“Boy, oh boy!” Stew exulted as they slid into the cloud. He set his radio with trembling fingers. “Here’s where we score a scoop!” “Wait!” Jack warned. “We can’t risk a false alarm. Might pull the entire task force off its course for nothing!” Jack was thinking. What a lovely cloud this is! There’s sure to be a carrier in that Jap convoy down there, if they’re really Jap ships—a carrier and Zeros. There’s sure to be a fight, and this ship of ours is good for only 260 M.P.H. at most! But this is what she was built for, and what we were trained for. This is our zero hour. He drew in three deep breaths of air and felt better. Jitters, he decided. They all get them. Old Ironsides says we’d be no good if we didn’t. Stew had not advised going into a cloud without a reason. They were still some distance from the task force—too far to be sure of anything. By following it in the cloud they could obtain a better view. The cloud was miles long and appeared to dip down toward the sea. They were constantly running into thin filmy fringes and being obliged to drop lower. They didn’t want to be spotted by a Zero. Not yet. They must make sure that this was really a Jap task force, and get in a report. Then let the Zeros come if they would. They’d give them a grand exhibition of cloud hopping and, if need be, a glorious shooting match as well. “No shooting if we can help it,” Jack told himself. “Our job is to spot the enemy task force and sit above them, sending in reports until our bombers and torpedo planes come to attack. We—” His thoughts broke off sharply. What was this he was hearing? A high-pitched whistle like a country fire alarm. No doubt about it. It was on the same key as the one they had heard the night before. Stew had heard it too—Jack could tell by the look in his eyes. “Some Jap trick!” Jack exclaimed, gripping the controls hard. “Got to be ready for anything!” Stew was swinging his gun about as a ballplayer swings his bat before a try at the ball. The screaming noise increased. It filled the air, and seemed almost upon them. Acting by instinct, Jack went into a sudden steep dive. The next instant he looked up to see a shadowy bulk shoot through the misty clouds above them to lose itself at terrific speed in the distance. “That,” said Stew, with a shudder, “was a torpedo. The Japs shot it at us. If it had connected we wouldn’t be here.” “I wonder,” said Jack. There was little time for wondering, for suddenly they were out of the clouds, not far from the sea. And directly beneath them lay the enemy task force. So near was it that it looked almost like a cardboard display against a field of blue. “Zeros!” Stew warned suddenly. “Three of them over to the left!” Jack dipped a wing, touched the accelerator, cut an astonishingly short circle, and re-entered the same cloud.