Dave instantly turned his head to face east, and peered hard at the cloud-dotted blue sky. For a second or so he didn’t see a thing but clouds and blue sky. Then suddenly he saw a dot moving along the underneath side of one of the clouds. But it was just a moving dot to him. A plane, of course. But as far as he was concerned, it could well be a free balloon at that distance. He looked back again at Freddy and was startled by the wildly excited look on his pal’s face.
“Recognize the type?” he echoed. “What do you think I’ve got here? An X-ray machine for distance. And what’s eating you? What’s making you so excited, for cat’s sake?”
“Who wouldn’t be?” the English youth yelled back at him, and stabbed the air with his pointed finger. “You should get some glasses. Dave, that plane up there is one of the new Nazi Arados! The folding wing type that they can carry aboard the larger type of German U-boats. You know, they use them for scouting convoys and stragglers left behind. That’s what that is up there—one of the new Nazi Arados! I could spot one of those in the dark. So I know I’m absolutely right!”
Dave’s mouth fell open in dumbfounded amazement, and for a second or two he couldn’t move, much less speak a word.
“What?” he finally bellowed. “A Nazi U-boat plane? You’re sure?”
“Yes!” Freddy barked at him. “Yes, for goodness’ sake, let’s do something about it before the blighter sees us, and hides away in one of those clouds.”
Long before Freddy Farmer had finished his words, Dave had whirled around front and was feeding the thundering Wright Cyclone every ounce of high test octane it could take. He hauled the Vultee around and stuck the nose up toward the clouds in the distance. He leaned forward against the controls and strained his eyes upward. It wasn’t until a few seconds had ticked by that he really got a good look at the plane’s silhouette stamped on a background cloud. But when he did get that good look, there was no longer the slightest doubt that Freddy had been seeing things.
It was a Nazi U-boat Arado, right enough. He could see the biplane wings, the rounded fuselage with the radial engine in the nose, and the war painted pontoon fitted underneath. He stared at it for several moments as the Vultee went prop screaming upwards. Then he impulsively lowered his gaze and swept the stretches of the Caribbean below him. But to his disappointment he didn’t see any U-boat on the surface of the water, or below it, for that matter. Nor was there any telltale thread-like wake of a periscope going through the water. There was nothing but just blue water, and not the sign of a single vessel of any description.
“More speed, Dave!” came Freddy’s excited cry to his ears. “I think the beggar has seen us. Yes, he has! And there he goes for that big cloud. Blast it! If only he were in range!”
Dave made no comment. His eyes were again on the tiny Nazi seaplane, and he could see it scooting upward toward the white fluffy belly of a great big cloud.