The Jap made a sound like air coming out of a punctured tire, and wild
hatred seemed to come out all over him in lumps.
"Lies, all lies!" he screamed. "Never again will Tokyo be bombed by you
American dogs. We have seen to it, yes! You will all be dead and in the
water before you even sight our shores!"
Dawson shrugged again but kept his gaze on the German's face.
"Were you on the surface for very long last night?" he suddenly asked.
The Nazi started, and blinked.
"What?" he demanded. "What's that?"
"I asked if you were on the surface much last night?" Dave repeated.
"Was your radio open all the time?"
The German hesitated as though reluctant to reveal even that bit of
utterly useless information. Then he made up his mind, and nodded
curtly.
"Yes, we were," he said. "And the radio was open. Why?"
"You didn't hear the Tokyo station, did you, by any chance?" Dave asked
softly, and leaned forward slightly. "Did you hear _any_ Tokyo
broadcast? Say from midnight on?"
The Jap hissed some more, but Dawson didn't so much as look at him. He
kept staring at the Nazi, who was all scowls now. And there was a queer,
unfathomable look in his eyes. Then suddenly he blurted out the
question.
"You mean that Tokyo was bombed last night?"
Dawson calmly hunched one shoulder and gestured with his two hands,
palms upward.
"Maybe it wasn't Tokyo," he said quietly. "We didn't have a radio in our
raft. Maybe other objectives were selected at the last minute. I just
thought that maybe you had heard, and could tell me. Then you didn't
hear the Tokyo radio last night, eh? And maybe it was _off_ the air?"
"Lies, all lies!" the Jap screamed again, and actually jumped up and
down in his fury. "Not one enemy bomber will ever get within sight of
our shores."
Dave was tempted to turn and snap, "Quiet! small fry!" but instead he
kept looking at the Nazi commander. He could tell that the German had a
head full of thoughts, all bad. He and Freddy had planted the seeds of
doubt and worry in the German's brain. And if they played it very
carefully they might do more to help the Guadalcanal attack from right
here in the U-boat than they would have if they had been able to make a
hundred scouting patrols off the flight deck of the carrier Carson. At
any rate, it was plain to see from the Nazi's face that the little
"tête-à-tête" wasn't exactly working out the way he had planned.
Something had gone off the track somewhere along the line.
Suddenly the Nazi took his eyes off Dawson and looked at the Jap.
"Watch these two, and don't lose your head," he spoke in German. "For
the present they are more valuable alive. I am going to surface, if it's
clear, and see if there is anything on the radio. I won't be long."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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