“I don’t need to radio Colonel Welsh,” Colonel Bates said with a faint smile. “You see—I’ve already received my orders, while you were in the air on the way down from Albuquerque. Oh, don’t look so alarmed, Dawson. My orders were simply to grant any request you put to me. On my honor, I haven’t the faintest idea why you are—were on your way to the Canal Zone by ferry bomber. But, well—well, you two have a bit of a reputation, you know.”
“Only too well, sir,” Dave said with a groan. “Maybe we’ve served our usefulness in Intelligence work! We don’t seem to be recognized any more than Santa Claus would be. Maybe we’d better wear false beards and wigs, or something.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say it was as bad as that yet,” the Base Commandant said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t say that anybody here at the Base connects your arrival here with Intelligence work. It’s simply that when I received Colonel Welsh’s code message I put two and two together, and got four. So you want to return to Albuquerque, huh?”
“Yes, sir,” Dave said, and ignored the searching gaze Freddy Farmer was now giving him. “Not right at this minute, of course. An hour or two before midnight, tonight, will be plenty of time. But we do wish to return.”
“Naturally your wish must be granted,” the senior officer said, and grinned. “I don’t suppose you could give me a reason, eh? Something happened en route that gave you ideas about Albuquerque?”
Dave grinned at him, and nodded.
“Something did happen en route, sir,” he said. “That pencil incendiary fire. And it did give me ideas. I’m sorry, sir, but that’s as far as I’d care to go.”
“Then it’ll have to be far enough for me, I guess,” the Base Commandant said with a sigh of disappointment. “A little before midnight, eh? Okay, then. The Vultee will be all gassed and ready for you then. One more question, though—that is, if you’d care to answer it. Was this the first attempt made on your lives?”
“It was the third,” Dave said quietly. Then he added, “And I’m hoping there won’t be a fourth before we leave.”
Colonel Bates’ eyes popped, and he whistled softly.