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diff --git a/old/44813-0.txt b/old/44813-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5507335 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44813-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6811 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sally Scott of the Waves, by Roy J. Snell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sally Scott of the Waves + +Author: Roy J. Snell + +Illustrator: Hedwig Jo Meixner + +Release Date: February 1, 2014 [EBook #44813] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALLY SCOTT OF THE WAVES *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and Sue Clark + + + + + + Sally Scott + of the + WAVES + + Story by + ROY J. SNELL + + Illustrated by + HEDWIG JO MEIXNER + + WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY + RACINE, WISCONSIN + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Copyright, 1943, by + WHITMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY + + Printed in U.S.A. + + All names, characters, places, and events in this + story are entirely fictitious. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + CONTENTS + + I Up the Ladder + II The Radio from the Sky + III A Message in Code + IV Danny Duke Makes a Catch + V Danny Shares a Secret + VI Through a Hole in the Sky + VII Silent Storm + VIII Danger is My Duty + IX Sally Steps Out + X Sally Saves a Life + XI Secret Meeting + XII They Fly at Dawn + XIII Among the Missing + XIV The Captain’s Dinner + XV Danny’s Busy Day + XVI The Dark Siren + XVII Little Shepherdess of the Big Ships + XVIII The Secret Radio Wins Again + XIX Oh, Danny Boy! + XX A Gleam from the Sea + XXI Dreams + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + Sally Placed the Black Box on the Study Table + Ensign Mills Interviewed Sally + “You Mean I’ll Have to Drop From the Sky?” + She Stepped Out on the Roof and Clung to the Gable + Barbara’s Head Came Out From Beneath the Covers + Barbara Was Staring Gloomily at the Floor + “Good Old Chute!” Sally Murmured + “Danny! What Are You Doing Here?” + They Swung Out Over the Sea Again + “It Could Be a Flight of Our Bombers.” + “Riggs, I’m Convinced!” the Captain Declared + “I Thought You Might Need Me,” She Said + Danny Watched the Last Little Traveler Pass + Sally Stood Looking at the Endless Black Waters + A Sailor Helped Sally to Her Feet + Sally Saw Two Sailors Carry Riggs Out + They Watched Breathlessly as the Bomb Struck + “See, I Have a Present for You,” Said Sally + She Hit the Water Near Danny’s Raft + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: Sally Placed the Black Box on the Study Table] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + SALLY SCOTT OF THE WAVES + + + CHAPTER ONE + + UP THE LADDER + + +It was mid-afternoon of a cloudy day in early autumn. Sally Scott glided +to the one wide window in her room and pulled down the shade. Then, with +movements that somehow suggested deep secrecy, she took an oblong, black +box, not unlike an overnight bag, from the closet. After placing this +with some care on her study table, she pressed a button, and caught the +broad side of the box, that, falling away, revealed a neat row of +buttons and switches. Above these was an inch-wide opening where a +number of spots shone dimly. + +After a glance over her shoulder, Sally shook her head, tossing her +reddish-brown hair about, fixed her eyes on this strange box and then +with her long, slender, nervous fingers threw on a switch, another, and +yet another in quick succession. Settling back in her chair, she watched +the spots above the switches turn into tiny, gleaming, red lamps that +gave off an eerie light. + +“Red for blood, black for death,” someone had said to her. She shuddered +at the thought. + +From the box came a low, humming sound. She turned a switch. The hum +increased. She turned it again and once more the hum rose in intensity. +This time, however, it was different. Suddenly the hum was broken by a +low, indistinct hut—hut—gr—gr—gr—hut—hut—hut. + +“Oh!” The girl’s lips parted as a look of surprise and almost of triumph +spread over her face. + +And then, suddenly, she started to leap from her chair. A key had +rattled in the door. + +Before she could decide what she should do, the door swung open and +someone snapped on a light. + +And then a voice said, “Oh! I’m sorry! I’ve been in the bright sunlight. +The room seemed completely dark.” + +“It really doesn’t matter,” Sally spoke slowly, studying the other +girl’s face as she did so. The girl was large and tall. Her hair was jet +black. She had a round face and dark, friendly eyes. This much Sally +learned at a glance. “It doesn’t matter,” she repeated. “I suppose we +are to be roommates.” + +“It looks that way,” the other girl agreed. “I just arrived.” She set +her bag on the floor. + +“I see.” Sally was still thinking her way along. “Then I suppose you +don’t know that we are not allowed to have radios in our rooms.” + +“No—I—” + +“But you see, I have one,” Sally went on. “I suppose I could be sent +home for keeping it, but I’m going to chance it. I—I’ve just got to. +It—it’s terribly important that I keep it. It—well, you can see it’s +not like other radios. It’s got—” + +“Red eyes,” the other girl said in a low voice. + +“Yes, but that’s not all. You couldn’t listen to a program on it if you +tried. It—it’s very different. There are only two others like it in all +the world.” + +“I see,” said the new girl. + +“No, you don’t, see at all,” Sally declared. “You couldn’t possibly. The +only question right now is: will you share my secret? Can I count on +you?” + +“Yes,” the black-haired girl replied simply. And she meant just that. +Sally was sure of it. + +“Thanks, heaps.” Her eyes shone. “You won’t be sorry. Whatever may +happen you’ll not be dragged into it. + +“And,” she added after a pause, “there’s nothing really wrong about it, +I’m a loyal American citizen, too loyal perhaps, but you see, my father +was in the World War, Grandfather at Manila Bay, and all that.” + +“My father died in France,” the large, dark-eyed girl said simply. “I +was too young to recall him.” + +“That was really tough. I’ve had a lot of fun with my dad. + +“But excuse me.” Once again Sally’s fingers gripped a knob and the +mysterious radio set up a new sort of hum. With a headset clamped over +her ears, she listened intently, then said in a low tone: + +“Hello. Nancy! Are you there?” + +Again she listened, then laughed low. + +“I’m sorry, Nancy,” she apologized, speaking through a small mouthpiece. +“Something terribly exciting happened. I got something on the shortest +wave-length, where nothing’s supposed to be. + +“Yes, I did!” she exclaimed. Then: “No! It can’t be! Fifteen minutes. +Oh, boy! I’ll have to step on it. I—I’ll be right down. Meet you at the +foot of the ladder.” + +“What ladder?” the big girl asked in surprise. + +“The one from first floor to second, of course. We don’t have stairways +in this place, you know, only ladders.” Sally laughed low. + +After turning off the switches, Sally snapped the black box shut, then +hid it in a dark corner of the closet. + +“But I just came up a stairway,” the new girl insisted. + +“Oh, no you didn’t!” Sally laughed. “It was a ladder!” + +“But—” + +“You’re new here so you’ll have to work that one out. I’m sure you’ll +find I’m right.” Sally was hastily putting on hat, coat, and gloves. +“I’ve got to skip. Have my personal interview in fifteen minutes. That’s +where they try to find out what we’re good for. What’s your specialty? +Oh, yes, and what’s your name?” + +“I’m Barbara Brown. And I’m scared to death for fear they’ll send me +home. I haven’t done a thing but sew, and work in a laundry, and cook a +little.” + +“They’ll find a place for you. Just tell them your life story. Don’t be +afraid. You’ll win.” + +Sally was out of the room and down the “ladder” before Barbara could +have counted ten. + +At the foot of the “ladder” she met Nancy McBride, a girl she had known +well in the half-forgotten days of high-school basketball. + +“It’s perfectly terrible starting out in a new place with a deep +secret,” Sally said in a low tone as they hurried away toward the +“U.S.S. Mary Sacks” where interviews for all recent recruits were +conducted. + +“Yes, it is,” Nancy agreed soberly. “A trifle wacky if you’d ask me.” + +“But it’s so very important,” Sally insisted. + +“More important than making good with the WAVES?” Nancy asked soberly. +“For my part I can’t think of a thing in the world that could be half as +important as that. That’s just how I feel about it.” + +“Yes, that’s right. Oh! If I were thrown out of the WAVES I’d just want +to die.” Sally’s face took on a tragic look. “And yet—” + +“And yet, what?” + +“Well, you just don’t know old C. K. Kennedy, that’s all. I’ve been +working with him since I was fifteen and now I’m twenty-one.” + +“Working at radio? What did you know about radio when you were fifteen?” + +“That’s just it. I didn’t know a thing. You see, a radio came dropping +right out of the sky and—” + +“Out of the sky?” Nancy stared. + +“Yes, right into the middle of a meadow where I was looking for a +meadowlark’s nest.” + +“Say! Why don’t you talk sense? You can’t expect people—” + +“Shush,” Sally whispered. “Here’s the gangplank of the 'U.S.S. Mary +Sacks.’ We’ll have to get right in. Don’t betray me. I’ll explain it all +later.” + +As they entered, a girl in the nobby blue uniform of a WAVE said: + +“Take the ladder to Deck Two. Turn to the right and there you are.” + +“Yes,” Sally said to Nancy, with a sharp intake of breath, “there we +are. Right in the midst of things. Some sharp-eyed examiner will probe +our minds to find out how much we know, how keen we are, what our +motives for joining up were, and—” + +“And then she’ll start deciding what we can do best,” Nancy broke in. + +“And if she decides I’ll make a good secretary to an Admiral,” Sally +sighed, “I’ll wish I hadn’t come. Well—” She took a long breath. “Here +we go up Fortune’s ladder. Wish you luck.” + +“Same to you.” Then up they went. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime the big girl, Barbara, opened her bag, shook out her +clothes, packed some away in a drawer, hung others up, then dropped into +a chair for a few long, long thoughts. The truth was at that moment she +wished she hadn’t come. + +She thought of the steam laundry where she had worked for three years. +All the girls laughing and talking, the fine clean smell of sheets as +they ran through the mangle, the rattle and clank of machines and the +slap of flat-irons—it all came to her with a rush. + +“It’s all so strange here—” she whispered. “Go down the ladder, that’s +what she said. What ladder, I wonder?” + +Then she jumped up. She would have to get out of here, begin to face +things. What things? Just any things. If you faced them, they lost their +terror. They stepped to one side and let you by. + +After putting on her hat and coat, she opened the door to stand there +for a moment. Truth was, she was looking for the ladder. + +“Hi, there!” came in a cheery voice as a girl in a natty blue suit and +jaunty hat rounded a corner in the hall. “You’re one of the new ones, +aren’t you? Close the hatch and let’s get down the ladder for a coke at +the USO.” + +“The ha-hatch?” Barbara faltered. “What’s a hatch and where’s the +ladder?” + +“Right down—oh!” the girl in blue broke off. “I forgot. Of course you +wouldn’t know. You see, we are WAVES, you and I—” + +“Yes, I—” + +“So this place we live in is a ship, at least we say it is. This is not +the second floor but the second deck. The door is a hatch, the walls +bulkheads and, of course, the stairway is a ladder.” + +“Oh!” Barbara beamed. “That’s the way it is!” + + * * * * * + +Of course Sally and Nancy had not boarded a ship for their interview. +The “U.S.S. Mary Sacks” was a two story building turned over by the +college to the WAVES. And it was up a stairs, not a real ladder, that +the two girls climbed. It was all a part of the program that was to turn +girls from all walks of life into sailors. + +“Your name is Sally Scott?” said a girl in a WAVES uniform. + +“That’s right,” said Sally. + +“Come into my parlor,” the girl said, smiling, broadly and indicating a +small booth furnished with two chairs and a narrow table. + +“‘Said the spider to the fly.’” Sally returned the smile as she finished +the quotation.. + +“Oh! It’s not nearly as bad as that,” said the blonde examiner. “The fly +did not escape. You will, I am sure.” + +“Six months after the war is over.” Sally did not smile. + +“Yes, that sounds a bit serious, doesn’t it?” + +“It certainly does,” Sally agreed. + +“It’s nice to have a sense of humor and also a serious side,” said the +examiner. “We like them that way. You should get on well.” + +“Thanks. I’m glad you think so.” + +“My name is Marjory Mills. I won’t keep you long, at least not longer +than you wish to stay.” Ensign Mills motioned Sally to a chair. + +“By the way,” she said as she dropped into the opposite chair, “why did +you want to join the WAVES?” + +“It’s our war. We’re all in it. I hate the way the people of France, +Belgium, and all the rest are treated. They’re slaves. They’ve got to be +freed.” + +“Yes, of course.” + +“I’ve three cousins in the war. We were great pals. All the boys of our +crowd are gone, and some of the girls.” + +“Lonesome? Is that it?” + +“No, not entirely. I want them to come back, never wanted anything quite +so much. They can’t come back until we’ve done all we can to help them.” + +“That’s true,” Ensign Mills spoke quietly. “You’re sure that it wasn’t +romance, love of excitement, the desire to go places and see things that +brought you here?” + +Sally looked into the other girl’s eyes, then said: + +“Yes, of course it was, in part. No one motive ever draws us into making +a great decision, at least not often. Of course I dream of romance, +adventure, and travel. Who doesn’t?” + +“We all do,” Marjory Mills agreed frankly. “The only thing is, those +can’t be our main motives. If they were we should meet disappointment +and perhaps miserably fail. ‘Blood, sweat, and tears.’ That is what we +have ahead of us.” + +“Yes,” Sally replied soberly. “I know. My father has told me. He was in +France for more than a year.” + +“In the last war? Yes, then you would know. We like to have daughters of +veterans. Some of them are among our best. And now,” Marjory Mills’s +voice was brisk again. “What do you think you’d like to do? Or, first, +would you like to tell me your story?” + +“I’d love to. How much time have I?” Sally looked at her watch. + +“As much as you like.” Ensign Mills settled back in her chair. “Shoot!” + + + + + CHAPTER TWO + + THE RADIO FROM THE SKY + + +“I grew up, as every child must,” Sally began. “Until I was fifteen we +weren’t rich, not terribly poor either so—” + +“Middle class,” the examiner murmured. “Best people in the world.” + +“And then something happened,” Sally announced. + +“What was that?” + +“I was in a meadow looking for a meadowlark’s nest when a radio fell +from the sky.” + +“You wouldn’t by any chance be kidding me—” Marjory Mills’s eyes opened +wide. + +“No—” Sally sat up straight. “No, I wouldn’t. It wasn’t a big radio, +only a tiny one.” + +“How far did it fall?” + +“About seventy thousand feet.” + +“Only about fourteen miles. Not much of a tumble after all.” Once again +Marjory Mills’s eyes were wide. + +“It didn’t hit the ground very hard. It wasn’t broken.” + +[Illustration: Ensign Mills Interviewed Sally] + +“No, I suppose not.” + +“Well, it wasn’t.” Sally talked rapidly. “It was attached to what was +left of a large, paper balloon. As it went up, taking the radio with it, +the balloon expanded. It got larger and larger. At seventy thousand feet +the balloon burst and the radio came down.” + +“I see,” said Marjory Mills. + +“No—you don’t see. At least, I’m quite sure you don’t.” Sally half +apologized. “The radio had been sent up by a very nice old man who +wanted to know about the weather. As it went up, the radio, a sending +set, broadcast certain information about the weather. Don’t ask me how +because I don’t know all about that. All I knew at the time was that +attached to the radio was a card and on the card was written: ‘If the +finder of this radio will return it to C. K. Kennedy at Ferndale he will +receive a five dollar reward!’” + +“And you needed a new spring dress, so you returned the radio.” + +“Exactly! How did you ever guess that?” They joined in a merry laugh. + +“But I’m not joking.” Sally’s face sobered. “It’s every bit true.” + +“Of course,” was the quick response. “Tell me the rest.” + +“Well, you know, that nice old man, C. K. Kennedy, had lived in my own +town for three years and I’d never heard of him. He owned a tiny house +down by the river. Back of the house was his shop, where he invented +things.” + +“Oh! Then he was an inventor!” + +“Sure he is! When I brought him the radio I asked him why he sent it up +into the sky. He told me all about it, how he could learn all sorts of +things about how cold it would be, when it would rain, and all that just +by sending up radios to listen in for him. + +“That’s the way it started.” Sally heaved a sigh. “Old C. K.—everyone +called him that and I never knew his first name—he was so kind and told +me so much that I went back again, lots of times. + +“By and by I started helping him. Just doing little things. I told +people how good he was with radios and they started bringing them to be +fixed. We came to have quite a business. As soon as high school was over +I worked there all the time.” + +“You must have made quite a lot of money.” + +“Oh, no, not so much. You see,” Sally leaned forward, “we were like some +very fine surgeons. We charged what people could afford to pay.” + +“I see.” + +“And there are lots more poor people than rich ones.” + +“Always.” + +“When a little lame boy came in with a very cheap radio that got the +stations all jumbled up, we put in more transformers and tubes, +practically made a new radio out of it. Then it worked fine.” + +“And then you charged him—” + +“Just a dollar.” + +“But when a rich man brought you his big fussy radio that would get +Berlin, Tokio, London, and maybe Mars, you charged him—” + +“Plenty!” Sally laughed. + +“Yes, your old C. K. must have been a fine man, but what about the +inventions?” + +“Oh, that—” Sally frowned. “He’s such a sensitive old man, C. K. is. We +invented something quite wonderful—that is, _he_ did. That was quite a +while ago. I didn’t know much about it but we could ride about at night +in his rattly old car, and every now and then he’d stop and say: ‘See! +Some young fellow off there is operating a sending radio.’ We could have +driven right up to his door if we wanted to, but we never did.” + +“It was a radio-spotter!” + +“Yes, and C. K. said it was the best one ever made.” + +“What came of it?” + +“Nothing. You see, C. K. was very fond of his country. He thought Uncle +Sam should have his invention. So Mother and I fixed him up the best we +could—he just wasn’t interested in clothes—and we sent him off to +Washington. And,” Sally sighed deeply, “he just couldn’t stand waiting. +They kept him waiting three days. Then, because he was old and a little +bit shabby they thought he didn’t know much, so—” + +“So nothing came of it?” + +“Just nothing. C. K. came back discouraged and downhearted, but pretty +soon we were working as hard as ever. And now,” Sally’s eyes shone, “you +just ought to see—” + +The light in Sally’s eyes faded. Just in time she caught herself. She +had been about to betray the secret of the black box up there in her +room. + +“I—I can’t tell you,” she apologized. “I just must not. It’s his +secret.” + +“Of course. That’s all right,” Marjory Mills agreed. “That really +doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters just now is, how do you fit +in with the WAVES?” + +“Yes—yes—that’s it.” Sally leaned forward, eager and alert. + +“I’ll just go down our little list,” Marjory Mills smiled. “You can tell +me which category you’d like to try for the sixty-four dollar question. +Now, listen carefully and tell me when to stop. Here they are: +Secretarial Work, Typing, Bookkeeping, Aviation Ground Work, Parachute +Rigging, Operating a Link Trainer—” To all this Sally shook her head. +But when the examiner read, “Communication, including radio,” she sat up +with a start to exclaim: + +“That’s it!” + +“Yes,” Marjory Mills agreed. “That, beyond a doubt, is it. Ultimately +you’ll go to a special school for perfecting your training. You’ll need +to know about sending and receiving in code, blinker signaling, flag +signaling, and a lot more. + +“But first,” she settled back in her chair, “you’ll have to stay right +here in Mt. Morris College, learning; for the most part, things that +have nothing to do with communication.” + +“Oh, must I?” Sally cried in sudden dismay. + +“You’ll love it.” Marjory Mills’s words carried conviction. “When it’s +all over you’ll agree, I’m sure, that we’ve made a real sailor out of +you and that you would not have missed it for anything.” + +“And after that, special school?” Sally asked eagerly. + +“After that perhaps you’ll find yourself in an airplane directing tower, +saying to the pilots of great Flying Fortresses: ‘Come in, forty-three. +All right, sixty-four, you’re off’, and things like that. Thrilling, +what?” + +“Wonderful, and after that perhaps I’ll be on some small airplane +carrier in a convoy crossing the Atlantic.” + +“Yes, just perhaps. There is a law before Congress now which, if passed, +will permit us to send WAVES on sea voyages and to service overseas. The +WACS are already there.” + +“Oh! Congress must pass that law.” Sally half rose in her chair. Again +she was thinking of her secret in the black box. “They just must pass +that law.” + +“Don’t hope too much,” the examiner warned. “‘Ours not to reason why—’” + +“‘Ours but to do or die’,” Sally finished in a whisper. + +And so her interview came to an end. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime Nancy McBride was going through her examination with +much the same result. She too was a radio bug. She and her lame brother +had been radio hams since she was a dozen years old. Though she had +lived in another small city, she and Sally had been good friends for +some time. That was why Sally had dared trust her with C. K.’s secret +and one of her much treasured black boxes. + +“Oh!” she had exclaimed on seeing Nancy on the train that carried her to +Mt. Morris and her new home. “You’re really going to be a WAVE!” + +“Surest thing!” Nancy had thrown her arms about her. “And you, too!” + +“That’s right,” Sally agreed. “Oh, boy!” she had whispered when they had +found a seat together. “Do you take the load off my mind!” + +“Why? How come?” Nancy demanded in great surprise. + +“Shush, it’s a secret.” Sally’s voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s a deep +secret. You know old C. K.?” + +“Yes, of course. He’s given Bob—that’s my brother, you know—and me a +lot of fine suggestions.” + +“Well, he and I have been working on something for weeks and weeks. It’s +a lot too deep for me, but it’s a radio that works with wave-lengths +shorter than any that have been used yet. You know what that might +mean?” + +“Yes, I—I guess so. You could send messages to someone having the same +sort of radio and no one else could hear them.” + +“Not a soul.” + +“Wonderful! Did you get it worked out?” + +“Yes, only a few days before I was to leave, I took one portable radio +to a place twenty miles away and talked to C. K. back there in his shop. +We could hear each other plainly. That was a great day for C. K.” + +“And for you.” + +“Yes, but a greater one came when he took me into his shop that day +before I left and said: ‘Sally, I want you to take these two black boxes +with you.’” + +“‘But, C. K.,’ I said, ‘those are your two secret, secret radios, your +choicest possessions!’ + +“‘I can make more of them.’ That’s what he said. Then he went on, ‘Once +I tried to give one of my inventions to our country. I failed and later +someone stole it from me. Now, Sally, it’s your turn—’” + +“How strange!” Nancy whispered. “What did he mean?” + +“That’s what I asked him,” Sally whispered excitedly. “He said I was to +take these radios with me, that I was to get someone who could be +trusted to help me and, as I found time, to test the radios, listen in +for any other radios that might be using those wave-lengths, do all I +could to see what could be accomplished with them to aid our country.” + +“That,” Nancy said, “is the strangest thing I ever heard.” + +“Not so strange after all,” Sally said soberly. “He knew I was going +first to a school close to the sea where I might listen for messages. +Then, too, I am to be a WAVE. Perhaps I shall travel in a convoy across +the sea. What a chance that will be to try out the radios!” + +“Yes, what a chance!” + +“Nancy,” Sally whispered tensely, “will you be the one who can be +trusted? Will you join me in testing C. K.’s radios?” + +“Why, I—” Nancy hesitated. “Yes! Yes, I will. You are my friend. C. K. +is my friend. I also love America, and want to help, so why not?” + +And that is how it came about that, as they walked slowly back to their +staterooms on a ship that was a ship in name only, Sally and Nancy +talked of radio and of the day when they would be full-fledged WAVES +serving their country. + +“And here’s hoping they put us on an honest-to-goodness ship!” Sally +exclaimed. + +“Here’s hoping,” Nancy echoed. + + + + + CHAPTER THREE + + A MESSAGE IN CODE + + +In the meantime, with a worried look still on her face, Barbara sat at a +small table drinking hot chocolate while her companion, in the chic blue +WAVES suit, enjoyed a coke. + +“Hot chocolate will make you fat,” said Belle Mason, Barbara’s new +friend. + +“I’m fat already,” Barbara smiled. “An even hundred and fifty.” + +“You’re big, not fat,” her companion corrected. “That’s not a bad weight +at all for your height. What are you to do for the WAVES?” + +“That’s just it.” Barbara’s frown deepened. “I don’t know much about +anything but cooking, housework, and laundry.” + +“Home laundry?” + +“No, steam laundry. I know you’ll think I was silly, but just out of +high-school I went into a laundry to work. I’ve never done anything +else.” + +“You liked it, of course, or you wouldn’t have stayed.” + +“Yes, I like the nice, clean smell of the shiny white sheets and pillow +cases, and the cozy, warm feeling of everything. I like to run the +sheets through the mangle, fold them just right, then run them through +again. I like to stack them up, just right, in clean white piles. + +“Oh, I guess I’m hopeless,” Barbara sighed. “Just an old hag of a +laundry worker. What can the WAVES do with a creature like that?” + +“You’ll be just wonderful!” her companion beamed. + +“Won-wonderful!” Barbara stared. + +“Sure! They’ll make a parachute rigger out of you.” + +“Parachute rigger? What’s that?” + +“You know that all fighting airmen wear parachutes, don’t you?” + +“Yes, of course!” + +“And that those parachutes often save their lives, in fact, have already +saved thousands of lives?” + +“Yes, but—” + +“Parachutes don’t just grow on trees like walnuts. They have to be made +with great care and arranged with greater care. The rigger is the one +who packs them into their bags.” + +“Oh! I’d love that!” + +“Sure you would. And it’s a tremendously important job. One slip is all +it takes. If a parachute is folded wrong, some fine fellow comes +shooting down, down, thousands of feet to his death. But you—you love +to do things just right, even bed sheets.” + +“Yes, I do.” + +“Then you’ll be the best there is. Good parachute riggers are hard to +get. Of course,” Belle went on, “you don’t just fold parachutes and pack +them. You select large ones for large people.” + +“And small ones for small people!” + +“Sure! In some of them you pack iron rations, food for a day or so. In +others you’ll put light pneumatic rubber rafts and fishing line—that’s +in case the flier might land in the sea. + +“Then, of course, there are paper balloons to be rigged for dropping +food and medicine, and small silk ones for dogs.” + +“Dogs?” + +“Yes, of course, the dogs of war.” + +“Real dogs?” + +“Certainly! Dogs have played an important part in all wars. They carry +messages, keep the night watches, and warn their masters of approaching +enemies. Yes, they have their parachutes, and many of them beg to have +their chutes strapped on.” + +“Do they really like dropping from the sky?” + +“Oh, don’t they, though? And that reminds me. I don’t want to frighten +you but, because of the great importance of their work, and so they will +realize to the full just how important it is, there is talk of having +each parachute rigger make at least one parachute landing.” + +“What! You mean—” Barbara appeared to shrink up in her chair. “You mean +I’ll have to drop from way up in the sky?” + +“You might be asked to.” + +“I’d die.” Barbara’s face paled. + +“Oh, no you wouldn’t. Thousands are doing it every day.” + +“I’m so big, I’d go right on down into the earth.” Barbara laughed, +nervously. + +“Oh, no! Parachutes are made to fit their owners. Some are made for +dropping five hundred pound antiaircraft guns. But don’t let that worry +you,” Belle hastened to add. “You may never be asked to jump. +‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.’ I didn’t think that up, +but it’s good all the same.” + +“One thing still worries me—” Barbara said a moment later. + +“What’s that?” + +“My interview. My roommate just went to take hers.” + +“You may forget that.” Belle smiled an odd smile. “You’ve practically +had yours already.” + +“I? Had mine?” + +[Illustration: You Mean I’ll Have To Drop From the Sky?] + +“Sure. I’m one of the examiners. This is my hour off. When your time +comes, just ask to be examined by Ensign Belle Mason. We’ll get it over +with in a jiffy. + +“And now—” Belle stood up. “I must get back to my post and help solve +other cases that are really difficult. It’s nice to have had a talk with +you.” + +“It—it’s been wonderful.” Then Belle Mason was gone. + +That evening after they had eaten their dinner in an attractive college +dining room, the two girls, Sally and Barbara, walked slowly back to +their room. + +Already Sally was beginning to know what her examiner had meant when she +said, speaking of the life at Mt. Morris, “You’ll love it.” + +Sally had never even dreamed of a college education. There was not +nearly enough money for that, but now here she was a student in a real +college. + +“It’s quite an old college, isn’t it?” Barbara said. + +“One of the oldest in New England,” Sally agreed. “And one of the most +beautiful. See how the sun shines through those great, old elms.” + +“And how the ivy clings to the red brick walls. It’s wonderful. I could +almost forgive the war, just because it’s given us a new sort of life. +But, oh, gee!” Barbara exclaimed. “Just, think of having to drop from +way up there in the sky!” + +“Who said we had to?” Sally demanded sharply. + +“Not all of us, just me, perhaps.” + +Barbara told her of the impromptu interview. + +“Well, if you have to go up, I’ll go with you,” Sally declared. + +“You wouldn’t!” + +“Why not? If I’m to work with radio, I may be sent up as a radioman for +a bomber. Then I’ll want to know just how to step out into thin air.” + +“All right!” Barbara exclaimed. “It’s a date. If I step through a hole +in the sky, you’re to come stepping right after me.” + +“It’s a date,” Sally agreed. + +That evening Barbara went to a movie with one of the girls who had come +in on the same train. Left to herself, Sally sat for a long time in her +dark room just thinking. + +Those were long, long thoughts. She had been there long enough to +realize as never before what a change was to come into her life. + +“I’m in for the duration,” she thought with a thrill and a shudder. How +long would the duration be? No one knew that. One thing was sure. Life, +all kinds of life, grows broader. + +“It’s like a river on its way to the sea,” she thought. The life of the +WAVES was sure to be like that. Just now they were not asked to go +outside the United States. How long would this last? Not long, perhaps. + +“I almost hope it won’t,” she told, herself. And yet she shuddered +afresh at the thought of life aboard a transport or a destroyer with +wolf-packs of enemy subs haunting the black waters. + +“But there’s C. K.’s radio,” she told herself. “A sea trip would give me +a grand chance to try it out.” + +That this radio was a marvelous invention she did not doubt, yet the +modest, over-careful old man had forbidden her to mention it to a single +person who might be interested in its use and promotion. + +“I may discover flaws in it,” had been his word. “There is always plenty +of time. You just take these two sets and try them out, test them in +every way you can. Then let me know what you discover.” + +“‘Let me know what you discover,’” she whispered. She had made a +discovery of a sort, that very afternoon. Something very like a radio +message in code had come in on her secret wave length, where it was +thought no messages had ever been sent. + +“I’ll try it again,” she told herself. Springing to her feet, she +dragged the black box from its hiding place. + +With the lights still off, she turned on a switch to watch the many +tubes glow red. After twisting two dials and adjusting one of them very +carefully, she listened intently and, after a moment’s wait, was +thrilled once again by the low “put—put—put (wait) put—put (wait) +put—put—put” again. + +After turning a dial half around, she listened again. The sound came, +but this time very faintly. + +Yes, even as she listened, there came another “put—put—put.” It was +louder and of a different quality of sound. + +“Ah!” she breathed. “Two of you!” + +So she worked for an hour. At the end of that hour she knew there were +four “put-puts” out there somewhere. Were they radios of American +planes, enemy subs, or ships of our allies? She had no way of knowing. + +Snapping off two switches, she turned on a third. After ten seconds of +waiting she whispered into her mouthpiece: + +“I’m alone. Come on down, can you?” + +After that she whispered: “That’s swell!” + +Two minutes later Nancy came tiptoeing into the dark room. + +“What’s the meaning of all this darkness and secrecy?” she whispered +low. + +“It’s for effect,” Sally laughed. “Close the hatch softly and sit down +here beside me on the deck. I’ve something for you to hear.” + +Sally turned on the radio. Then as the “put-put” began, she turned the +dial to catch the different grades of sound. + +“That’s someone broadcasting in code,” she declared. + +“Sounds more like a mouse chewing a board,” Nancy laughed. + +“All the same, it’s code of some sort.” Sally insisted. “And I’m going +to figure it out. Trouble is, it comes in low and indistinct.” + +“An outside aerial would help, wouldn’t it?” + +“Yes, of course.” + +“There’s one on top of this building.” + +“There is?” Sally exclaimed. “Then we’ll run a wire up to it. But how +will we get it up there without being seen?” + +“Let’s see.” Nancy counted up to six on her fingers. Then she slipped +out through the door. + +She was back almost at once with the good news that her room was +directly over Sally’s. “We can run the wires along the heat pipes,” she +explained. “There’s even a pipe running from my room to the attic, +though I can’t see why.” + +“Even then we’ll not be on the roof,” Sally mourned. + +“There are two gable windows on each side of the attic,” Nancy said. +“All you have to do is to get up to the attic. You can step right out on +the roof from a window.” + +“And I suppose you’re going to tell me you have a key to the door at the +foot of the attic stairway?” Sally laughed. + +“No, but I have quite a way with locks. I think it can be arranged,” +said Nancy. “But, Sally,” she protested. “You’d think we were sweet +sixteen and in a boarding school instead of grown young ladies sworn in +to serve America—” + +“We’ll serve America in a big way,” Sally insisted stoutly, “if only we +get this secret short wave doing its bit. You just wait and see! And I’m +going to get my connection with that aerial on the roof sooner than +soon.” + + + + + CHAPTER FOUR + + DANNY DUKE MAKES A CATCH + + +The days that followed were busy ones. There were shots for typhoid, +smallpox and all the rest, with many a sore arm. + +They marched until their legs ached and their feet were sore, but all +the time their officers were so kind and all their companions so +friendly that it did not seem to matter. + +Long hours were filled with classes. They learned history of the Navy +from the beginning, a glorious story of which they could all be proud. +Navy customs came in for their full share of discussion. + +“Boy, am I glad I am getting this first!” Sally exclaimed one day. +“Without it I’d be completely lost aboard a ship.” + +“But we’re not sailing on a ship, at least not the way things stand +now,” said Nancy. + +“All the same we’re going in for Communications and you can’t +communicate with anyone unless you speak his language,” Sally laughed. + +“You’ve got something there,” Nancy agreed. + +As for Barbara, besides her regular assigned work, she was taken to an +airfield where paratroopers were being trained. + +As she watched ten boys, one by one, slip from a captive balloon +hundreds of feet in the sky, she exclaimed: + +“Oh! I could never do that!” + +When she saw the parachutes, white against a blue sky, come drifting +down and watched the boys drop to the ground as if they were dead, then +spring up laughing, she exclaimed: + +“That’s wonderful! I’ll do anything, just anything to have a part in +that!” + +For a time the two black boxes were neglected. Then, one night, they +came back with a bang. That was the night following the receipt of a +letter from Sally’s old friend, C. K. It ran: + + “Dear Sally: Received yours of the 17th. Note what you say about the + black boxes. + + “Your recent discovery may be of the greatest importance. I refer to + the disturbances you think may be messages in code. On that + wave-length it can hardly be anything else. Keep it up. You may make + a startling discovery. I have definite theory regarding those + supposed messages, but will not tell you about it until you have + further details. + + “You don’t know how to receive in code, do you? It’s not difficult. + Get someone there to teach you. + + “I agree with you that an outside aerial will help bring out the + sounds. But don’t take too many chances just to make an old man’s + dream come true. + + Yours for success, + C. K.” + +“Too many chances!” Sally exploded after reading the letter. “There +couldn’t possibly be too many chances.” + +That very night she started taking the chances. + +It was a cloudy, windy night. “Just the night for a murder,” Sally +whispered to Nancy as they embarked on their enterprise. + +“Or something,” Nancy agreed. + +It was Saturday. All the WAVES have Saturday afternoon and night off for +shore leave. Most of them would be away so there would be few prying +eyes. That was why they had picked on this night for connecting the +black boxes with the aerial set up on the roof. + +The wires running from Sally’s room up to Nancy’s and to the attic were +in place. The lock to the attic door was old. Nancy had solved that with +a skeleton key bought at the five and ten. + +“There’s no counting of noses at bedcheck tonight,” Sally said. “So +we’ll start work at ten. You can be the lookout and I’ll do the work.” + +“Don’t forget you’re going to be quite a way up in the air,” Nancy +cautioned. + +“Oh, I’ve always been a tomboy.” Sally did a cartwheel. “I’ll put on +gray slacks and a gray sweater, just in case the moon comes out. The +roof is gray, you know.” + +“You’d better wear sneakers.” + +“Oh, sure!” + +And so everything was set for the hour of ten. + +“All clear!” Nancy whispered, tiptoeing down the hall. “Deck Three is +deserted. Come on up.” + +Armed with two pairs of small pliers, a coil of wire, a flashlight and +the key to the attic, Sally followed in silence to the floor above. A +swift glide, the rattle of a key, the silent opening and shutting of a +door and Sally found herself tiptoeing up the attic stairs. + +It was a dark and gloomy spot, that attic. As Nancy had put it: “A +hundred years look at you up there.” + +This was true, for an accumulation of furniture, long outmoded, was +stored there. There, too, were all manner of stage drops and settings +left over from amateur plays. With her flashlight aimed low, Sally +picked her way with care to the nearest gable window. + +The window was nailed down but her pliers soon took care of that. + +As she stepped out on the roof, clinging to the gable, she took one good +look at the world beneath and above her, then shuddered. + +With dark clouds rolling through a black, windy sky it was one of those +nights that always seemed to depress Sally. + +Shaking herself free from her moodiness, she gave close attention to the +problem that lay before her. + +To discover the end of a wire they had thrust up along the heat pipe and +to attach the end of her coil to it was simple enough. From there it was +to be a trifle difficult. The roof was not too steep but shingles do not +offer much chance for a hand grip. As Nancy had said, it was quite a +distance to the ground from there and, though she would not have +admitted it for worlds, Sally found herself a little dizzy. + +One fact gave her a little comfort. Just beneath the part of the roof +where she must do her climbing was an elm tree. Its top was broad and +its strong, flexible branches all but brushed the building. + +As she stood there hesitating, a group of freshman boys came marching +by, singing. + +[Illustration: She Stepped Out on the Roof and Clung to the Gable] + +Flattening herself against the gray roof she waited for them to pass. +Then, having steeled herself for her task, she thrust her tools into her +pockets, held the loose end of the wire in her teeth and began to climb. +Clutching with her hands and pushing with her feet, she crept upward. +She made slow progress. Now the ridge seemed not so far away. She dared +not look back or down. + +She was halfway up, when, with startling suddenness, the moon came from +behind a cloud. + +“Gosh!” she exclaimed, flattening herself against the shingles. She went +so flat that she started slowly to slide. After digging in with toes and +fingers she managed to hold her ground. And then the moon hid its face. + +One more desperate struggle and she found herself sitting triumphantly +astride the ridge. + +“Now,” she breathed, “all I have to do is to pull the wire tight, attach +it to the aerial and then slide down.” + +Yes, that was all there was to it, just to slide down. + +With fingers that trembled slightly she drew the gray wire tight against +the roof, cut it at the right place and then, with the skill of a +lineman, wound it tight, round and round the original wire leading to +the aerial. + +She had twisted herself back to a place astride the roof when again the +moon showed its face. + +At the same instant she thought she heard someone far below let out a +low whistle. She couldn’t let herself be seen sitting there, just +couldn’t. That might mean catastrophe. + +Then it happened. In attempting to throw herself flat, she overdid the +matter. Missing a grip on the ridge, she heard her flashlight go rolling +down the roof. And, in quite an involuntary manner, she came gliding, +clawing and kicking after it. + +Recalling the tree and at the same time realizing that she was powerless +to check her slow glide, she managed somehow to swing half about. When +she left the roof, she rolled off, felt the brush of a leafy branch, +struck out desperately with her hands, gripped a branch, clung there and +found herself at last dangling in mid-air. Or was she two-thirds of the +way down? There was no way of knowing. + +Clinging desperately to the cracking branch, she dared not call for +help. What was to be done? Feeling a larger branch against her back, she +tried to turn about. She had made half the swing just as her slender +branch gave an ominous crack. + +At the same time a voice from below said: “Come on down, sister. I’ll +catch you.” + +“Good grief!” she thought. “It’s a man.” And then the branch broke. + +She landed rather solidly in a pair of strong arms. Then her feet hit +the ground. Also the moon came out. + +“What were you doing up there?” The man held her, as if she were a sack +of wheat that might fall over. + +The moonlight was on his face. He was young and wore a heavy blue coat. +His cap had been knocked off. + +“That,” she replied slowly, “is a military secret. But the way I came +down, it seems, is common knowledge.” She did not try to escape. + +“Rather uncommon knowledge, I’d say,” he drawled. “You might have broken +your neck.” + +“Yes, or been caught.” + +“You were that,” he chuckled. “And you’re not a bad catch, at that. This +is a rather lonesome college for some folks. Tell me who you are and +I’ll let you go. + +“I will anyway,” he said dropping his hands. + +“I’m Sally Scott and I’m a WAVE!” she confessed. + +“A WAVE! Then we belong to the same outfit. I’m a flying sailor. Shake!” +He put out a hand for a good handclasp. + +“Oh! A flying sailor!” she exclaimed. “Then you could teach me to +receive in code.” + +“Certainly I could and will, in my spare time.” + +“We have an hour after supper.” + +“Suits me. But, say, now that I have you, how about a coke and a chat +somewhere?” + +She did not reply at once. “We—we have to be careful. Mind taking my +pal along?” + +“Not a bit.” + +“Then it’s a go. I—Oh, boy! Nancy will think I’m dead, or something! +Wait. I’ll be back.” + +“I’ll wait.” + +She was gone. + +“Sally Scott! How did you get down that way?” Nancy exclaimed as Sally +came racing up the second story ladder, instead of coming down from the +attic. + +“I—I found a new way to get down and, and I found a nice new boy,” +Sally panted. “He wants to buy us a coke. Come on, let’s go.” + +“Sally, you didn’t,” Nancy protested. “Besides, there’s a scratch on +your face. It’s bleeding.” + +“All right then, I didn’t.” Sally dabbed at her cheek. “You won’t +believe me if I tell you the truth.” + +“Try me.” + +“All right then, after I got the wire all fixed. I fell off the roof, +landed in a tree and hung to a branch as long as I could and what do you +think?” + +“A nice boy caught you. And you expect me to believe that?” + +“All right, then don’t. Anyway the wire is up.” + +“And now we can get London, Paris, and Berlin. Come on. Let’s try.” + +“No,” Sally seized Nancy’s arm. “The nice boy is real. Come on, let’s +go.” + +“You wouldn’t go looking like that?” + +“I’ll wash the blood off my face. We’ve got to get in uniform. Must wear +them even off duty, you know!” + +So Sally was off to the washroom to bathe her cheek. + +“Now I ask you,” Nancy challenged the empty air, “how can they hope to +make a WAVE out of a girl like that?” + +Sally was back in a minute and slipped into her uniform. Nancy was ready +a moment later and then they were down the stairs and out into the +night. + +“This is Nancy McBride.” Sally introduced her companion to the flying +sailor who had stepped out into the moonlight. + +“I’m pleased to meet you, Nancy. I’m Danny Duke,” he said. “Distant +relative of the famous Dukes, so distant that they never even sent me a +package of Duke’s mixture. Do you also walk in your sleep? And may I be +looking for you on the roof tops?” + +“Sally wasn’t walking in her sleep,” said Nancy, “but tell me, did she +really fall off the roof and did you catch her?” + +“Shall I tell her?” Danny turned to Sally. + +“Sure. Tell her. She wouldn’t believe me.” + +“Well, then,” said Danny, in a mock-solemn voice, “it’s really true. I +made a real catch that time. But then, the elm helped out a lot.” + +“Good old elm!” Sally exclaimed. “I’ll never forget it! And now,” she +added, “I feel in need of reviving.” + +The reviving came with good steaming cups of coffee. + +Danny Duke could stand the glare of a neon light, Sally found as she +looked at his strong, friendly face. + +“I’m just past twenty,” he told them with a touch of boyish pride. “And +my training is about finished right now.” + +“How is it you’re here so far from the Navy flying schools?” Nancy +asked. + +“I was back on some math, so they sent me here to brush up. I’ve about +got it now. Another two weeks will do it.” + +“Too bad,” Sally sighed. “But that will be time enough to teach me to +receive code, won’t it?” + +“Oh, sure,” Danny grinned. “But say, are you the practical young miss! +Here I save your life, and first thing you insist that I do something +more for you.” + +“It’s not for me.” Leaning across the table Sally allowed her voice to +drop. “It’s much more important than that, I hope. It’s for our old +friend Uncle Sam. The things I did up there on the roof are part of it, +just as my learning code will be. You are such a nice boy, I want you to +have a part in it.” + +“Well, thanks—” Danny was visibly embarrassed. “Thanks a lot: I’ll help +all I can.” + +The truth is that Danny was to have a much greater part in the +undertaking than either he or Sally knew. + +“And now for one more try at the two black boxes,” Sally whispered +excitedly after the girls had said good-bye at the gangplank of their +ship that really wasn’t a ship at all. + +“It works! And it’s going to help a lot, that aerial is,” Sally +exclaimed a few minutes later. + +This was true. They were able now to catch the “put-put-put-put” of +those secret broadcasts sent from radios out somewhere on land or sea +very plainly. That night they stayed up till midnight, and were able to +locate seven different broadcasters. + +“They are all part of something big, I know that,” Sally insisted. “But +is it a sub pack, a flight of planes, or a convoy of ships?” + +“Only time will tell,” was Nancy’s reply. + +Just then they caught the sound of voices in the hall and suddenly their +secret listenings to the great unknown were at an end. For if the secret +radio were to remain just that, they must take great care not to expose +either the black box or the purpose of their own midnight meetings. The +two conspirators did not intend to be found out. + + + + + CHAPTER FIVE + + DANNY SHARES A SECRET + + +There was a glorious hour at sunset in every day of work when Sally was +free to do as she chose. What she chose more often than not, in the days +that followed, was to visit a certain radio lab in one of the school’s +regular buildings. Here she found Danny waiting to help her with her +problems. She discovered at once that he did know a very great deal +about communication and about radio in particular. + +When she complimented him on his knowledge he threw back his head and +laughed. + +“It’s no fault of mine,” he exclaimed. “I’ve had it drilled into me from +the very start. We’re in the Navy. Don’t forget that. Most of us will be +on aircraft carriers. That means we’ll be out over the sea in small +planes.” + +“Alone?” Sally asked. + +“Sometimes, sometimes not. You may have a radioman and may not. Anyway, +he may get killed. So you have to know all about radio, blinking lights, +waving flags, and a lot more. + +“Say!” he laughed. “I could propose to a good signal girl in ten +different ways.” + +“Wait till I get up on all the codes,” Sally laughed. + +“Oh, yes. Well, then, let’s get busy.” + +He picked up a booklet entitled, “International Code” and; turning to +page twelve, said: + +“Morse code isn’t half bad. See! Here it is.” Sally looked over his +shoulder. “A is dot, dash; B is dash, dot, dot dot, and so on down the +line. You can learn all that in about no time. But receiving takes +longer. Those birds send out messages like greased lightning. You’ve got +to think fast and be accurate at the same time. That’s tough. But it’s +absolutely necessary, especially in your work. To read a message wrong, +skip a dot here and miss a dash there, may sink a ship, or even a half +dozen ships.” + +“Oh!” Sally held her head. “That sounds serious!” + +“It is. But see here, why do we waste a beautiful sunset hour on code? +You’ll get that in your next school anyway.” + +“Yes, I know, but I want it now. It,” she hesitated, “it’s not my secret +alone so I can’t tell you too much.” + +“You don’t have to tell me anything,” he replied with a generous smile. + +“But I want to. That night when I fell off the roof I was running a wire +from my room to the aerial on the roof. I’ve been working for a long +time with a dear old man who’s a real genius. He invented a special kind +of radio and he gave me two of them to try out.” + +“I see. That’s what you’re doing now. Did the outside aerial help?” + +“Oh, yes, a whole lot. The ‘put-puts’ come in a whole lot more +distinctly.” + +“The what?” He stared. + +“The ‘put-puts’. That’s what we call them. I suppose it’s some special +form of code, but it’s not like any I’ve ever heard on the short wave +section of our radio.” + +“I wish you’d tried to write it down,” he said thoughtfully. “Perhaps +they have a secret code. They may substitute numbers for letters. See, +here are the numbers in Morse Code. Dot, dash, dash, dot are for one, +for two you add two dots and drop a dash-dot, dot, dash, dot. Three is +dot, dot; dot, dash, dot, and so on.” + +“That doesn’t sound too hard,” interrupted Sally. + +“It’s simple. Take this book home and learn the numbers. Then listen to +your radio and try to write down the ‘put-puts’ in dots and dashes.” + +“I will if they are there tonight. Sometimes they’re not there at all +and sometimes there are a lot of them, five, six, or a dozen, all +talking to one another like frogs in a pond.” + +“Is that right!” He suddenly became excited. “Say, perhaps they are in a +pond, the big pond. Perhaps they are wolves instead of frogs.” + +“Wolves?” + +“Sure, enemy subs, wolf-packs of them, you know. Wouldn’t that be a +break?” + +“I—yes, I suppose so.” + +“You suppose so! Say! You don’t know the half of it! These wolf-packs +are known to have some means of talking to one another under the water.” + +“They’d almost have to.” + +“Sure they would, but all the bright minds in Europe and America can’t +find out how they do it. + +“But then,” his voice dropped, “probably your ‘put-puts’ come from a +flight of planes crossing to North Africa.” + +“Or from a convoy.” + +“Sure. We, too, have our secret methods of communication, but if your +old friend has invented a new one, they’ll make him an admiral.” + +“It’s up to me to prove it. That’s why I’m so anxious about it.” + +“It is? Well, then, we’ll really dig in. Try out my code idea. Then +we’ll meet again at sunset tomorrow.” + +“It’s a date.” She left the lab with a smile. Even if nothing came of +this code idea she had made a grand friend and that was always worth +while. + +Late that evening while others wrote letters, read or slept, Sally gave +herself over once more to solving the riddle of the secret radio and its +“put-puts.” She had made very little progress when the signal sounded +for lights out. + +“Oh, dear!” she sighed. “No day is ever long enough.” + +She had been in bed for a half hour but had not fallen asleep when +suddenly she caught a gleam of light from Barbara’s bed. + +“Barbara!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing?” + +The light blinked out and Barbara’s head came out from beneath the +covers. + +“I’m sorry!” Barbara whispered back. “These studies are so hard and +there are so many of them I never get caught up. So I’ve been studying +with a flashlight under the covers. No one would know it but you.” + +“Such determination!” Sally exclaimed in a low voice. “You should have a +medal or something. But you’ll smother!” + +“Oh, no!” Barbara laughed. “I’m like a seal. I come up for air.” + +“Anyway it’s an idea,” said Sally. Hopping out of bed, she gathered in +her precious radio and, with a bed cover for a tent, studied the +“put-puts” for another hour. + +[Illustration: Barbara’s Head Came Out From Beneath the Covers] + +The close of that hour found her thoroughly disgusted. On a paper she +had made a few marks. When she had compared these to the code marks for +letters and figures, they added up to exactly nothing. + +“Terrible,” she thought. “I know what I’ll do. I’ll take the radio over +to the lab and show it to Danny. I’m sure he can be trusted. We’ll work +things out together.” + + * * * * * + +“What’s that black box?” Danny asked, when she arrived next evening. + +“That’s my secret radio. I couldn’t do a thing last night. I want you to +help me.” + +“It’s nice of you to trust me.” He beamed. “People have said I was +simple but could be trusted. Only time will tell.” + +“Time doesn’t need to tell me. I know it.” + +“Do you? Well, then that’s fine. How do you open this black box?” + +She snapped it open. “Oh! We need an aerial!” + +“There’s one on this building, much better than the one you’ve been +using. There’s a connection over in the corner.” + +In a few minutes the radio was ready to operate. Sally turned the +switches. Nothing came out, not a sound. + +“What’s up?” Danny asked. + +“Those gremlins, subs, or whatever they are, are not always there.” + +“Turn the dial. Get something else. That will tell us whether our +connections are okay.” + +“There’s nothing else on the air for us.” + +“That’s a queer radio.” + +“Yes, it is. But if we wait five minutes Station NANCY will be on the +air.” + +“And in the meantime?” + +“Tell me about parachutes,” she begged. “You’ve dropped a time or two, +haven’t you?” + +“Naturally. I’m a flier.” + +“How does it feel to drop for the first time?” + +“Just fine if you think of something else most, of the time. It helps to +sing: + + “‘He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease, + A daring young man on the flying trapeze.’ + +“But why all the interest in parachutes?” + +“My roommate is going to be a parachute rigger.” + +“I hope she’s a careful sort of lady. I saw a boy drop two thousand feet +straight down. His rigger had failed him.” + +“I’ll rig my own.” Sally’s lips were a straight line. + +“Why should you go in for parachutes? But then—oh, yes—you go in for +all sorts of falling.” He laughed. + +“No,” she said, “I don’t. I get dizzy. But I promised Barbara that I’d +go down with her it they asked her to try parachuting.” + +“You did! That takes courage!” + +“Where’s the war job that doesn’t?” + +“Oh, it’s not so bad.” He blew an imaginary smoke ring. “You just sit on +the edge of a hole until they give you the word. Then you look up, slide +through the hole, and down you go. When the parachute is open it is +really swell, like dreams we have of flying just with our hands. When +you land you curl up like a sleepy kitten, roll on the ground, then get +up.” + +“You make it sound so nice!” + +“Why not?” + +Sally turned a knob on the radio. She snapped on a headset and said: +“Hello, are you there?” Then she listened. + +“How do you get me?” she spoke into the mouthpiece again. “Good as ever? +That’s fine. This is Sally signing off. + +“See!” She turned to Danny. + +“Pete’s sake! What wave-length do you use?” + +“I don’t know.” + +“What?” + +“Only one person in the world knows that. He’s the man who made it. My +old friend C. K. All I know is, it’s very short. Watch!” + +She snapped off the lights, then pulled down the shades. The radio’s +tubes glowed red. + +“Say! A radio with its own private wave length is worth a fortune! I +know a man high up in Communications. Let me show it to him.” + +“Not for worlds.” + +“You’ll be rich and famous.” + +“No! No! Oh, I wish I hadn’t brought it here. Can’t you see that it was +loaned to me by a very dear friend and that he alone can release it?” + +“Yes,” he replied soberly. “I won’t breathe a word about it until you +give me the sign.” + +“Thanks—oh, thanks!” she stammered. “You really had me worried.” + +“And now,” he said, “how about having another try at the ‘put-put’ of +the gremlins, or subs?” + +For ten minutes more they sat there in the dark watching the red glow of +the strange radio tubes but hearing just nothing at all. + +Then, suddenly, it came, a low +“put-put-put-put-a-put-put-put-put-a-put.” + +For a long time Danny sat there silently listening. “It’s code, all +right,” he murmured once. “There’s a sort of rhythm to it, just as there +is to all code.” + +“If you turn this dial,” Sally whispered, “it will throw them out.” She +turned the dial. Silence followed, but not for long. Again came +“put-put-put-a-put.” + +“They’re back,” he whispered. + +“No, that’s another one. Listen! You can tell the difference.” She +brought the first one back, then switched to the second. + +“What do you know about that!” He was all ears. + +“Perhaps the ‘put’ stands for dot, and ‘put-a-put’ for dash,” he +suggested. “I’ll just try it that way.” + +“Might be the opposite!” + +“Sure, just anything.” He snapped on a small light and then began +marking down dots and dashes as he listened. For a long time neither of +them spoke. + +“That might be it,” he breathed at last. “It’s hard to take down, but +I’ve got dot, dot, dot, dash, dot. That’s three, dash, dash, dash for +five and dash, dash, dot, dot, for seven. Then there are some numbers +that seem like seventeen, twenty-three, and thirty-one. I can’t be +sure—” + +“Give me a pencil and paper,” she suggested. “Let me play the game.” + +For a long time after that they listened and marked down dots and +dashes. When one sender went off the air they switched to another. In +time they came to believe that number one and number two were holding a +conversation. Then number two went off the air, followed by number one. + +A little search found a third. When number three went dead, number one +was at it again. It became an interesting game of hide-and-go-seek, in +the air. + +“Could it be one of our convoys?” Sally asked. + +“Hardly that. They maintain radio silence, I’m told. But with such a +radio, who knows? But if they are subs, a whole wolf-pack of them!” he +exclaimed a moment later. + +“And if we could spot them!” + +“While we were on a ship, an aircraft carrier! Spot them some distance +away and go after them with a dozen planes loaded with depth-bombs. I’ll +tell you what!” he exclaimed, becoming greatly excited. “I’ll be ready +to sail in a month or two, on an aircraft carrier. You get a radio job +on my ship. Then we’ll really try this radio out.” + +“They’re not sending WAVES on ships yet,” she reminded. + +“Oh! We’ll manage it,” he insisted, “We’ll just have to.” + +“We may discover that we’re mostly just duplicating one of Uncle Sam’s +secrets.” Sally was cautious by nature. “These code signals may come +from American ships or airplanes.” + +“Tell you what!” he exclaimed. “We’ve just got to de-code their messages +so we can tell what they say. Then we’ll know. But that,” he sighed +heavily, “looks like a long, long job.” + +They pitched into that job once more and had been working for some time +when he said: “By the way, did you have a class tonight?” + +“Yes, from eight to nine.” + +“Never mind then, it’s nine now.” + +“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I must go! I’ll get a black mark. Unhook my radio +and let me go.” + +“There you are,” he said a moment later, as he handed her the radio, +“but you’ll be back?” + +“Oh! Sure! It’s been exciting. Just think what it will mean if we really +do something big with old C. K.’s radio.” + +“I have been thinking,” he replied soberly. “Just keep trying, and mum’s +the word. We’ll get there yet!” + + + + + CHAPTER SIX + + THROUGH A HOLE IN THE SKY + + +During the week-days that followed, there were no more long night trysts +over the secret radio. Sally had a record to maintain. She had resolved +at the very beginning to be one of the best WAVES ever entrusted with a +job in Communications. She had decided, too, to move heaven and earth to +get a spot on some ship sailing the seven seas. She knew quite well that +the best way to get what you want is to earn it. Classes must always +come first. + +For all that, she and Danny did each day spend one glorious twilight +hour working away at the secret radio. When Saturday night came, the +WAVES one free night, Nancy joined them, and working both radios at +once, they really went places and did things. Using both radios, they +spotted as many as eight broadcasters of the mysterious pack on a single +night. + +“Are they really enemy subs?” Nancy asked. + +“Who knows?” was all Danny would say. “If they are we’ve really got +something.” + +“But they may be cargo ships in a convoy or airplanes going to Europe,” +said Nancy. “Then why don’t we ask our Communications people in +Washington whether they are using that wave-length.” + +“Two good reasons,” Danny grinned. “We don’t know the wave-length we’re +using and if we did the folks in Washington wouldn’t tell us.” + +“Probably send an F. B. I. agent to look us up,” Sally said. “No, +dearie! We’ve got to work it out all by ourselves.” + +“Just give us time and we’ll make it,” Danny declared. Ah, yes, there +was the rub. All too soon the bugle would blow and they would be +scattered far and wide to new fields of endeavor. + +They made some progress. One evening Danny exclaimed: “See here! The +numbers they are sending—if they are numbers—are all odd. Seven, +seventeen, thirty-one, forty-three. There’s not an even number in the +lot.” + +“That narrows it down,” said Sally. + +“It sure does.” + +Two evenings later Sally made a more important discovery. + +“Look!” She jumped to her feet in her excitement, to point at a row of +numbers. “Not one of them is evenly divisible. Seven, seventeen, +thirty-seven, fifty-three, every last one of them. Does that mean +anything?” + +“It may mean a lot,” was Danny’s excited comment. + +“Oh, there’s the bell!” she exclaimed. “Time for class. Think of +dropping this discovery just like that.” + +“It’s not dropped.” + +Danny dragged out a tall stack of papers. “I’ll still be working on that +when you’re fast asleep.” + +“Danny, you’re a treasure!” she exclaimed, giving his hand a quick +squeeze. + +“It’s all part of the game,” he grinned. “We’ll be famous, both of us, +and your old friend C. K., as well.” + +The hour was striking midnight when at last Danny stacked the papers in +a neat pile. + +“Got it!” he breathed. “It’s the berries. Can’t be any mistake about +that. We’re really making progress. But we’ve still got a long way to +go.” + +That very night one more major problem brought Sally’s radio +experimentation to an abrupt halt. + +She returned to her room, after her late hour of study, to find Barbara +sitting in her bed staring gloomily at the floor. + +“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Been caught out of bounds, or +something?” + +“I haven’t done a thing,” Barbara replied gloomily. “Perhaps it would be +better if I did. When you never step off the beaten path, just plug +along day by day, people ask you to do such terrible things.” + +“Why? What have they asked you to do now?” + +“It’s that parachute drop.” Barbara stared gloomily at her feet. “They +say it’s not really required that a parachute rigger should take +parachute training, but that if they do take it, and if they do take +just one drop, they make better riggers.” + +“Of course they do,” Sally agreed. “They know what it’s all about.” + +“That sounds all right. But would you want to go to an airfield where +only men are training, and go through all the practice and finally take +the drop, all by yourself?” + +“No, of course not. Are they asking you to do that?” + +“Not asking, just suggesting.” + +“Which in this war is the same thing. Tell you what—” Sally came to a +sudden decision. “If Lieutenant Mayfare will let me, I’ll go through the +training with you.” + +“You wouldn’t!” Barbara stared. + +“I said I would, didn’t I?” + +“Yes, but you don’t have to.” + +“No, of course not, but I want to. If I’m to go in for Radio and +Communications I want to be prepared to serve anywhere, on land, on the +sea, or in the air.” + +[Illustration: Barbara Was Staring Gloomily at the Floor] + +“You’re the daffiest person I ever knew—and the dandiest!” At that big +Barbara hugged Sally until she thought her ribs would crack. + +“But, Sally, you don’t have to go in for parachute jumping if you’re +going in for Radio,” Lieutenant Mayfare protested when Sally made her +unusual request next day. + +“But I want to,” Sally insisted. + +“You’re doing it to help Barbara. Is that fair to yourself?” + +“Who knows what is fair?” Sally asked quietly. “It’s not fair to ask a +boy to give up his college work right in the middle of his first year to +go to war. Or is it? It’s not fair to ask a father to leave two small +children for the same reason. Or is it? Who knows— + +“Anyway I’d like the experience,” she added after a brief silence. +“There are several things we are not being asked to do now. Perhaps +tomorrow or next month we will be asked. I want to be prepared. And +after all, I think it’s a small matter.” + +“Not so small.” The officer spoke slowly. “You’ll have to spend the last +half of every afternoon for a week preparing for it. + +“Of course,” she added, “your work here has been excellent. The time +lost will not matter so much. So—” + +“Then I may do it?” Sally exclaimed eagerly. + +“Yes, you may!” + +“Oh! Thank you! Thank you a lot!” + +“It is Barbara who should be thankful. I doubt if she could take the +test alone.” + +“She couldn’t,” Sally agreed. “Barbara is a fine girl. She’s true blue. +There are not many things she could do in our organization. For +parachute rigging she’s perfect.” + +“That’s right.” + +“And I want her to be a great success.” + +“With your help I’m sure she will be. You and she may start your +training this afternoon. The sooner the better. There’s not much time +left—” + +And that is why Danny Duke had to wait so long to tell Sally of his +grand discoveries. + +That afternoon Sally and Barbara rode five miles to the training field +with six boys who were to take the same training. + +“Pipe the girls,” one fellow called when they were first sighted. + +“Shut up!” another boy exclaimed low. “If they are going to take to the +chutes, it’s not just for fun. It really takes guts. If they’ve got what +it takes you have to hand it to them.” + +“Ever run a children’s playground?” the director asked Sally. + +“Yes, once, quite a while ago—” + +“Well, this is just another one of them. Only difference is you swing on +your chute straps just to get used to them instead of from the old apple +tree. And if you don’t fasten your straps just right you get a good +bump.” + +“And you learn by bumps,” Sally laughed. + +“Yes, and that way you don’t get killed later.” + +“It’s the same way with the slide,” the instructor added. “It’s just a +kid’s slide, only longer, and you fall harder—that is, if you don’t +relax properly.” + +After that, for a full week-the two girls practiced swinging, sliding, +tumbling, whirling round and round. + +“I feel as if I’d been put in a cement mixer and whirled round and round +a thousand times,” Sally confided to Danny on Saturday afternoon. “But I +do believe that Barbara will go through with it. Monday is our zero +hour. We drop at dusk. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed.” + +“I’ll say a prayer for you,” Danny grinned. “And now about this secret +code of the gremlins, the enemy subs, or what have you.” + +“Yes—yes!” Sally exclaimed eagerly. “What did you find out?” + +“A whole lot and yet, not half enough. Come over just after chow, if you +can. Bring the radios and I’ll tell you all.” + +“Oh, no! Surely not that much!” Sally held up her hands in mock horror. +“All the same, I’ll be there!” + +“It’s like this,” Danny said, as they sat before the radio that night +listening to the “put-put-put-a-put.” “They’ve made their code from +numbers that can be divided evenly. I’m sure of that. But does one stand +for the letter A, or have they arranged it all backwards?” + +“They may have started in the middle and gone both ways.” + +“Yes, but I don’t think they did. Why should they? They had the +wave-length all to themselves. Why not have a simple code? I even think +they let one stand for A, three for B, five for C, and so on.” + +“What makes you think that?” + +“Because eleven, which should stand for E, is used more times than any +other number and E is the most-used letter in the alphabet. Other vowels +stand out in the same proportion. So I think we’ve got that far. But +now,” he sighed, “we’ve got to find out whether they’re sending in +German or English. That is going to be hard.” + +“And must be continued in our next.” There was a suggestion of gloom in +Sally’s voice. She was tired and sore. Much lay ahead. + +“Monday we drop from that hole in the sky. Tuesday we take our finals,” +she sighed. + +“And Wednesday you scatter,” he supplied. “I got that on good authority. +Some of you go to other schools and some to work, depending on what +you’re taking up.” + +“That’s about it. We’ll just have to work and hope we meet again over +this blessed, tantalizing, mesmerizing radio,” she laughed. “And now, +what do you say we take the radio over to my house and then make a night +of it?” + +And that was just what they did. + +Monday afternoon came, and with it, many a long-drawn breath. + +“Sally, I’m scared,” Barbara whispered, as they piled into the car that +was to take them on their last trip to the field. + +“You wouldn’t be natural if you weren’t,” was the cheering response. +“All the same, try to forget it.” + +In the week that had passed, the eight of them, two girls and six boys, +had formed the habit of singing on the way out. Now, when at last they +rolled away, a youthful voice struck up: + + He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease, + A daring young man on the flying trapeze. + +“Where have I heard that before?” another boy groaned. For all that, +they sang it with gusto. + +“‘Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main,’” came next. + +Then the boy from Kentucky started: + +“‘The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home—’” + +His voice broke on the second line. Sally swallowed hard, but they sang +it through to the end. + +“Ioway! Ioway!” shouted the boy from the midwest. “That’s where the tall +corn grows.” + +They all laughed, but when the strains of “Swanee River” came rolling +out, they were in a mellow mood once more. + +When they arrived at the field they found a captive balloon straining at +its ropes. Beneath it hung a platform and at the very center of the +platform was a round hole. + +“That,” said Sally, “is the famous hole in the sky.” + +“On fields where paratroops are trained we have towers to jump from, but +they cost a pile of money. A balloon works just as well,” a friendly +lieutenant explained. + +“Sure, even better,” wisecracked the boy from Kentucky. “Then if you +don’t feel like dropping off, you can just cut the rope and go for a +balloon ride.” + +“I’m in favor of a balloon ride right now,” said his pal. + +A latticework of ropes formed a wall about the platform. Over this they +climbed. Then, slowly, majestically the balloon rose skyward. + +Once more—“‘Sailing, sailing,’” rang out on the air. + +“Old Kentucky Home” was a little too much this time. It expired in the +middle of the second verse. + +“Pack Up Your Troubles” went very well and the “Man on the Flying +Trapeze” was as popular as ever. + +One big fellow they called Samson sat hunched up in a corner, not +singing and saying nothing. + +“What’s the matter? Scared?” Sally asked. + +“Thunder, no!” he exploded. “Sleepy, that’s all. What’s a little +parachute jump? If you’d grown up on a cattle ranch with the big bulls +chasin’ you and the lonesome coyotes callin’, you wouldn’t mind. I fell +off a mountain once and no parachute stopped me, just a pine tree.” + +“I’m scared,” Barbara whispered. Sally made no reply. Truth was, her +stomach was pumping in a strange way. She saw the boy from Kentucky gulp +twice. That didn’t help any. + +“We’re about there,” the instructor announced. “If your stomachs don’t +feel good, forget it. That’s the way mine feels right now, and I’ve +jumped three hundred times. + +“Now remember,” he added, “when you slide off, keep looking up. That way +your chin doesn’t hook on the parachute straps. + +“Now,” he said in a strong, clear voice, “we’re here. See that green +light? That’s the signal. Don’t be nervous. Your parachutes have been +properly rigged. I watched it done. Don’t forget, I’ll be right behind +you.” + +Before they went up, they had been given numbers. Barbara’s number was +seven, Sally’s eight. That meant that, except for the instructor, they +would be last. Sally did not know whether this was good or bad. For +Barbara to go first would be terrible. But would watching the others +disappear wear away her slender thread of courage? She could only hope +that it would not. + +“Action stations,” the instructor snapped. Number one, the big fellow +raised on a cattle ranch, took his place, dangling his feet over the +hole. With his arms hanging straight down, he looked up. + +“Number one!” The big fellow vanished into the thin air below. “Number +two!” One more vanished. Sally’s throat went dry. “Number three!” There +they went. “Number four!” Oppressive silence followed. Sally gasped. Had +something gone wrong? Then she remembered they were to go down by fours, +with a space between each group. “Two fast sticks,” they called it. She +felt quite like a stick just then. + +Unconsciously, she began to count—one, two, three, four. She mopped her +brow. She dared not look at Barbara. “Five, six, seven.” She had reached +fifteen when the instructor took up the counting once more. “Number +five.” One more man vanished. + +“Get ready,” Sally whispered. On Barbara’s face was a look of do-or-die. + +“Number six.” The last boy vanished. + +“Now.” Barbara slid into her place. Her hands were at her sides, her +chin high. When she heard “Number seven” she slid from sight. + +In her eagerness to follow, Sally nearly went down without an order. As +it was, she sank breathlessly down until, with startling suddenness, she +felt a pull at her straps and knew her parachute had opened. + +“Good old chute!” she murmured as she glanced up to catch its white +gleam against the sky. + +She looked for Barbara. Yes, there she was off to the left, floating +down with the greatest of ease. This was Barbara’s big moment, perhaps +the biggest moment of all her life. + +[Illustration: “Good Old Chute!” Sally Murmured] + +But here was a voice coming up from below: “You’re coming down nicely, +number seven,” it said. That would be Barbara. + +“Number four, bend those knees. Don’t be trying to land stiff legged.” +It was the voice again. An instructor was talking through a loudspeaker. +His voice carried up to them perfectly. + +“Number eight,” he called. + +“Oh! He’s calling me!” Sally thought in sudden panic. “Number eight, you +must turn round. Reach up, grab the strap.” Sally obeyed. She swung half +about. “That’s it. Always land with the wind, not against it. + +“Now, all of you, knees bent, feet together, relax, relax for a fall.” + +One by one they tumbled on the ground, then jumped up laughing. + +Sally made a quick count. Yes, all eight were up and moving. Then, +having unfastened her parachute, she rushed over to Barbara to exclaim: + +“Barbara! You were wonderful!” + +Throwing her arms about her, Barbara burst into tears of joy. + +When the shower had passed, she exclaimed, “Now I am going to be a +parachute rigger always, for I know just how much it means!” + +“Boy, oh, boy!” Sally exclaimed when at last she was alone with her +instructor. “I hope I get a chance to make use of that experience. That +certainly was something!” + +“It’s been my experience,” he replied soberly, “that in this war, sooner +or later, we find a place for every bit of practice we’ve ever had. Your +time will come.” + +Would it? Sally wondered a long, long wonder. She was still wondering +when she got back to school. Secret radios, ships, airplanes, +parachutes, all went round and round in her head. What was in store for +her? In a day or two she would be whirled away to another school for +further training. + +“And after that, what?” she asked the elm that had once saved her from +disaster. The elm whispered to the breeze, but she could not understand +what the tree and the breezes were saying. + + + + + CHAPTER SEVEN + + SILENT STORM + + +And then, like autumn leaves caught in a miniature whirlwind, they were +sent spinning away in all directions. There was one happy evening hour +when Sally, Nancy, Barbara, and Danny had lunch together in the Purple +Cow, just off the campus. Theirs was the hail-and-farewell of good +fellows well met, of soldiers who might never meet again. And yet, +behind all their jokes and laughter was a feeling of friendship and +devotion to one another that in all the years could never die. + +“We’ll be seeing you,” they shouted next morning. + +“Oh, sure! We’ll be together again, sooner than you think!” + +“Good-by!” + +“Good-by!” + +Sally and Nancy were sent to the beautiful campus of a great mid-western +university where they would learn much more about radio and +communications. Barbara was shipped off to a big airport to receive her +final training in the art of rigging parachutes. Danny remained behind, +but not for long. The autumn winds would soon whisk him away to new +fields of adventure and duty. + +Both Sally and Nancy had dreamed of attending some truly great +university. And, at last, here they were. But for how long? Just long +enough to make you efficient in your chosen field, was the precise +answer. “And always remember, your services are badly needed right now. +Good communications and radio men are scarce. They are badly needed +overseas.” + +“But won’t we two be sent overseas?” Nancy asked of the major who gave +them the information. + +“That remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain, no WAVE will be +sent overseas until she has perfected herself in her particular branch, +and has served long enough at one of our bases here in America to prove +that she will be a valuable addition to our Navy, either aboard ship or +overseas.” + +“Right here is where I forget this Gothic architecture, the shady walks, +the cozy nooks that help to make this big school what it is,” Sally +said, as a look of determination spread over her face. “I’m going to +work and study day and night, for we are in the Navy now.” + +“I’m right behind you,” Nancy agreed. “All the same, when this terrible +scrap is over, I’m coming right back here and be a regular student as +long as I please. And believe me, I’m going to have all the +trimmings—class dances, proms, shady walks and all the rest.” + +“Shake on that.” Sally held out her hand. That handshake was a solemn +ceremony. + +“And now to business.” + +From that time on their heads were bent, for long hours, over study +desks, radios, clattering keys. + +Their day was not done when darkness fell, nor their week when Saturday +rolled round. They did not, like Barbara, hide under the covers to study +with a flashlight when night came. They rented bicycles for the entire +period of their stay at the university. On many a night farmers saw +strange lights winking and blinking from one hill to another in their +pastures. Sally and Nancy were practicing the light-blinking code they +had studied that day. Twice they were reported as spies, but nothing +came of it for they never returned to the same pasture twice, and it +would have been a fleet-footed farm boy who could have rounded them up +in the dark. + +Saturday afternoon, armed with dozens of multicolored flags, they +returned to these same hills to practice flag signals. White and blue +with a notch in the end stood for A, blue, white, red, white and blue in +stripes was C, and so on and on to white with a red spot for one, blue +with a white spot for two, and so on. + +With good memories and a zeal for learning seldom witnessed by those +gray stone walls, they went through the school in record time and were +once more on the move. + +“Now we’re really going to work,” Sally cried, enthusiastically. + +“Yes, and at one of the biggest air bases on our long seacoast,” Nancy +agreed. + +“Florida and the sea. Um—” Sally breathed, “that’s worth working for.” + +“It sure is!” + +“There’s something else I’m going to work harder than ever for—” Sally +spoke with conviction. + +“What’s that?” + +“I’m going to try to cut ‘Florida and the sea’ down to just the good, +old ‘sea.’ All my life I’ve waited for that.” + +“Oh, I don’t know. There are the enemy sub-packs. They’re really +dangerous. The water’s awfully cold.” + +“That’s just it.” Sally’s eyes shone. “There are the sub-packs—you +haven’t forgotten our secret radios?” + +“Almost,” Nancy admitted. + +“I tried them twice back at the U, when you were gone,” Sally confided. +“Nothing doing. Guess we were too far from the sea.” + +“Florida will be better.” + +“Much better, but the sea will be better still.” + +“I suppose so,” Nancy replied dreamily. “But don’t forget, your enemy +sub-pack may turn out to be friendly ships or planes.” + +“I won’t forget. All the same, I want to know.” + +“Wonder where Danny is.” + +“And Barbara.” + +“Oh! I forgot to tell you. I had a letter from Barbara this morning. +Guess where she is now?” + +“Where we’re going?” + +“That’s just where she is. Won’t it be great if you can hop off from the +sky with her again?” Nancy laughed. + +“I wouldn’t mind. I’ll bet you an ice-cream soda I’ll have a chance to +use that experience before the year is over.” + +“Easy aces! You’re on. If I never win another bet, that’s one for me.” + +Was Nancy too confident? In this world at war many strange things can +happen, and many do. + +Not so long after that, Sally found herself seated on the top of a high +tower that overlooked a vast airfield. The skies were full of floating +planes. The roar of powerful motors beat upon her eardrums. In her hand +she held a score sheet, and, at the steady, carefully spoken words of a +marine in a major’s uniform, she recorded hours, moments, numbers, and +names. + +On the officer’s head was a set of earphones. About his neck a +chin-speaker was attached. From time to time, speaking always in that +steady, even tone, he said: + +“Come on down, six, four, three. Wind velocity, fifteen miles per hour, +north-north-east.” + +And again: “Circle once more, three-six-eight. Fast one coming in from +the east.” + +There were long periods of time when he said nothing, just stood there +staring dreamily away toward the sea. But always he appeared to listen, +as indeed he did, for listening to the radio voice of great four-motored +bombers, inviting them to come in, advising them to wait, telling them +when to take off, informing them regarding weather, was his duty. And on +his ears, eyes and voice hung the life of many a fine young flier. + +Red Storm, his fellow officers called him, some times “Silent Storm.” +His real name was Robert Storm. Silent Storm was the name Sally liked +best, although, of course, she never called him that, always Major +Storm. + +He seemed young for a major and certainly was handsome in a big, tall, +red-headed way. He seldom spoke to her except to instruct her in her +work. He was teaching her his own work, so she could take his place. +Nancy too was learning the work, but at a different period. + +As Major Storm stood there looking away during quiet times, she often +wondered about that faraway look in his eyes. Then, too, there was the +long scar across his right cheek and the look of utter weariness that +came over his face at times when he slumped down in his chair. + +“Major Storm,” she said one day, speaking with a sudden impulse that +surprised her, “what does one do to make people want one as a friend?” + +“You don’t make people want you as a friend,” was his quick reply. “They +either wish to be your friend or they don’t, and that’s all there is to +it.” + +“Are—are you sure?” she asked a little startled. + +“Absolutely.” + +“Well, then, they might not care to have you as a friend but you might +be able to do something that would make them wish to do something for +you—you know, like—” + +“Yes, I know what you mean. The answer to that is simple then. Take an +interest in them first. Find out about their lives, their families, +their problems. Have a sympathetic interest in them. If they’re human, +they’ll do the same for you. That’s simple, isn’t it?” + +“Very simple.” + +Suddenly, he spoke in a different tone: “Come on in, Johnny.” + +After sweeping the sky with his binoculars, he settled down in his +chair. + +“That radio boy on that big bomber is Johnny, one of my own boys. I +taught him. He’s a fine boy. I suppose the war will get him sooner or +later. It seems rather useless to care for them too much. They go away +and—” + +“You never see them again.” + +“That’s right.” + +“But, by the way,” his voice rose, “you have one very good friend, +eminently worth while, I’d say.” + +“I have several,” she smiled. She was happy, happier than she had been +for days. She had really started Silent Storm talking. “But then,” she +thought with a shy smile, “who ever heard of a really, truly silent +storm, anyway?” + +“This friend of yours,” he said quietly, “is also a very old friend of +mine—old C. K., we used to call him.” + +“You don’t mean C. K. Kennedy!” She stared in disbelief. + +“That’s exactly who I do mean. He taught me most of what I know about +radio. He’s one man in a million.” + +“Oh! Then—” she exclaimed, “then we’re practically cousins!” + +“Something like that,” he replied dryly. + +Then, springing to his feet, he said: “Okay—come in, three-two-six.” + +And that was all for then. Evening was coming on. Many big ships were +coming in through the blue. Every moment was taken from then to the end +of the shift. Yes, that was all for then, but it was enough to keep the +girl dreaming in the golden twilight, under the palms when the day’s +work was done. And those were strange dreams. Secret radios, ships, +submarines, giant four-motored bombers, old C. K. and Silent Storm were +all there in one glorious mixup of lights and shadows. + + + + + CHAPTER EIGHT + + DANGER IS MY DUTY + + +Since there were many WAVES stationed at this great air and marine base, +they had taken over a very fine little hotel down by the sea. + +“Nancy! This is gorgeous!” Sally had exclaimed on their arrival. “If it +weren’t for the secret radio, I would be glad to stay here until the war +is won.” + +“It _is_ wonderful,” Nancy replied thoughtfully. “Florida, the blue, +blue sea, and these lovely quarters! It’s really hard to believe, but, +you know, this isn’t the sort of thing I joined up for. I expected a +truly hard life. The boys in the jungles of those South Sea islands and +on the sandy deserts of Africa—they don’t have it easy, so why should +we—?” + +“That’s right,” was the quick response. “If all the people of America, +especially those who have lived soft lives—oh, I don’t mean who don’t +work—but those who have had all they want, always, always slept in a +soft bed, and always gone for a long ride in the old bus on a Sunday +afternoon, could really be dragged out of it all and have it good and +tough for a while, wouldn’t it be grand? + +“But then,” Sally added in a quieter voice, “we might as well make the +best of all this beauty and comfort, for something tells me that it +won’t last too long.” + +After her first real talk with Major Storm, Sally returned to her hotel, +ate her dinner, then, returning to her room, dragged out her secret +radio. + +She had barely started thumbing its dials, when a phone call announced a +caller. + +Hurrying down to the hotel lobby, she barely refrained from throwing +herself into the arms of this guest. + +“Danny!