CHAPTER THIRTEEN
_Haywire Nerves_
From a long way off came the faint rumble of sound. It grew louder andlouder, and took on the steady, rhythmic beat of powerful engines givingof their best. Every so often a different sound broke through therhythmic beat, but it faded out almost instantly, and the steady beatcontinued on forever--and ever--endlessly.
Seconds, minutes, and years dragged by, and then Dave Dawson wasconscious of the fact that the rhythmic beat came from all about him,and that his body was absorbing the vibration of it. Not yet did itoccur to him to try to move, or even to open his eyes. As a matter offact, either of those physical accomplishments was far beyond hispowers. And he continued to remain in a befuddled world of rhythmicbeats, vibration, and darkness.
And then, suddenly, there was light all around him. But a few extraseconds ticked by before his half frozen brain could grasp the fact thathis eyes had more or less automatically opened and that he was staringup at a light grey-painted ceiling and walls, and that up off to hisleft there was a round window through which light was pouring. He sawthe ceiling, the grey-painted walls, and the round window, and althoughthey registered upon his brain individually, they meant nothing to himas a whole.
More years dragged by, and the thought finally came to him to move hislegs and his arms. He did so, but the pains that shot through hissturdy, youthful body caused him to gasp and groan, and relax completelyto wait for the film of red to pass from his eyes. And when it did hesaw the strained, anxious face of Freddy Farmer bending over him. TheEnglish youth's lips moved, and the words just barely seeped throughDawson's ears.
"Dave, old man, look at me! Speak to me, Dave! Are you all right? Oh,blast those devils! Dave! Come out of it. It's Freddy! This is FreddyFarmer. Your pal. _Dave!_"
A tiny spark was touched off in Dawson's brain, and the flame from itseemed to start strength surging through him. He licked his lips,swallowed, and gulped. Hardly realizing he was doing so, he pushedhimself up onto one elbow. Then Freddy caught him around the shouldersand eased him up to a sitting position.
"Thank God!" the English youth sobbed. "Good grief, Dave, I thought youwere a goner for sure!"
"What--what happened?" Dave mumbled, and the effort to speak made histhroat burn. "What happened? Did we crash--or something? Bail out--andforget to pull the rip-cord, huh?"
"That blasted Jap!" Freddy Farmer grated. "He slipped, and you wentcrashing down on the deck on your head. Man! I was sure you had beenkilled right then and there!"
Dawson blinked hard, put his finger tips to his temples and pressed asthough he could push away the fog that clouded his brain.
"Jap?" he muttered thickly. "I fell on my head? What Jap, Freddy? Whatare you talking about? I haven't got a head. I've got _two_ of them.Split right down the middle. And--Hey! What gives? What's this place?Where the heck are we? What in thunder has happened, Freddy?"
Freddy Farmer didn't answer, because he wasn't there. He had moved awaysomewhere. But he returned almost immediately and held a glass of waterto Dawson's lips. The Yank ace drank greedily, and the cold water didwonders for the burning in his throat. It also helped to drive the fogfrom his brain, and give him more strength in both mind and body.
"Thanks, pal!" he gasped when he had drained the glass of its last drop."You're a lifesaver, what I mean, kid. Thanks, plenty. Now, what in theworld has happened?"
But even before Freddy Farmer could form the words with his lips, alittle door in Dawson's brain seemed to pop open and vivid memory camerushing back to him.
"My gosh, I catch!" he cried. "We had been trussed up by those Japs, andthey were carrying us up onto the deck of that U-boat! That Jap ratofficer was going to fly us to the Suicide Sasebo's flagship. Whathappened? Did the dirty bums change their minds? And hey! We're notaboard any U-boat now! Or are we?"
"If you'll only shut up!" Freddy Farmer barked, but there was great joyglistening in his eyes. "Just keep that mouth of yours shut tight, andI'll tell you as much of it as I can."
"Okay, go ahead," Dave told him. "The lip is all zippered up, kid.Shoot."
"Well, they trussed us up, and carried us out on deck," the Englishyouth began. "The beggar who was carrying you, though, slipped and wentflat. He just dumped you off, and you landed on your head. I guess itwas your helmet that saved your life. At least, saved you from a nastyskull fracture. However, you went out cold, much to the amusement of theJaps. And then--well, I blessed well hope I'll never have to livethrough anything like it again!"
