A SUB—ON THE SPOT
Shortly after noon of that same day rain squalls came sweeping in upon
Black Knob. It whipped the waters into foam and hid the island from all
the world.
Riding the crest of this storm, three small craft approached the island
from the east. One, boasting a small and ragged sail, towed a second.
The third was being rowed by six rugged seamen who swung their long
oars as men sometimes seem to do in their sleep.
It was Betty who first discovered them. She had wandered down to the
dock when she saw them looming out of the fog.
At first she was frightened, but a second look told her that no
invading force would be so poorly equipped so she raced away to the
fishing village to tell the news.
At once two fishing boats took off. In due time they came in, with the
boats in tow.
By that time everyone on the island was down by the dock.
There were men, women, and children in that boat, seventy-six of them
in all, and they were a sorry sight.
“Ours was the Mary Sachs,” one seaman explained. “She were a coastwise
steamer bound for Baltimore. We had these ladies an’ children with us
as passengers.”
“It were a sub to be sure,” another took up the story. “They torpedoed
us without warning.”
“Yes,” a woman broke in shrilly, “and they had an airplane with them.
The plane swooped down and machine-gunned our lifeboats. Look at Sally
here.” She held up a child whose face was white as a sheet. “Both her
legs are broken.”
“We had a doctor with us. Thank God for that,” said another woman. “He
fixed her up good as he could.”
Betty swallowed hard as she put out her hands for the child. Then, with
sturdy tread she led the battered and half frozen band to the hotel
where a great fire of driftwood roared up the chimney.
All that afternoon the WACs and, in truth, every other person on the
island, worked with the ship’s doctor making their new-found friends
comfortable.
Cots and beds were improvised. Every available blanket or quilt was
pressed into service. Great kettles of beef, beans, and soup boiled
constantly on the hotel’s range. It was only toward night that Betty
felt free to creep away to the log cabin for an hour of rest.
Little Patsy went with her, but did not remain long. Soon she was out
wandering among the rocks, keeping an eye out for bad Gremlins.
Just before dark Mr. Sperry, the FBI agent, made a surprise visit to
the cabin. Grandfather Norton was there. Betty was wakened by Sperry’s
knock on the door, so these three shut themselves in the Norton den.
“I came over here looking for a spy,” Sperry announced.
“A spy!” Grandfather Norton exclaimed. “We are all loyal people out
here.”
“You don’t understand,” said Sperry. “He was last seen heading this way
in a small motorboat.
“It’s that photographer over at Granite Head,” he explained to Betty.
“You may know him.”
“Oh—oh, yes!” Betty was startled. “He did all our work. I never
dreamed—well, yes, there were some queer things about him.”
“Queer!” the secret agent exploded. “I’d say so. He’s one of the most
dangerous men on foot. We’ve been looking for him. He was a spy in
India. Got out just in time to save his neck. He’ll do the same thing
here if he can. You haven’t seen a small motorboat?”
“No motorboat,” was Mr. Norton’s reply. “Three lifeboats came ashore
shortly after noon. They were in a sorry plight. Their ship had been
torpedoed by a sub.”
“Ah! Those subs,” Sperry clenched his fists. “There are rumors of a sub
being seen off shore here this very afternoon. Fisherman coming in from
the Banks claims he saw it. All our small boats are out scouting for
it. But me, I’m after just one man; and his name’s Carl Langer!”
“Well, we haven’t got him,” said the gray-haired inventor. “But if we
see him, we’ll hold him for you. Never doubt that.”
“I’ll have a look about the island.” Sperry was up and away.
A half hour later, just as Betty was thinking, “I should be out on the
spotter platform right now,” Patsy came crashing through the door. Her
face was white, her eyes bulging.
“The sub!” she whispered hoarsely. “It’s so close! I saw it! And there
was a small boat, yes, and an airplane. There were men, many big men. I
think they have come to carry us away.”
“This,” Betty thought, as she stood up, with shaking knees, “this is
not one of Patsy’s dreams about Gremlins. It’s the real thing.”
