Mission To Siberut

First published in Thrilling Adventures, October 1942. Reprinted in Night over the Solomons and The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Vol 4.
"Steve Cowan flies north from Port Darwin, Australia in an attempt to destroy a shipload of fighter planes that is being brokered to the Japanese. A modern day pirate, Besi John Mataga, hijacked the freighter on it’s way from Germany to Japan with a sample shipment of fighter aircraft. In a move of nearly insane recklessness, Mataga is offering to ransom the planes back to the Japanese, unless Cowan can stop the shipment. Allied intelligence believes it knows where the ship is hidden and it’s a race against time for the Japanese are both searching for their stolen shipment and negotiating to pay the ransom."