A BATTLE IN THE NIGHT
Norma did not slacken her speed until she reached the shore road. When
she passed through Granite Head lamps were being lighted. On coming to
the narrow road leading to the spotter shed she caught a gleam of light
up there. Feeling in need of friendship and good cheer, she sprang from
her bike to go trudging up the hill.
She was given a joyous welcome by Bess and Beth.
“Come on in,” Bess exclaimed. “We’re just brewing a cup of tea.”
“Just what I need.” Nonna sank into a chair. “Tea, a kind word, and a
smile.”
“You shall have all three,” Beth declared. “And you surely deserve it.
Patsy told me all about your wild ride on the sea. Those bad Gremlins
nearly got you that time.”
“Patsy? Is she over here?” Norma asked.
“No, not here,” was the reply. “She, too, can talk with her hands. Just
as soon as she told me with those expressive hands of hers that you
were out in the storm, I got on the wire and stayed there until I knew
you were safe.”
“That was kind of you.” Norma felt that she surely was making warm
friends. “Probably I shall need them,” she told herself.
Bess went outside to take up her spotter’s post. When tea was served,
they passed her a big, steaming cup.
After eating delicious homemade cakes and thin nut-bread sandwiches
with her tea, Norma felt ready once more for journey and battle.
“I’ll be going now,” she stood up, “and thank you a lot.”
“Don’t go yet,” Beth begged. “We’ll have a little chat with Patsy and
perhaps with Grandfather, though he’s often prowling about the island
at this hour, looking for subs,” she laughed.
After dragging both a television camera and receiving set from
cabinets. Beth watched the clock for a short time, then set things
humming.
Half a minute later a pair of tiny hands appeared in the square of
light and began to talk.
“Patsy is here,” Norma whispered.
Beth nodded, “Here and ten miles away. Isn’t it strange?” She watched
those hands and at the same time wrote down letters one by one. “She
says Grandfather has been gone for an hour and she’s a little bit
afraid.”
“I shouldn’t wonder,” said Norma with a shake of the head.
“He takes too many chances,” Beth said soberly.
“Can you talk to her?” Norma asked.
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[Illustration: _“Tea Is Just What I Need,” Said Norma_]
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“Oh, sure. Watch me.” Soon, with the television camera trained upon
them, Beth’s hands were twisting themselves in all manners of strange
forms.
“Tell her I’m here,” said Norma.
Again Beth’s hands talked across ten miles of black waters.
Then it was little Patsy’s time to talk. The words fairly flew from her
nimble fingers.
“She says she loves you,” Beth laughs. “She hopes you’ll come often.
But, oh, is she glad the bad Gremlins didn’t get you that other night!”
“She’s a dear child.” said Norma. “I only wish I were going there to
live for a time. But I’m a little afraid that is out.”
“Too bad, I’m sure. Patsy’d love it. You’d have experiences you’d not
forget.”
“Looks as if I might have unforgettable experiences anyway,” Norma
laughed nervously. She was thinking of the Spanish hairdresser, of Carl
Langer, and all the strange surprises that had come to her. “I’ll tell
Lieutenant Warren all about it very soon,” she told herself.
Again Patsy was talking. It was an animated and joyous conversation
they held with Patsy while Bess stood watch outside.
Then, of a sudden, all was changed. Patsy broke off short in the middle
of a sentence. Her tiny hands disappeared and in their stead were
larger, older hands.
“Grandfather,” Beth whispered as if afraid he might hear. “And is he
excited!”
Soon enough they knew there was reason for excitement. The trembling
hands spelled out the words rapidly, one by one:
“Submarine—half mile off shore—Send help!”
Norma sprang for the telephone. Taking down the receiver she tried to
speak calmly, distinctly:
“N-K speaking at G-P.” Her words seemed to tremble. “Black Knob reports
submarine, half mile off shore. Send planes.”
At that instant Bess thrust her head in at the door to report:
“One single off Black Knob coming this way, moderate speed.”
* * * * *
At that same instant Millie, who was standing watch on the top of the
Sea Tower, took a frosty telephone from its hiding place and called
down to Betty:
“One single. About six miles off shore, looks like coming from Black
Knob, coming west, moderate speed.”
At once Betty got in touch with the men below. In ten seconds she had
her answer. “No plane due to be at that point. Wait for second report.”
The second report came, not from Norma at Granite Point spotter shed,
but from a fisherman’s wife at the village which Norma had visited a
few hours before.
On receiving the report, Sergeant Tom sprang up the stairs to stand at
Millie’s side and add his keen listening ears to hers.
“Circling as if for a landing,” was his first comment. “Mighty strange,
a small plane way out there at this hour of the night. It’s not any
American plane I’ve ever heard. I’m going out there. Tell Betty to
notify the Rock Point airfield. Tell her to give the details.”
Going down the stairs he all but fell over Rosa who was just going off
duty.
“Oh, Tom!” she exclaimed. “Are you going after that plane?”
“Looks like I am.” Tom bounded out into the uncertain light of night.
There was no moon.
Rosa, who was right at his heels, called in a low, eager voice: “Tom,
take me with you!”
“What, a lady? It can’t be done!”
“I’m a soldier. I’ll handle the spotlight.”
“And the machine gun, too, I suppose,” he grumbled.
“Yes, and that, too. Tom, please take me,” she pleaded.
When the Seagull rose from the dark sea, Rosa rode in the second seat.
Tom had extracted from her a promise of absolute secrecy, that was all.
* * * * *
There was reason enough why Norma’s report of the plane and the sub had
not come in. The phone at the Granite Head spotter shed was dead.
Beyond a doubt the wires had been cut.