Thirty seconds later she was racing with Norton and Patsy for the hotel.
“They’re invading the island,” Betty exclaimed as they burst into the
lounge room of the hotel. “There’s a sub, a boat, an airplane, and many
men.”
“Where? Where? Where?” came in a chorus.
“Where?” Betty turned to Patsy.
“By Bald Head,” was the prompt answer.
“The other end of the island,” Grandfather Norton explained in a steady
voice.
Instantly there was a rush for the door. But Grandfather Norton was
there before them.
“Steady, boys,” he held up a hand, “you’re not going to a picnic. I
don’t know why those men are there, but I do know they are armed. We
must organize our party.”
“That’s right, sir!” an Army sergeant agreed. He gave an order to his
men. They disappeared.
Next instant the door opened, silently, and in stepped Sperry. His eyes
were wide, his tongue fairly hanging out. “I ran into a hornet’s nest,”
he whispered. “I got away just in time!”
What he had to say left no room for doubt. A fight was in the making.
When the Army squad returned it was with arms loaded. There were
rifles, tommy-guns, pistols, and stacks of ammunition.
Then after one weapon had been selected for each Black Knob man, the
sergeant said, “Take your pick.”
Instantly, from every corner, came the men whose boat had been struck.
“We’ll kill the rats,” the burly seaman snarled. His right arm was in a
sling, but with his left he gripped an automatic.
“Somebody find me a cane,” one seaman begged. His leg was bandaged and
splinted. “I’m the best darn shot in the crew. That’s what I am!” From
somewhere a crutch was produced.
One man half rose from his cot, whirled about, then fell on the floor.
“No! Not you, Tom!” The doctor’s voice was gentle. “You’re too badly
broken up.”
It was a motley and dangerous crew that at last marched silently out
into the night.
* * * * *
In the meantime things were happening fast at Harbor Bells.
While preparations were being made for the battle Patsy had slipped
back to the cabin. There she wakened Millie and Mary, who were to take
the midnight watch. With their help she set up the television camera
and began telling the exciting news to Beth and Bess.
As fast as the words were told off by Patsy’s talking hands, Bess
phoned them to Norma at the Sea Tower.
Norma got Tom on the phone.
“Tom! Oh! Tom!” she stammered with excitement. “The sub is out by Black
Knob, and the plane, too. If you could just go out and spot it, the big
guns would blow the sub from the sea!”
“We’ll go!” said Tom. “You and I!”
“Oh, Tom!”
“You’ll have to go!” Tom’s voice insisted. “There’s not a man in the
harbor who knows the tricks. They’re all out in boats looking for that
sub.”
“All right, Tom. I’ll meet you at the dock.” She hung up.
“Marie!” she commanded. “You keep the switchboard. Rosa, get your coat
and come with me.”
One minute more and they were joined by Lieutenant Warren, who somehow
had learned the news. Then all three raced for the dock.
Norma was faster than the others. She arrived in sight of the dock just
in time to see a ghostly figure emerge from the shadows, leap at Tom,
who was just coming to the dock, and deal a heavy blow with some blunt
instrument square on his head. Without a sound, Tom dropped like an
empty sack.
Norma had seen that white-robed figure before. She had battled with it
and won. Not the least afraid, without warning, she landed upon it with
a head-on blow that sent it crashing against a wall. It crumpled into a
white heap and lay there like a pile of snow.
“Wha—what happened?” Lieutenant Warren panted, as she came racing up.
In a few, well-chosen words, Norma told her. “It’s terrible!” she
groaned. “Tom is out for keeps. Per-perhaps he’s dead. We can’t go!”
“We _can_ go!” Rosa insisted stoutly. “I can pilot the plane as well as
Tom could!”
“What do you think?” Norma turned to the Lieutenant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: _A Ghostly Figure Leaped at Tom and Dealt a Heavy Blow_]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I’ll not command you,” was the slow and steady answer. “But if you two
wish to volunteer for the task, I shall not stop you.
“I’ll take care of Tom,” she added. “There are fishermen near who will
help me.”