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” + +“Taking a little final training and waiting for a ship,” he whispered. + +“What kind of ship, Danny?” + +“Ah! Ah!” He held up a finger. “Loose talk may sink a ship.” + +“Oh! I’m sorry. Then how about our radio? May we talk about that?” + +“Not only may, but must. I’ve studied those records from their code +messages. They’re really revealing. That’s why I came.” + +“I just got out the radio, but Danny, you’re not allowed in my room.” + +[Illustration: “Danny! What Are You Doing Here?”] + +“Of course not, but we’re both allowed in the radio experimental +station, providing one of us has a friend there, which I have, so—” + +“So what are we waiting for?” + +“Sure! What?” + +“I—I’ll be right back.” Sally was off for the radio. + +“We’ll have such an aerial as you never dreamed of, over at the +station,” he confided, once they were on their way. “We’ll bring those +enemy subs up so close we can practically talk to them.” + +“Danny,” she whispered, “do you really think they were enemy subs we +were hearing?” + +“Well,” he hesitated, “I’d hate to say I am sure of it, but I’ve studied +that secret code so carefully that I am positive that it goes the way we +thought it did.” + +“But the language? Is it English or German?” + +“Yes,” he replied thoughtfully, “that’s the real question. I got out my +old German dictionary and gave it a really good workout. All I can say +is that it’s a lot easier to make sense out of those code messages in +German than it is in English.” + +“Oh, Danny! You are wonderful!” She pressed his arm. “Just think what a +glorious victory it will be if we succeed in listening to the message of +those wolf-packs!” + +“When no one else has done it? Boy, oh, boy!” + +“What a triumph for old C. K.!” + +“Yes, I suppose so.” + +“Danny, you’ve never met him. That’s too bad.” + +“But I’ve met you—in fact, once I actually caught you,” he laughed. + +“Danny, today I talked with my boss, Major Storm, and he told me old C. +K. taught him radio. He says C. K. is one man in a million. Isn’t that a +great break?” + +“I suppose so. But why?” + +“Because if I want a chance to do something different, like going to sea +so I can try out this radio, if I tell him it’s really for old C. K., +Silent Storm will help me.” + +“Silent Storm! What a name!” Danny laughed low. + +“It’s not the name that counts, but the man, and I—I think he’s going +to be fine.” + +“Sure! Sure! I know he will,” Danny agreed. “And now, here’s the +station.” + +In a small room they set up the radio and, having attached it to the +aerial connections, turned on the current. Almost at once, there came +the “put-put-put-a-put” of a code message. + +“Ah! Got ’em,” Danny breathed. + +“And it’s so much louder, so much more distinct!” Sally was delighted. +Danny scarcely heard for he was busy recording dots and dashes. + +Soon Sally was at it, too, for by now she too could read code very well. +From time to time, however, by turning that certain dial, she switched +from one sender to another. She located six in all. + +But, even as they continued to listen and record, there came a change. +At first the messages were sent in a slow, methodical manner. But now +they came in close together, excited, irregular and jerky. At the same +time they appeared to draw closer to one another. + +“Sally.” Danny dropped his pencil. “Once I watched a pack of wolves +chase an old and disabled moose. Their barks and howls were just like +this radio business we’re hearing. At first there was the regular yap, +yap of the chase. But when they closed in they became greatly excited. +Their barks, howling, and snarls came from excited minds and +bloodthirsty throats. They were in for the kill.” + +As Sally listened, she seemed to see six subs closing in on a ship +carrying supplies of food, guns, or ammunition to our soldiers in Africa +and at the end caught the excited “put-put-put” of their radios as they +closed in for the kill. + +“Perhaps tomorrow we will hear on the radio of another ship sunk off our +shore,” she whispered hoarsely. + +“Who knows?” was the sober reply. “Tonight they seem very close.” + +“Danny, we must hurry!” She gripped his hand. “We must learn more. I +must go to sea, somehow, I must. I am sure that will help most of all.” + +“Perhaps you will go,” was his quiet reply. + + * * * * * + +The next afternoon, as she worked at her highly important, if slightly +tiring, task of bringing in the big planes only to send them out again, +Sally said: + +“Major Storm, why is that faraway look on your face?” + +“Why?” He gave her a sharp look. “Is it noticeable?” + +“Very.” + +“Thanks for telling me. I shall discipline my thoughts.” + +“Is it so terribly bad to want to be in one place, when you are serving +in another?” she asked. + +“Rather bad,” was the slow reply. “We do not always give our best, that +way. + +“Do you want to be in some other place?” he asked abruptly. + +“Not—not just now!” she stammered, taken aback. “But sometime, not too +far away, I’d like to be transferred to a fighting ship.” + +“Why? Ships are dangerous.” + +“Danger is my duty.” She felt that she was quoting someone, but could +not recall where she had heard those words before. + +“Danger is my duty,” he repeated after her. “That’s rather good, but you +haven’t answered my question. Danger can’t be an end, you know.” + +“I have a secret,” was the odd reply. + +“I’m told that most young ladies of your age have several secrets.” + +“Not important ones. This one may be of great importance. It has to do +with our mutual friend, C. K. Kennedy.” + +“Oh! Then it is important!” he exclaimed. “Tell me about it—that is, if +you are free to do so.” + +“I’m sure he would tell you at least part of it if he were here. He has +invented a new radio that operates on a secret wave length. I think the +enemy sub-packs operate on that same band.” + +“The enemy sub-packs!” he stared. “Wait, there’s a plane. + +“Come in, six-three-nine.” + +“Let’s not talk about this now,” he suggested. “It’s too vital. We might +become absorbed in it and neglect our duty, commit a tragic blunder. +Suppose you have dinner at my house tonight. It’s quite proper. My +sister lives with me.” + +“All—all right.” Sally found herself strangely excited. + +“I’ll call for you at seven.” + +“I’ll be waiting.” + +The remainder of the afternoon was pure routine, but Sally’s mind +wandered often to thoughts of that dinner date. “Much may come of that. +Very, very much,” she told herself more than once. + + + + + CHAPTER NINE + + SALLY STEPS OUT + + +The place Sally and Silent Storm entered a few hours later was a +California-type bungalow hidden among the trees. The windows were small +and high. “No chance for spying here,” Sally thought to herself. + +They were met at the door by a tall, handsome lady who, Sally did not +need to be told, was Silent Storm’s sister. She appeared to take Sally +to her heart at once. + +“Robert has often spoken of you,” she said in a friendly manner. + +“Oh! Has he?” Sally was a little surprised. She had thought of herself +as just one more of those WAVES. + +They sat down to a delightful dinner. Salad made from fruit just taken +from the trees, delicious crabmeat, fried sea bass, hot corn bread, +sweet potatoes and coffee, a great urnful—enough for three cups apiece. + +Dinner over, Miss Storm took up some knitting that lay in a chair and +settled down by herself, because she knew her brother wished it, and she +had sensed that there was some serious business in the air. + +“It’s not that my sister cannot be trusted,” Silent Storm half +apologized when he and Sally were seated in a small, secret den, quite +evidently all his own. “She is to be trusted completely. However, it is +a rule of war that a military secret is to be shared with no outsider, +and the thing you were about to tell me up there in the tower is +something of a military secret.” + +“Not—not yet—but it might, be.” She hesitated. “It’s really C. K. +Kennedy’s secret. He confided it to me because he hoped he could trust +me.” + +“And he can.” + +“Yes, that’s right. He is a wonderful man. There is nothing I would not +do for him.” + +“But such an invention should be of great service to our country.” + +“He thought it might be. He wasn’t sure.” + +“So he wanted it tried out? I see. Tell me only what you think he would +like to have me know.” Lighting his pipe, he settled back in his chair. +“I have very little curiosity left in me,” he went on. “I’ve seen too +much for that. I’m interested in only one thing, to see this war brought +to a successful end. I have many fine friends back there.” He swept the +west with his hand. “I shall never be able to go back to them, but I can +serve where I am.” + +“Then you have already seen service.” Sally’s eyes lighted. + +“Plenty of it, too much. I was at Pearl Harbor, a flier. And I was in +about all that came after in the next seven months. Then a smart Jap got +me in the back.” + +“Oh!” she breathed. + +“It wasn’t so much. I was out of the hospital in a month. But my spine +will never be the same, I was once a swimmer, something of a champion. +That’s all over, too. But it doesn’t matter. What really hurts is that I +can’t get back to help finish what my friends and I started over there.” + +“And you don’t fly any more?” That seemed a terrible fate to Sally. + +“Oh, yes,” he smiled. “I have a fast, little single-seater and sometimes +I haunt the sky, chasing seagulls and wild ducks.” + +“A single-seater sounds a bit selfish.” + +“It’s not, really. You see, I don’t trust myself too much. There’s +always the chance that—” + +“Something might go wrong with you?” + +“Yes. I’m not willing to take a chance with other people’s lives. But +you were going to tell me about that radio.” He changed the subject +abruptly. + +“Yes, it’s the most remarkable invention!” Launching at once into her +theme, she talked for an hour. From time to time he interrupted to ask a +question. His pipe went out. Twice he tried to light it and failed. Then +he gave it up. + +At last she spread a pile of papers covered with dots and dashes on the +table. These were the records of the “put-put” broadcast which she and +Danny had kept. + +After that for a half hour their heads were bent over these records. + +“This,” he said at last, after re-lighting his pipe, “promises to be +something of great importance. + +“I wish you could stay with me on the airfield.” He added after a +moment, “Both you and Nancy are working in very well. You could relieve +me of much tiresome routine, but for your sake and for old C. K. I’ll do +all I can to get you on a ship. I do know that there is talk of giving +over the communications and radio work of one ship for a single trip to +a group of WAVES, just to see how it works out. I’ll look into that.” + +“Oh, please do,” she begged eagerly. + +“You should be devoting your entire time to this secret radio business +right now,” he said thoughtfully. + +“But I’m a WAVE.” + +“You could be given a leave of absence.” + +“Not without a reason. It would be necessary to explain to the officials +about the radio. And that’s just what C. K. doesn’t want.” + +“Why?” + +“Well, you know the story about his other invention?” + +“Yes, his radio detector. That was a disgrace. Some unscrupulous person +stole it.” + +“And sold it to a foreign country. He doesn’t want that to happen +again.” + +“Surely not. Well, you just keep working in your spare time. And after +that we shall see.” + +And that was the way matters were left. But not for so very long. + +The next afternoon was regular time out for Sally. The first person she +saw as she entered the lobby of her hotel was a big girl with a round +beaming face. + +“Barbara, you stranger!” she exclaimed. “Where have you been hiding?” + +“Haven’t been hiding, been working hard,” was the big girl’s reply. +“I’ve been rigging the parachutes for a ship. Danny’s ship. I saw him on +it.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. + +“But, Barbara, they don’t use parachutes on a ship.” + +“On this one they do. Shush!” Barbara held a finger to her lips. “Don’t +ask me another thing about it.” + +Sally thought she understood. + +They went out to lunch together. After that they spent three hours +shopping. When Sally returned, she found a notice for a phone call in +her box. + +“A phone call on my day off!” she exclaimed. “Maybe a date. How grand!” + +It was Danny and a date as well. He was going for a spin in the air, +just a little advanced trainer cabin plane, four hundred and fifty horse +power. Would Sally like a look at the airfield, the palms, and the sea +from the air? + +Sally most certainly would. And so it was a date. + +“I suppose it’s no use hanging one of those things on you,” Danny said +with a grin as he strapped on his parachute. “You wouldn’t know what to +do about it, if something did go wrong.” + +“Oh, wouldn’t I?” she challenged. “You forget that Barbara and I took +the shorter course and graduated with honors from the sky.” + +“Say! That’s right, you did.” At that he produced a second parachute and +helped her strap it on. + +“You aren’t planning to drop me in the big pond, are you?” she joked. + +“Nothing like that. This is a land plane. Oh, we’ll take a turn or two +out over the sea but the plane’s been thoroughly worked over. Not a +chance of her going wrong.” + +“Anyway, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” She laughed as she climbed in. + +When Danny had gone through the ritual of turning on the current, gas +and oil, warming up his motor and setting his wheels for the run, they +were off. + +It was one of those cloudless Florida evenings when little fishing +boats, looking from the sky like toys, glide over the dark blue waters, +when a distant steamer sends off a slow, lazy drifting cloud of smoke +and all seems at peace. + +They took a turn out over the ocean, then swung inland where little, +blue lakes dot the dark green of forests and the lighter green of farms. + +“Nice place, Florida,” said Danny. “We’ve been missing something, should +have taken a vacation down here every year.” + +“Oh! So you’re the son of a millionaire!” Sally laughed. + +“Not quite. But if I worked hard all the year, guess I could make it. +What do you say we try it after the war is over?” + +[Illustration: They Swung Out Over the Sea Again] + +“Don’t mind if I do. But, Danny,” her voice hit a serious note, “did you +ever think that war is not all a dead loss? Think of the boys who would +have grown up to sell socks, or run a streetcar or mend shoes—” + +“And never get twenty miles away from good old Chicago.” + +“And now they’re seeing the world, Africa, India, China, South Sea +Islands. This country of ours will never be the same after the war.” + +“It sure won’t.” + +They swung out over the sea again. Beneath them a large ship, under full +steam, was gliding out to sea. + +“Going out to make a secret meeting with other ships of a convoy,” Sally +said. “Wonder how soon I’ll be sailing with that ship, or some other.” + +“Perhaps never,” Danny replied soberly. “They haven’t said they’d take +WAVES abroad yet. But I am about all set. Just a day or so more at the +most. They never tell us exactly.” + +“Oh, Danny, no!” + +“Oh, Sally, yes!” he echoed. “What’s the matter? Want me to stay a +landlubber all my life?” + +She did not answer. A small plane, darling through the air like a bird, +had caught her eye. + +“That’s your boss, Silent Storm,” Danny said. “When I learned he was +your boss, I sort of looked him up. The boys told me that was his plane. +No one else flies it.” + +“He’s a fine man, Danny.” + +“That’s what they all say. He was very badly shot up out there in the +Pacific. They didn’t expect him to live, but the nurses pulled him +through—” + +“And now—” + +“Now he might be sitting in the sun, living on a pension.” + +“But who would want to in exciting times like these?” + +“Not your Silent Storm. He works harder than the rest of them.” + +“But, Danny! Look!” Her voice rose sharply. “Look at his plane!” + +“Acting crazy all right. Seems to be out of control.” + +“Danny! He said something strange once. He said he wouldn’t take other +people up because he wasn’t sure of himself. You don’t think—” + +Danny was thinking, and thinking fast. Advancing the throttle, he sent +his plane speeding toward the spot in the sky where the small plane was +going through all the motions of a fighter shot out of the clouds. + +“He’s really going down,” he muttered grimly. “And ours is a land plane, +worse luck.” + +They remained at two thousand feet. Starting at that same level, the +other plane had gone into a slow spiral and was slowly drifting down. + +“If he hits the water at that speed, he’s done,” Danny groaned. “Why in +the world doesn’t he bail out?” + +“Perhaps he can’t. He—he may be unconscious.” Sally gripped her hands +until the nails cut deep into the flesh. + +“There!” she exclaimed. + +“He’s getting control. He’s leveling off.” Danny spoke slowly. “But +he’ll crash all the same. And his plane is a land plane. Let’s hope he’s +a good swimmer.” + +“But he isn’t.” Sally’s words came quick and fast. “He used to be. The +Japs wrecked his back.” + +“Tough luck!” + +“There! He’s down. His plane is still intact.” + +“It will sink all the same, in no time at all.” + +“Danny!” Sally gripped his arm tight. “Just circle over that spot, +slowly.” She stood up. + +“What are you going to do?” + +“I’m going over the side. I’m a good swimmer, I can save him.” + +“Here—take the controls. I’ll go.” + +“I can’t fly a plane, never have.” + +“Okay, good girl! Here’s luck to you. Here, take this.” He dragged a +rubber raft from beneath his feet. + +Tucking the raft under her left arm and gripping the ripcord with her +right hand, Sally opened the cabin door, stood there for a few seconds, +and then she was gone. + + + + + CHAPTER TEN + + SALLY SAVES A LIFE + + +Fifty seconds is not a lot of time but Sally had taken her chute +training seriously. In just that many seconds she did several things. +She pulled her ripcord, waited breathless, then felt the pull of the +opening chute. + +Finding that she was facing the wind, she turned herself about. Looking +down, she judged that she would hit the water only fifty yards or so +from Major Storm’s rapidly vanishing plane. Catching the raft by its +edges she held it before her and waited. Ten seconds later, as the +lapping waves reached for her, she did a sort of swan dive and landed +flat with the raft beneath her. + +“Four-point landing.” She laughed in spite of the seriousness of the +situation, freeing herself from her parachute harness. + +Rearing up on her elbows, she looked for the plane. + +“Gone!” she cried in dismay. + +Just then she saw a hand go up. Silent Storm was doing his best. + +Throwing herself flat on the raft and using her hands for paddles, she +threw all her strength into an effort to reach him. + +Even so, weakened by his efforts and the pain his back gave him, he had +gone down once before she reached him. + +A brief struggle followed, and then he lay on the raft and stared up at +the sky. + +“You—you shouldn’t have done it.” He talked with difficulty. “I’m +really not worth it. Shouldn’t have gone up. But flying somehow gets +into your blood.” + +“I know,” she replied quietly. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t have missed +this for anything. Somehow I thought that parachuting was a good thing +to know. Now I’m sure of it. You’ll be fine when you get your breath. +Danny will send out a motorboat.” + +They were both wet to the skin. That didn’t matter too much. There was a +warm land breeze from the shore. Stripping off their sodden jackets, +they allowed their thin cotton shirts to bag and flutter in the breeze. + +“I’ve often dreamed of being on the sea in one of these rubber rafts,” +he mused. “Men have lived in them for weeks.” + +“It wouldn’t be bad if the weather were always like this.” She leaned +back in lazy comfort. + +“It’s rather rough on me, this experience,” he said at last. + +“It’s too bad you lost your plane.” + +“Oh! It’s not that. I could buy another. Thing is, I’ve really proved to +myself that I’m no good for flying. I went out cold right up in the air. +I came out of it in time to save myself, but not my ship. Even so, if it +hadn’t been for you I’d have drowned.” + +“You’re too important to be taking such needless chances.” There was a +note of kindness in her voice. + +“Yes. I suppose you’re right, but I have so wanted to be back there in +the islands with my friends, fighting it out with those unspeakable +Japs. I kept sort of kidding myself along, but now—” + +“Now you know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” + +“Ah! So you’re a preacher?” He laughed good-naturedly. “Well, I don’t +mind. What’s the rest of the sermon?” + +“You’ll have to make new friends where you are. You’ve made some +already. I am one of them, ‘one of the least of these.’” + +“Far from that. One of the greatest. I prize your friendship.” + +“Thanks.” + +“But you have asked to be sent away, on a ship.” + +“I’ll come back, I hope.” + +“Oh, yes.” His voice rose. “I meant to tell you. It’s more than half +arranged already. There’s a new type of fighting ship going out with a +convoy in a day or two. She’s a small airplane carrier built specially +for convoy duty. + +“But,” he hastened to add, “you’ll not whisper a word of this.” + +“Of course not.” + +To herself she thought: “That must be Danny’s ship. Wouldn’t it be +wonderful if I were to sail on his ship!” + +This hope was lost for the time, at least, for Storm went on: “This is +the ship’s maiden voyage. She will carry a crew, all men. But if all +goes well on the following trip it is planned to use some women nurses +and a number of WAVES for secretarial work, storekeepers, radio and +communications.” + +“A testing trip?” + +“Exactly. I have already put in a word for you. I hated that for I +wanted both Nancy and yourself on my own force. But there’s that secret +radio.” + +“Yes, there’s the radio,” she agreed with enthusiasm. “We’ll work it out +together. I have two sets. I’ve already written C. K. asking permission +to leave one with you in case I am sent across. That way, we can try it +out.” + +“It’s good of you to suggest it, but don’t hope for too much. There is a +lot of radio silence when you’re on convoy duty. It’s necessary, you +know.” + +“That’s just it,” she exclaimed. “If we get in a really tight place and +don’t dare use the regular radio we can switch to our secret radio. You +could stand by with your set at regular hours, couldn’t you?” + +“Certainly.” + +“Then it’s all arranged. Don’t you see, if you and I can work out this +secret radio, if it turns out to be a really big thing, it will make up +for the other things you want to do and can’t!” + +“You’re wonderful!” he exclaimed. “We’ll do things together!” + +“Look!” she exclaimed. “Here’s a small flashlight attached to the boat, +yes, and a fish line with artificial bait attached!” + +“We’re all set for a long sail,” he laughed. “At least the flashlight +will come in handy for signaling our rescuers. It’s getting dark.” + +Sally tried the flashlight. It worked. The line and tackle too was tried +and with rather startling results. + +After unwinding the line Sally propped herself up on her knees, then +gave the bright nickel spinner a fling well out over the dusky blue +waters. She drew it in, slowly at first, then faster and faster. + +“Ah!” he murmured. “I see you are a fisherman.” + +“Not an expert,” was her modest comment, “My father loves to fish. I go +with him to the lakes sometimes. We cast for pike and bass and sometimes +a big land-locked salmon.” + +“Then there’s a battle.” + +“A wonderful battle. I love it!” + +She gave the spinner one more fling, this time far out from the boat. +Scarcely had she begun speeding up her pull, when suddenly she all but +pitched head foremost into the sea. + +“Hey!” he exclaimed, seizing her by the waist and pulling her back. “Not +so fast!” + +“He—help!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got something big!” + +Reaching around her he grasped the line and together they pulled. + +“Now!” he breathed. “I’ll pull and you roll in the line. Now!” + +He heaved away and she rolled line. The fish came, sometimes slowly, +sometimes faster. A quarter of the line was in, half, two thirds, and +then— + +“Oh! Give him line!” she exclaimed. “He’ll have us both in the water.” + +They gave him line, then started pulling in. Three times this was +repeated. At last, apparently worn-out, the fish came all the way in. + +“Give us a light,” Storm said, as the fish came close to the boat. +“Let’s see what we have.” She switched on the small flashlight. “Ah! A +small tuna! A beauty!” he breathed. “We must have him.” + +“A small one!” she exclaimed. + +“Perhaps twenty pounds.” + +“How big is a big one?” + +“Five hundred pounds is a nice size. We—” + +“Watch out!” His words rang out sharply. + +She dodged back. There had been a sudden white flash in the water. Then +the line gave a great yank. + +“A shark! A bad one!” he exclaimed again. “He got our fish—” + +“No, the fish is still there. Pull him in quick!” + +The fish came flapping into the boat. + +“All here but the tail,” was his comment. “Baked tuna is not half bad. +We’ll have a feast.” + +For a time after that they sat watching the waters. + +The shark did not return. The night really settled down. The city’s +lights painted a many-colored picture against the wall of darkness +beyond, and all was still. + +Out of that stillness came the chug-chug of a motorboat. + +“They’re coming for us,” she said huskily. She did not know whether to +be glad or sorry. + +“It’s nice to have been with you,” he said when, an hour later, he let +her out of a taxi at her hotel door. “Thanks for saving my life and all +that.” + +“It’s been fun,” she said. “It really has. Think I’ll resign from the +WAVES and join the life guards.” + +“Oh, yes!” he exclaimed, with one foot on the running board. “Don’t +forget we have one more dinner date. Our tuna catch must be honored. +Shall we say tomorrow evening?” + +“That will be fine.” + +“Then it’s a date.” + +“If I hear from C. K. and have his permission,” she added, “I’ll bring +over the secret radio.” + +“Good! You can give me a few lessons regarding its operation.” + +“And we’ll have a listen-in at the sub wolf-packs.” + +“If that’s what it is. And here’s hoping.” + +“Here’s hoping!” + +“Good night!” + +“Good night!” His taxi rolled away. + +“It’s a strange world,” she thought as she walked up the marble steps. + + + + + CHAPTER ELEVEN + + SECRET MEETING + + +Three weeks later Sally was again on those fine waters. Again it was +night. Once more the city painted its many colored pictures against the +sky. But how strangely different was the craft on which she rode! + +Gone was the small rubber raft, the tuna, and the shark. Gone too was +strange, intriguing Silent Storm. + +“It will be a long time before I see him again,” she told herself, “but +I may talk to him, perhaps many times.” + +This was true. During the weeks that had just passed she had secured +permission from her aged benefactor, the radio inventor, C. K., to show +the secret radio to Silent Storm. + +She had taken it to his house for the first time on the night of the +tuna feast. That feast had been a great success. Nancy had gone with +her. Never had she seen Silent Storm so carefree and gay as on that +night. + +When the feast was over, the three of them, Sally, Nancy, and Silent +Storm, had retired to his den. There the secret radio was set up. Since +he had a private hook-up with the station’s great aerial, things had +gone very well. + +For a time, it is true, no sound came over that secret wave length, but +this had happened many times before. When at last the “put-put-put” +began, the strange broadcasters had put on a real show. As on one other +occasion the six separate units broadcasting were some distance apart. + +Then came the sudden, loud and insistent bark of a broadcast for all the +world like the call of a wolf leader to his pack. + +“A call to the kill,” Sally had thought to herself. She was thrilled to +the very center of her being, but said never a word. She wanted Silent +Storm to listen and form his own opinions. + +Slowly, surely, quite like the wolves of the Great White North, the +broadcasters drew closer and closer together. + +“Closing in on the prey.” Scarcely could she avoid speaking aloud. + +Then came the loud, irregular barks of apparent command. + +Strangely enough, when all this excitement was over and the broadcasters +began to separate there were only five. One had gone silent. + +“That,” said Silent Storm, mopping his brow, “is one of the strangest +things I ever heard.” + +“Is it an enemy sub wolf-pack?” Sally asked. + +“It would be only one other thing,” Storm spoke slowly. “It could be a +flight of our bombers concentrating on a target and then delivering +their cargoes of death and destruction.” + +“Yes,” Sally agreed, “the broadcasts fit that picture quite as well.” + +“We can only wait and see,” said Storm. “We must do all we can to get +Nancy and you on a ship at the earliest possible moment.” + +Nancy seemed a bit startled by this, but Sally said: “That will be +swell!” + +[Illustration: “It Could Be a Flight of Our Bombers.”] + +“You see,” said Storm, “when you are on a ship you are constantly +changing your position. Once you are at the center of the Atlantic, if +these secret broadcasters put on a show like this for you, and if it is +north, south, or west of you, you’ll know at once that they are subs and +not bombers. + +“And then!” he struck the table a blow, “then we’ll go after them. Last +year we lost twelve million tons of shipping to those wolf-packs. Think +of it! A million tons a month. That might mean the losing of the war. + +“But with this secret radio of yours, if things are as we suppose them +to be, what we won’t do to those inhuman beasts who have machine-gunned +men struggling in the water and women on rafts!” + +After that night, Sally had waited, impatiently, for the return of +Danny’s ship. Then one day she met Danny on the street. + +“Yes,” he whispered. “We are safely back. She’s a grand, old ship. I got +a sub.” + +“Danny! Good for you!” She wanted to hug him right there on the street. + +“We’re sailing tomorrow night with a fresh convoy,” he confided, “and +I’ve been told you are to sail with us.” + + * * * * * + +“And now, here I am,” Sally thought as she watched the city’s lights +fade while they sailed out into the dark, mysterious night. + +She was standing on a great, flat, top deck. Nancy was at her side, a +dim shadow. Larger shadows, that were airplanes, loomed at their backs. +No lights were showing. The radio was silent. They were alone on the +sea. And yet there was to be a convoy. + +“That will come later,” Lieutenant Riggs, radio officer for their +flat-top, told her. “The ships of our convoy come from many places, +Boston, New York, Portland, even San Francisco. Someone stuck a pin in a +map. The spot is right out there in the sea.” + +“Our secret meeting place.” Sally wet her lips. It was all so strange. + +“It’s all of that,” was the quiet response. “And it better be mighty +secret at that. Forty ships, all loaded, food, airplanes, soldiers. +There are even a hundred WACS