable, in that empty stores compartmentforward. Lock them up, and then come back and join me in an officer'stoast to your Emperor, and to my Fuehrer."
The Jap beamed like a joyful rattlesnake and made a stiff, jerky bowfrom the waist. Then he quickly became the very, very tough little guy.He waved his gun at Dawson and Freddy and screamed an order.
"Go outside, dogs! We have no further use for you! Go outside and in thedirection I order. Move, before I shoot you where you stand!"
The Jap spoke in English that time, and so, with a forced look ofbewilderment on his face, Dawson turned and led the way out into thecompanionway. Perhaps Freddy took just a little too long to follow.Anyway, Dave heard the slap of the Jap's gun against his pal's head anda split second later the English youth stumbled against him in adesperate effort to remain on his feet. He succeeded, and a few minuteslater they were shoved through a door into pitch darkness, the door wasclanged shut behind, and the rasping sound of the twisting lock keygrated on their ears.
"You hurt bad, Freddy?" Dave asked anxiously as he stood motionless inthe dark.
"Fancy I'll survive!" Freddy replied bitterly. "The dirty beggar. Man! Inever thought I'd ever be able to enjoy killing a man. But I'm sure I'denjoy killing that filthy swine!"
"After me, you come next," Dave said grimly, and started putting onefoot cautiously in front of the other. "I guess this place is empty, sowe might as well sit on the deck and try to be comfortable. Come on overhere, Freddy. We can use this bulkhead wall for a back rest. We _are_ ina jam, Freddy!"
The English-born air ace didn't speak until both of them were sitting onthe smooth steel deck and were leaning back against the bulkhead wall.Then he sighed, and groaned softly.
"Quite!" he muttered. "A blasted awful mess, too. It makes me ill tothink of what they said. Man! Dave! The blighters _know_ about our plansto attack Guadalcanal. I thought I'd choke when I heard that. That'sbad, you know, Dave."
"You're telling me, son?" Dawson echoed. "It's worse than that. But itdoesn't help much to groan about it. What worries me is what's going tohappen when that ten cent Jap dumps us in Suicide Sasebo's lap? We hadthat thick-headed Nazi believing us about our forces being way upnorth. I thought for a moment--that is, I hoped that--Aw, nuts! Wecouldn't hope to work a break _that_ good!"
"We may yet," Freddy Farmer remarked after a long moment of silence. "Ifwe could only just get this Sasebo to believe that there is nothingsouth of him, and that all our naval and air forces are way up north andabout to strike at Japan direct, then--"
The English youth suddenly seemed to realize he was reaching for stars,and let the rest trail off into silence.
"And get him to change his plans and go high balling with his wholeforce north for another one of his pet suicide ventures?" Dave more orless finished for him. "Sure, pal, that would be tops. It would bealmost as good as if we could dive right out through these steel platesand swim to the Carson and tell Admiral Jackson the exact location ofSuicide's force moving south."
"Yes, absolutely!" Freddy grunted. Then, after a slight pause, he added,"And the truth of the matter is that I _could_ tell Admiral Jacksonwhere Sasebo's force is, _if_ I could get to him."
Dawson gasped, choked, and gaped toward his pal in the pitch darkness.
"Whoa, pal!" he cried. "That clout on the head _did_ send you spinning.Take it easy, kid!"
"Take it easy, nothing!" Freddy replied hotly. "I _could_, Dave. And ifyou'd used your eyes, you'd have learned what I did!"
"The--the location of Suicide's force?" Dawson asked incredulously.
"Exactly!" Freddy told him firmly. "At least what it was at ten o'clockthis morning. It was One Hundred and Forty degrees West, and Fivedegrees North. I saw the position marked on the desk chart in thatNazi's cabin. And do you know what _that_ means, Dave?"
"Well, I'll be a bowlegged son of a gun!" Dawson gulped out in awedadmiration. "Kid Bright Eyes to the rescue again. Boy! I sure hand it toyou when it comes to coming through in the clinches! Just like that helearns what Admiral Jackson's whole force wants to know. Holy smokes!"
"And a fine lot of good it does me to know, locked up in this blastedsteel closet!" Freddy Farmer groaned. "But I asked you, do you know whatthat means? Do you happen to know where One Forty West and Five Northhappens to be?"