The English-born air ace paused, and there were actually beads of sweaton his face. Dave gasped at him as he brushed them off with his hand.
"Then what, Freddy?" the Yank asked. "Oh! You mean because you thoughtI'd kicked the bucket? That my number had gone up?"
"Partly," the other replied. "But mostly because the Japs decided thatyou wouldn't be of any use to them in that condition. That Jap officerblighter was about to have you just tossed into the water for sharkfood."
Dawson gulped hard, and every drop of blood seemed to drain right downthrough his feet, and on out of his body.
"Sweet tripe, no kidding?" he gagged. "Jeepers! And there I was not ableto do a thing about it. Boy, oh boy! Praise be to Allah, they didn't!"
"I never want to live those minutes over again!" Freddy Farmer breathedfervently. "I tried to call out and tell them something that would stopthem, but that confounded cord around my neck was digging in so deepthat I could hardly breathe. And then you, yourself, got them to changetheir minds."
"Me?" Dave echoed wildly. "What in thunder did _I_ do?"
"You seemed to come out of it for a second or so," the other told him."You opened your eyes, glared your worst at the Jap rat officer, andactually tried to push yourself up off the deck. Of course you barelymoved, bound up as you were. But you certainly looked and acted quitethe tough guy, old thing."
"Yeah?" Dawson echoed, and grinned faintly. "Well, that's me all over,pal. Tough as they come--when I'm out cold! So I sort of saved my ownlife, eh?"
"Just about," Freddy Farmer nodded. "The Jap rat decided that he wasn'tthrough with you, so he had the seaman pick you up again. I guess youhad passed out again by then. And you stayed that way--lucky beggar. Ialso hope and pray I'll never have an airplane ride like that one!Heaven preserve me, please! I'm still not quite sure that I've gothands, and feet, and a neck. The blighters rammed us down in the rearpit of that seaplane so tight I was afraid I wasn't going to be able tobreathe. You certainly missed something, Dave! You certainly did, oldchap!"
"Yeah, and am I glad!" Dawson grunted, and glanced about him.
It was then he saw that Freddy and he were in an absolutely bare cabinaboard some kind of a ship. It was not until then that he realized thatthe rhythmic beat was the ship's powerful turbines driving it throughthe water. He glanced out the round-shaped "window" and saw cloud-dottedazure blue sky drifting by. Then he looked quickly back at Freddy, andthe English youth nodded gravely.
"That's right, Dave," he said quietly. "Welcome to the flagship ofAdmiral Suicide Sasebo's force. And, good grief, Dave! It's a tremendousforce! Three carriers of the Kaga class, a dozen troop ships, and scadsand scads of cruisers, destroyers, and supply vessels. Even from the airthey appear to take up the whole blasted ocean. Very definitely, a bigforce. But, as I was saying, it was an absolutely terrible ride. I thinkI fainted once or twice, myself. Just couldn't seem to hang on somehow.Then after years and years we sat down in the middle of this force andcame alongside this carrier flagship. They let down a hoist cable andtook us right up on board. I really was pretty hazy by then, and I don'tremember just what followed, exactly. But it wasn't much. Yet, no, itwas a whole lot, I guess you'd say. They took those cursed ropes off usboth, anyway. Then they carried you, and half dragged me, down to thiscabin, and kicked us inside. Ever since I've been trying to decidewhether to pray you wouldn't recover and thus get out of it all, or topray for you to recover, and carry on with me."
Dawson smiled an
d reached over a hand and pressed Freddy Farmer's knee.It was then he saw the ugly-looking red welts that circled his wrists.And also the circle of red welts about Freddy's wrists.
"Well, here I am anyway, kid," he said softly. "No rotten Jap rats canbreak up this old combination, hey, fellow? But how long have we beenhere?"
