“Who knows?” Jack’s tone was thoughtful. “Perhaps a lot of people heard of it. We don’t know everything.”
“What people? Japs?”
“Perhaps. But I doubt that. Japs are clever imitators, but they don’t invent things.”
“Oh! Then it’s all right,” Stew breathed. “If they’re white men they’re friendly to us. Perhaps they’ll take us off this island.”
“We can’t be too sure of that.” Jack pricked Stew’s bubble of hope. “They might be Nazis. Don’t forget that there were a lot of Germans in these islands before the war—promoters, prospectors, traders, spies—all sorts. Now that Japan has the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies, do you think the Germans are staying away? Not on your life! They’re right in there getting theirs. You often hear of a German blockade runner being caught trying to sneak into Germany with badly needed raw materials. Where did the cargo come from?”
“Right over there,” Stew pointed to the west. “We’ve got to be careful.”
“You bet your sweet life we have! We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight.”
“We certainly will,” Stew agreed. “All the same, before I leave this island I’m going to have a look at that squealer if it costs me a leg.”
At that same moment back on the carrier, in the Commander’s cabin, Ted Armour was saying to the Commander:
“I think, sir, that something should be done about those two boys, Jack and Stew. They did a magnificent job, sir, watching that Jap task force up to the minute our bombers arrived.”