The goal was for pushpots to touch ground finally with the whole weight of the flying monstrosity supported by the vertical thrust of the jet, and while it was moving forward at the lowest possible rate of speed. When that goal was achieved, they flopped solidly flat, slid a few feet on their metal bellies, and lay still. Some hit hard and tried to dig into the earth with their blunt noses. Joe finally saw one touch with no forward speed at all. It seemed to try to settle down vertically, as a rocket takes off. That one fell over backward and wallowed with its belly plates in the air before it rolled over on its side and rocked there.
The last of a flight touched down and flopped, and the memory of the wreckage had been overlaid by these other sights and Joe could think of his next meal without aversion. When it was evening-mess time he went doggedly back to the mess hall. There was a sort of itchy feeling in his mind. He knew something he didn't know he knew. There was something in his memory that he couldn't recall.
Talley and Walton were again at mess. Joe went to their table. Talley looked at him inquiringly.
"Yes, I saw both crashes," said Joe gloomily, "and I didn't want any lunch. It was sabotage, though. Only it was different in kind--it was different in principle--from the other tricks. But I can't figure out what it is!"
"Mmmmmm," said Talley, amiably. "You'd learn something if you could talk to the Resistance fighters and saboteurs in Europe. The Poles were wonderful at it! They had one chap who could get at the tank cars that took aviation gasoline from the refinery to the various Nazi airfields. He used to dump some chemical compound--just a tiny bit--into each carload of gas. It looked all right, smelled all right, and worked all right. But at odd moments Hitler's planes would crash. The valves would stick and the engine'd conk out."
Joe stared at him. And it was just as simple as that. He saw.
"The Nazis lost a lot of planes that way," said Talley. "Those that didn't crash from stuck valves in flight--they had to have their valves reground. Lost flying time. Wonderful! And when the Nazis did uncover the trick, they had to re-refine every drop of aviation gas they had!"