"Huh?" Dawson echoed. "Where?"
"I noticed it on the chart, of course," Freddy replied. "It happens tobe a good hundred miles _west_ of the area our planes have beensearching. In other words, Colonel Welsh and Admiral Jackson are notgoing to find the Japs in the area they're searching. Sasebo is wellwest of them. So he didn't go south, as was reported. He moved west fromTruk for almost five hundred miles and _then_ turned south. And as often o'clock this morning he was heading for Jap-held New Guinea. And--"
"Jumping jeepers!" Dawson broke in with a gasp. "So that's it? He'sgoing to slip through between New Guinea and New Britain and catch ourattacking force on Guadalcanal from the south? Cut our supply lines toshreds, and then follow through with a main attack on whatever our boyshave gained. Good night! That'll be a heck of a note, Freddy!"
"Quite, and definitely!" the English youth replied with a faint tremorin his voice. "Either that, or he'll go all the way around the westernend of New Guinea, and split his forces. Half to cut off our forces onGuadalcanal, and half to make a sea and air attack against perhapsDarwin on the northern side of Australia. Who knows _what_ that cunningdevil has up his sleeve? And to think we know where his confoundedforce is! Man! I could shoot myself in despair!"
"Here, cut that out, pal!" Dave snapped. "Get that old chin up. We'restill alive, and that's something."
"You wouldn't care to tell me how much, would you?" the English youthgrunted.
"No, I guess not," Dawson said with a chuckle. "But you get the ideajust the same. But, boy, oh boy! If we only could get word to ColonelWelsh and Admiral Jackson. Darn it, Freddy! We've got to, somehow. We'vejust got to!"
"No doubt of it,"
Freddy mumbled gloomily in the darkness. "But how?That's the stickler, old thing. _How?_"
"I don't know," Dawson murmured. "But maybe we'll get some kind of abreak. If we don't, we'll just have to make one, that's all. This Japrat who shot us down, I wonder how he figures to fly us to Suicide'sforce?"
"That one is easy," Freddy Farmer sighed. "You'll see. Tied hand andfoot, and jammed down into the rear pit of that seaplane like a coupleof sardines, I fancy. No, I don't think I'm looking forward to thatparticular airplane ride."
"Yeah, like a couple of helpless sardines, probably," Dave murmured."Yes, I guess I can think of more comfortable flights I've had, too.Oh, well, a guy can always hope."
And with that listless comment Dave lapsed into brooding silence, andFreddy Farmer joined him. For quite some time neither of them spoke.What was there to say, anyway? What was there to say that hadn't alreadybeen spoken? Absolutely nothing. And so it was better just to sit andkeep one's thoughts to oneself. What the future would bring it wouldbring, and that was that!
After a long, long spell of mutual silence a sudden change in themovement of the U-boat told them both that the undersea craft was goingup to the surface. Dawson grunted and sat up a little straighter.
"Up we go," he grunted. "So things will be happening soon."
"Can't say I'd be mad if said things were bombs dropping on this thingfrom a chance plane or two of ours!" Freddy Farmer growled. "The way Ifeel right now, I don't think I'd mind at all. Oh, blast it! I guessthat gun slap from that Jap rotter did do something to my nerve. I feelin an awful funk, Dave."
"Swell, perfect, pal!" Dave said with a chuckle. "Keep right on feelingthat way, and everything will be okay."
"Not much it will!" the English youth grated. "And what the deuce do youmean by that crack, anyway?"
"I mean that I've seen you like this before, and plenty!" Dawson toldhim, and squeezed his arm in the darkness. "And those other times youjust hauled back and knocked 'em high, wide and handsome. So it's okayby me, kid. Very much okay. You'll get us some action, if I don't."
"Thanks, old thing," Freddy said with a faint huskiness in his voice."And I am a rotter to try and drag you down, too. Sorry no end, Dave.I'll try and buck up and not be such a wet wack."
"Wet _smack!_" Dave corrected with a laugh. "Holy smokes! Aren't youever going to learn to speak the language, huh?"
