Dawson leaned forward slightly and stared in the direction of Freddy's
pointing finger. A couple of seconds later he saw the unmistakable
flashing of a light. Because of the Flying Fortress's altitude it was no
more than a pin-prick of light. But it was very real just the same.
"Yes, I catch," he finally grunted. "Probably one of our ships
requesting us to flash our identification signal. The heck with them.
They should know that no Jap plane could possibly be in this neck of the
woods."
"But what if they open fire, if they have flak guns aboard?" Freddy
murmured as they both continued to watch the blinking light far below.
"There's such a thing as a lucky hit, even at our altitude."
"Okay, if you insist, pal," Dave grunted, and started to reach out his
hand. "But ... Hey! Did you catch that, Freddy? That looked like the old
SOS to me."
"It was!" young Farmer replied with a nod, and hunched forward a bit
more on his co-pilot seat. "Wait a minute! He's trying to send
something else. K ... D ... J? K, D, J? Wonder what that means?"
"Take a look in that signal book in the pocket beside you," Dawson said.
"I think those things have surface ship signals as well as aircraft
signals. Take a look anyway."
It didn't take young Farmer more than a few seconds to find what he was
hunting for. Excitement rang in his voice as he spoke to Dawson.
"Here it is, Dave!", he cried. "K, D, J. Attacked by enemy force! Please
give assistance."
"Attacked by enemy force?" Dawson echoed sharply, and squinted hard down
at the still blinking pin-point of light. "Must be some ship nailed by a
Jap submarine. Maybe we'd better slide down for a look. At least that
should scare the Jap sub away, if there's one still lurking around. A
Jap submarine east of Pearl Harbor? Well, what do you know? Get back at
the port gun slot, Freddy, just in case we get the chance to take a
crack at something. And I think I'll drop a flare so's we can get a good
look."
"No, don't, Dave!" young Farmer said sharply, and gripped his arm as
though to restrain him.
"No?" Dawson echoed. "Why not? We won't be able to see much in this
dark. And certainly not a Jap submarine, if there's one on the
surface."
"I know," Freddy said with a shrug. "But I've got a funny feeling. A
flare would light us up nicely, too, you see? Let's play it cautious,
what say?"
"Okay, okay," Dave said with a grin. "Maybe you have got something
there. Anyway, get back to the port gun slot, and I'll slide us down a
bit."
"Right you are," Freddy said, and slid out of the co-pilot's seat and
made his way aft.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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