One minute more and the two girls were rowing rapidly toward the
Seagull that was to fly them into new perils.
* * * * *
On Black Knob the battle lines were forming. Never had a band of
Indians, in the days long since gone, moved more swiftly or silently
than the island’s defenders. And they were bent on swift vengeance.
Driven on by an irresistible impulse, Betty followed the last man, the
one with a crutch.
As she glided through the night, one question was uppermost in her
mind. Why were those men with sub, motorboat, and plane there? The sub
had come from the sea, the plane from the sub, and the motorboat from
the land. One thing was plain. They had chosen this island as a place
of meeting. But why? And how—how had they dared?
“They haven’t scouted the island recently,” was her conclusion. “They
thought it was occupied only by old men and women. Well, they’ll soon
know better. Just one more ridge and we are there!” Her pulse quickened.
Just as they left the grove of pines, the moon came out. A shadowy
figure rose above the crest of the ridge. There was something vaguely
familiar about that figure. One second it was there, the next it was
gone, for rifles had cracked. The fight was on. There came shouts from
beyond. They raced up the ridge. Their fire was returned, but feebly.
There was the sound of scrambling feet. A motor roared, then another.
It was all over in a minute, and over forever for three huddled figures
that would never move again.
“Enemies,” Betty thought. “Perhaps they helped machine-gun women and
children.” Yet, in a way, she was sorry.
She flashed her light on the nearest figure. Then she gasped. It was
Carl Langer. This time the spy had really been shot.
When the men reached the shore the moon was under a cloud again, the
sub had vanished, the motorboat heading out to sea, and the airplane
thundering somewhere in the sky.
Or was it the Seagull they heard out there over the black waters? One
thing was sure—it was there. At the controls sat Rosa. Norma was
casting her light about in search of the sub.
“We’ll find the sub if we can,” she had phoned to the major over at the
fort. “When I hold the light on one spot, you’ll know we’ve found it.”
“We’ll be waiting and watching,” had been his answer. “Ready to blow
them into Kingdom Come!”
And so now they circled slowly back and forth.
Only one question troubled her, and that was, “Is that enemy plane
still in the air?”
“If that plane is armed and they attack us?” she said to Rosa.
“We will climb too fast for them,” was the calm reply.
And then Norma’s light fell upon something, a white spot. Not the sub.
She was disappointed. Then her heart leaped. Off to the right was a
long, dark bulk.
“The sub,” she said aloud. “And that’s the motorboat. They are coming
together.”
With all the skill she possessed she held her wide spot of light on the
sub. Slowly, surely, the sub and the motorboat moved closer together.
Breathlessly she awaited the roar from the shore.
“The major can’t fail us,” she clenched her teeth. “He must not!”
They were losing altitude and coming closer to the sub. Suddenly they
were surrounded by balls of smoke and flame.
“Pom-poms!” she screamed to Rosa. “The sub is firing at us!”
The plane gave a sudden lift and shuddered.
“We are hit.” But still they glided on.
Then came the distant roar.
“Thank God!” Norma screamed. “Climb, Rosa! Climb!” But they did not
climb. They could not. The Seagull had been hit.
The first shot from the fort was quickly followed by another. Both
shells burst almost beneath them, giving them a lift they would not
soon forget. The shells, Norma saw, must have found their mark for,
when she played her light on the water she found only tiny bits of
something. The sub and motorboat had vanished.
“Quick, Rosa!” she cried. “Head for the shore.”
“We will go to shore,” was the slow reply. “Perhaps we shall go, but
not quick. The Seagull, she is hit. She may die.”
Norma came to realize this more and more as the gallant plane sank
slowly toward the sea.
They were in close to land when, with a suddenness that was startling,
the seaplane’s motor stopped and then they plunged into the sea.
Norma hit the water hard. She sank. She rose. She sank again and then,
as she rose, she began to swim.
“I’m not hurt,” she told herself. “The water is terribly cold, but I
can keep up for a time.”
Her time was about up. Her body was numb with cold, her breath was
coming in gasps when she became conscious of someone near her.
Then a voice said, “Put your hand on my shoulder. I’ll take you in.”
