by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AMONG THE MISSING
Presently Riggs came hurrying back. Nancy and Sally remained in theradio room, dividing their time between listening for messages from theoutside world, and watching with awe the ever-narrowing circle beingdrawn about the convoy by the enemy sub pack.
Riggs busied himself getting off messages from station to station on theship. All men were ordered to their posts. Planes not in readiness wereprepared for flight. Some were hoisted from the lower deck to flightdeck.
"It's like a calm before a terrible storm," Nancy said to Sally. Soonenough they were to learn what an actual storm could mean to a convoy atsea. For the present, however, there was quite enough to occupy theirminds.
Once, when Sally climbed the ladder to the flight deck for a breath ofair, she chanced to bump into Danny Duke.
"Oh, Danny!" she exclaimed. "Must you go out?" He was garbed in flyingtogs. A parachute hung at his back.
"Sure!" He laughed. "What do you think I trained for? A game ofvolleyball?"
She didn't think. She just didn't want anyone she liked as well as Dannyto be out there fighting subs, dodging antiaircraft fire and watchingthe 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 tostore it under her berth.
"Stay there a while," she whispered, "until we know whether you meanhonor or disaster for me."
It was with a sober face that she returned to the flight deck. She foundthe planes that were to go all in place, their motors turning overslowly.
She caught a quick breath as the first plane took off; then the secondand 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 findDanny'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 wastrained to do. Our country is at war. We must all do our part." Themother'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, andbe 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 communingwith this big, motherly woman, comfort and peace. And just then she wasgreatly in need of peace, for she was being weighed in the balance. Thenext few moments would decide everything. And so she stood there waitingfor the answer.
And then the answer came, a deep-toned muffled roar, that seemed toshake 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. willbe famous because of his secret radio. I won't be court-martialed andthrown out of service for bringing it on board. Perhaps it has saved theconvoy from attack, may save it again and again. Glory! Glory!"
Just then there came another roar. This was followed by a series ofpom-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 onthe destroyers don't sound like that. You'll hear them. There! There'sone now!"
There had come a boom that seemed to roll away to sea. There was anotherand another.
All this time, for all the world as if they were anchored in someharbor, the forty ships laden with freight and human cargo kept theirplaces 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 ofantiaircraft fire, and all the time Sally was thinking: "Danny! Oh,Danny!"
And what of Danny? Having been told the course he should take, he hadgone gliding straight away toward his supposed objective. Nor did hemiss it. Feeling safe in their false security, the eight enemysubmarines on the surface had come gliding silently toward theapparently defenseless convoy.
At the sound of Danny's roaring motor, the sub he had been sent todestroy crashdived, but too late. Swooping low, Danny released a bombwith unerring accuracy. It missed them by feet, but when it exploded itbrought 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 anantiaircraft gun, but, nothing daunted, Danny again swung low and thistime he did not miss. His bomb fell squarely on the ill-fated craft andit exploded with a terrific roar.
But before this could happen, the antiaircraft gun had put a shellsquarely through the body of Danny's plane, ripping the radio away,damaging the plane's controls, and missing sending Danny to oblivion byonly a foot or two.
"That," said Danny, as if talking of someone other than himself, "wasyour closest miss. Another time, they'd get you. But that other timewon't be--ever. So how about getting back to the ship?" Yes, how? Hismotor was missing, and his controls stuck at every turn.
* * * * *
In the meantime three planes came zooming back. Anxiously Sally waitedas 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 waswounded. Mrs. Duke went away to care for him.
The other two planes remained on board just long enough to take on morebombs. Then they were off again.
Catching Sally's eye, the Captain motioned her to join him at thebridge.
"It's marvelous!" he told her. "That secret radio of yours has savedships and lives. Eight subs all ready to pounce on us and now look--" Heswung 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 repliedabsent-mindedly.
She left the bridge to wander back to the deck. One more badly crippledplane 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. Hewas after a sub. Got him, I guess. But there were the AA guns, youknow."
Yes, Sally knew. She had heard them. Her heart ached at the thought ofthem.
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 afog 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, ithid 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 outto 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. Hemust 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 reachthe spot. She would get their locati
on. Then she would radio to SilentStorm. He'd send out a plane, a dozen big planes from the shore. Theycould not fail to find Danny.
Yes, she would get Storm tonight on the secret radio. But dared she doit? Her splendid body went limp at the thought. This was a terribleworld.