"I don't know, sir," he said after a short moment of hesitation. "Frankly, I have not the knowledge whether we are well enough equipped, or not."
"Exactly!" Group Captain Ball cried and poked the air with his finger for emphasis. "You do not know, and neither do thousands and thousands of others. Only a mere handful of men know the true strength of Britain's armed forces today. And Adolf Hitler is not one of that group. In other words, Hitler does not know whether or not we would strike at him with an invasion of the Continent once he removes the bulk of his forces from the occupied countries. At the same time, though, Hitler is not such a fool ... insane as the man is ... as to leave himself wide open for an attack from our side of the Channel."
"But if he withdraws the troops, and...?" Dave began and stopped short.
"He will withdraw his troops," Group Captain Ball interrupted. "Never fear. The beggar has to, or run the risk of possible defeat on the eastern front. But how can he withdraw the major portion of his forces from the occupied countries, and still feel safe from attack by England? That has been the problem we have been struggling with for the past five weeks. Ever since his bandits marched into Yugoslavia. And we think we've got an inkling of the correct answer."
The Group Captain paused and looked at Colonel Trevor.
"I think you'd better carry on from there, Colonel," he said. "You've been in charge of that end of the thing."
The Intelligence officer nodded, studied his fingernails for a moment, and then looked up. The glint of worry, or sadness, was still in his eyes, but in them also was the glitter of hard boiled determination.
"Some three weeks ago," he began, "British Intelligence received word from one of its members who has been in Germany since long before the start of the war. This communication received was the first that had come through from this agent in some four months. He had been recorded in our files as missing or dead. So it was a great joy to all concerned to learn that he was still alive and operating."
Colonel Trevor paused to crush out the cigarette he was smoking, and clear his throat.
"That agent was my brother," he continued presently. "The dead man you saw thrown out of that Messerschmitt, Dawson. Today ... today was the first time he had been in England for four years! All that time he was in Germany, serving England. He actually became a member of their cursed Gestapo, and as such obtained much information about Hitler's plans that was of inestimable value to us. However, in those days we did not have a government in power that believed Adolf Hitler was nothing but a liar and a dirty murderer. Consequently practically all of my brother's reports were shelved, and ignored completely. He stuck at his job, however, and after we once got into the war ... and there was a fighting Prime Minister at Number Ten Downing Street ... my brother's efforts began to help us no end. But never mind that, now. It's all past history. It's events since receiving that communication about three weeks ago that we're interested in right now."