While they were finding this out, Beth had received a more complete
report from her grandfather. He had been hearing sounds from the sea
for a full half hour. Someone was working on a motor or some other
thing. At first he thought some fisherman’s boat was stalled.
As the craft was carried in by the tide, he caught words spoken in
German. Then he made out the long, low bulk of the sub. Now he was
telling of a mysterious plane that had appeared from just nowhere and
was soaring out over the sea.
“I’ve got my bike!” Norma exclaimed excitedly. “I’ll ride like mad. Be
at the Sea Tower in no time at all!” She was away at once.
As Norma sped down those winding stairs she was thinking of the old man
and the child out there on Black Knob and their great peril. “Those men
were rigging out a boat,” she told herself. “They were going ashore on
the island. And then—”
She coasted down the hill at a terrific speed. Only a miracle saved her
from a crash at the bottom.
She got her crash all the same. Having covered a quarter of the
distance to the Sea Tower, she rounded a curve when to her
consternation she saw a ghost-like figure, all in white, standing in
the middle of the road.
Swinging as far as she could to the right, she attempted to pass when,
with an astonishing leap, the figure landed upon the back of her
bicycle and wrapped long arms about her. Instantly they went down in a
heap.
“It’s a spy,” she thought. “He cut the wire. Now he means to stop me.
But he won’t.”
Summoning all her courage and drawing heavily on her feeling of sudden
desperation, she threw all her strength into tearing away those arms.
The ease with which this was done astonished her. Those were not strong
arms. They seemed to be the arms of a woman.
Norma’s escape was, she discovered, not to be so easy. Her opponent was
surprisingly fast. No sooner were her arms free than she was gripped by
both ankles and thrown with a crash to the ground.
At last, struggling to a sitting position, she pushed the creature away
and sprang up.
Leaping like a panther, her enemy landed on her back to send her
crashing once again.
“I’ve got to be cool,” the girl told herself. “This may be a fight to
the death.”
When once again she found herself on her feet she began sparring like a
boxer.
Then, seeing an opening, she seized her opponent by one arm. Hanging on
desperately with both hands, she started whirling. Finding her
assailant surprisingly light, she at last swung her off her feet. Three
more dizzy turns, then she let go.
The white figure crashed into the bank ten feet away. Without looking
back, Norma seized her bike, mounted, and rode away at terrific speed.
In the meantime Tom and Rosa were out over the sea. First they headed
for the spot where the plane had last been heard. They circled in an
ever growing spiral but discovered nothing.
Switching on a light, Tom looked back at Rosa. The look on her round
face betrayed no sign of fear. Instead there was a look of grim
determination.
“We’ll climb,” he spoke into his phone. “It may be cold.”
“Okay by me,” Rosa called back cheerfully.
“We’ll get up high. Then I’ll shut off my motor and glide. Then you
listen with both your ears.”
“With both my ears,” came echoing back.
They climbed. Then they began a silent glide.
“Out to sea.” Rosa’s ears had caught the sound of a motor. “Near the
island I think. Black Knob, you know?”
Tom had heard, too. They were away.
Over Black Knob they circled again “No soap,” Tom grumbled. “You much
scared?” he asked.
“Not scared at all.”
“Want to turn on the searchlight and sweep the sky as we circle?” he
asked. “They may see us and shoot. That may mean curtains for us.”
“But if it’s an enemy scout plane from an aircraft carrier,” this was
the girl’s answer, “then it is curtains for many people—women and
children.” Rosa snapped on the light. After that, as they circled low
over the water, a pencil of light searched the sky.
Now and then the girl played the light on dark waters.
“Looking for the aircraft carrier,” Tom thought. “She’s sure got what
it takes.”
Suddenly Rosa exclaimed, “Look! What’s that?”
“What? Where?”
“It was on the water. Not big, but long and low.”
“A fishing boat, perhaps,” said Tom. “They’re coming in from the Banks
these days.”
“Mebby, yes, mebby no,” was the odd reply.
Truth was, they had sighted the sub, but, since Norma’s report had
failed, they knew nothing of that sub. So they circled on.
* * * * *
“Norma! You’re a sight!” Betty cried as her pal at last stumbled into
their Sea Tower watchroom. “Did you have a crash?”
“Yes—yes—a crash,” Norma murmured half in a daze. “But, Betty, quick!
Notify the airfield! There’s an enemy submarine clo-close to Black
Knob. They—they’re trying to land, I think. That—that will be terrible!”
“A squadron of planes is on the way now!” Betty said.
“Who—who told them about the sub?” Norma stared.
“Not the sub,” Betty corrected. “There is an unidentified airplane.”
“Oh, oh, yes. Then, tell them to send out planes to look for the sub.”
Betty got off the message while Norma collapsed into a chair.
“Here, drink this,” Betty offered her a cup of steaming coffee.
“Oh, Betty!” Norma exclaimed. “It was terrible! I tried to call from
the spotter shed but the wires were cut. I started coming here like mad
on my bike. Someone attacked me—”
“Attacked you!”
“Threw me off my bike! We—we had a terrible fight. It was a woman or a
boy in a white snow suit. Woman, I think. The Spanish hairdresser, I
shouldn’t wonder!”
“The Spanish hairdresser!” Betty’s eyes opened wide.
“Yes—I have her picture.” Norma dug into the pocket of her coat.
“It—it’s gone!” she gasped. “It was the Spanish hairdresser. The
picture was what she wanted. I—I lost the fight after all.”
“Not by a long way,” Betty declared stoutly. “If she’s around here,
we’ll get her yet. I—
“Wait,” she held up a hand, then listened.
“Five more planes going out. We’ll get that sub.”
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