CHAPTER NINE
SALLY STEPS OUT
The place Sally and Silent Storm entered a few hours later was aCalifornia-type bungalow hidden among the trees. The windows were smalland high. "No chance for spying here," Sally thought to herself.
They were met at the door by a tall, handsome lady who, Sally did notneed to be told, was Silent Storm's sister. She appeared to take Sallyto her heart at once.
"Robert has often spoken of you," she said in a friendly manner.
"Oh! Has he?" Sally was a little surprised. She had thought of herselfas just one more of those WAVES.
They sat down to a delightful dinner. Salad made from fruit just takenfrom the trees, delicious crabmeat, fried sea bass, hot corn bread,sweet potatoes and coffee, a great urnful--enough for three cups apiece.
Dinner over, Miss Storm took up some knitting that lay in a chair andsettled down by herself, because she knew her brother wished it, and shehad sensed that there was some serious business in the air.
"It's not that my sister cannot be trusted," Silent Storm halfapologized when he and Sally were seated in a small, secret den, quiteevidently all his own. "She is to be trusted completely. However, it isa rule of war that a military secret is to be shared with no outsider,and the thing you were about to tell me up there in the tower issomething of a military secret."
"Not--not yet--but it might, be." She hesitated. "It's really C. K.Kennedy's secret. He confided it to me because he hoped he could trustme."
"And he can."
"Yes, that's right. He is a wonderful man. There is nothing I would notdo for him."
"But such an invention should be of great service to our country."
"He thought it might be. He wasn't sure."
"So he wanted it tried out? I see. Tell me only what you think he wouldlike to have me know." Lighting his pipe, he settled back in his chair."I have very little curiosity left in me," he went on. "I've seen toomuch for that. I'm interested in only one thing, to see this war broughtto a successful end. I have many fine friends back there." He swept thewest with his hand. "I shall never be able to go back to them, but I canserve where I am."
"Then you have already seen service." Sally's eyes lighted.
"Plenty of it, too much. I was at Pearl Harbor, a flier. And I was inabout all that came after in the next seven months. Then a smart Jap gotme in the back."
"Oh!" she breathed.
"It wasn't so much. I was out of the hospital in a month. But my spinewill never be the same, I was once a swimmer, something of a champion.That's all over, too. But it doesn't matter. What really hurts is that Ican't get back to help finish what my friends and I started over there."
"And you don't fly any more?" That seemed a terrible fate to Sally.
"Oh, yes," he smiled. "I have a fast, little single-seater and sometimesI haunt the sky, chasing seagulls and wild ducks."
"A single-seater sounds a bit selfish."
"It's not, really. You see, I don't trust myself too much. There'salways the chance that--"
"Something might go wrong with you?"
"Yes. I'm not willing to take a chance with other people's lives. Butyou were going to tell me about that radio." He changed the subjectabruptly.
"Yes, it's the most remarkable invention!" Launching at once into hertheme, she talked for an hour. From time to time he interrupted to ask aquestion. His pipe went out. Twice he tried to light it and failed. Thenhe gave it up.
At last she spread a pile of papers covered with dots and dashes on thetable. These were the records of the "put-put" broadcast which she andDanny had kept.
After that for a half hour their heads were bent over these records.
"This," he said at last, after re-lighting his pipe, "promises to besomething of great importance.
"I wish you could stay with me on the airfield." He added after amoment, "Both you and Nancy are working in very well. You could relieveme of much tiresome routine, but for your sake and for old C. K. I'll doall I can to get you on a ship. I do know that there is talk of givingover the communications and radio work of one ship for a single trip toa group of WAVES, just to see how it works out. I'll look into that."
"Oh, please do," she begged eagerly.
"You should be devoting your entire time to this secret radio businessright now," he said thoughtfully.
"But I'm a WAVE."
"You could be given a leave of absence."
"Not without a reason. It would be necessary to explain to the officialsabout the radio. And that's just what C. K. doesn't want."
"Why?"
"Well, you know the story about his other invention?"
"Yes, his radio detector. That was a disgrace. Some unscrupulous personstole it."
"And sold it to a foreign country. He doesn't want that to happenagain."
"Surely not. Well, you just keep working in your spare time. And afterthat we shall see."
And that was the way matters were left. But not for so very long.
The next afternoon was regular time out for Sally. The first person shesaw as she entered the lobby of her hotel was a big girl with a roundbeaming face.
"Barbara, you stranger!" she exclaimed. "Where have you been hiding?"
"Haven't been hiding, been working hard," was the big girl's reply."I've been rigging the parachutes for a ship. Danny's ship. I saw him onit." Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"But, Barbara, they don't use parachutes on a ship."
"On this one they do. Shush!" Barbara held a finger to her lips. "Don'task me another thing about it."
Sally thought she understood.
They went out to lunch together. After that they spent three hoursshopping. When Sally returned, she found a notice for a phone call inher box.