going over in one of those ships.” + +“A hundred WACS,” Sally thought as she caught the last spark of light +from the shore. There were twelve WAVES on this airplane carrier, and +they weren’t just going over, but over and back. There were six women +nurses as well. This was to be a trial trip. + +“I hope we make good,” she had said to Lieutenant Riggs. + +“Oh, you will. I can see it in your eyes.” + +“Will we make good?” she asked Nancy. + +“We’ll do our best,” was the solemn reply. “But what about the secret +radio?” + +“We can always listen for the subs. They can’t detect our listening. +Perhaps that’s the most important of all.” + +“Silent Storm has the other set?” + +“Yes. He’ll be standing by for a half hour in the morning and again at +night. In an emergency, the secret radio might help. Other than that, +silence is the order of the day.” + +“Yes, subs have ears,” Nancy agreed. “Loose talk may sink a ship.” + +“It’s nice to have Danny on the ship.” + +“Which do you like best, Danny or Storm?” Nancy asked. + +“I like them both, but in different ways. Storm is like a big brother. +He helps a lot. Danny’s just a very nice boy.” + +“And really nice boys are about the nicest creatures in the world.” +Nancy laughed low. + +“I’m going below for a few winks of sleep.” Sally turned away. “There’ll +be work to do later.” + +“I couldn’t sleep now. It’s all too strange,” Nancy murmured, her eyes +on the sea. + +And indeed for this American girl it was strange. All her life she had +been looked after, cared for. The things she wanted she got. She had +joined the WAVES to do her bit but with the thought that she would +remain in America. Now, caught up and carried on by Sally’s enthusiasm, +she had gone to sea. She had been told that theirs was to be a slow +convoy, that they would be twelve days at sea. + +“Twelve days,” she whispered, looking away at the dark waters of night. +“Twelve nights.” Losses from sinking were greater in these days than +ever before. She could swim, but shuddered at the thought of being +thrown into those cold, black, miserable waters. How was it all to end? + +“Whatever happens, I’m in it to the end,” she had written her mother +just before she sailed. + +“And that’s that,” she told herself stoutly as she turned to make her +way down the ladder to the forward cabins on the deck below where the +nurses and the WAVES had their quarters. + +Four hours later Sally found herself standing on the ship’s tower. +Beside her stood Lieutenant Riggs. Riggs was a veteran ship’s radio +engineer. No one seemed to know how old he was. He was tall, erect, +every inch a sailor. His steel gray hair told that he was not young. His +sharp, darting eyes had told Sally that here was a man who would demand +exactness of service and never-failing loyalty. And she loved him for +that. + +She was feeling a bit nervous, for this was to be her first testing at +sea. They had arrived at the place of meeting, an unmarked spot in an +endless sea, ahead of the other members of the convoy. + +Just a moment, before, she had caught a winking blink on the horizon. + +“There’s one, south southwest,” she had said to Riggs. + +“You have good eyes,” he commended. “Give them this message. See if they +get it.” + +As he read off the location the other ship was to take in relation to +the airplane carrier, she blinked it out in code with the aid of an +electric blinker, aimed like a gun at the other ship. + +They waited. Then came the answering blinks. + +“They got it,” she said simply. “They will go at once to their +position.” + +“Very good,” was his quiet reply. + +For a full hour after that they stood there, he giving orders in a low +monotone and she blinking them across the waters to some newly-arrived +ship. As the work went forward, her heart swelled with pride. She was +part of something really big. Great ships moved in on the dark horizon, +ships loaded with oil, airplanes, food, soldiers, everything that is +vital to war. Like an usher in some great theater of the sea, she told +each ship where its place was to be and it silently glided into +position. + +“This,” she murmured, “is the life!” + +“You are doing very well,” was Riggs’s comment. “Not a mistake yet.” + +There were no mistakes. When the last ship had taken its position, there +came low orders passed from man to man. Then they began moving on into +the night. + +Still Sally and Lieutenant Riggs held their places. One ship had +forgotten or failed to receive the hour of departure. A question blinked +to them was speedily answered. Then they too began to move. + +A half hour later a tanker lagging behind was ordered to put on more +steam. + +And so it went until four hours were gone. Then Nancy appeared with a +young lieutenant and Sally crept away to her quarters for more sleep. + +“How do you like it?” a gray-haired nurse with a kindly face asked. + +“Fine, so far,” was her answer. “Just swell. And so different!” + +“Yes, it’s different all right. You might like to know,” the nurse’s +voice dropped to a whisper, “I’m Danny Duke’s mother.” + +“Danny’s mother!” + +“He told me about you and Nancy. He likes you.” The gray-haired woman +gave her a fine smile. + +“And we like him. He caught me once, saved me from a broken leg or +something,” was Sally’s reply. + +“Yes, he told me about that.” She laughed. “Danny’s just a boy, you +know. He’s my only child. You won’t tell that I’m his mother?” she +begged. “It’s a bit irregular, my being on a ship with him. But I wanted +it, so I told them if sons could sail the sea then mothers could, too. +So they took me on, just for this trip. It’s sort of a tryout for all of +us, you know.” + +“Yes, I know. I won’t tell a soul. Thanks so much for telling me.” Sally +moved on. + + + + + CHAPTER TWELVE + + THEY FLY AT DAWN + + +Sally awoke with a start. She had had a strange dream. In the dream +three of her best friends had stood by her berth looking down at her. +The older of the three said: + +“She won’t wake up in time.” + +“Not in time,” the next in line agreed. + +“Oh, yes, she will!” the third exclaimed confidently. + +“Well, I’m awake,” Sally thought. “Now I have all the bother of going +back to sleep again.” + +She closed her eyes, then opened them wide again. Through her eyelids +she had received an impression of red light. + +And, yes, there it was. The cabin was dark but the faint red light was +there all the same. + +“My secret radio!” she thought. “I can’t have left it on!” + +She propped herself on an elbow to peer into the darkness. She had left +the radio close to her berth, just in case— + +There was no harm in that, for only Nancy slept in the berth above. + +“It’s on,” she thought. “I’m sure I turned it off.” + +This was strange for Nancy had been fast asleep when she turned in. +Sally had tried picking up some sound of the “put-put-put-a-put” of the +mysterious broadcasters and failed. Then she had— + +At that her thoughts broke off short for, very faintly, because the +radio was turned low, there came the familiar “put-put-put-put-a-put.” + +“I turned the radio on in my sleep,” she told herself. There seemed to +be no other possible conclusion, yet it seemed close to a miracle that +she had done so for, during the two preceding days, she had caught not +the faintest suggestion of a broadcast on her secret radio, and now, +here, in the middle of the night, it was coming in strong. Needless to +say, she listened with both her ears. + +For two whole days she and Nancy, together with Riggs and the second +radioman, had kept their convoy together, with blinker lights by night +and flags by day. Not a sound had come from a radio on any ship of the +convoy. It had been one of the strangest experiences of Sally’s entire +life. To go to sleep at night after a look at dark bulks looming here +and there on the horizon, and to wake up with those same ships in the +identical position in regard to one another, yet some hundreds of miles +on their way, had seemed unbelievable. + +But now, here was the secret radio talking again. “This may be the +hour,” she whispered excitedly as, having turned the dial, she listened +once again. + +Slipping from her berth, she drew on a heavy velvet dressing gown, +turned the radio up a little, then sat there listening, turning a dial +now and then, listening some more and all the time growing more excited. + +After twenty minutes of listening her face took on a look of sheer +horror. + +“I can’t do it,” she thought. “I may be court-martialed. But I must! I +must!” + +For a full five minutes she sat there deep in perplexing thought. Having +at last reached a decision, she went into action. After dressing +hurriedly, she shut off the radio and disconnected its wires. Then, +seizing it by the handle, she slipped out of the stateroom, glided along +one passageway after another to wind up at last in the radio room where +Lieutenant Riggs was standing watch alone. + +“Why! Hello, Sally!” Riggs exclaimed. “What’s up?” He glanced down at +the black box. “You’re not planning to leave the ship, I hope?” During +the days of fine sailing they had enjoyed together, since the start of +the convoy voyage, she and Riggs had become quite good friends. + +She did not join in his laugh. Instead she said: + +“Lieutenant Riggs, something terrible is happening. We are being +surrounded by an enemy wolf-pack of subs.” + +“Sally!” he exclaimed. “You’ve been having a bad dream. You’d better go +back to bed.” + +“It’s no dream.” Her face was white. “It’s a terrible reality.” + +“But, Sally, how could you know that? The moon is down. The sky is +black. It’s three in the morning. You haven’t a radio and even I have +heard nothing within a thousand miles—not that I can hear those +wolves,” he added. “No, nor you either.” + +“Yes,” she replied in a hoarse whisper, “I do have a radio, and I can +hear the sub wolf-pack, have been hearing them for half an hour.” + +“What!” He stared at her as if he thought her mad. Then his eyes fell on +her black box. “What’s that thing?” he asked in a not unkindly voice. + +“It’s a secret radio.” She was ready to cry by now. “Sending and +receiving. There’s only one other like it in the world. Perhaps they’ll +court-martial me for it. I know how strict the regulations are about +radios. + +“But that does not matter now!” She squared her shoulders. “All that +matters now is that you connect up this radio, that you listen to it and +believe what I tell you.” + +“I’ll try.” He did not smile. + +In no time at all the radio was hooked up and “put-putting” louder than +ever. + +“That’s a sub giving orders to another sub,” she said quietly. + +“Ah!” he breathed. + +“Now watch. I turn this dial. That changes the direction of our +listening. And—” For a space of seconds there came no sound and then +again, “put-put-put....” + +“That’s a different sub, answering the first.” There was quiet +confidence in her voice. “It has a different sound.” + +“So it does,” he agreed. + +In the next ten minutes, she located six different radios operating out +there, somewhere in the night. + +“There are two others” she said as she straightened up. “Eight in all.” + +“Eight,” he repeated after her. + +“They’re on every side of us,” she said quietly. “The direction from +which the sound comes tells that.” + +“On every side of us.” Riggs seemed in a daze. + +“But you can’t know unless you’ve listened to them as I have.” She +gripped his arm in her excitement. “They’re closing in on our convoy +from all sides. Closing in for the kill.” + +“Closing in for the kill.” The Lieutenant spoke like one in a trance. +“Thousands of lives, soldiers, nurses, WACs, airplanes, ammunition, +food—closing in for the kill. + +“Watch the radio!” he ordered. “I’ll be back with the Captain!” + +“The Captain! Oh! Oh! No!” she cried. But he was gone. + +To say that Sally was frightened would not have expressed it at all. For +some time after Riggs left, she sat there shivering with fear. + +Riggs had gone for the Captain. Did that mean that he believed what she +had told him, or had he been shocked by the realization that she had +laid herself open to court-martial? + +“He’s gone for the Captain,” she told herself at last. “He’d never think +of doing that, just to get me into deeper trouble. He’s not that kind of +a man.” At that she drew in three deep breaths and felt better. + +“He’s gone for the Captain,” she thought and shuddered. She had seen the +Captain on the bridge, that was all. He had seemed a fine figure of a +man, the sort you saw on the bridge in movies, stern, unsmiling, +inflexible. She shuddered again. + +But here was Riggs and with him the Captain. + +“Miss Scott,” said Riggs, “will you kindly repeat your performance with +that, that radio, for the Captain’s benefit?” + +Sally’s fingers trembled as she turned on the radio. Noting this, the +Captain said: + +“As you were.” His dark eyes twinkled as he added: “We’re not ’angin’ +Danny Deever in the mornin’.” + +“So the Captain has a sense of humor,” the girl thought and at once felt +much better. + +Not only did she repeat the demonstration she had put on for Riggs, but +for a full half hour she turned dials bringing in first this +broadcaster, then another, and, at the same time, demonstrating by +circles and angles that they were moving in, closer, ever closer, to the +convoy. + +Not this alone, but in her eagerness to be understood and trusted, she +told the whole story of the secret radio and the experiments that had +been carried on from the beginning. + +[Illustration: “Riggs, I’m Convinced!” the Captain Declared] + +“Riggs, I’m convinced!” the Captain declared at last. “They will strike +at dawn. In a half hour our men will be ordered to battle stations. +Twenty minutes before dawn ten planes will leave the ship to scour the +sea. At the same time half our destroyers will take up the search. + +“Miss Scott, I salute you.” He clicked his heels. Instantly Sally was on +her feet with a true sailor’s salute. + +“They believe me,” she thought as the pair left the radio cabin. “By +rights I should want to shout or burst into tears.” She wanted to do +neither, just felt cold and numb, that was all. + +Then, as red blood flooded back to her cheeks and she thought of +fighting planes and destroyers shooting away before dawn, practically at +her command, she suddenly felt like Joan of Arc or Helen of Troy. + +Then a terrible thought assailed her. What if it were all a mistake? +Only time could answer that question, time and the dawn. “They fly at +dawn,” she whispered. + +Just then someone entered the cabin. It was Nancy. + +“Sally,” she exclaimed. “Why are you here? This is not your watch. I +woke up and missed you. What have you been doing?” + +“Plenty,” said Sally. “Sit down and I’ll tell you.” + + + + + CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + AMONG THE MISSING + + +Presently Riggs came hurrying back. Nancy and Sally remained in the +radio room, dividing their time between listening for messages from the +outside world, and watching with awe the ever-narrowing circle being +drawn about the convoy by the enemy sub pack. + +Riggs busied himself getting off messages from station to station on the +ship. All men were ordered to their posts. Planes not in readiness were +prepared for flight. Some were hoisted from the lower deck to flight +deck. + +“It’s like a calm before a terrible storm,” Nancy said to Sally. Soon +enough they were to learn what an actual storm could mean to a convoy at +sea. For the present, however, there was quite enough to occupy their +minds. + +Once, when Sally climbed the ladder to the flight deck for a breath of +air, she chanced to bump into Danny Duke. + +“Oh, Danny!” she exclaimed. “Must you go out?” He was garbed in flying +togs. A parachute hung at his back. + +“Sure!” He laughed. “What do you think I trained for? A game of +volleyball?” + +She didn’t think. She just didn’t want anyone she liked as well as Danny +to be out there fighting subs, dodging antiaircraft fire and watching +the black sea that waited to swallow him up. + +At last, as dawn approached and a young officer came to take her place, +Sally closed up her black box, removed the wires and marched away to +store it under her berth. + +“Stay there a while,” she whispered, “until we know whether you mean +honor or disaster for me.” + +It was with a sober face that she returned to the flight deck. She found +the planes that were to go all in place, their motors turning over +slowly. + +She caught a quick breath as the first plane took off; then the second +and third had whirled away when a hand waved to her as a voice shouted: + +“Hi, Sally! See you later!” + +It was Danny. In ten seconds he was not there. + +“Gone! Just like that.” She swallowed hard to keep back the tears. + +“Yes, just like that,” came in a quiet voice. Sally turned to find +Danny’s mother standing beside her. + +“Tha—that was Danny,” Sally murmured hoarsely. + +“Yes, that was my boy, Danny.” + +“Did—did you want him to go?” Sally asked. + +“Of course, my child. He’s well prepared, Danny is. It’s the work he was +trained to do. Our country is at war. We must all do our part.” The +mother’s eyes were bright, but no tears gleamed there. + +“It’s so much easier to dream of war than it is to see it, feel it, and +be a part of it,” Sally murmured. + +“Yes, dreams are often more pleasing than the realities of life,” +Danny’s mother agreed. + +Sally stood where she was. There was comfort to be had from communing +with this big, motherly woman, comfort and peace. And just then she was +greatly in need of peace, for she was being weighed in the balance. The +next few moments would decide everything. And so she stood there waiting +for the answer. + +And then the answer came, a deep-toned muffled roar, that seemed to +shake the sea. + +“They’ve found them,” Mrs. Duke said. “That’s a bomb.” + +“They were there. They’ve found them!” Sally wanted to shout for joy. +She said never a word, just stood there thinking: “Good old C. K. will +be famous because of his secret radio. I won’t be court-martialed and +thrown out of service for bringing it on board. Perhaps it has saved the +convoy from attack, may save it again and again. Glory! Glory!” + +Just then there came another roar. This was followed by a series of +pom-pom-poms. + +“That’s antiaircraft fire,” said Danny’s mother. + +“Does it come from our destroyers?” Sally asked. + +“No. We are the ones who have airplanes, not they. Besides, our guns on +the destroyers don’t sound like that. You’ll hear them. There! There’s +one now!” + +There had come a boom that seemed to roll away to sea. There was another +and another. + +All this time, for all the world as if they were anchored in some +harbor, the forty ships laden with freight and human cargo kept their +places and moved majestically forward. + +“It’s beautiful,” Danny’s mother murmured. + +“And terrible!” Sally added with a sigh. + +Soon from all sides there came the roar of bombs, the pom-pom-pom of +antiaircraft fire, and all the time Sally was thinking: “Danny! Oh, +Danny!” + +And what of Danny? Having been told the course he should take, he had +gone gliding straight away toward his supposed objective. Nor did he +miss it. Feeling safe in their false security, the eight enemy +submarines on the surface had come gliding silently toward the +apparently defenseless convoy. + +At the sound of Danny’s roaring motor, the sub he had been sent to +destroy crashdived, but too late. Swooping low, Danny released a bomb +with unerring accuracy. It missed them by feet, but when it exploded it +brought the sub to the surface with a rush and roar of foam. + +By the time Danny could swing back, three of the enemy had manned an +antiaircraft gun, but, nothing daunted, Danny again swung low and this +time he did not miss. His bomb fell squarely on the ill-fated craft and +it exploded with a terrific roar. + +But before this could happen, the antiaircraft gun had put a shell +squarely through the body of Danny’s plane, ripping the radio away, +damaging the plane’s controls, and missing sending Danny to oblivion by +only a foot or two. + +“That,” said Danny, as if talking of someone other than himself, “was +your closest miss. Another time, they’d get you. But that other time +won’t be—ever. So how about getting back to the ship?” Yes, how? His +motor was missing, and his controls stuck at every turn. + + * * * * * + +In the meantime three planes came zooming back. Anxiously Sally waited +as the landing crews made them fast. Danny’s plane was not among them. + +One plane, a two-seated dive-bomber, had been shot up. Its pilot was +wounded. Mrs. Duke went away to care for him. + +The other two planes remained on board just long enough to take on more +bombs. Then they were off again. + +Catching Sally’s eye, the Captain motioned her to join him at the +bridge. + +“It’s marvelous!” he told her. “That secret radio of yours has saved +ships and lives. Eight subs all ready to pounce on us and now look—” He +swung his arm in a broad circle taking in all the gliding ships. + +This was high praise. Sally’s bosom swelled with pride. Then— + +“Danny?” she said without thinking. + +“What about Danny?” He laughed. “Hell be back with the rest. A fine boy. +Danny. There are few better. We need a lot of Dannys in this war.” + +“Yes—yes, a lot of Dannys, but there’s only one,” she replied +absent-mindedly. + +She left the bridge to wander back to the deck. One more badly crippled +plane made a try for the deck, but missed and fell into the sea. + +A line was thrown to the pilot and he was pulled on board. + +“Have you seen Danny?” she asked as the man came up dripping wet. + +“Dan-Danny?” he sputtered, coughing up salt water. “Why yes, once. He +was after a sub. Got him, I guess. But there were the AA guns, you +know.” + +Yes, Sally knew. She had heard them. Her heart ached at the thought of +them. + +Other planes came in. Had they seen Danny? + +“No Danny.” + +Were they going out again? + +Orders were not to go. All subs had been accounted for. Looked as if a +fog would blow in any time. It had been a grand day. + +At last all planes were in but one, and that was Danny’s. + +Then came the fog. Drifting in from the north, where fogs are born, it +hid every ship of the convoy from Sally’s view. + +Turning, she walked bravely along the deck, climbed down the ladder, +entered her room, threw herself on her berth, and sobbed her heart out +to an empty world. + +Finally, she sat up resolutely, and her eyes fell on the secret radio. +Here was an idea, perhaps a way out. Danny was out there on the sea. He +must be. His plane carried a rubber raft. She would not give up hope. +They were not yet too far from shore for heavy searching planes to reach +the spot. She would get their location. Then she would radio to Silent +Storm. He’d send out a plane, a dozen big planes from the shore. They +could not fail to find Danny. + +Yes, she would get Storm tonight on the secret radio. But dared she do +it? Her splendid body went limp at the thought. This was a terrible +world. + + + + + CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + THE CAPTAIN’S DINNER + + +That evening at the hour when Silent Storm had promised to be waiting at +his Florida airport to receive any urgent message Sally might send, +Sally sat alone in her cabin. Her fingers were on the dial, headphones +over her ears, speaker under her chin. + +“I will,” she whispered. “I must. It’s for the best pal I ever had, for +Danny.” + +And yet, she hesitated. It was very still in the cabin. There was only +the faint sound of water rushing along the ship’s side. The thin fog +continued. The convoy moved majestically on. Everyone said they had won +a marvelous victory. Five, perhaps six submarines had been destroyed. No +one could tell for sure about the other two. That her secret radio had +played a major role in this victory she knew quite well. With her help, +this radio with its gleaming red eyes had put out long fingers and +touched the subs here, there, and everywhere. Then those brave boys in +their planes had gone out and destroyed them. + +“Danny got one. And then—” She did not finish. + +She could not. + +She started as there came a knock at her door. After hastily throwing a +blanket over the radio, she said: + +“Come in.” + +The door opened. “Oh! Mrs. Duke!” she exclaimed. “I’m glad you came.” + +“I thought you might need me,” The words were spoken in a surprisingly +calm voice. + +“Yes, I-” + +Sally lifted the blanket from the radio. + +“That’s good! It’s a fine and noble gesture.” Danny’s mother took a +chair. + +“It—it’s not just a gesture!” the girl exclaimed. “It’s the realest +thing I ever thought of doing in all my life!” + +“Yes, but you must not do it. You must not send the message.” + +“It’s for Danny, your son, my friend and pal!” + +“Yes, Danny is my son.” The gray-haired woman spoke slowly. “My only +son—he—he’s been my life. But you must not send that message. It would +almost surely mean court-martial for yourself.” + +“Yes—I know. I don’t care.” Sally’s hand was on the dial. + +[Illustration: “Thought You Might Need Me,” She Said] + +“Yes, I know. You would sacrifice your freedom and your honor for Danny. +That is noble. I would do the same and much more. + +“But there are others to consider.” The woman’s voice sounded tired. “So +many others! There are more soldiers in this convoy than we know about, +thousands of them! They too are fine young men, just as fine as our +Danny. They too are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their country. +It would be tragic if their lives were wasted.” + +“But our boys destroyed those submarines!” + +“Not all of them, not for sure, and there are other enemy wolf-packs. +There were never as many as now. We know that they use the same +wave-length as your radio does. They will hear your message and will +hunt us down.” + +“We will be listening, Nancy and I, night and day. Let them come! Our +airplanes will destroy them!” + +“Perhaps, perhaps not. The weather may not be right for flying. And +then, try to think what it might be like.” + +“But Danny?” The words came in a whisper that was like a prayer. + +“Danny is alive. I feel sure of that. He’s on his rubber raft. The sea +is calm.” + +“But it may storm.” + +“God will look after Danny. You believe in God’s care for his children, +don’t you?” + +“I—I don’t know. I’ve never been able to think that through.” + +“Then you’ll have to trust Danny’s mother.” Mrs. Duke smiled a rare +smile. “The time may come when Danny will mean more to you than he does +to me. When that time comes, I shan’t mind. You are a splendid young +lady. But until that time I shall have the right to say: ‘Sally, don’t +send that message.’” + +“All right.” Sally went limp all over. “You win.” + +A moment later, after giving herself a shake, she stood up. “I’ll put +the radio away. There’ll be no more subs for a time. Nancy and I have +been invited by the Captain to have our evening meal with him at the +officers’ table.” + +“That’s splendid!” Mrs. Duke stood up. “You’ll enjoy it. You’re a real +hero.” + +“Will I? Am I?” Sally asked these questions of herself after Danny’s +mother had gone. She did not know the answers. + + * * * * * + +Danny’s mother was right. For the moment at least, Danny was safe and +quite comfortable. After battling his half-wrecked plane to a point +where further struggle and loss of altitude might prove fatal, he gave +up the fight and, circling down, went in for a crash landing. + +His was as successful as any crash landing can be. Between the time he +hit the water and his plane sank he was able to inflate his rubber raft, +look into its equipment, and even salvage a heavy leather coat he +carried for an emergency. + +Scarcely had he accomplished this and paddled a short distance, when the +plane put its nose into the water, stood there quivering, then +disappeared from sight. + +“Good old plane,” he murmured, as a strange feeling of loneliness swept +over him. “You did your full duty. You sank a sub and probably saved a +ship. Now, in Davy Jones’s Locker, you can rest in peace. + +“Looks as if I’d get some rest, too,” he thought as, a short time later, +he settled back against the soft, rounded side of his raft. + +“A good, long rest,” he added as a cool damp mist, touched his cheek and +the chill, gray fog came drifting in. + +When he first hit the water the boom, bang and rat-tat-tat of battle +were still in the air. After that had come comparative silence, +disturbed only by the low roar of planes returning to their ship. + +“A fine bunch of fellows,” he thought, as a lump rose in his throat. +“Finest ever. Here’s hoping they all land safely.” + +A faint hope remained that one of those planes would get away to search +for him. When the fog came in he knew that hope was at an end. + +He found the silence, broken only by the lap-lap of little waves, +oppressive. + +“Going to be lonesome,” he thought as he started to examine the gadgets +that came with the rubber raft. There was a fish line and some +artificial bait. + +“I’ll try them all out,” he chuckled. “If I catch a whopper with one of +the lures, I’ll send the manufacturer a picture of it with a story. +He’ll like it for his catalogue. + +“Only I won’t,” he murmured a moment later. “They forgot to pack a +candid camera.” + +Instead of a camera he found a device for distilling fresh water from +salt, some iron rations, and a small bottle of vitamin B1. + +“What? No vitamin D?” he roared. “But then, I’ve heard that there’s lots +of the sunshine vitamin in the ocean air.” + +At that he settled back for a rest. Even if worse came to worst he was +better off than those wolf-pack pirates who had come after them. + + * * * * * + +It was with a feeling of misgiving that Sally allowed herself, along +with Nancy, to be led to the door of the officers’ mess hall that +evening. But when the Captain met them at the door with a bow and a +smile instead of a stiff salute, things began looking better. + +As they entered the mess hall they found all of the officers standing in +their places. When the Captain had escorted them to their places at the +head of his table he stood smartly erect, every inch a commander, as he +said: + +“Gentlemen, I propose a salute to the ladies of the day, Sally Scott and +Nancy McBride of the WAVES.” + +Instantly every man stood erect and snapped to a salute. It was a simple +and impressive ceremony, one long to be remembered, but to Sally’s utter +confusion, she almost forgot to return the salute. + +It was all over in twenty seconds of time. Then they were all seated in +their places ready for the meal that was to be quite a feast, in +celebration of a real victory. + +There was fried chicken with cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes, fresh, +crisp celery, and baked squash. All this was topped with ice cream