"About two hours, I fancy," Freddy said. "We got here about the middleof the afternoon, so now it must be around five o'clock. I don't knowthe time, exactly. They took my wrist watch, and yours, too. Souvenirs,no doubt. I hope the things refuse to run for them, the dirty thievingbeggars. Gosh! How my hatred for them just grows and grows! I could--"
"Well, don't let it throw you, and blow your top, kid!" Dave cut in witha soothing note. "Going haywire won't help a thing. And at least we'vegot one thing to cling to."
"What?" the English youth grunted. "Each other?"
"Yes, that, too," Dave replied with a nod. "But that isn't what was inmy mind. I mean, we're both still alive. If they didn't _want_ us alive,we certainly wouldn't be here in this place. So it means that theyfigure we've got something they want. See?"
"Perhaps," Freddy said slowly. "Perhaps not, too. Our little talksession with the Nazi U-boat commander didn't cut any ice with that Japrat officer. I wouldn't be at all surprised but that we're here justso's he and his dirty pals can take their time and fully enjoy torturingus and killing us. Gosh! A horrible thought, what?"
Dawson shook his head, and waved one hand back and forth.
"I don't think I'll buy any of that," he said. "This Sasebo is on adarned important mission. Much as he likes to see guys die, I don'tthink he'll bother much with a couple of guys named Joe. Nope, Freddy,we're here because they think they can gain something from us."
"And when they don't?" Freddy Farmer murmured, and looked him straightin the eye.
"Yeah!" Dawson breathed. "Maybe then the fun _will_ begin. So it's up tous to beat them to the punch. To keep them on the ropes, and undecidedwhat to do next. Maybe even get them high tailing north for a bigkilling that isn't going to come off."
"What a blasted faint hope, that last!" Freddy snorted. "I'm not evengiving it a thought. If there is anything that we _can_ do, or try todo, it's to somehow get one of their planes and go straight to AdmiralJackson's force."
"Sure, that would be nice, too," Dawson grunted. "But it happens to beall reversed now, Freddy."
"What is?" the other demanded. "What do you mean by that, Dave?"
"The whole darn situation," Dawson told him. "Yesterday we didn't knowwhere this force was, but we did know where Admiral Jackson's force was.Today, though, it's the other way around. We know where the enemy is,but we don't know exactly where our forces are. There's a heck of a lotof ocean out there, Freddy. We could use up an awful, awful lot of gasand oil and get nowhere, and find nothing!"
"Yes, quite," Freddy grunted. Then, "Except for one thing, old bean."
"Such as?"
"Such as the radio that would be in the Jap plane," the English youthreplied quickly. "_If_ we could get a Jap plane."
Dawson chuckled in spite of the seriousness of the situation, and gave alittle shake of his head.
"Leave it to the kid, here!" he breathed. "The firm's brains, that'swhat he is. But, kidding aside, you've got something, pal. I reallythink that maybe you have. With a Jap radio--and I guess one of themisn't too tough to work--we could sure tell the whole cockeyed worldplenty. Boy, oh boy! Would that burn up Sasebo, to hear us telling theworld about his force, where it is, and how many ships, and so forth. Ibet he'd dive over the side, and commit _hara-kiri_ on the way down!"
"Well, don't consider it as good as done," the English youth cautioned."Stealing a plane in story books is quite simple, of course. But thereal thing is quite something else. Just the same, though, I verydefinitely would like it that way."
"And while we're at it, let's shoot the works," Dawson said with a drychuckle. "We'll not only swipe a plane, but we'll also swipe all ofSasebo's task force plans before we leave. And maybe even his samuraisword. Now, there is something that would sure get the guy's goat. AndI don't mean perhaps!"
Freddy Farmer joined Dave in laughing, and then, suddenly, as their eyesmet both sobered in a flash. All that had happened to them, and theterrific strain under which they were right then, was fast catching upwith them. It was causing them to become just a bit light-headed, totalk through their hats, and--and, if they didn't call a halt, send themhaywire like a couple of babbling idiots. They saw that approachingbreaking point in each other's eyes. And it straightened them up, andfast.
"Well, anyway, we got some of it off our chests," Dawson muttered, andstared down at his red welt-marked wrists.
"Yes, quite," Freddy Farmer echoed absently. "And I fancy it helped alittle. But I wonder what, Dave?"
"And so do I, chum," Dawson sighed. "So do I!"