“Sure!” Scoot said. “If you can surface enough to let me out—later when it’s good and dark—I’ll swim to it, get in, cut the anchor, and be off before those Nips know what’s going on.”
“Then what will you do?” Larry demanded.
“I’m in a Jap seaplane,” Scoot said. “Outposts won’t pay any attention to me, because I’m right where a Jap seaplane ought to be flying along, going back to its battleship in the morning. Nobody will question me by radio because they’re keeping radio silence.”
“All this is assuming that my hypothesis is correct,” Larry said.
“I think it is,” Scoot said. “At least it’s what a hypothesis is—a good basis on which to work until it’s disproved. So let’s go ahead. You want to find this convoy faster than your sub can get you there. In that plane I can find it in a hurry—if it’s there.”
“You certainly can,” Larry agreed, beginning to get excited about Scoot’s idea. “But when you’ve found it—what then?”
“Well—I get word to you somehow,” Scoot said. “Now, let’s see—”
“I’ve got an idea,” March said. “Scoot sights the convoy, gets a line on its size and direction, then turns around and heads right back again. He knows our exact course. He’ll come down on that course at a spot we designate. We’ll surface and pick him up there. That eliminates all radio communication—even if that Jap plane has a radio and Scoot can get it on our wave-length and use it. And if he did we’d have to be traveling on the surface to get his message any distance away, and we’d better not do that too much.”
“Sounds okay,” Larry said. “But what happens on that Jap convoy when they see their seaplane approach, look around, and then head back again? Won’t they think that’s mighty funny?”
“Sure they will,” Scoot said. “And I can’t quite guess what they’ll do about it. Maybe nothing, just put it down as another Jap pilot gone wacky. Anyway, they won’t feel there’s any danger. But they might send another plane up to have a look and see what’s wrong. I’d just hope to be on my way by that time and out of his reach. Anyway, that’s one of the chances we take. While I’m flying there I can get the Jap radio in shape, so that I could radio a message to you if I saw I was going to be shot down. You could surface for a short while about the time that might be happening, so you’d get any message.”