and +very fine coffee. + +Was Sally conscious of all this wealth of good things? Well, hardly. She +was, first of all, tremendously interested in Captain Donald MacQueen +who sat at her side. All her life she had dreamed of really knowing +great and important people. Not that she wished to brag about it, far +from that. She did long for an opportunity to study them, to feel their +greatness, to try to absorb some of the qualities that had made them +great. Now just such a man was giving the major portion of his time to +her for one blissful half hour. A young lieutenant had taken over the +task of entertaining Nancy, and he did not seem at all unhappy about it +either. + +Important to Sally also were the things Captain MacQueen was saying to +her. + +“This old friend of yours—his name is Kennedy, I believe—must be a +great genius,” he suggested. + +“Oh, he is!” she beamed. + +“But it does seem strange that he should have entrusted such a priceless +device to a, well, to any young person.” + +“Perhaps it may seem that way to you,” was her slow reply, “but, Captain +MacQueen, I think that too often those who boast of gray hairs +underestimate the dependability, the devotion, yes, and the wisdom of +the young people of today—and—and,” she checked herself, “I have +worked with him for six years.” + +“Everything you say is true.” His dark eyes twinkled. “But such a +priceless invention! Look what it has accomplished today—given us a +clean-cut victory, perhaps saved hundreds of lives and very precious +cargo. + +“Miss Scott,” he leaned close, speaking low, “this is one of the most +important convoys ever to cross the Atlantic. Our enemy is not through. +He will attack again and yet again, perhaps. But if we can always know, +as we did today, the hour, the very moment of his attack—what a boon!” + +“C. K. Kennedy is a very old man.” She was speaking slowly again, “He is +an extremely modest man. In the case of another important invention he +met with disappointment. I am sure he did not realize the real value of +this secret radio.” + +“But now he shall know. He shall be richly rewarded. Of course the +government will want to take over his invention, but even so—” + +“He does not ask for reward, only recognition.” + +“He shall have both, and in good measure,” the Captain declared. “And +now, let’s talk for a little while about the radio that is in your +stateroom right now.” + +“Ah,” Sally thought, with a sharp intake of breath, “now it is coming!” + +“Of course, you realize, Miss Scott,” he said, speaking low but +distinctly, “that for the present and probably for a long time to come, +your radio has value to the Navy only as a listening ear.” + +“No,” she replied quite frankly. “I’m not sure of that. It works quite +well as a sending set.” + +“In bringing such a radio on board you must have realized that you were +laying yourself open to serious charges.” + +“Yes, of course.” + +“Then, why did you do it?” His words were spoken in a tone that betrayed +only a kindly interest. + +“Because I believed the radio to be a great invention, one that could be +made to serve my country, and because I wanted to bring honor to a real +friend.” + +“You did not really mean to try communicating with anyone on land?” he +asked in a quiet tone. + +“Only in case of a great emergency, and then only with an officer.” Her +voice was low. + +“I can think of no emergency that would warrant the sending of such a +message. The truth is that such a message would be almost certain to +bring in one more sub wolf-pack to hunt us down. + +“That is not all.” He was still speaking in a low, friendly voice. “The +moment our enemy realizes that we are able to listen in on his talk from +sub to sub, that moment your radio loses its value. Think what it will +mean if the escorting vessel in every convoy should be able in the +future to listen as we did today while the wolf-pack moves in!” + +“I-I have thought.” Sally wet her dry lips. “I shall not attempt to +contact anyone with my radio, unless you sanction it—not—” she +swallowed hard, “not for anything.” + +“That is being a good sailor.” Putting out a hand he said: “It will be a +pleasure to shake the hand of a lady who does honor to the Navy.” They +shook hands solemnly. + +When at last Sally and Nancy found themselves on the open deck once +more, they were in prime condition for a long promenade. + +“My head is in a whirl!” Nancy exclaimed. “How could all this happen to +us?” + +“We’re just what Danny would call fools for kick,” was Sally’s reply. + +And then, at the very mention of Danny, she felt an all but +irrepressible desire to sink down on the deck. Danny too should have had +a part in all this. And where was he now? + +“The Captain was wonderful,” she said to Nancy. “He must know how we +feel about Danny.” + +“Of course he does. He knows we all worked together on the radio.” + +“And yet he never once mentioned Danny.” + +“Didn’t he?” + +“No, and I think that is about the most wonderful of all.” + +For a time after that they marched on in silence. In a shadowy corner +they passed two other WAVES seated on a pile of canvas. It was too dark +to distinguish their faces. + +After passing beyond a ladder, they paused to watch the moon, a faint +yellow ball, rolling through the fog that was thinning and blowing away. + +Then they heard one of the other WAVES talking. “Know who those girls +are?” she was saying. “They are the ladies of the day. Imagine!” Her +laugh was not good to hear. “One of them worked in a radio shop. The +other was a radio ham. Now they’re the ladies of the day. And I gave up +a five-thousand-a-year secretarial job to act as yeoman to Captain Mac +Queen. Isn’t war just wonderful?” + +“Who is that girl?” Sally whispered, as she and Nancy hurried on. + +“She’s the Old Man’s yeoman all right (secretary to you),” Nancy +replied. “I recognized her voice.” + +“What’s she got against us?” Sally asked in a puzzled voice. + +“That’s for her to know and for us to find out,” said Nancy. “But she’ll +bear watching!” + + + + + CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + DANNY’S BUSY DAY + + +Before falling asleep that night Sally found two faces appearing and +disappearing before her tired eyes. By drawing on her memory she had +been able to recall the face of Erma Stone, the Skipper’s secretary. +Erma was tall and dark. + +“Rather foreign-looking,” she told herself. She dismissed the idea that +she might really be a foreigner and, perhaps, a spy. Foreigners could +not join the WAVES, and on such a mission as this all members would be +chosen with great care. + +“She’s smart and has been successful,” she thought. “For some reason she +does not like Nancy and me. It may be pure jealousy because of the +favors just shown us, or it may go much deeper than that. I’ll be on my +guard.” + +The second face that seemed to hang on the black wall of darkness was +the smiling countenance of Danny. + +If she was troubled about Danny, as indeed she was, she might well +enough have put her mind to rest for, at the moment at least, Danny was +doing very well indeed. He was fast asleep. + +Never given much to worrying, he had munched some iron rations, then, as +darkness fell, had spread his, heavy coat over him and, using the side +of the craft as a pillow, had drifted off to peaceful slumber. + +His awakening was rude and startling. Something hard and wet, like a +wadded-up dishrag, had struck him squarely in the face. + +He came up fighting and clawing. One hand caught the damp and slimy +thing. The thing bit his fingers but he hung on. + +After dragging himself to a balanced position, he gave both hands to +conquering the intruder. + +“Feathers,” he muttered. “A sea-bird. Food from the sea.” At that he +felt for the creature’s neck, got one more bite from the iron-like beak, +then put the wandering bird to rest with neatness and dispatch. + +Hardly had he accomplished this, when, with all the force of a big +league baseball, a second object struck him squarely in the chest. +Completely bowled over, he barely avoided going overboard. This intruder +escaped. + +After searching about, he located a small flashlight. He started casting +its gleams over the sea. All about him the black waters seemed alive. + +“Birds!” he exclaimed. “Thousands of them!” + +He had not exaggerated. A great host of sea parrots, beating the water +with their tough little wings, were making their way south from their +summer home. + +Three more of them fell into his small boat and were added to his +slender larder. + +“I must make the most of everything,” he told himself stoutly. “Men have +lived for weeks on such a raft as this.” + +At that, after watching the last ugly little traveler pass, he once more +drew his heavy coat over him and lay down to peaceful sleep. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Sally awoke with mingled feelings of joy, sorrow, and fear. +She was glad that the secret radio had proved to be so great a boon. Old +C. K. could die happy. He had achieved a great success and this would +not go unrewarded. + +She was sorry about Danny. She would miss him terribly. “It’s not a case +of love,” she told herself almost fiercely, “We’re just good pals, +that’s all.” She did not believe in that word love. It could stand for +so much and so little. A stuffy night on a dance floor—that, for some, +was love. Men loved their ladies so well they killed them so no one else +would get them. Bah! The word might as well be marked out of the +dictionary. Perhaps the Old Man’s yeoman thought she was in love with +Danny. Who could tell? + +[Illustration: Danny Watched the Last Little Traveler Pass] + +It was this same yeoman, Erma Stone, who sent a shudder running through +her being. + +“I won’t think of it!” She sprang from her berth to turn on the secret +radio. Turning the dials, first this one, then that, for some time, she +caught nothing. + +“Subs are far away this morning,” she reported to Riggs in the radio +room, as she passed on her way for coffee, bacon, and toast. + +“That’s fine, Sally!” he beamed. “Keep up the good work. As long as the +weather remains fair that secret radio of yours will be your assignment, +yours and Nancy’s. Don’t sit over it all the time, but tune in for a few +minutes every hour. We can’t afford to take chances.” + +“Okay, Chief,” was her cheerful reply. + +“If the weather gets nasty, we may need your help,” he added. + +“It better stay fair.” Her brow wrinkled. “Danny’s out there somewhere.” + +“The storm gods don’t care for Danny,” he replied soberly. “Nor for any +of the rest of us.” + +“Riggs,” she said, coming close and speaking low, “do you know any +reason why the Captain’s yeoman should not like me?” + +“Erma Stone? No, why? Doesn’t she like you?” + +“I’m afraid not.” + +“You never know about women.” Riggs looked away. “If one gets a grouch +on me I keep my eyes peeled, that’s all.” + +“Thanks, Riggs. One thing more, do you think they will send a plane back +to look for Danny?” + +“No.” + +“Why?” + +“We’ve come too far since then. Besides, a plane rising from our ship +might catch the eye of some sub commander. That would be just too bad. +This is a mighty important convoy.” + +Sally drank her coffee in a cloud of gray gloom. There was nothing she +could do for Danny, absolutely nothing. But when she came out on the +deck, the sun was shining brightly, gulls were sailing high and all +seemed at peace. Since there was work to be done she snapped out of her +blue mood and stepped into things in the usual manner. + +That night, since the weather was still beautiful and no dangers +appeared to threaten, the Captain authorized a dance for the fliers, the +sailors off duty, the nurses, and the WAVES. + +Some of the sailors had organized an orchestra of a sort, two fiddlers, +two sax players, and a drummer. + +To Sally this seemed to offer an hour of glorious relaxation. She loved +dancing and did it very well, too. It seemed, however, that a whole +flock of gremlins had joined the ship, just to disturb her peace of +mind. + +The Captain was on hand to lead off the first dance, and chose her as +his partner. + +She wanted to say: “Oh, Captain! Please! No!” But she dared not. So they +led off the dance. It was a glorious waltz. The boys jazzed it a little. +Still it was glorious. + +The Old Man was a splendid dancer. She lost herself to the rhythm and +swing of the music until, with a startling suddenness, her eyes met +those of Erma Stone. + +From the shock of that flashing look of hate she received such a jolt, +that, had not the Skipper held her steady, she must have fallen to the +floor. + +“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Dizzy? I shouldn’t wonder. You’ve been +working rather hard and had a shock or two.” That was as close as he +would come to speaking of Danny. + +“It’s nothing!” Summoning all her will power, she pulled herself back +into the swing. And so the dark siren was forgotten, but not for long. + + * * * * * + +Out on the wide open sea Danny had had a busy day. Where he was the sun +came out bright and hot. After breakfast he began studying his +watermaking machine, and, in due time, had water that was a little +better than city water and not as good as that from the old oaken bucket +on his uncle’s farm. + +After that he skinned and cleaned his birds. Then he sliced the meat +thin and spread it out on the edge of the boat, where the sun shone hot, +to dry. + +“That will do for dinner tonight,” he told himself. “If I only had a +cookstove I’d get along fine.” + +He would want something for supper. Perhaps a fish would do. + +After attaching a lure to his line he cast out into the deep. At the +third cast a gray shadow followed his lure halfway in. Then, rising to +the surface, it thrust out a fin like a plowshare. + +“Huh!” He hauled in his line. “Seems to me this isn’t Friday after all.” +He thought what would happen if that shark threw one flipper over the +side of his raft. + +“It’s always something, but it ain’t never nothin’,” he murmured. + +Setting his coat up as a shade, he lay down to avoid the sun. And there +with the raft lifting and falling beneath him, he fell to musing on the +width of the ocean, the number of ships passing that way, and the +probability of a storm. + +In the midst of this his eye caught a sudden gleam of light. A dark +cloud was rolling along the horizon and from it came an ominous roar. + +Apparently Danny need no longer wonder about the probability of a storm. +The flash of lightning which had attracted his attention, together with +the rolling thunder which accompanied it, made a squall, at any rate, a +distinct possibility. + + + + + CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + THE DARK SIREN + + +“Watch out for that dark-faced siren.” + +It was Danny’s flying pal who spoke. The dance was still on and he, Fred +Angel, was dancing with Sally. + +“You mean the Captain’s yeoman?” she suggested. + +“Sure I do. While you were dancing with him, she looked as if she’d like +to murder you.” + +“Fred, why doesn’t she like me?” + +“Can’t you guess?” He grinned. + +“I might try, but I’d probably be wrong.” + +“She thinks her boss is sweet on you.” + +“Fred! That’s ridiculous! He’s been good to me because I’ve been lucky +enough to help out.” + +“Sure! That’s it,” he agreed. + +“He’s interested in just one thing, the same as the rest of us, helping +to bring this terrible war to an end.” + +“The thing that most of us are interested in,” Fred corrected her. “Some +people never get their minds off themselves for long. Miss Stone is like +that. You never worked in a large organization, did you, where there +were a lot of really big shots?” + +“No. I’m a small town girl.” + +“That’s where you were lucky. Me, I worked with a big city outfit and I +saw a lot of private secretaries like Erma Stone.” + +“Were they all like her?” + +“Most of them were, the very successful ones. They work like slaves, do +the boss’s work as well as their own. By and by they get to thinking +they own the boss. Erma is like that.” + +“And she thinks I’m trying to steal her property? That’s absurd!” Sally +laughed. + +“That’s just part of it. Erma is a two-timer. She has got to like Danny +pretty well, too.” + +“You don’t blame her, do you?” Sally spoke with feeling. + +“Not a bit. Danny’s one of the swellest guys I’ve ever known. He got a +real break last trip, sank a sub all by himself, and the rest of us +never even got a look-in,” Fred replied with enthusiasm. + +“So Erma set a trap to catch him, too?” Sally asked. + +“That’s what she did. And now, well, you know the answer from the books +you have read. Keep an eye on her, Sally. She’ll get to you sooner or +later. She may beat your time with the Old Man, but never with Danny, +for you’re in solid there—” + +“Danny,” she whispered, swallowing hard. “We may never see him again.” + +“There’s a chance there, but I’m betting on Danny!” + +The dance was at an end. + +“I’ll keep my eyes open,” she whispered. “Fred,” her voice was low and +tense—they were walking slowly toward her post of duty, “will we go +back the way we came?” + +“No one knows that.” + +“But do you think we will?” she insisted. + +He knew she was still thinking of Danny and wanted to help her, but +lies, he knew, never help. “Well, yes,” he spoke slowly, “the Old Man +will return this way for he never forgets his boys. Grand old boy, +Captain MacQueen is.” + +“Thanks, Fred. That really helps a lot. And, Fred,” they were at the +door of the radio cabin, “if you are sent out to search for Danny on the +way back, will you take me along?” + +“Well, now that—” he pondered, “yes, I will, if I can, I’ll even let +you stow away.” + +“Stowaway. That’s a lovely word,” she laughed. “Shake. It’s a date.” +With a hearty handclasp, they parted. + +That night Sally insisted on taking a two-hour shift with Riggs, +blinking out her messages to the ships of the convoy. + +“I want to do something besides sitting and listening for trouble,” she +told him. + +Truth was, a great loneliness had come sweeping over her. Perhaps the +dance had done that. Certainly it had brought back memories of other +times. Gay days at high school when she joined in the school hops which +had not been so grand but had for all that given her a feeling of +buoyant youth. There had been times too when, out with her father on a +fishing trip, she had fallen in with a jolly crowd and had danced by the +light of a campfire. + +Now that the ship’s dance was over, and she stood looking at the endless +black waters rolling by, she felt very blue. But the instant the blinker +was in her hands and bright little messages came to her out of the +night, loneliness fled. + +“We’re a big family,” she said to Riggs. + +“A family of ships,” he agreed. + +“And on those ships are enough people to populate a town as large as the +one where I was raised.” + +“Quite a young city,” he agreed. + +“But it seems so sad that they should all be carried away from their +home towns.” + +[Illustration: Sally Stood Looking at the Endless Black Waters] + +“Some of them got pretty tired of the old home town,” he mused. “But, +boy! Won’t they be happy when they get a chance to go back!” + +“I hope it may be soon.” + +Riggs was a fine fellow. Sally liked him a lot. + +“Riggs,” she said, “if I get into trouble, really serious trouble, I’ll +come to you first thing.” + +“You do just that, Sally.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You just +spill it all to old Riggs. He’ll pull you out of it or die in the +attempt.” + +“Thanks, Riggs. I feel so much better.” + +“It’s the dance that did that,” he slowly insisted. “Really there must +be some change in our lives or we break. The Old Man knows that. Great +old fellow, the Captain.” + + * * * * * + +Sally and Nancy worked out a schedule all their own. Four hours on and +four off, day and night, turn and turn about, they stayed by the secret +radio. + +“It seems such a simple thing to do!” Nancy exclaimed, after a full +twenty-four hours of it. + +“Yes, I know,” Sally agreed. “Nothing ever happens. I hear a little +‘put-put-put-put-a-put’ now and then—” + +“Sure! So do I but it sounds far away. The subs seem close together so +they can’t be near— + +“So we just set the dials and sit and listen, and wait. But just think +what has already happened and may happen again!” + +“Yes. We stopped them. Stopped them dead. Ships and lives would have +been lost.” + +“And so we must stick to our post for it may happen all over again.” + +In the quiet days that followed there was an hour of dancing every +night. These were hours of real joy for Sally. The Captain, apparently +considering that he had shown her all due courtesy, seldom asked for a +dance. This left her free to enjoy Fred and his fellow fliers. Erma +Stone seemed to have forgotten her, but this, she told herself, was only +a lull before another storm. + +One night while she stood by the rail, watching the black waters roll by +and thinking gloomy thoughts, she suddenly found the Captain at her +side. + +“I just wanted to tell you, Sally,” there was a mellow tone in his +voice, “that I haven’t forgotten Danny. I shall never forget him. He was +one of my finest. I am hoping our paths may cross yet.” + +“How—how can they?” she asked huskily. + +“We are taking this convoy to a certain port in England. There it will +be split up into smaller groups and convoyed by other fighting ships to +other ports.” + +“That leaves us free?” There was a glad ring in her voice. + +“Yes. We will follow the same course back. We have the spot where Danny +was lost marked on the chart and have a record of currents and winds +that may carry him off our course.” + +“Then you really think there is a chance?” + +“Most certainly, a real chance. We shall send out planes and scour the +sea.” + +“What a pity it could not have been done the hour he was lost.” + +“The battle was still on, then came the fog. After that we were far away +and this great convoy hung on our shoulders like a crushing weight.” The +Skipper sounded old and very tired. “It’s war, Sally. War! God grant +that it may soon be at an end.” + +As she returned to her cabin after this talk she had with the Captain +she ran upon Danny’s mother. She had seen her several times of late, but +they had never spoken of Danny. Now she had something cheery to tell. + +“Come in, Mrs. Duke,” she invited. “I’ll make a cup of hot chocolate on +my electric plate, and we’ll have a talk.” + +When the cocoa had been poured steaming hot, she said: “I had a talk +with the Captain.” + +“Was it about Danny?” Mrs. Duke smiled knowingly. + +“Yes, who else?” Sally smiled back. + +“Danny’s all right, that is, up to now.” + +Sally did not ask how she knew. That would have been questioning a +mother’s faith. + +“And he’s going to be all right,” Sally replied cheerfully. “The Captain +says we are to turn right back the moment we reach England, and that +we’ll have a look for Danny.” + +“That’s fine. Really, the Captain is a great and grand man.” Mrs. Duke +was warm in her praise. + +Sally told all she knew. Danny’s mother beamed her gratitude. But as she +rose to go, a wrinkle came to her brow. “It’s going to storm,” she said. +“I feel it in my bones.” + +Sally didn’t say: “That will be bad for Danny.” She said nothing at all, +just watched the older woman as she walked out into the night. + + * * * * * + +Those had been strange, hard days for Danny. He was not long in learning +that there is nothing so lonely as an empty sea. “If I get out of this +alive,” he told himself, “I’ll always carry some book with thin pages +and lots of reading, a Bible, a volume of Shakespeare, just anything.” + +His threatened storm turned into a gentle shower. Spreading out his +coat, he caught a quart of water and poured it into a rubber bottle. The +supply of water that could be produced by his still, he knew, was +limited, and this might be a long journey. + +That he was slowly going somewhere, he knew well enough. Winds and +currents would see to that. Perhaps he would in time come to land. What +land? Some wild, uninhabited island, a friendly shore, or beneath an +enemy’s frowning fortifications? He shuddered at the thought. + +At times he tried reciting poetry. One verse amused him: + +“‘This is the ship of pearl, which poets feign, sails the unshadowed +main.’ It’s a rubber ship,” he told himself, “but why quibble over small +details?” + +As he recalled the poem it ended something like this: + + “‘Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, + As the swift seasons roll! + Leave thy low-vaulted past! + Let each new’—(new what? Well, skip it!—) + ‘Shut thee from Heaven with a dome more vast, + Till thou at length art free, + Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.’ + +“That’s a fine idea,” he thought, “if I could make this rubber raft +grow. But I can’t, so I’d better catch me a fish.” + +The sharks were gone. His fishing on that day met with marvelous +success. After a terrific struggle in which his boat was all but +capsized a dozen times, he succeeded in landing a twenty-pound king +salmon. + +“Boy, oh, boy!” he exclaimed. “How did you get way out here?” + +That was not an important question. After cutting off the salmon’s head, +he sliced the rich, red steaks into strips and set them drying along the +sides of his boat. + +“‘Take, eat, and be content,’” he quoted. “‘These fishes in your stead +were sent by him who sent the tangled ram, to spare the child of +Abraham.’” + +He didn’t know what that was all about, but it did somehow seem to fit +his case, so he liked it. + +One evening his sea was visited by one more flight of small birds with +big, ugly heads. By one device and another he captured six of these. +Five went into his larder but the sixth being young-appearing and +innocent got a new lease on life. He tied it to the boat by a string. At +first his pet objected strenuously, but in the end he settled down to a +diet of dried salmon meat and was content to sit by the hour perched on +the side of Danny’s boat. He looked like a parrot but, try as he might, +Danny could not make him talk. + +And then this young “ancient mariner” was visited by both hope and +despair. A lone boat appeared on the horizon. It remained there for +hours, at last came much closer, and then was swallowed up by a great +bank of clouds rolling over the surface of the sea. + + + + + CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + + LITTLE SHEPHERDESS OF THE BIG SHIPS + + +That same night, after dreaming of being in the old garden swing beneath +the apple tree at home, and of swinging higher and higher until the +swing broke, letting her down on her head, Sally awoke to find herself +standing first on her feet and then on her head. + +“Something is terribly wrong,” she thought, still half asleep. “Where am +I? What is happening?” + +Just then her head did bump the boards at the head of her berth and she +knew. She was still aboard the aircraft carrier. A terrific storm had +set the top-heavy craft to doing nose dives and near somersaults. + +“I suppose I should be seasick,” she told herself, “but I am not, not a +bit. The Lord be praised for that.” + +Just then her ears caught a low moan. + +“Nancy!” she exclaimed, springing out of bed. “What’s happened?” + +“No-nothing. Every-every thing,” was the faltering answer. “Oh! Sally, I +do wish I could die on land.” + +“Nonsense!” Sally exclaimed. “You won’t die. You’re seasick, that’s all. +I’ve got some Lea and Perrins Sauce in my bag. It’s swell for +seasickness, they say. Wait, I’ll get you some.” + +“I’ll wait.” + +After downing the red-hot pepper sauce, Nancy felt a little better, but +hid her face in her pillow and refused to move. + +Sally had left her three hours before listening in at the secret radio. +Now she herself took a turn at listening. After a half hour of absolute +radio silence she dragged the headset off her ears, rolled the radio in +her blankets, drew on a raincoat, then slipped out into the storm. + +Slipped was exactly the right word. The instant she was outside the wind +took her off her feet. She went down with a slithering rush and slid +fifteen feet to come up at last against a bulkhead. + +“It must be storming,” she said to a sailor who volunteered to help her +to her feet. + +“I-I shouldn’t wonder,” he laughed, just as they went down in a heap. + +“Guess this is a good place to crawl,” he suggested, setting the +example. “The wind comes through here something fierce. Not-not so bad +up there for-forward.” + +[Illustration: A Sailor Helped Sally to Her Feet] + +Following his example, Sally crept on hands and knees to a more +sheltered spot. Then, getting to their feet and gripping hands, they +made a dash for it. + +At the end of this wild race they were caught by one more mad rush of +wind and piled up against the radio cabin door. Sally was on top. + +“This,” she said, “is where I get off. Thanks. Thanks a lot.” + +She pushed the door open, allowed herself to be blown in, then closed +the door in the face of the gale. + +“Do you think it will storm?” she asked Riggs who was there alone. + +“It might at that,” he grumbled. He looked just terrible, Sally thought. + +“Good grief, Sally!” he exploded. “Aren’t you seasick?” + +“Not a bit,” she laughed. “At least, not yet.” + +“You won’t be then. Thank God for that. How about taking over? I’m about +through for now.” + +“I’ll be glad to, Riggs.” + +“We’ve had to give up blinker signals. It’s so dark you couldn’t see a +ten-thousand watt searchlight. Besides, the ships go up and down so +you’d never get their messages. But we’ve got to keep in touch with +every blasted ship in the convoy. Get lost if we didn’t, bang into one +another, and sink everything.” + +“Yes, I know, Riggs.” + +“We’ve given up radio silence, had to. Anyway, no sub pack would attack +in this howling hurricane. We use sound and radio, to keep the ships +together.” + +“Yes, I know,” she replied quietly. + +“Oh! You do? Then you tell me.” Even Riggs got a little peeved at times, +when these lady sailors tried to tell him. + +“All right, here goes. Every two minutes you give the call number of +some ship in the convoy on the radio and then—” + +“Then you—” he began. + +“Who’s telling this?” she demanded. + +“Okay, Sally, okay!” Riggs laughed in spite of himself. + +“You give a toot on the ship’s whistle,” Sally continued. “At the same +time you send out a radio impulse. The radio sound reaches the ship +instantly. The sound of the whistle is slower. The signal man on that +other boat notes the difference between the time of arrival of radio +impulse and whistle. He does a little figuring, then he radios his +approximate position in relation to your ship. After that you tell him +to move so far this way and that. Then everything is hunky-dory until +next time.” Sally caught her breath. + +“Say, you know all the