by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER TWELVE
THEY FLY AT DAWN
Sally awoke with a start. She had had a strange dream. In the dreamthree 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 goingback to sleep again."
She closed her eyes, then opened them wide again. Through her eyelidsshe had received an impression of red light.
And, yes, there it was. The cabin was dark but the faint red light wasthere 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 leftthe 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 themysterious broadcasters and failed. Then she had--
At that her thoughts broke off short for, very faintly, because theradio 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 tobe no other possible conclusion, yet it seemed close to a miracle thatshe had done so for, during the two preceding days, she had caught notthe faintest suggestion of a broadcast on her secret radio, and now,here, in the middle of the night, it was coming in strong. Needless tosay, she listened with both her ears.
For two whole days she and Nancy, together with Riggs and the secondradioman, had kept their convoy together, with blinker lights by nightand flags by day. Not a sound had come from a radio on any ship of theconvoy. It had been one of the strangest experiences of Sally's entirelife. To go to sleep at night after a look at dark bulks looming hereand there on the horizon, and to wake up with those same ships in theidentical position in regard to one another, yet some hundreds of mileson their way, had seemed unbelievable.
But now, here was the secret radio talking again. "This may be thehour," she whispered excitedly as, having turned the dial, she listenedonce 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 dialnow and then, listening some more and all the time growing more excited.
After twenty minutes of listening her face took on a look of sheerhorror.
"I can't do it," she thought. "I may be court-martialed. But I must! Imust!"
For a full five minutes she sat there deep in perplexing thought. Havingat last reached a decision, she went into action. After dressinghurriedly, she shut off the radio and disconnected its wires. Then,seizing it by the handle, she slipped out of the stateroom, glided alongone passageway after another to wind up at last in the radio room whereLieutenant Riggs was standing watch alone.
"Why! Hello, Sally!" Riggs exclaimed. "What's up?" He glanced down atthe black box. "You're not planning to leave the ship, I hope?" Duringthe days of fine sailing they had enjoyed together, since the start ofthe 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 beingsurrounded by an enemy wolf-pack of subs."
"Sally!" he exclaimed. "You've been having a bad dream. You'd better goback 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 isblack. It's three in the morning. You haven't a radio and even I haveheard nothing within a thousand miles--not that I can hear thosewolves," he added. "No, nor you either."
"Yes," she replied in a hoarse whisper, "I do have a radio, and I canhear 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 onher 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 andreceiving. There's only one other like it in the world. Perhaps they'llcourt-martial me for it. I know how strict the regulations are aboutradios.
"But that does not matter now!" She squared her shoulders. "All thatmatters now is that you connect up this radio, that you listen to it andbelieve 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 thanever.
"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 ourlistening. And--" For a space of seconds there came no sound and thenagain, "put-put-put...."
"That's a different sub, answering the first." There was quietconfidence in her voice. "It has a different sound."
"So it does," he agreed.
In the next ten minutes, she located six different radios operating outthere, 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 fromwhich 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." Shegripped his arm in her excitement. "They're closing in on our convoyfrom 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. Forsome time after Riggs left, she sat there shivering with fear.
Riggs had gone for the Captain. Did that mean that he believed what shehad told him, or had he been shocked by the realization that she hadlaid herself open to court-martial?
"He's gone for the Captain," she told herself at last. "He'd never thinkof doing that, just to get me into deeper trouble. He's not that kind ofa 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 theCaptain on the bridge, that was all. He had seemed a fine figure of aman, 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 withthat, that radio, for the Captain's benefit?"
Sally's fingers trembled as she turned on the radio. Noting this, theCaptain 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 feltmuch better.
Not only did she repeat the demonstration she had put on for Riggs, butfor a full half hour she turned dials bringing in first thisbroadcaster, then another, and, at the same time, demonstrating bycircles and angles that they were moving in, closer, ever closer, to theconvoy.
Not this alone, but in her eagerness to be understood and trusted, shetold the whole story of the secret radio and the experiments that hadbeen carried on from the beginning.
"Riggs, I'm Convinced!" the Captain Declared]
"Riggs, I'm convinced!" the Captain declared at last. "They will strikeat 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 thesea. At the same time half our destroyers will take up the search.
"Miss Scott, I salute you." He clicked his heels. Instantly Sally was onher feet with a true sailor's salute.
"They believe me," she thought as the pair left the radio cabin. "Byrights I should want to shout or burst into tears." She wanted to doneither, just felt cold and numb, that was all.
Then, as red blood flooded back to her cheeks and she thought offighting planes and destroyers shooting away before dawn, practically ather 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 atdawn," she whispered.
Just then someone entered the cabin. It was Nancy.
"Sally," she exclaimed. "Why are you here? This is not your watch. Iwoke up and missed you. What have you been doing?"
"Plenty," said Sally. "Sit down and I'll tell you."