The English youth grunted, but before he could make any reply to thatthere came the final lurching motion as the U-boat broke surface, andeven in their steel-walled prison they could hear the sounds of feverishactivity. A moment or two later they could tell that the U-boat wasmotionless on the surface. And then more sounds, the whine and grind ofturning gears, caused them to guess that the small seaplane was beinghoisted up out of its hold hangar.
Suddenly, Dave began to chuckle softly. And Freddy Farmer peered at himin the darkness.
"What's wrong with you, Dave?" he asked, "What's so blasted funny?"
"I was just thinking," Dawson replied. "Remember that stuffed shirtground major at the Broome field in Australia?"
"The one whose feet you dusted off with the prop-wash of the plane?" theEnglish youth echoed. "Yes, I remember him. What about him?"
"I was just thinking," Dave said. "Maybe I gave that chump the right tipafter all. Maybe he went dancing into his C.O.'s office with the realdope, and got tossed out for passing around such a cockeyed rumor."
"Yes, maybe you did at that," Freddy Farmer said soberly. "If SuicideSasebo does strike at Australia, you will have given the tip-off days inadvance, only you didn't know it. But I can't see anything to laughabout!"
"Okay, sober sides, I guess you're right," Dawson muttered. "But I surecould do with a good laugh, right about now. I--Oh-oh! I suspect herecomes company. Watch it, Freddy. And hang on hard, pal."
"Right-o, Dave!" the English youth breathed. "Be right in there withyou, old thing."
Freddy had hardly got the words off his lips when a key grated in thedoor lock and the door was kicked open with a crash. Pale lightinstantly poured into the room, and for a moment Dave and Freddy couldsee only blurred silhouettes in the companionway outside. Presentlytheir eyes focussed to the change of light and they saw the Jap navalofficer and two Jap seamen leering at them. The officer was dressed forflying. In his hand he carried his ever present gun. And each of thesailors carried a coil of thin, tough line.
"Turn around, and face the other way!" the Jap officer suddenly hissedat them.
For a split second the two youths hesitated as red waves of rebellionsurged up in them. But in that same split second they realized that anyshow of resistance would be the same as putting a gun to their heads andpulling the trigger. They were as helpless as a couple of cagedsparrows, and to do anything about it would be plain, downrightstupidity. And so they slowly turned around and suffered themselves tobe trussed up hand and foot by the two Jap sailors.
And suffer they did, in every sense of the word. It was a joy to thosetwo sons of heathens to have the opportunity to tie up two white men,and they went about their tasks with savage glee. And the Jap officer,standing to one side with his gun ready, took almost as much joy in theoperations as they did. For Dawson and Freddy Farmer it was terribletorture to both mind and soul. The loops of the thin, tough line wereyanked so tight that they felt like cords of white fire burning intotheir flesh. Then long before the two Jap seamen had completed the jobthe feeling of burning bands of white fire disappeared. There was just adull, throbbing numbness in their legs and in their arms. And as thefinal fiendish touch the end of the line was looped about their necks,and drawn back tight and tied so that every time they moved their headsthe loop bit into their throats and choked off their wind.
Finally, through the pounding in his ears, Dawson heard the Jap officerscream something in his native tongue. Then he felt himself being liftedup and slung across one of the Japs' shoulders like a sack of wet meal.And he could not keep track of just exactly what happened after that.All the bombs in the world were exploding in his brain. His lungs wereon fire, and his thumping heart was pounding its way out through hisribs. He seemed to lose control of the movement of his eyeballs. Theykept rolling back up into his brain, and vision was impossible.Everything was just a surging ocean of red waves. In a crazy abstractsort of way he wondered if he had lost consciousness. He decided hehadn't, otherwise he wouldn't be thinking such a jumble of thoughts.
Then, suddenly, instinct told him that he was falling. He tried to cryout in alarm, but there was no sound of his own voice in his ringingears. There was just the wild, angry jabbering of Japanese. A tinythought whipped through his brain to tell him that his Jap seaman hadmissed his footing and was lunging downward. And the instinct ofself-preservation caused him to strain at his bonds. And that was thevery last thing he remembered. The whole world blew up in that instantand he went sailing off into a great void of utter silence anddarkness.