"You think so?" Dawson murmured, and turned his head to look at him.
"Okay, then. Figure it this way. One, that Japrat was smooth enough to
hear us outside that shack, and catch us with our flaps down. Two, he
was smooth enough to swipe a plane and chase us up to L.A. Three, he was
smooth enough to slip time fire bombs into the mail sacks aboard the
Fort we were to fly. Four ... But skip the rest. Do you think he's not
also smooth enough to somehow get word to his Honolulu man, so that this
end of the business won't go boom along with that Nazi spy? Do you think
he's dumb enough to risk the loss of an important spy contact here in
the Islands by just hoping that his Nazi spy won't be nailed? If you do,
you're nuts, is all I've got to say. And what's more, I'd like to lay a
little bet that he _also_ gets word to the Nazi spy. Maybe not until the
Nazi sets foot on shore, but darn soon after that, and don't kid
yourself."
"About the beggar in Honolulu, yes," Freddy Farmer said. Then with a
shake of his head, "But about that Nazi spy, no. He wouldn't be bothered
with that, because if he's as smart as you say he'll know that his Nazi
spy will never be able to set foot on shore. I mean, if he has such
communication with his Honolulu chap then he'll obviously be informed
that his mail sack business failed. That we did arrive. So he'll
naturally realize that his Nazi spy will be identified by us before he
even steps ashore."
"Nuts!" Dawson snapped. "If you give the guy a little brains, then for
cat's sake go all the way, and figure him for a lot of brains. Figure
him to be able to figure it the way we have. Vice-Admiral Stone's plan,
I mean. In short, that we won't grab the guy aboard ship. That we'll let
him go ashore, and trail him. Don't you see, Freddy? If that Jap figures
that we heard all about his Nazi spy sailing on one of the carriers,
then he _also_ figures that we _also_ heard about the meeting in
Honolulu. And he will act accordingly, believe you me!"
"Well, it's rather involved, but perhaps you're right," young Farmer
said with a shake of his head. "But if we spot the chap tomorrow, I
wouldn't call that failing."
"I would!" Dawson said quickly. "Nailing that Nazi spy is just part of
the thing. There's the Honolulu angle. Now that we're in it, we're in it
all the way, as far as I'm concerned. Our big mistake was to be caught
flat-footed way back at the start. So unless the whole thing is cleaned
up one hundred per cent, it'll be a failure for me, is the way I look at
it."
"Yes, I see your point," Freddy Farmer mumbled. "But not to change the
subject, what do you think of Vice-Admiral Stone's plan for us to spot
the chap?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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