Freddy snorted in disgust and Flight Lieutenant Barker grinned.
"You've got a bite, Dawson?" he asked. "Fleas, perhaps?"
"Huh, me?" Dave echoed, and then turned beet red.
He still had one hand stuck inside his tunic. He pulled it out and they all laughed.
"No kidding, though, Flight Lieutenant," he said. "Isn't that Mark Five the best thing that ever came down the pike?"
"Down the pike?" the senior officer murmured. Then brightening, "Oh yes, I get what you mean. Quite! Best bus in the R.A.F. I'm all for having a go at a Jerry or two right now. I think we'll sweep the skies with the Mark Fives. But I hear that even better planes are on the drafting boards right now."
"Phew, that's hard to believe!" Freddy breathed. "I mean, that anything could be better than the Mark Five."
"Shame, Farmer!" Barker said with a grin. "And that statement from the lips of an Englishman!"
"Is he?" Dave asked with a mock gasp.
"Is he what?" Barker wanted to know.