"A phone call on my day off!" she exclaimed. "Maybe a date. How grand!"
It was Danny and a date as well. He was going for a spin in the air,just a little advanced trainer cabin plane, four hundred and fifty horsepower. Would Sally like a look at the airfield, the palms, and the seafrom the air?
Sally most certainly would. And so it was a date.
"I suppose it's no use hanging one of those things on you," Danny saidwith a grin as he strapped on his parachute. "You wouldn't know what todo about it, if something did go wrong."
"Oh, wouldn't I?" she challenged. "You forget that Barbara and I tookthe shorter course and graduated with honors from the sky."
"Say! That's right, you did." At that he produced a second parachute andhelped her strap it on.
"You aren't planning to drop me in the big pond, are you?" she joked.
"Nothing like that. This is a land plane. Oh, we'll take a turn or twoout over the sea but the plane's been thoroughly worked over. Not achance of her going wrong."
"Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed." She laughed as she climbed in.
When Danny had gone through the ritual of turning on the current, gasand oil, warming up his motor and setting his wheels for the run, theywere off.
It was one of those cloudless Florida evenings when little fishingboats, looking from the sky like toys, glide over the dark blue waters,when a distant steamer sends off a slow, lazy drifting cloud of smokeand all seems at peace.
They took a turn out over the ocean, then swung inland where little,blue lakes dot the dark green of forests and the lighter green of farms.
"Nice place, Florida," said Danny. "We've been missing something, shouldhave taken a vacation down here every year."
"Oh! So you're the son of a millionaire!" Sally laughed.
"Not quite. But if I worked hard all the year, guess I could make it.What do you say we try it after the war is over?"
They Swung Out Over the Sea Again]
"Don't mind if I do. But, Danny," her voice hit a serious note, "did youever think that war is not all a dead loss? Think of the boys who wouldhave grown up to sell socks, or run a streetcar or mend shoes--"
"And
never get twenty miles away from good old Chicago."
"And now they're seeing the world, Africa, India, China, South SeaIslands. This country of ours will never be the same after the war."
"It sure won't."
They swung out over the sea again. Beneath them a large ship, under fullsteam, was gliding out to sea.
"Going out to make a secret meeting with other ships of a convoy," Sallysaid. "Wonder how soon I'll be sailing with that ship, or some other."
"Perhaps never," Danny replied soberly. "They haven't said they'd takeWAVES abroad yet. But I am about all set. Just a day or so more at themost. They never tell us exactly."
"Oh, Danny, no!"
"Oh, Sally, yes!" he echoed. "What's the matter? Want me to stay alandlubber all my life?"
She did not answer. A small plane, darling through the air like a bird,had caught her eye.
"That's your boss, Silent Storm," Danny said. "When I learned he wasyour boss, I sort of looked him up. The boys told me that was his plane.No one else flies it."
"He's a fine man, Danny."
"That's what they all say. He was very badly shot up out there in thePacific. They didn't expect him to live, but the nurses pulled himthrough--"
"And now--"
"Now he might be sitting in the sun, living on a pension."
"But who would want to in exciting times like these?"
"Not your Silent Storm. He works harder than the rest of them."
"But, Danny! Look!" Her voice rose sharply. "Look at his plane!"
"Acting crazy all right. Seems to be out of control."
"Danny! He said something strange once. He said he wouldn't take otherpeople up because he wasn't sure of himself. You don't think--"
Danny was thinking, and thinking fast. Advancing the throttle, he senthis plane speeding toward the spot in the sky where the small plane wasgoing through all the motions of a fighter shot out of the clouds.
"He's really going down," he muttered grimly. "And ours is a land plane,worse luck."
They remained at two thousand feet. Starting at that same level, theother plane had gone into a slow spiral and was slowly drifting down.
"If he hits the water at that speed, he's done," Danny groaned. "Why inthe world doesn't he bail out?"
"Perhaps he can't. He--he may be unconscious." Sally gripped her handsuntil the nails cut deep into the flesh.
"There!" she exclaimed.
"He's getting control. He's leveling off." Danny spoke slowly. "Buthe'll crash all the same. And his plane is a land plane. Let's hope he'sa good swimmer."
"But he isn't." Sally's words came quick and fast. "He used to be. TheJaps wrecked his back."
"Tough luck!"
"There! He's down. His plane is still intact."
"It will sink all the same, in no time at all."
"Danny!" Sally gripped his arm tight. "Just circle over that spot,slowly." She stood up.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going over the side. I'm a good swimmer, I can save him."
"Here--take the controls. I'll go."
"I can't fly a plane, never have."
"Okay, good girl! Here's luck to you. Here, take this." He dragged arubber raft from beneath his feet.
Tucking the raft under her left arm and gripping the ripcord with herright hand, Sally opened the cabin door, stood there for a few seconds,and then she was gone.