by Roy J. Snell
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 itweren't for the secret radio, I would be glad to stay here until the waris 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 atruly hard life. The boys in the jungles of those South Sea islands andon the sandy deserts of Africa--they don't have it easy, so why shouldwe--?"
"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'twork--but those who have had all they want, always, always slept in asoft bed, and always gone for a long ride in the old bus on a Sundayafternoon, could really be dragged out of it all and have it good andtough for a while, wouldn't it be grand?
"But then," Sally added in a quieter voice, "we might as well make thebest of all this beauty and comfort, for something tells me that itwon'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 secretradio.
She had barely started thumbing its dials, when a phone call announced acaller.
Hurrying down to the hotel lobby, she barely refrained from throwingherself 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 codemessages. They're really revealing. That's why I came."
"I just got out the radio, but Danny, you're not allowed in my room."
"Danny! What Are You Doing Here?"]
"Of course not, but we're both allowed in the radio experimentalstation, 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 thestation," he confided, once they were on their way. "We'll bring thoseenemy subs up so close we can practically talk to them."
"Danny," she whispered, "do you really think they were enemy subs wewere hearing?"
"Well," he hesitated, "I'd hate to say I am sure of it, but I've studiedthat secret code so carefully that I am positive that it goes the way wethought it did."
"But the language? Is it English or German?"
"Yes," he replied thoughtfully, "that's the real question. I got out myold German dictionary and gave it a really good workout. All I can sayis that it's a lot easier to make sense out of those code messages inGerman than it is in English."
"Oh, Danny! You are wonderful!" She pressed his arm. "Just think what aglorious victory it will be if we succeed in listening to the message ofthose 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 agreat break?"
"I suppose so. But why?"
"Because if I want a chance to do something different, like going to seaso 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 goingto be fine."
"Sure! Sure! I know he will," Danny agreed. "And now, here's thestation."
In a small room they set up the radio and, having attached it to theaerial connections, turned on the current. Almost at once, there camethe "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 switchedfrom 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 nowthey came in close together, excited, irregular and jerky. At the sametime they appeared to draw closer to one another.
"Sally." Danny dropped his pencil. "Once I watched a pack of wolveschase an old and disabled moose. Their barks and howls were just likethis 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 andbloodthirsty throats. They were in for the kill."
As Sally listened, she seemed to see six subs closing in on a shipcarrying supplies of food, guns, or ammunition to our soldiers in Africaand at the end caught the excited "put-put-put" of their radios as theyclosed in for the kill.
"Perhaps tomorrow we will hear on the radio of another ship sunk off ourshore," 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. Imust 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 slightlytiring, 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 servingin another?" she asked.
"Rather bad," was the slow reply. "We do not always give our best, thatway.
"Do you want to be in some other place?" he asked abruptly.
"Not--not just now!" she stammered, taken aback. "But sometime, not toofar 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 couldnot recall where she had heard those words before.
"Danger is my duty," he repeated after her. "That's rather good, but youhaven'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 dowith our mutual friend, C. K. Kennedy."
"Oh! Then it is important!" he exclaimed. "Tell me about it--that is, ifyou are free to do so."
"I'm sure he would tell you at least part of it if he were here. He hasinvented a new radio that operates on a secret wave length. I think theenemy 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 mightbecome absorbed in it and neglect our duty, commit a tragic blunder.Suppose you have dinner at my house tonight. It's quite proper. Mysister 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 mindwandered often to thoughts of that dinner date. "Much may come of that.Very, very much," she told herself more than once.