answers!” He laughed. + +“Not all, but some of them,” she corrected. “You don’t have to be dumb +all the time, even if you are a girl.” + +“Guess that’s right. Well, now, go to it.” Riggs threw himself down on a +long seat that ran the length of the room, and Sally took up her work. + +For a full hour the ship’s whistle spoke and the radio joined in. Sally +was there at the center of it all and enjoyed it immensely. + +The tanker at the back of the convoy and to the right was slipping +behind. She advised them to shovel more coal. The English packet was +crowding its mate to the right. She shoved it out to sea. The big, +one-time ocean liner, now a transport, laden with boys in khaki, was +straying and might get itself lost. She called it in a few boat-lengths. +The three liberty ships were getting too chummy with one another. She +spread them apart. + +At the end of the hour she glanced at the long seat. Riggs was gone. She +was alone with the ships and the storm. With a little gasp, she returned +to her duties. + +When she made the rounds of the ships for the second time the other +radiomen began to notice her. + +“Say! You’re all right!” the man on the big transport exclaimed over the +radio. “You’re all right, but you sound like a lady. Are you?” + +“No chance,” was the snapping answer, “only a WAVE.” + +“What do you know about that?” + +“Hello, Sally!” came from a liberty ship. “How are you? I saw your +picture in a movie!” + +“You didn’t!” she exploded. + +“Come on over and I’ll show it to you!” he jibed. + +“Can’t just now. I’m busy.” She cut him off. + +At the end of two hours Danny’s mother appeared with sandwiches and hot +coffee. “Thought I’d find you here,” was her quiet comment. “So you’re +the little shepherdess of the big ships.” Sally joined her in the laugh +that followed. Never a word was said about Danny, nor would there be. + +“Have you seen Nancy?” Sally asked. + +“Oh yes. Don’t you worry about her. I fixed her up just fine.” + +“And Riggs?” + +“Yes, Riggs, too. He said to tell you he’d take over any time you sent +for him.” + +“I’m doing fine, I guess,” Sally smiled. “And I’m enjoying it no end. + +“But what about Lieutenant Tobin?” Sally asked. “The second radioman.” + +“Oh, he’s sick too but he said he’d drag himself around soon.” + +Lieutenant Tobin lurched into the cabin a few moments later. Very +unsteady on his feet but fighting to keep up his spirits, he said: + +“Nice storm, Sally. I never saw a better one. I’ll take over now.” + +“Thanks, Lieutenant. Just send for me any time. Storms don’t mean much +to me.” + +“Lucky girl. Wish I was like that.” + +Sally returned to her quarters, looked to Nancy’s comfort, then crept +under the blankets. + +It seemed to her that she had only just fallen asleep, when a sailor +pounded on her door. + +“Lieutenant Tobin’s busted two ribs,” he announced. “He got slammed +against a stanchion. Lieutenant Riggs requests that you take over.” + +“I’ll be there in no time.” Again she hurried into her clothes. + +“I’m sorry, Sally.” Riggs seemed shaken by the very violence of the +storm. + +“That’s all right. I love it.” She managed a smile. + +“Got to see that Tobin has proper care. Tried to get to the rail, +well—you know why. A big wave slammed him hard. It’s terrible, this +storm is. I’ll relieve you later.” Riggs went away. Sally settled back +in her place. + +Never before had Sally experienced such a sense of power. She held many +great ships and thousands of lives in the hollow of her hand. “Some of +them know I’m a girl. Some even know who I am, and yet they trust me.” +The thought made her feel warm inside. + +“It’s worth the whole cost, just this,” she told herself. The whole +cost? Yes, giving up her work with old C. K., bidding good-by to her +family and friends. It was worth all that and more. + +But Danny! If she had lost him forever? She dared not think of Danny. +The very thought would unnerve her. Her work would suffer. She might +make some terrible blunder. + +“One increasing purpose,” a very good man had said to her. “That’s what +we need in these terrible hours.” + +One increasing purpose. That was what she must have in this hour of +trial. + +Riggs returned. Sitting down dizzily, he watched and listened for a +time. Then, leaning back, he seemed to go into a sort of coma. + +At the end of four hours, he came out of this, pushed her aside, +mumbled, “Go get some rest,” then took over. + +After fighting her way down the deck, she tumbled into her stateroom, +banged the door shut, shoved the secret radio into a corner, rolled the +blankets about her and fell fast asleep. + +Three hours later she was once more at her post. + +“I-I’ll be here if you need me.” Riggs threw himself on the hard seat +and was soon fast asleep. + +An hour later the Skipper looked in upon her. + +“How are they coming?” he asked, closing the door without a bang. + +“All right, I guess.” Sally nodded to a sort of peg-board map that +indicated the location of each ship in the convoy at any particular +moment. + +He studied the map for a time in silence. “That’s fine,” was his +comment. “Really first class.” + +“How’s your yeoman?” she asked. There was a twinkle in her eye. + +His eyes returned the twinkle. “She hasn’t bothered me for quite a time. +She’s under the weather, I suspect.” + +He looked at Riggs with a questioning eye. + +“He’s all right,” she hastened to assure him. “Doing all he can.” + +“It’s a terrible storm, worst I’ve ever seen in these waters. I’m having +ropes strung along the ship. You’d better stick to them pretty closely. +We can’t afford to lose you.” Then he was gone. + +His visit had made her happy. It is something when a really big man +says, “We can’t afford to lose you.” Well, they wouldn’t lose her nor +even have occasion to miss her for long at a time. + +The storm roared on. Boats pitched and tossed. The English packet had +its rigging blown away. The tanker reported a damaged rudder and a +destroyer went to her aid. + +Day dawned at last and they began using flags for signals. With very +little rest, buried in heavy sweaters and slicker, Sally stood like a +ship’s figure-head on the tower and signaled all day long. + +Once Nancy came to take her place. She lasted for an hour. + +“It-it’s not that I can’t take-it.” Nancy was ready to cry when Sally +relieved her. “It’s this terrible seasickness.” + +“Yes, I know. Just forget it. The storm will be over before you know +it.” + +It wasn’t over when Sally went for a few hours of rest, but the clouds +were gone, the moon was out, and because of possible submarine menace, +they had gone back to blinker signals. + +At ten she was at her new post blinking signals. Time and again, as the +hours passed, waves sent their spray dashing over her. When at last she +was relieved, she was half frozen and soaked to the skin. + +To her surprise, when she reached her cabin, she found the door +swinging. + +“What now?” she whispered. Nancy, she knew, had been removed to the sick +bay where Mrs. Duke could look after her. + +As she bounced into the room, slamming the door after her, she surprised +a tall figure bending over her secret radio. + +The instant she saw the girl’s face, she gasped. It was Erma Stone, the +Captain’s yeoman. Her face was a sight to behold. She had been sick, all +right. + +“Perhaps she’s delirious,” Sally thought. + +The instant she caught the look of hate and cunning in the girl’s eyes, +she knew this guess was wrong. + +“What are you doing here?” she demanded. + +“I was sent here to make sure you had not been sending messages on this +radio.” Miss Stone stood her ground. + +“How would you know whether I had or not?” Sally demanded. + +“I would—” + +“You were not sent here!” Sally was rapidly getting in beyond her +depths. “You came of your own accord. Why? I don’t know. But I’ll know +why you left!” She took a step forward. + +Dodging past her, the girl threw the door open and was gone. + +“She was going to send a message,” Sally told herself. “Then I’d get the +blame. She couldn’t do that. There is no one to listen at this hour of +the night. She—” + +Sally’s thoughts broke off short. Yes, someone might be listening. The +enemy subs; and if they heard, all her secrets would be out. + +Had the girl succeeded in sending a message? She doubted that, for this +was a secret radio in more ways than one. + +A brief study of the radio assured her that no messages could have been +sent. + +After making sure of this, she snapped on her headset to sit listening +for a half hour. She caught again that “put-put-put.” It seemed nearer +now. Tomorrow she and Nancy should get back to this secret radio. + +At that she dragged off her sodden garments, rubbed herself dry, drew on +a heavy suit of pajamas, then rolled up in her blankets. Soon she was +fast asleep. And the storm roared on. + + + + + CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + + THE SECRET RADIO WINS AGAIN + + +When Sally awoke, hours later, the sun was shining. Great billowing +waves with no foam on their crests were rolling their ship up and down. +The worst of the storm was over. + +Looking like a ghost, Riggs crawled out of his hole to resume his +duties. Even Nancy was back to her old, normal self. + +“You take it nice and easy, Sally,” was Riggs’s advice. “You’ve done a +swell job and deserve a rest.” + +After drinking her coffee and eating toast and oatmeal at a real mess +table, Sally felt swell. She took a turn or two along the deck, then +climbed the ladder to the flight deck. There she came across Fred. + +“Quite some storm,” he grinned. “We had a heck of a time keeping the +planes from taking off all by themselves. But say!” His face sobered. +“What about Danny? What do you know about him out there on a rubber +raft?” + +“I don’t know a thing, and I try not to think about it,” was her solemn +reply. + +“Oh, well, some ship may have picked him up. And then, again, this storm +might not even have gone his way.” Fred was a cheerful soul. + +Sally went back to the lower deck. In her own stateroom, she hooked up +the secret radio, then lay propped up in her berth listening. + +Almost at once she caught a low “put-put-put.” “Still far away,” she +murmured. + +For three hours she lay there turning dials, listening, then turning +more dials. Now and then she dozed off into a cat nap. But not for long. +She was disturbed. Each passing hour found the “put-puts” coming in +stronger. There was one particular broadcaster whose code messages +fairly rang in her ears. + +By working on her record of messages and her German dictionary, she was +able to tell that this particular broadcaster was directing the course +of several other subs. + +“They must be subs,” she told herself. “And such a lot of them! Twelve +or fourteen. And they are coming this way.” + +What did it mean? Had one or two of the enemy subs from that other pack +escaped? Had they joined another larger wolf-pack and were they all +coming in to attack? + +She took all these questions to the Captain’s cabin. She found the +“siren” at her typewriter, but ignored her. When she had made her report +to the Captain, he said: + +“Our radio was going yesterday. That was unavoidable. We may be +attacked. How soon do you think it may come?” + +“They seem quite a distance away. It may be several hours yet,” Sally +replied thoughtfully. + +“Several hours? I hope so. By that time we shall be in waters that are +within striking distance of powerful land-based planes in England. When +we’re sure the attack is to be made we’ll radio for aid. Those big +planes will blast the subs from the sea!” + +“But do you think they will come right in as they did before—the subs, +I mean?” Sally asked. + +“Why not?” he asked, seeming a little surprised. + +“Perhaps they have been warned. They may try some new trick,” Sally +suggested. + +“It’s hard to imagine what that might be. Certainly they can’t sink our +ships without coming in where we are. Keep a sharp watch. Stick to that +radio of yours and report to Riggs every hour.” + +Sally returned to her cabin with grave misgiving. That the enemy would +repeat the performance of that other day seemed improbable. There was, +of course, a fair chance that they did not know of the catastrophe that +had befallen that other sub pack. + +“It seems to me that we have had enough for one trip,” Nancy said when +Sally told her what was happening. + +“In war no one ever has enough trouble,” was Sally’s sober reply. “There +is no such word as enough in the war god’s dictionary. It is always more +and more and more. I’ve heard that we’re losing two hundred ships a +month. No one seems to know for sure. One thing is certain, _we_ haven’t +lost any and we’re about two days from England.” + +It did seem, after an hour had passed, and then another, that this sub +pack was going to do just as the other had done. As Sally listened, +turned dials, and waited, the broadcasters on the enemy subs began to +fan out. After that, with a slow movement that was ominous, they began +to surround the convoy. After the circle had been completed they started +moving in. + +It was the hour before sunset when she hurried to the radio room. + +“Rig-Riggs!” She was stammering in her excitement. “They are all around +us!” + +“How close?” He blinked tired eyes. + +“There’s no way to know that,” she replied cautiously. + +“They’ll attack at dusk. Always do. You can’t see the wake of their +periscopes so well then.” + +“Don’t you think we should send for the big planes from the mainland?” +she asked. + +“It may be too soon. We want them to arrive at what you might call the +psychological moment. Wait. I’ll ask the Skipper.” + +He called the Captain on the ship’s phone, then stated his problem. + +“You don’t think so?” he spoke into the phone. “I thought that might be +best, sir. + +“Yes, sir, all the men are at battle stations now. I’ll wait, sir.” He +hung up. + +“The Skipper says to wait,” he explained “He—” + +He broke off short for at that moment the lookout sang out: + +“A sub off the port side.” + +“Sub—sub off the port side,” came echoing back. + +At once there came the sound of running feet, of guns swung to position, +and more shouts: “Subs! Subs!” + +Sally dashed to the rail. Just what she meant to do, she did not know. +At any rate, it was never done for, at that instant, a gun roared and in +three split seconds a shell crashed into the radio cabin. + +“Torpedo!” a voice shouted. + +“Hard to port! Hard to port!” the man on the bridge roared. + +With a sense of doom Sally saw the radio cabin smashed, then saw a +torpedo leave the sub. Fascinated, terrified, she watched it come. It +seemed alive. It played like a porpoise. First it was in the air above +the water, then beneath the water. + +With sudden terror, she realized that the torpedo would strike the ship +directly beneath her. The order to turn the ship had come too late. + +“And when it does strike!” Her knees trembled. For the first time in her +life, she was paralyzed with fear. + +The torpedo came on rapidly. Now it was fifty feet away, forty, thirty. +It dove beneath the water, rose sharply, sped through the air, and— + +Shaking herself into action, Sally turned and ran. Headed for the +opposite side of the ship she was all prepared for a terrific roar +accompanied by the sound of rending and crashing of timbers. But none +came. + +Racing headlong, she banged into the gunwale on the opposite side, to +stand there panting. + +Suddenly she rubbed her eyes, then looked at the sea. “It’s gone,” she +murmured. “The torpedo is going away. It must have plunged low and gone +under the ship.” + +Her instant of relief was cut short by the realization that there were +other torpedoes and shells, that the battle had just begun and that a +shell had gone through their radio cabin. + +“Riggs!” she cried. “Riggs was in that cabin!” + +She reached the radio door just as two sailors carried Riggs out. His +face was terribly white. + +Asking no questions, she brushed past them and into the cabin. With +Tobin and Riggs gone, she must carry on. + +A look at the radio gave her a sense of relief. It had not been damaged. +She tested it and her heart sank. + +“Dead!” she murmured. Then: “It’s the power wires. They’ve been cut.” + +One moment for inspection and she was gripping a hatchet, cutting away a +varnished panel that hid the wires. + +Finding rubber gloves, tape, pliers, and a coil of wire, she set about +the business of repairing the wires. + +“Every second counts,” she told herself. “Those bombers from the +mainland must be called.” + +The wires had been connected; she was just testing out the radio when +the Skipper bounded into the cabin. + +“The radio!” he exclaimed. “Can it be repaired?” + +“It has been repaired. It’s working!” she replied, straightening up. + +[Illustration: Sally Saw Two Sailors Carry Riggs Out] + +“Working. Thank God! Call this—one—seven—three—seven. Repeat it in +code, three times.” + +She put in the call. Then they waited. Suddenly, the radio began to +snap. + +“That’s their answer,” she said quietly. + +“Tell them to send bombers. We’re being attacked by subs, this +position.” He laid a paper before her. + +She set the accelerator talking. + +Again they waited. + +Again came the snap-snap of code. + +“Repeat,” she wired back. + +The message was repeated. “Okay,” she wired. “They’re sending twenty +bombers,” she said quietly. + +“Good! What about Riggs?” the Captain asked. + +“I wasn’t here. They carried him out,” said Sally. + +“And Tobin?” + +“He has two broken ribs,” was the quiet reply. + +“I’ll send you a young second lieutenant. He knows radio.” + +“We—we’ll make out.” Sally hated herself for stammering. + +“Good!” He was gone. + +Had the enemy gun crew had their way, Sally would by this time have been +among the missing. But, thanks to the timely warning, all the men of the +aircraft carrier had been at their posts when the sub appeared on the +surface. + +The instant the sub poked its snout out of the water the long noses of +five-inch guns were being trained on it. The first enemy shot had +crashed into the radio cabin, but every other shot went wild. One went +singing over Sally’s head and another cut a stanchion not ten feet from +where she stood, but she had worked on. + +More and more guns were trained on the sub. A colored crew chanted: +“’Mm, I got shoes, you got shoes, all God’s chillun got shoes.” + +“Bang! Pass up another shell, brother. That un wrecked the conning +tower. ’Ummm, I got shoes, you got shoes—” + +Bang! One split second passed and there came a terrific explosion. The +sub had blown up. + +By this time the enemy’s plan was plain to see. This sub had been sent +in to wreck the ship’s radio at once, then to sink her at their leisure. +It would be impossible this way for the carrier to summon aid from land +planes. It was true that this task might have been taken over by a cargo +ship or a destroyer but before these ships could know of the need, it +would be too late. + +With the threat to his ship removed, the Captain ordered his planes off +on a search for the remainder of the wolf-pack. + +With a strange feeling at the pit of her stomach, Sally heard them take +off one after the other. + +“Fred and all his comrades,” she whispered. “What will the score be +now?” + +A youthful face appeared at the door. “I’m Second Lieutenant Burns,” +said the boy. “I was sent to pinch-hit on the radio.” + +“That’s fine!” Sally gave him her best smile. “You just look things +over. If you want to give me a few moments off, it will be a blessing +straight from Heaven.” + +“Things happen pretty fast.” He smiled back at her. + +“Too fast.” She was rocking a little on her feet. + +“You were lucky at that.” He grinned. “I watched those shots. If it +hadn’t been for that singing gun crew, one of those shells would have +blown this cabin sky high.” + +“But it didn’t.” Sally felt a little sick. “I’ll just get back to my +secret radio for a moment,” she said. + +“Okay, I’ll take over.” He settled down in his place. + +The messages she picked up on her radio were a jumble of sounds. Every +broadcaster of the enemy subs was trying to talk to every other. + +“We got their leader!” she thought as her heart gave a triumphant leap. +“Now they’re all looking for orders and getting none.” + +Her hope for a quick and easy victory over this new and more powerful +sub pack was soon dashed to the ground. In a very short time there came +into the enemy broadcasts a firmer and more confident note. + +“Oh!” Sally exclaimed. “Some other sub commander has taken charge of the +pack! Now there will be a real fight.” + +Soon enough the fliers who went out to the attack found this to be true. +Warned, no doubt, by the experience of that other sub pack, these subs +came in with only their periscopes showing. Fred, who carried a radioman +who was also a gunner in his two-seated plane, searched the sea in vain +for a full fifteen minutes. Then suddenly he caught over his radio a +call for help from one of the tankers. + +“We’re about to be attacked,” was the terse message. + +Only twenty seconds from that very tanker, Fred swung sharply about, +barked an order to his gunner, then moved in. + +“There’s the sub!” the gunner shouted. “Over to the left.” + +Sighting his target, Fred swung wide and low. Aiming at the white wake +of the sub’s periscope he let go a depth bomb. It was a near hit and +brought the sub to the surface but it seemed to the young flier that she +came up shooting; at least, by the time they had swung back, the sub’s +gun was barking. + +“Hang onto your shirt,” Fred called to his gunner. “Get ready to mow ’em +down, we’re dropping in on them.” At that he shot straight down two +thousand feet, leveled off with a wide swoop, then sent a murderous hail +of machine-gun bullets sweeping across the sub’s crowded deck. As they +passed on, his gunner sent one more wild burst tearing at them. + +On the sub men went down in rows. The sea was dotted by their struggling +forms. Those who remained crowded down the conning tower. Then the sub +crash-dived. For the time, at least, the tanker and its priceless cargo +were saved. + +But now there came a call from the big transport which carried a +thousand men in khaki on its crowded decks. She too was about to be +attacked. Sally, standing on the tower, watching, ready to blink +signals, caught the message but could do nothing. The small English +packet, the _Orissa_, also caught the message. Small as she was, and +armed with but one gun, she moved swiftly in, cutting off the sub’s line +of attack on the big transport. + +As if angered, by this interference, the sub commander brought his sub +to the surface, prepared to finish off the small ship with gunfire. But +two can play with firearms. The packet carried a gun crew that had done +service on many seas. The foam was hardly off the sub when a shell from +the _Orissa_ blasted off one side of the sub’s conning tower. The shot +was returned but without great harm. One more shot from the _Orissa’s_ +plucky gunners and the sub’s gun was out of commission. Perhaps, after +this beating, the sub’s commander planned to submerge and leave the +scene of action. Whatever his plans might have been, they were never +carried out, for a fighter from the aircraft carrier that had come to +the rescue swung low to place a bomb squarely on the sub’s deck. The +_Orissa_ was showered with bits of broken steel as the sub blew up with +a great roar. + +This was a good start but there were many subs, some of them very large. +Without doubt they had received orders to get that convoy at any cost, +for they kept coming in. + +Fred and his partner, still scouring the sea, discovered a sub slipping +up on one of the liberty ships. Swinging low they scored a near hit with +a bomb. The sub’s periscope vanished. Was it a hit? They could not tell. +One more miss and they were soaring back to their own deck for a fresh +cargo of death. + +Seeing them coming in, Sally handed her blinker to Nancy and raced down +to find out how things were going. + +“It’s bad enough,” was Fred’s instant response. “We’ve lost one plane to +AA fire but the pilot bailed out and was picked up by a destroyer. A sub +scored a hit on one of the liberty ships but it is all shored up and +holding its own. If only those big bombers from England would come!” His +brow wrinkled. + +“Well, I’ll be seein’ you.” He climbed into his plane and was once more +in the air. + +“If only those big bombers would come!” Sally echoed his words as she +returned to the tower. + +Now, once again, a large sub, apparently assigned to the task, slipped +in close to the aircraft carrier, and life on board became tense indeed. +Two additional airplanes were thrown into the battle. One of these +brought the sub to the surface with a depth charge. Sally drew in a deep +breath as she saw the sub’s size. “Big as a regular ship,” she murmured +to herself. + +“And twice as dangerous,” said the young lieutenant who stood at her +side. + +The truth of this was not long in proving itself, for suddenly a shell +went screaming past them and a second tore bits of the tower away. + +But the sub was not having things all her own way. A daring young flier +swooped low to pour a deadly fire across her bow. For a moment her guns +were silenced, but no longer. This time she directed her fire skyward +and with deadly effect. A fighter, some three thousand feet in the air, +was hit and all but cut in two. + +“Oh!” Sally exclaimed. “They got that plane.” She knew the plane and the +boys who flew her. Now her eyes were glued on the sky. Her lips parted +with a sigh of relief as a parachute blossomed in the sky. But where was +the other one? It never blossomed. The plane came hurtling down to +vanish instantly. + +“If only those big bombers would come!” Sally’s cry was one of anguish. +She could not stand seeing those fine boys go down to death. + +Another shell sped across their deck. At the same time there came again +the cry, “Torpedo off the port bow.” + +Once more, with terror in her eyes, Sally watched a torpedo speed toward +the broad side of their ship. This time it seemed it could not miss. But +again came that strange hum, as the gun crew began to sing, “I got +shoes, you got shoes.” + +There was a splash close to the speeding torpedo, and another and yet +another. It seemed impossible that any gun could fire so fast. And then +an explosion rocked the ship. What had happened? Sally had looked away +for the moment. + +“That’s some gun crew,” the lieutenant exclaimed. “They just blew that +torpedo out of the water.” + +“Wonderful!” Sally exclaimed. “All the same, this can’t last. There are +too many of those subs. I do wish the big bombers would come.” + +As if in answer to her prayer, there came a great rumbling in the clouds +that hung high over them in the evening sky and suddenly, as if it had +seen all and had been sent to deliver them from the giant sub, a +four-motored bomber came sweeping down. As Sally watched, breathless, +she saw a dozen white spots emerge from the big bomber and come shooting +down. It was strange. At first they seemed a child’s toy. Then they were +like large arrows with no shafts, just heads and feathered ends. And +then they were a line of bombs speeding toward their target. She +watched, eyes wide, lips parted, as they hit the sea. The first one fell +short, and the second, and third and then once more there was a roar. + +“A direct hit!” the young lieutenant shouted. “That does it.” + +When the smoke and spray had drifted away, Sally saw the giant sub +standing on one end. Then, as the last rays of the setting sun gilded it +with a sort of false glory, the sub slowly sank from sight. + +“Oh!” Sally breathed. “How grand!” For all that there was a sinking +feeling at the pit of her stomach. The men on that sub too were human, +and some were very young. + +[Illustration: They Watched Breathlessly as the Bomb Struck] + +Suddenly the sky was full of giant bombers and the air noisy with the +shouts of thousands of voices welcoming the deliverers. + +“Here,” Sally handed the blinker to Nancy, “take this. I’ve just thought +of something that needs doing.” At that she sped away. + +A moment later Sally was in her stateroom listening to the secret radio. +The question uppermost in her mind at that moment was: How will the +enemy subs take this new turn in the battle? She had the answer very +soon; they were not taking it. At first there came a series of hurried +and more or less jumbled messages from very close in. After that the +enemy radio messages settled down and were spaced farther apart. Each +new burst of “put-puts” came in more faintly, which meant that the subs +were withdrawing. + +When at last she was sure that, for the time, the fight was over, she +hurried to the Captain’s cabin. + +“The subs have withdrawn,” she announced. + +“Good!” the Captain exclaimed. “How far? Are they still withdrawing?” + +“That’s hard to tell,” Sally replied cautiously. + +“They’ll withdraw for now,” he prophesied, “and come back to the attack +at dawn. Their theory will be that the big bombers will have to return +to their land bases.” + +“Which they must.” + +“That’s right. But there is no reason why they should not return at dawn +if there is still work for them to do. Our enemy does not yet realize +that, thanks to your secret radio, we can keep track of their movements. +Perhaps we can catch them off guard at dawn and finish them. That,” the +Captain added, “will depend on you and your secret radio.” + +“It’s a terrible responsibility,” was the girl’s quiet reply, “but I +accept it. I shall be listening, all through the night.” + +That night will live long in Sally’s memory. She slept not at all. At +all hours the headset was over her ears. At first there were few +messages passing from sub to sub. + +“They are sleeping,” she told herself. Then the lines of a very old poem +ran through her mind: + + At midnight in his guarded tent the Turk lay dreaming of the hour + When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, should tremble at his power. + +“There will be no trembling,” she told herself stoutly. She knew that +all had been arranged. If she reported that the subs were again moving +in to the attack, the big land bombers would be notified and would +return to surprise the wary foe. But would the subs attack? Only time +could tell. + +At the eerie hour of three in the morning, she began picking up +messages, sent from sub to sub, some near, some far away. + +“I think reinforcements are coming in,” she phoned the Skipper, who was +at the bridge. + +“Good! Then we will have more to destroy,” was his reply. + +The hour before dawn came at last and with it the enemy subs, at least +ten in number, slowly closing in. With a radio message sent to the +mainland, they could but wait the dawn. + +This time, confident of