"I admire your courage, and your splendid offer, Dawson," he said. "But it would be impossible, old man. You just couldn't bring it off, though not through any fault of yours, mind you. But the whole place is double guarded, as Major Crandall explained. And, not to take away one bit from the splendid services you have rendered Intelligence in the past, both the major's men and mine were the very best in the game. They have been there on the spot for weeks, and have obviously failed, and paid with their lives. Heaven knows I'd grab at your offer if I so much as thought there was the ghost of a chance, but--Well, you see, old man?" The colonel smiled kindly, and gestured with his two hands, palms upward. Then he blinked as Dawson smiled back at him, and shook his head. "No, sir," he said, "I don't see it your way. I don't mean that Farmer and I would walk right into Number Sixteen Kholerstrasse and find out what was what. Chances are that we might neither of us get to within a mile of the place. However, if those mysterious factories are linked up with Number Sixteen, then maybe we could do something about it. Learn a little something, anyway." "Eh?" the colonel murmured. "I--I don't quite think I follow you. Do you mean, get a look at what's in those factories? But, good heavens, my dear chap! How on earth--?" "Something like that, sir," Dawson interrupted quietly. "But not, perhaps, the way your agents, and Major Crandall's agents, tried it. I wouldn't be so conceited as even to begin to think that I could walk in their footsteps and accomplish something they failed at. And I know Farmer isn't that conceited either." "Oh, definitely not," Freddy said. "But what in the world are you driving at, Dave?" "Yes, Dawson, speed it up, will you?" Major Crandall said with a frown. "What's it all about?" Dawson hesitated and drew in a deep breath like a man about to make a high dive into icy water. "Briefly, this, sir," he finally said. "Two Luftwaffe pilots fighting off an R.A.F.-Eighth Air Force raid on Duisburg are shot down. They bail out and come down close to one of those mystery factories. They seem to be injured, and are probably taken inside the factory to be given first aid. Or maybe they just stumble in like dazed men not knowing where they are going. Anyway, they get inside and they certainly see something of what's going on inside. Well, those two Luftwaffe pilots will be Farmer and myself." "My word!" Colonel Fraser almost choked, as Dawson paused. "But--but it's too utterly fantastic, Dawson!" "I don't know, sir," Major Fraser broke in quickly. "Maybe he's got something there. Yes, maybe he _has_ got something there." "But, my dear Major!" Colonel Fraser exclaimed, and stopped. Then, beginning again, he said, "Assume, if you like, that they can float down by parachute as Luftwaffe pilots. Assume that one of them does get into a factory. What then?" Major Crandall didn't reply. He looked at Dawson instead.