“That is a pet name my Dutch friends have given me.” He smiled at Stan. “But come, we are being delayed.”
A gate opened and a man in coveralls came up to meet them. Domber spoke to him and the man walked with them to a locked door in a second wall. Producing a key, he opened the door and let them through.
Stan was startled by what he saw. There was a sunken runway leading into an underground hangar. Domber beamed.
“Not a bomb ever falls here. Above our shops there is a church and a schoolhouse. We do much valuable research here and cannot afford to be disturbed.”
Stan looked along the runway. It ended abruptly at a steel fence, but a roadway went on in a twisting course, making detection of the runway difficult.
“Very clever,” Stan said.
“I was sure you’d appreciate it,” Domber said. “Now we’ll have a look at the P-51.”
They entered the underground hangar by going down a shaft in an elevator. Stepping out of the elevator Stan saw a well-lighted and spacious hangar. Various planes stood along one high wall. There was a Fort, a Wellington, two Spitfires, a Lockheed Lightning, and at the far end in a wide shop space stood a new P-51. Her nose was pointed out toward the runway and she looked ready to glide out from underground and take off. Domber laughed.
“I’m sorry, but it can’t be done,” he said as though Stan had spoken his thoughts out loud.
“Can’t blame me for thinking about it, can you?” Stan asked.