Stan grinned broadly. He pulled the P–40’s nose up and spiraled into the sky. He knew the Japs had sighted him. They were all coming down the chute with Munson in the lead. Stan banked sharply and kept climbing. He did not intend to give them a target. His thumb caressed the gun button and his eyes held on the P–40 leading the Kariganes.
The attackers spread out to keep Stan from climbing above them. Munson was far in the lead because of his greater speed. Stan suddenly looped over. Munson knifed past at a terrific pace, missing Stan by a hundred feet.
Stan caught a glimpse of the scowling face of his enemy as Munson flashed past. He knifed over and went down after Munson. The Nazi spy started to circle with Stan after him. They went into a furious Lufberry circle, each tightening and narrowing that circle in an effort to bring his guns into play. The pace was dizzy and everything was blotted out in a whirl of speed. The Jap planes darted about but could not close in.
Stan soon realized that the extra weight he was carrying was giving Munson the advantage. He was edging Stan into position for a blast from his Brownings. Suddenly he flipped the controls and the P–40 shuddered under the slap of air that hit her. She bounced straight up a thousand feet but held together.
Munson swung wide out of his circle and came up, but Stan had the ace spot. He dropped off his perch and came down, straight at Munson. This was a test of courage, gun to gun. Stan’s burst beat Munson to the barrage. Lead ripped into the P–40 coming up, ragged holes opened in her fuselage. Munson slid off on one wing without getting in a burst.
Stan dived after Munson but now he had three Kariganes on his own tail. They were peppering away with their light armament. Stan scowled as he laid over and zoomed out of their fire. The Japs went on down and flattened out. Stan saw that Munson was hiking it for home. Evidently he was not hurt badly.
The Japs made one attempt to come up at him but Stan was king of the air, now that the fast P–40 was out of the way. He knifed across and opened up on one hapless Karigane. The Jap fighter seemed to explode in the air. It went hurtling down out of control and in flames. The other two dived and headed off after Nick Munson.
Stan leveled off and headed for the Rangoon base. He looked back at Niva. For a few minutes he had forgotten all about the girl. She was white-faced but her eyes were sparkling. She forced a smile and made a thumbs-up sign to him.
They crossed the Salween River and were boring toward home when Stan sighted two fighter planes coming down out of the sky at a roaring pace. They were on him before he could lay over and duck out of their path. They plummeted past and then came back up. Stan laughed softly as O’Malley’s rich brogue came in over his radio.
“Sure, an’ yer gettin’ back late, Commander. Breakfast is over.”