Signal flags fluttered up aloft the destroyer carrying the collection of pilots, and signal flags in answer were seen to break out from one of the carriers. A moment later the task force ships maneuvered about into a change of position, and during the next few minutes too many things happened too smoothly to give either Freddy or Dave a chance to take in the entire picture. Colonel Welsh and the destroyer's commander stepped out on the bridge along with the next in command. Names were called out. The pilots were split into two groups, one group assigned to one side of the destroyer, and the other group to the other side. Dave and Freddy were assigned to the port side, and in less time than it takes to tell about it, the destroyer ran up close alongside one of the carriers that was practically stationary in the water. The destroyer was warped in even closer, and at a command from the bridge the pilots went up rope ladders and in through an opened hull door of the giant carrier towering high above the destroyer. And no sooner were they aboard the carrier than a young ensign took their names, and turned them over to a seaman who in turn led them to their assigned quarters. As a matter of fact, so smoothly and with precision had everything functioned, that Dave's first move when he entered the cabin he and Freddy were to share was to sit down on one of the bunks, give a little shake of his head, and expel air from his lungs. "Boy, some navy!" he breathed. "No wonder they boast about it, plenty. Gosh! Seems like only a couple of seconds ago we were bouncing along on that tin can. And now here we are aboard this big baby that feels as motionless as the Empire State Building. Only it isn't. She's boiling off knots, now." Freddy glanced out the port at the dawn-tinted waters sweeping past, and nodded half-heartedly. "Quite," he murmured. "But now that we're aboard, what next, I wonder?" The English-born air ace didn't have to wonder long. The last word had hardly left his lips when the inter-ship speaker (nick-named Donald Duck) barked forth with orders. "All pilots report to the flight deck at once! All pilots report to the flight deck at once!" "That's us!" Dawson grunted, and made a pass or two at his tunic to straighten out a few of the wrinkles that actually weren't there. "Hit the deck, Freddy! Top side with you, sailor!" "Don't!" the English youth groaned, and took a quick glance at his reflection in the small wall mirror. "You talk bad enough as an Army man." "Every day it comes more compliments!" Dawson mocked, and led the way through the cabin door. Some twenty or so seconds later they were up on the flight deck and with the members of the group gathered just under the signal bridge. Up there they saw a lot of Navy gold, but it was Colonel Welsh who spoke to them.