“Rosa?” she panted. “I can’t do that, you’ll drown!”
“Not Rosa,” said the voice. “I am Lena. Believe me, I am fresh and
strong. Put your hand on my shoulder.”
“Lena!” she thought. “Why is she here? She is always where danger is.”
At that she surrendered herself to the other’s superb strength.
They had gone so for some time, when a skiff pulled in close to them.
One man held a lantern. Another put out two hands to pull her in. It
was the major from the fort.
Several hours later she awoke from a long sleep to find Lieutenant
Warren sitting by her side.
“Everything is all right,” the Lieutenant smiled. “More than all right.
You got the sub and the motorboat, everyone on it. The sub was bringing
spies to America. In their haste they left their traveling bags on the
island. They were packed with American clothes, faked passports,
everything. Then they had plans, maps, all they needed for destroying
factories and shipyards.
“I think,” she added, “that they meant to take Carl Langer back with
them on the sub.”
“But they didn’t,” Norma whispered.
“Lena has confessed,” Lieutenant Warren added.
“Con-confessed? Lena?” Norma’s heart sank.
“She was part of the spy ring, a very small part, and against her will.
Her uncle drove her to it by terrible threats. She is a loyal American
at heart. She has turned state’s witness. That will trap the real
culprits and she, I think, will go free.”
“I’m glad,” Norma murmured. “And Rosa?” she asked after a moment’s
reflection.
“Oh! Rosa? She’s a dear. Loyal all the way through.”
“I know. But she was in the plane with me!”
“Oh—yes, of course! She wasn’t thrown from the plane.
“We found her paddling about on a rubber raft, still searching for you.”
“Good old Rosa,” Norma murmured. “So I was partly right and partly
wrong about all this spy business?”
“Yes. It is often like that.”
“How’s Tom?” Norma sat up suddenly.
“Tom’s all right,” was the reply. “He came round almost at once. And
was he mad when he knew you were gone!”
“Then he wasn’t really injured?”
“She couldn’t hit him very hard.”
“She?”
“Yes, the Spanish hairdresser. You guessed right there again. She
turned out to be a professional spy, the lowest creature on earth.
Sperry knew her the moment his eyes fell on her. She’s through spying
for good and all.”
“Someone took my camera twice,” said Norma. “Perhaps she did that.”
“No. I’m sorry to tell you, but that was Lena. The pictures she took,
however, were of no consequence.”
“And the enemy plane from the sub?” Norma suggested as she settled back
on her pillow.
“It was shot from the air by one of our fighter planes.”
“Looks as if we have been in on something really big and carried it
off,” Norma murmured sleepily.
“There will be promotions all round,” was the happy reply. “Very soon
you will be wearing bars on your shoulders.”
“Oh! And Major Fairchild is to pin them on,” Norma exclaimed. “That
will be one big day!”
“They’re sending WACs to Africa now,” Rita Warren said after a time.
“Shall we be sent there?”
“I don’t know. Would you like to go?”
“I’m too tired to think about it.” At that Norma turned over and was
soon fast asleep.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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_for Girls_
POLLY OF PEBBLY PIT
POLLY AND ELEANOR
POLLY’S BUSINESS VENTURE
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THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON A HIKE
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THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT CEDAR RIDGE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE AIR
JOY AND GYPSY JOE
JOY AND PAM
JOY AND HER CHUM
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JUDY JORDAN’S DISCOVERY
ROSE’S GREAT PROBLEM
HELEN’S STRANGE BOARDER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Heidi;
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
Punctuation has been normalized. Variations in hyphenation have been
retained as they were in the original publication. The following
changes have been made:
Her {principle --> principal} task is keeping the bad Gremlins away.
{p. 144}
POLLY {AT --> OF} PEBBLY PIT {dust jacket advertisement}
The following discrepancy exists in the original:
The index lists the title for Chapter I as "Mrs. Hobby's Horses" while
in the text, the title is "GIRLS IN UNIFORM."
Italicized phrases are presented by surrounding the text with
_underscores_.