“Clever!” he nodded, noting the hairlike wires and fine workmanship. “I suspected something like this, Red, when I sent you up on deck to look around. With his door ajar, Sparks here could get every whisper coming up the cabin ventilators.... Well, Corba, if that’s your name, I guess that explains how you knew we were going to search the enlistment records. The minute I was alone in the Captain’s quarters, you just slipped in and bopped me on the head, eh?”
“Yes, sir!” gulped the radio operator, squirming unhappily on his chair. “You see, I had to, sir. I mean, I was afraid you’d....”
“Stow it!” rapped Don, his tone suddenly hard. “Get down to brass tacks, and give us the rest of this program for sinking a Navy vessel on the high seas. Putting the engines out of commission was only a starter, of course. Let’s hear what comes next.”
Corba’s black eyes slid away from the impact of Don’s steely gaze.
“Why—why, there ain’t no 'next,’ sir,” he answered, nervously. “Not until daylight, when a couple of fast bombin’ planes dive outa the sky and drop about a ton of high explosive down your fiddley hatch. What happens then don’t need no imagination to figure out, sir! And no man aboard can do a thing to prevent it.”
“Horse feathers!” burst out Red Pennington. “We’ve got anti-aircraft guns, mounted fore and aft, that can blow half a dozen fast bombers clean out of the ozone. What’re you trying to do, punk? Throw a scare into us?”
Drawn-faced, the radio operator shook his head. For a second, he seemed about to reply, but instead merely licked his lips and looked away.
Don Winslow sensed that the man was half-crazy with terror, every time he thought or spoke of the coming air attack. And for that fear there could be only one good reason.
“You might as well tell it straight, Corba!” he told the fidgeting prisoner. “Go on and admit that the ship’s guns have been damaged, as well as the engines! Unable to fight or run, this ship will be just a helpless target—or so you believe. Is that it?”
The radioman’s jaw dropped. He nodded weakly.