by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SECRET MEETING
Three weeks later Sally was again on those fine waters. Again it wasnight. Once more the city painted its many colored pictures against thesky. But how strangely different was the craft on which she rode!
Gone was the small rubber raft, the tuna, and the shark. Gone too wasstrange, intriguing Silent Storm.
"It will be a long time before I see him again," she told herself, "butI may talk to him, perhaps many times."
This was true. During the weeks that had just passed she had securedpermission from her aged benefactor, the radio inventor, C. K., to showthe secret radio to Silent Storm.
She had taken it to his house for the first time on the night of thetuna feast. That feast had been a great success. Nancy had gone withher. Never had she seen Silent Storm so carefree and gay as on thatnight.
When the feast was over, the three of them, Sally, Nancy, and SilentStorm, had retired to his den. There the secret radio was set up. Sincehe had a private hook-up with the station's great aerial, things hadgone very well.
For a time, it is true, no sound came over that secret wave length, butthis 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 otheroccasion the six separate units broadcasting were some distance apart.
Then came the sudden, loud and insistent bark of a broadcast for all theworld like the call of a wolf leader to his pack.
"A call to the kill," Sally had thought to herself. She was thrilled tothe very center of her being, but said never a word. She wanted SilentStorm to listen and form his own opinions.
Slowly, surely, quite like the wolves of the Great White North, thebroadcasters 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 broadcastersbegan to separate there were only five. One had gone silent.
"That," said Silent Storm, mopping his brow, "is one of the strangestthings 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 aflight of our bombers concentrating on a target and then deliveringtheir 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 getNancy and you on a ship at the earliest possible moment."
Nancy seemed a bit startled by this, but Sally said: "That will beswell!"
"It Could Be a Flight of Our Bombers."]
"You see," said Storm, "when you are on a ship you are constantlychanging your position. Once you are at the center of the Atlantic, ifthese secret broadcasters put on a show like this for you, and if it isnorth, south, or west of you, you'll know at once that they are subs andnot bombers.
"And then!" he struck the table a blow, "then we'll go after them. Lastyear we lost twelve million tons of shipping to those wolf-packs. Thinkof 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 themto be, what we won't do to those inhuman beasts who have machine-gunnedmen struggling in the water and women on rafts!"
After that night, Sally had waited, impatiently, for the return ofDanny'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 gota 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, "andI've been told you are to sail with us."
* * * * *
"And now, here I am," Sally thought as she watched the city's lightsfade while they sailed out into the dark, mysterious night.
She was standing on a great, flat, top deck. Nancy was at her side, adim shadow. Larger shadows, that were airplanes, loomed at their backs.No lights were showing. The radio was silent. They were alone on thesea. And yet there was to be a convoy.
"That will come later," Lieutenant Riggs, radio officer for theirflat-top, told her. "The ships of our convoy come from many places,Boston, New York, Portland, even San Francisco. Someone stuck a pin in amap. 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 mightysecret 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 lightfrom the shore. There were twelve WAVES on this airplane carrier, andthey weren't just going over, but over and back. There were six womennurses 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 secretradio?"
"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 atnight. 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'llbe work to do later."
"I couldn't sleep now. It's all too strange," Nancy murmured, her eyeson the sea.
And indeed for this American girl it was strange. All her life she hadbeen looked after, cared for. The things she wanted she got. She hadjoined the WAVES to do her bit but with the thought that she wouldremain 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 slowconvoy, 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 thanever before. She could swim, but shuddered at the thought of beingthrown 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 motherjust before she sailed.
"And that's that," she told herself stoutly as she turned to make herway down the ladder to the forward cabins on the deck below where thenurses 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 radioengineer. 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. Hissharp, darting eyes had told Sally that here was a man who would demandexactness of service and never-failing loyalty. And she loved him forthat.
She was feeling a bit nervous, for this was to be her first testing atsea. They had arrived at the place of meeting, an unmarked spot in anendless 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 theyget it."
As he read off the location the other ship was to take in r
elation tothe airplane carrier, she blinked it out in code with the aid of anelectric 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 theirposition."
"Very good," was his quiet reply.
For a full hour after that they stood there, he giving orders in a lowmonotone and she blinking them across the waters to some newly-arrivedship. As the work went forward, her heart swelled with pride. She waspart of something really big. Great ships moved in on the dark horizon,ships loaded with oil, airplanes, food, soldiers, everything that isvital to war. Like an usher in some great theater of the sea, she toldeach ship where its place was to be and it silently glided intoposition.
"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, therecame low orders passed from man to man. Then they began moving on intothe night.
Still Sally and Lieutenant Riggs held their places. One ship hadforgotten or failed to receive the hour of departure. A question blinkedto them was speedily answered. Then they too began to move.
A half hour later a tanker lagging behind was ordered to put on moresteam.
And so it went until four hours were gone. Then Nancy appeared with ayoung 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'svoice 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 womangave her a fine smile.
"And we like him. He caught me once, saved me from a broken leg orsomething," was Sally's reply.
"Yes, he told me about that." She laughed. "Danny's just a boy, youknow. He's my only child. You won't tell that I'm his mother?" shebegged. "It's a bit irregular, my being on a ship with him. But I wantedit, 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 ofus, you know."
"Yes, I know. I won't tell a soul. Thanks so much for telling me." Sallymoved on.