by Roy J. Snell
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 allthe time their officers were so kind and all their companions sofriendly that it did not seem to matter.
Long hours were filled with classes. They learned history of the Navyfrom 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 standnow," said Nancy.
"All the same we're going in for Communications and you can'tcommunicate 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 anairfield where paratroopers were being trained.
As she watched ten boys, one by one, slip from a captive balloonhundreds of feet in the sky, she exclaimed:
"Oh! I could never do that!"
When she saw the parachutes, white against a blue sky, come driftingdown and watched the boys drop to the ground as if they were dead, thenspring up laughing, she exclaimed:
"That's wonderful! I'll do anything, just anything to have a part inthat!"
For a time the two black boxes were neglected. Then, one night, theycame back with a bang. That was the night following the receipt of aletter 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. "Therecouldn'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," Sallywhispered to Nancy as they embarked on their enterprise.
"Or something," Nancy agreed.
It was Saturday. All the WAVES have Saturday afternoon and night off forshore leave. Most of them would be away so there would be few pryingeyes. That was why they had picked on this night for connecting theblack boxes with the aerial set up on the roof.
The wires running from Sally's room up to Nancy's and to the attic werein place. The lock to the attic door was old. Nancy had solved that witha skeleton key bought at the five and ten.
"There's no counting of noses at bedcheck tonight," Sally said. "Sowe'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," Nancycautioned.
"Oh, I've always been a tomboy." Sally did a cartwheel. "I'll put ongray slacks and a gray sweater, just in case the moon comes out. Theroof 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 isdeserted. Come on up."
Armed with two pairs of small pliers, a coil of wire, a flashlight andthe key to the attic, Sally followed in silence to the floor above. Aswift glide, the rattle of a key, the silent opening and shutting of adoor and Sally found herself tiptoeing up the attic stairs.
It was a dark and gloomy spot, that attic. As Nancy had put it: "Ahundred years look at you up there."
This was true, for an accumulation of furniture, long outmoded, wasstored there. There, too, were all manner of stage drops and settingsleft over from amateur plays. With her flashlight aimed low, Sallypicked 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 goodlook at the world beneath and above her, then shuddered.
With dark clouds rolling through a black, windy sky it was one of thosenights that always seemed to depress Sally.
Shaking herself free from her moodiness, she gave close attention to theproblem that lay before her.
To discover the end of a wire they had thrust up along the heat pipe andto attach the end of her coil to it was simple enough. From there it wasto be a trifle difficult. The roof was not too steep but shingles do notoffer much chance for a hand grip. As Nancy had said, it was quite adistance to the ground from there and, though she would not haveadmitted it for worlds, Sally found herself a little dizzy.
One fact gave her a little comfort. Just beneath the part of the roofwhere she must do her climbing was an elm tree. Its top was broad andits strong, flexible branches all but brushed the building.
As she stood there hesitating, a group of freshman boys came marchingby, singing.
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 herpockets, 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 darednot look back or down.
She was halfway up, when, with startling suddenness, the moon came frombehind a cloud.
"Gosh!" she exclaimed, flattening herself against the shingles. She wentso flat that she started slowly to slide. After digging in with toes andfingers she managed to hold her ground. And then the moon hid its face.
One more desperate struggle and she found herself sitting triumphantlyastride the ridge.
"Now," she breathed, "all I have to do is to pull the wire tight, attachit 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 againstthe roof, cut it at the right place and then, with the skill of alineman, wound it tight, round and round the original wire leading tothe aerial.
She had twisted herself back to a place astride the roof when again themoon showed its face.
At the same instant she thought she heard someone far below let out alow whistle. She couldn't let herself be seen sitting there, justcouldn't. That might mean catastrophe.
Then it happened. In attempting to throw herself flat, she overdid thematter. Missing a grip on the ridge, she heard her flashlight go rollingdown 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 powerlessto check her slow glide, she managed somehow to swing half about. Whenshe left the roof, she rolled off, felt the brush of a leafy branch,struck out desperately with her hands, gripped a branch, clung there andfound herself at last dangling in mid-air. Or was she two-thirds of theway down? There was no way of knowing.
Clinging desperately to the cracking branch, she dared not call forhelp. What was to be done? Feeling a larger branch against her back, shetried to turn about. She had made half the swing just as her slenderbranch 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 hitthe ground. Also the moon came out.
"What were you doing up there?" The man held her, as if she were a sackof 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 camedown, it seems, is common knowledge." She did not try to escape.
"Rather uncommon knowledge, I'd say," he drawled. "You might have brokenyour neck."
"Yes, or been caught."
"You were that," he chuckled. "And you're not a bad catch, at that. Thisis a rather lonesome college for some folks. Tell me who you are andI'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 toreceive 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 chatsomewhere?"
She did not reply at once. "We--we have to be careful. Mind taking mypal 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 Sallycame racing up the second story ladder, instead of coming down from theattic.
"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 onyour face. It's bleeding."
"All right then, I didn't." Sally dabbed at her cheek. "You won'tbelieve 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 youthink?"
"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'sgo."
"You wouldn't go looking like that?"
"I'll wash the blood off my face. We've got to get in uniform. Must wearthem 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 tomake a WAVE out of a girl like that?"
Sally was back in a minute and slipped into her uniform. Nancy was readya moment later and then they were down the stairs and out into thenight.
"This is Nancy McBride." Sally introduced her companion to the flyingsailor who had stepped out into the moonlight.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Nancy. I'm Danny Duke," he said. "Distantrelative of the famous Dukes, so distant that they never even sent me apackage of Duke's mixture. Do you also walk in your sleep? And may I belooking for you on the roof tops?"
"Sally wasn't walking in her sleep," said Nancy, "but tell me, did shereally 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. Imade 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," sheadded, "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 shelooked at his strong, friendly face.
"I'm just past twenty," he told them with a touch of boyish pride. "Andmy training is about finished right now."
"How is it you're here so far from the Navy flying schools?" Nancyasked.
"I was back on some math, so they sent me here to brush up. I've aboutgot it now. Another two weeks will do it."
"Too bad," Sally sighed. "But that will be time enough to teach me toreceive 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 somethingmore for you."
"It's not for me." Leaning across the table Sally allowed her voice todrop. "It's much more important than that, I hope. It's for our oldfriend 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 tohave a part in it."
"Well, thanks--" Danny was visibly embarrassed. "Thanks a lot: I'll helpall I can."
The truth is that Danny was to have a much greater part in theundertaking than either he or Sally knew.
"And now for one more try at the two black boxes," Sally whisperedexcitedly after the girls had said good-bye at the gangplank of theirship that really wasn't a ship at all.
"It works! And it's going to help a lot, that aerial is," Sallyexclaimed a few minutes later.
This was true. They were able now to catch the "put-put-put-put" ofthose secret broadcasts sent from radios out somewhere on land or seavery plainly. That night they stayed up till midnight, and were able tolocate seven different broadcasters.
"They are all part of something big, I know that," Sally insisted. "Butis 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 theirsecret listenings to the great unknown were at an end. For if the secretradio were to remain just that, they must take great care not to exposeeither the black box or the purpose of their own midnight meetings. Thetwo conspirators did not intend to be found out.
