“By eating a pie while Colonel Benson was delivering a lecture on how to capture Italy,” the major chuckled.

“So he’s back on the firing line. I say, that’s just where he wanted to be,” Allison said.

“No, he didn’t rate that well,” the major explained. “The Old Man chucked him into a job of ferrying planes to Malta so we’d have some reserves in close to Sicily. Less than an hour ago O’Malley told me it was a quiet and peaceful job, but one he didn’t like.”

Stan looked at Allison. “You were right, there was a mouse, a big, dead one.” He nodded to the major. “Thanks, Major,” he said.

They turned away and walked out of the room. Allison laid a hand on Stan’s arm as they turned toward the door of Mess Three.

“Suppose we surprise O’Malley,” he suggested.

“He’ll be in no mood for surprises,” Stan answered. “He’ll be a wild man. With the whole Army and Navy getting set to force a beach-head and him on ferry duty, he’ll be red-hot.”

“We are to fill in on his flight. We might work it so that he wouldn’t know until we take off. We could be a bit late in showing up.” There was a twinkle in Allison’s eyes.

Stan began to grin. “I like the idea,” he said. “We’re stuck the same as he is and might as well cheer him up.”

They went to the operations room and located Captain Marks who regarded them with unbelieving eyes.

“You mean to say you gave up a vacation trip to Alexandria to take this ferry job with that wild Irishman, O’Malley?”

“Sure,” Stan said with a grin. “We like ferrying. It’s the sort of life for any ambitious officer.”

Captain Marks regarded them intently. “I have your assignments here, but I haven’t seen anything of O’Malley.”

“Suppose you shove them at him the last thing before the flight takes off. We’d like to surprise him, having been a pal of his for a long time.”

The captain grinned. “It will be a surprise,” he said. “I know about you three and I’m looking for trouble. O’Malley never looks at assignment or flight orders. And there will be only the three of you.” His grin faded and he scowled at the two pilots. “We’ll only lose three ships and I guess we can afford that.”