success and eager for the kill, the subs +surfaced and came racing in. They were met by bombs from every plane the +aircraft carrier could muster and from thirty land bombers as well. +Their rout was complete, and the destruction, insofar as could be +learned, was to them a great disaster. + +Leaving the land-based bombers to finish the job, the convoy steamed on +toward its destination. + + + + + CHAPTER NINETEEN + + OH, DANNY BOY! + + +In the hours that followed every nerve was tense. They had won another +battle but not without loss. The terrors of war at sea had come to stand +out before every WAVE on board in sharper reality than ever before. + +It was so with Sally and Nancy. They had volunteered for sea duty and, +as long as their services in this capacity were required, there would be +no turning back. The spirit of youth that had flowed in their veins as +they boarded the ship only a few days before was being exchanged for +sterner stuff. + +Uppermost in the minds of all was the question of enemy subs. Twice they +had been defeated, but the convoy they had hoped to destroy was +priceless. Would they strike again? + +Throughout one long, sleepless night both Sally and Nancy hovered over +their secret radio. The “put-put-put” of strange enemy broadcasts was +coming in constantly. There were still plenty of subs about. At first +they appeared to be scattered far apart. But in time they seemed to be +assembling for attack. + +Every hour Sally reported to the Captain. In spite of the fact that it +was impossible to tell the exact position of this sub pack, at three in +the morning huge four-motored bombers, hovering overhead, were radioed a +message and they went zooming away in the bright moonlight. + +An hour later a message came in that they had surprised two large subs +on the surface, probably engaged in charging batteries, and had sunk +them both. + +Just before dawn Sally, tired but happy, reported to the Captain: + +“The loss of those two subs seems to have broken the pack up.” + +“What’s happening now?” he asked. + +“They’re spreading out. Their messages are fading.” + +“Perhaps they have given it up and are heading for their home ports. If +so, that’s good news. In less than twenty-four hours we shall be safe in +port.” + +“Oh! Happy day!” Sally exclaimed. + +And it was indeed a happy day when, with her convoy, every precious ship +of it safe, the aircraft carrier dropped anchor in a broad harbor. A +small puffing tug came alongside to take members of the crew, who had +been granted shore leave, to the dock. Among these were Sally, Nancy, +Erma Stone, Riggs, and Mrs. Duke. + +Sally, Nancy, and Danny’s mother stuck close together once they entered +the streets of the only European city they had ever known. + +“So this is merry England,” said Nancy. “It doesn’t seem very merry.” + +And indeed it did not. A heavy fog hung over the city. The streets were +narrow and dark. The people were poorly dressed. They seemed overworked +and weary. + +“They are merry in a way, all the same,” said Sally. “Take a look at +their faces.” + +Nancy did just that and was amazed. In every face was the glorious light +of hope. + +“How can you be happy after so many months of war?” Sally asked of a +very old lady. + +“Oh, the Americans are coming,” the cracked old voice replied. “You are +an American, aren’t you?” she asked, peering at Sally’s blue uniform. + +“Yes, of course. I’m a WAVE.” + +“Oh! A lady soldier?” + +“No, a lady sailor,” Sally laughed. + +“Then you were in the convoy that just came in.” The woman’s voice +dropped to a whisper. “How many of your ships did they get?” + +Sally hesitated. She looked the woman over. She was English from head to +toe. She was old and tired, hungry, too, yet she dared be cheerful. She +wanted good news. Well, then, she should have it. + +“Not a ship,” she whispered. + +“Oh, then you brought us good luck,” the old woman cackled joyously. +“You must come again and again.” + +“I think I shall,” said Sally. “It’s been truly wonderful. + +“And terrible,” she whispered to herself when the old woman had moved +on. + +Sally put a hand in her coat pocket, then laughed low. In that pocket +was a present for someone. + +A little farther on they overtook a small girl. She was thinly clad. Her +thin face appeared pinched by the fog and cold. + +“See, I have a present for you,” said Sally, taking her hand out of the +pocket. In the hand were two hard-boiled eggs. She had saved them from +her breakfast. + +The girl’s eyes shone, but she did not take the eggs. Instead she +grasped Sally by the hand. After leading her down a narrow alley, she +opened a door in the brick wall, then stood politely aside while Sally, +Nancy, and Mrs. Duke walked in. + +[Illustration: “See, I Have a Present for You” Said Sally] + +The room they entered was a small kitchen. It was scrupulously clean. +Beside a small fire on an open hearth stood the girl’s mother. + +“Oh, you have brought us company, Mary!” she exclaimed. “These fine +ladies from the boats. Won’t you be seated?” she invited. + +“Oh, we won’t stay,” Sally smiled. “I offered Mary two eggs. I saved +them just for her. Why didn’t she take them?” + +“Two eggs in the middle of the month!” the mother exclaimed. “That is +unheard of. One egg at the first of each month. That is all we are +allowed.” + +“But if the eggs are a present from America?” Sally insisted. + +“Oh! That is different.” The woman’s face beamed. + +“Then you and Mary shall each have an extra egg.” Sally placed them on +the table. + +“May God bless you.” The woman was close to tears. + +“That,” said Danny’s mother, once they were on the street, “is why we +came.” + +“All those ships,” Sally exclaimed, “and all safe! I’ve been told that +our convoy brought three shiploads of food.” + +“Food will win the war,” said Nancy. “We’ll come again.” + +Sally’s impatience grew with every passing hour. Why weren’t they +heading back? Every hour’s delay seemed a crime, for Danny was still out +there on the tossing sea. Or was he? She dared still to hope. + +“We’ll be heading back just as soon as we take on fuel and get our +clearance,” said the Captain. “I’m as anxious to be moving as you are. + +“And once we get started, we’ll really make time. When it’s not hampered +by a convoy, our ship can do close to thirty knots. We’ll steer a +straight course. It won’t be long, once we are on our way.” + +Sally did not say: “Long before what?” She knew he meant long before +they reached the spot where Danny had last been seen. + +“The Skipper never forgets one of his boys,” had been Riggs’s word for +it. “And he never fails to do all he can for them.” + +On the second day Nancy remained on board, but Sally and Danny’s mother +once again went ashore. + +“The time will pass quicker that way,” Mrs. Duke said. + +“Yes, and while we are in England we should see all we can of the +English people. The more we learn of them the more we’ll know the things +we’re fighting for.” + +By mid-afternoon they were ready for a rest. Seeing a throng entering a +service club, they followed. + +An entertainment was in progress. A group of Tommies was putting on an +amusing skit about life on the African front. + +When this was done, the band from Sally’s own ship came on the platform +to give the English people a taste of real American swing tunes. They +were received with hilarious applause. + +Then a beautiful lady in a gorgeous costume mounted the platform and, as +a pianist gave her the chords, began to sing. She had a marvelous deep +voice. Being English and having known the cruel war as only the English +people do, she sang with power and feeling. The song was entitled “Danny +Boy.” + +“Come on,” Sally whispered with something like a sob. “I can’t listen to +all of that. Let’s get out.” + +They did hear more, for as they moved down the aisle and out into the +open air, the words were wafted back to them. + +After walking away a little, they sat down on a bench at the edge of a +narrow square. Neither spoke. There was no need. The rare, bright sun +came out to bless them. From the harbor came the hoarse call of a ship’s +whistle. Sally wished it were her own, but knew it was not. + +Then, suddenly, another sound reached their ears, the rather +high-pitched laugh that could only come from the throat of an American. + +Sally looked back. It was Erma Stone who had laughed. Her arm was linked +in that of an admiral. She had had a shampoo. Her suit was pressed. She +“looked like a million” and was beaming on the admiral in a dazzling +manner. + +“Life is strange,” Sally whispered to her white-haired companion. + +“Yes, child,” was the solemn reply. “Very, very strange.” + +That night Sally was awakened by the throb of the ship’s motors. They +were on their way back. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY + + A GLEAM FROM THE SEA + + +As she lay there in her berth, still too tired and dreamy to do more +than think, all the events of the past few months seemed to pass in +review before her mind’s eye. + +She saw herself a normal young lady in a normal, slightly humdrum world, +going her regular daily rounds, work at the shop during the day, dinner +with her father at night, and after that an easy chair and a book, +varied now and then by a party or a ride in the moonlight. + +“Some life!” she whispered. Had it been? She did not really know. She +found herself longing for it now in a dreamy sort of way. But would she +be happy there now? She doubted that. + +And then again she saw herself at the great airport, directing huge +bombers and other planes to their places on the field. With Silent Storm +as her guide, instructor, and friend, she had lived a happy life. The +work she had been doing had been important, very important. One false +move, one misdirected training bomber and a dozen fine young men from +Colorado, Vermont, Illinois—might have gone crashing to earth. + +“Silent Storm,” she whispered. “A grand friend. Barbara, a good, staunch +pal. I am going back to them.” The speedy aircraft carrier seemed to +fairly leap along, carrying her home to America. + +“Shall I stay there always?” she asked herself. + +To this question she found no certain answer. Probably she would not be +the one to answer that question. This trip, made by a dozen WAVES, had +been an experiment. Had it been successful? Would it be repeated? She +could not tell. + +She found herself hoping it might be, for the good of others as well as +herself. The Captain had told her that on this trip his men had been +happier, steadier, more contented than ever before. + +“Ladies add a touch to every organization that can be had in no other +way.” That was his way of putting it. + +On shore in the harbor city many fine American boys were located. She +had talked to some of them. One boy had said: + +“You don’t know what it means to meet an honest-to-goodness American +girl over here.” + +“Why not?” she asked herself now, almost fiercely. “If the boys can die +for their country, why not the girls as well? Thousands of good English +women died in the terrible bombings, but the others never faltered.” + +Yes, she was sure that she wanted to stay with the ship, to sail the +sea, to do her bit, to fight and die if need be for her beloved land. +But would they let her? Only time could tell. + +After listening in vain for any sound of enemy subs, she drew on slacks, +slippers, and a heavy bathrobe, and went out on the deck. As she passed +along toward the ladder leading to the flight deck above, she saw +gunners standing like wax statues by their guns. + +“There won’t be any subs tonight,” she paused to whisper. “I have had my +radio on for half an hour. Not a sound.” + +“Perhaps not,” was the low response. “But the Skipper isn’t taking any +chances.” + +“Boy! We gave them subs plenty, comin’ over,” came from another statue. +“I’ll bet we got twenty of them.” + +“Not that many, Old Kentuck,” said another statue. “But plenty. And they +say it’s on account of one of them WAVES having some queer sort of +radio. Great little dame, I’d say.” + +“Sure brought us a lot of luck!” said the first shadow. + +“They haven’t recognized me!” Sally thought, feeling all sort of good +inside. “And I won’t tell them. That would spoil it. I’ve always thought +it would be fun to be famous, if nobody ever found it out.” Wrapping her +robe a little more tightly about her, she climbed the ladder to the +flight deck where she could get a better view of the sea. + +The view was worth the climb. Riding high, the moon had painted a path +of gold across the sea. They were heading into the wind. They cut across +long lines of low waves. All this made the boat seem to race like mad +over the sea. + +“It won’t be long now,” she whispered. Then her heart sank. “Three +days,” the Old Man had said. “Three days and we’ll be near the spot +where Danny was last seen.” + +“Oh, Danny Boy!” she sang softly. “Oh, Danny Boy!” + +Something stirred. She turned about. Danny’s mother stood beside her. + +“I—I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you were there or I wouldn’t +have sung it.” + +“It was lovely,” the white-haired woman’s voice was low. “Out here where +you can catch the full sweep of the sea, he seems very near tonight. I +wish you would sing it all.” + +So again, softly, Sally began to sing: “Oh, Danny Boy.” + +“He is in God’s hands tonight, and God’s hands are good hands,” said the +mother. “No matter whether Danny comes back or not, I want to stay with +Danny’s ship—at least until the ship goes down to be with Danny.” + +For some time after that they stood there in silence, looking away at +the sea and at the path of gold that seemed to lead to Danny. + +From that night on, to Sally, every throb of the great ship’s engines +seemed to be the beating of a mighty heart, a throbbing that each hour +brought them nearer to a spot where they might have a tryst with life or +death. + +On the second night, as she stood alone on the upper deck, now watching +the dark waters swirl by, and now lifting her face to the sky where a +million stars shone, she was joined by the Skipper. + +“Captain,” she said after a few moments of talk, “where’s your lady +yeoman? I haven’t seen her since we left port. Is she ill?” + +“No-oo,” he rumbled. “Miss Stone isn’t with us anymore. I traded her to +an admiral for a young man and two very fine old French etchings. I like +the etchings. They just hang on the wall and don’t say a thing.” He +laughed in a dry sort of way. + +“But Miss Stone must have been a good yeoman. She gave up a very fine +position to join the WAVES,” Sally suggested. + +“Yes, that’s true, she did. But in this man’s war, in fact any war, it’s +not the wonderful things you have done in the past; it’s what you can do +now that counts. + +“‘Not to the strong is the battle,’” he quoted. “‘Not to the swift is +the race, but to the true and the faithful.’ + +“The faithful, always the faithful, Sally,” he repeated. “Most of the +girls we took on trial have been very fine. You, Sally, and your pal, +Nancy, may stay on my ship as long as she flies the Stars and Stripes +and sails the seas. I’ll even offer you the honor of going over her side +with me when the subs get her and she prepares to sink beneath the +waves.” + +“They’ll never get her,” Sally declared stoutly, “but, Captain, I wish +to thank you from deep in my heart. Those are the finest words I’ve ever +heard spoken.” + +“They were spoken from the heart, Sally.” + +For a time after that they were silent, then Sally spoke in a deep +voice: + +“Captain, do you really think we’ll find Danny?” + +“Only time will tell. We have taken account of wind and tide, done +everything we could. When we think we have located the approximate spot, +we’ll heave to and send out a full complement of planes to search for +him.” + +“But the storm?” she whispered hoarsely. “It seems impossible.” + +“From reports I have received, I am led to believe that the storm may +not have passed over Danny’s part of the ocean. It was a tropical storm, +violent in intensity, but narrow in scope.” + +“Oh!” she breathed. “If that is only true. If it is—” + +“It won’t be long now, Sally. Tonight we’ll say a prayer for Danny.” + +“Let’s do,” she whispered. + +“Captain,” she spoke again, “when the planes go out on the search, may +Danny’s pal, Fred, fly a two-seater and may I ride in the second seat?” + +“Yes, Sally, you just tell Fred I said he must take you for luck.” + +A few moments later she was back in her quarters, saying her prayer for +Danny. + +The hour came at last when, on a wide open sea, the big ship came to a +halt, turned half about to give the planes the advantage of the wind, +then stood by while, one by one, they roared away. + +“This is the beginning of the end,” Sally thought as she strapped on her +parachute. Would it be a sad or a happy ending? She dared not hazard a +guess. She did not dare to hope. + +Their plane was slower in its upward climb than any that had gone +before. + +“Our plane seems tired,” she said to Fred. + +“That’s because I’m carrying an extra gas tank lashed to the fuselage,” +he explained. “We may not find Danny, but we’ll be the last ones back +from the search.” + +After sailing aloft, they began to circle, while with powerful +binoculars Sally searched the sea for some sign, a speck of white, a +dark, drifting object, just anything that spoke of life. + +As the moments passed, their circle grew ever wider. Slowly, the big +ship faded into the distance. + +From time to time, with eager eyes, Sally lifted her glasses to scan the +sky and count the planes slowly soaring there. She hoped against hope +that one of these might show some sign of an all important discovery, +but still they circled on. + +At last she saw them, one by one, start winging their way back toward +the carrier. + +“Their gas is about gone,” said Fred. + +“Will they refuel and come back?” Sally asked. There was a choke in her +voice and an ache in her heart. + +“I don’t know,” was the solemn reply. “That’s up to the big chief.” + +“Danny’s out here somewhere,” she insisted. “He just must be.” Still +they circled on. + +Suddenly Sally cried: “Look! Fred! Way off there to the left! There’s a +bright gleam on the water!” + +“A sun spot,” was the quiet response. “We often see them on the water. +You don’t think Danny would set fire to his raft, do you?” + +“No, but Fred!” She gripped his arm in her excitement. “I read about it +in a magazine.” + +“Read what?” + +“About some chemical. I can’t remember the name. When you pour it on the +water it throws back the light of the sun, makes the water shine.” + +“Never heard of it.” + +“Oh! Yes, Fred! It’s true! At first the chemical didn’t work so well. It +disappeared too soon, but they mixed it with other chemicals, then it +lasted for a long time. They were going to put small bottles of it on +the rubber rafts. It just must be true!” She pounded him on the back. + +“We’ll soon know.” He headed the plane toward that gleaming spot. + +For a time the light gleamed brightly, then it began to fade. + +“Oh, it can’t fail us!” Sally whispered. “It just can’t! It’s our last +chance.” + +And it did not fail them, for, as Sally watched through her binoculars, +a dark spot appeared at the center of the fading light. + +“It’s Danny!” she cried. “It just has to be!” + +And it was. The small bottle of chemicals was not a dream but a blessed +reality. Danny had discovered it and had used it at just the right time. + +As they circled low, he stood up and waved excitedly. + +Fred got off a message to the boat. They promised to send a fast power +boat to the spot at once. After that there was nothing left to do but +circle over the spot and wait. + +As Sally’s eye caught the gray spot that was the rescue boat, a sudden +impulse seized her. + +“Fred, I’m going to jump,” she said. + +“What? Take to the parachute? Why? We’ve got plenty of gas for getting +back to the ship.” + +“All the same I’m going to jump. I want to be with Danny when the boat +arrives. Nothing will happen to me. I’ve done it before.” Sally pulled +off her shoes. + +“All right,” he agreed. “But wait until the boat is almost here.” + +Impatiently Sally waited. At last she said, “Now! Here I go!” + +Over the side she went. She pulled the ripcord. The parachute opened, +then she went drifting down. Her aim had been good. She hit the water +not a hundred yards from Danny’s raft. + +After releasing herself from her parachute she went into the Australian +crawl and soon was there at the raft’s side. + +Danny would have welcomed anyone after his long days on the sea, but to +have Sally drop from the sky seemed too good to be true. Danny’s pet sea +parrot, however, was not so friendly. He had become very fond of Danny, +particularly fond of his dried fish. He didn’t propose to have anyone +come between him and Danny, so, with his vice-like beak, he had taken a +firm grip on one of Sally’s pink toes. + +By the time Danny had settled the quarrel between Sally and his pet, the +boat was at their side. + +“Danny, are you all right?” his mother cried from the boat. + +“Oh, sure! Fit as a fiddle, and I have lots more brain cells. I’ve been +living on fish.” He laughed gaily. + +When the raft, the pet sea parrot, all Danny’s dried fish and, of +course, Danny and Sally, had been taken aboard, the boat headed for the +carrier. + +“Danny,” Sally asked, “how did you ever ride out that storm?” + +[Illustration: She Hit the Water Near Danny’s Raft] + +“That? Why that was easy,” was his smiling reply. “You see, I didn’t +really get the worst of it, just the aftermath, big rolling waves, high +as a church, just rolling and rolling. I went to the top of one, slid +down its side, then started up another. Talk about your roller coaster. +Say! That’s tame!” + +Needless to say, both Sally and Danny ate at the Captain’s table that +night. When Danny had told of his glorious fishing expedition, when +Sally had added the story of the rescue, and the sea parrot had screamed +his approval, the applause that followed made the bulkheads ring. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + + DREAMS + + +The moment they were tied up at the dock in their home port Captain +MacQueen got in touch with Silent Storm. + +“I understand you know this inventor C. K. Kennedy,” he said over the +phone. “How well do you know him?” + +“Quite well, I think,” was Storm’s modest reply. + +“Fine,” said MacQueen. “How about having dinner with my friend, Sally, +and me tonight?” + +“That will be a pleasure,” said Silent Storm, sensing at once that +something big regarding Sally’s secret radio was in the offing. “But why +don’t we have the dinner at my house? It’s quiet and very secret.” + +“That’s okay with me,” was the prompt reply. + +“Make it seven o’clock,” said Storm. + +“Sally and I will be there.” And they were. + +When Sally had enjoyed one more delightful dinner in the Storm home she +was led away once more to Silent Storm’s secret den. There, over black +coffee, the three of them talked over the future. + +“I have asked you to take a part in this,” Captain MacQueen said to +Storm, “because you are an old friend of C. K. Kennedy and will, +perhaps, know the best manner in which to approach him. This matter of +the secret radio is one of great importance. And we cannot forget that +he alone holds the secret of its extraordinary performance.” + +“You overestimate my influence,” was Storm’s reply. “Wouldn’t Sally do +quite as well?” + +“Perhaps,” the Captain admitted, “but in battles of major importance I +bring up all my forces. What I want to propose is that Sally, you, and I +take a plane to Washington—our ship is to be tied up long enough for +this—that we pick up a rather important Government man there, and that +we then go on to Sally’s home town to interview Kennedy. What do you +think of that, Sally?” + +“Sounds all right to me,” said Sally. “I agree with you that Major Storm +will be a great help.” + +“How about it, Storm?” said the Captain. “Can you arrange for the time +off?” + +“Oh, beyond a doubt it can be arranged,” said Storm. + +“Then we are all set.” Captain MacQueen heaved a sigh of relief. + +The rest of that evening was given over to telling of the aircraft +carrier’s journey and the important part the secret radio had played in +the winning of her battles. When he had heard the story Silent Storm was +more than eager to accompany them on their journey to the home of the +great inventor. + +“One thing must be understood from the start,” he said as the Skipper +and Sally prepared to leave. “That is that I am a real friend of old C. +K. and of Sally as well. If there are negotiations going on for old C. +K.’s secret, I shall act, in a way, as his lawyer.” + +“And you will see that he is treated fairly,” said the Captain. + +“Not only that, but I shall see that he knows that he is being treated +fairly,” Storm amended. + +“That’s just what I had hoped for,” the Captain agreed. + +The very next day, with Danny as co-pilot for a big twin-motored plane, +they set off on their journey. Twenty-four hours later they were +knocking at the door of the modest shop where the secret radio had first +seen the light of day. + +“Sally!” the aged inventor exclaimed at sight of her. “I’m glad to see +you! But how is it that you are back so soon?” + +“These men can tell you more about that than I can.” Sally was beaming. +“You know Major Storm.” + +“Oh, yes indeed!” The two men shook hands. + +The other men were introduced and then, seated on rustic benches and +chairs, they told the delighted old man the story of his secret radio. + +“Sally, you have done all that I hoped and much more,” he exclaimed. +There were tears in his eyes. “I shall never forget.” + +“That’s just fine,” said Sally, rising a bit unsteadily to her feet. +“I—I’m glad you are happy. And now I am going to leave you men to +finish the business of the hour. I promised to show Danny our river.” + +“Danny?” the old man laughed happily. “So you’ve got you a Danny? Well +then, run along. I wouldn’t keep you for the world.” + +After a long, delightful tramp over the river trail, Sally and Danny +came to rest on a rustic bench overlooking the river. + +“It’s really slow and peaceful,” Sally murmured. + +“I’ll say it is, after what we’ve gone through,” Danny agreed. “My hands +fairly ache for the controls of my plane.” + +“Hands,” said Sally, with a sly smile, “are sometimes used for other +purposes.” + +“That’s right, they are,” Danny exclaimed, seizing Sally’s hand. Sally +didn’t mind, so they sat there for a time in silence. + +Then came the sound of voices. “They are looking for us,” said Sally. +“Time for a crash landing.” She pulled her hand away. + +“So here you are!” Captain MacQueen said a moment later. + +“Well, folks,” said Silent Storm, “everything is arranged. The +Government gets the secret radio and your old-friend C. K. gets a +liberal payment.” + +“And you, Sally, are to receive half of it,” said the Captain. + +“What!” Sally sprang to her feet. “Why! That’s unfair!” + +“He didn’t see it that way,” Storm replied quietly. “He felt that you +have done more than he to make the radio a success. I advise that you +accept his offer and allow things to stand as they are. It is for the +good of your country as well as yourself, and there will be plenty for +you both, I assure you.” Sally settled back in her place. + +“Well,” she admitted, “it will be a good opportunity to help my country +in another way. I’ll invest it in War Bonds right away. C. K. will +really be aiding our nation in that way, then, too.” + +“Yes,” said the Captain, “that is true. Kennedy wants you to have the +bungalow you have always dreamed of, when peace has come again.” + +“Won’t that be sweet?” Sally said, turning to Danny with a teasing +smile. Danny said never a word. + +“And C. K. wants you to come back to work with him as soon as the war is +over,” Storm said with a grin. + +Once more Sally turned to Danny. This time he spoke. “That,” he said, +“will need a lot of thinking about.” + +And so, for Sally, life seemed fairly well begun. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + WHITMAN + BOYS’ FICTION + + ADVENTURE—THRILLS—MYSTERY + +Follow your Favorite Characters through page after page of Thrilling +Adventures. Each book is a complete story. + + The Hurricane Kids on the Lost Island + Rex, King of the Deep + Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress + The Hermit of Gordon’s Creek + Rex Cole, Jr. and the Grinning Ghost + Garry Grayson’s Winning Touchdown + Pee Wee Harris on the Trail + Tom Swift and His Television Detector + Tom Swift and His Sky Train + Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport + Tom Swift and His Airline Express + +The books listed above may be purchased at the same store where you +secured this book. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + WHITMAN + AUTHORIZED EDITIONS + + NEW STORIES OF ADVENTURE AND MYSTERY + +Up-to-the-minute novels for boys and girls about Favorite Characters, +all popular and well-known, including— + + INVISIBLE SCARLET O’NEIL + BRENDA STARR, Girl Reporter + DICK TRACY, Ace Detective + TILLIE THE TOILER and the Masquerading Duchess + JOHN PAYNE and the Menace at Hawk’s Nest + BETTY GRABLE and the House with the Iron Shutters + BOOTS (of “Boots and Her Buddies”) and the Mystery of the Unlucky Vase + ANN SHERIDAN and the Sign of the Sphinx + BLONDIE and Dogwood’s Snapshot Clue + BLONDIE and Dogwood’s Secret Service + JANE WITHERS and the Phantom Violin + JANE WITHERS and the Hidden Room + BONITA GRANVILLE and the Mystery of Star Island + ANN RUTHERFORD and the Key to Nightmare Hall + POLLY THE POWERS MODEL: The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera + JOYCE AND THE SECRET SQUADRON: A Captain Midnight Adventure + NINA AND SKEEZIX (of “Gasoline Alley”): The Problem of the Lost Ring + GINGER ROGERS and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak + SMILIN’ JACK and the Daredevil Girl Pilot + APRIL KANE AND THE DRAGON LADY: A “Terry and the Pirates” Adventure + DEANNA DURBIN and the Adventure of Blue Valley + DEANNA DURBIN and the Feather of Flame + RED RYDER and the Mystery of the Whispering Walls + RED RYDER and the Secret of Wolf Canyon + +The books listed above may be purchased at the same store where you +secured this book. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + THE EXCITING NEW FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM SERIES + + War novels of adventure for boys and girls. + + Norma Kent of the WAACS + Sally Scott of the WAVES + Barry Blake and the FLYING FORTRESS + Sparky Ames and Mary Mason of the FERRY COMMAND + +The books listed above may be purchased at the same store where you +secured this book. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Sally Scott of the Waves, by Roy J. 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