“I know what it will be,” Norah said. “The one of you who lights the beacon will come tearing down the rocks to help the others, and the Germans will just shoot him easily. I needn’t do that; I can hide up on the point. There isn’t any risk—not a bit.”
“Oh, Norah, Norah, I wish you’d gone to bed!” uttered Jim. “Don’t you see we can’t let you?”
“No, I don’t,” said his sister. “You haven’t any right to stop me. You know it will be only a chance if you three can stop the submarine going out if help doesn’t come in time. And if there are only two of you, it’s so much less chance. Dad’s gone away looking dreadful, only he wouldn’t say a word, because he knows he hasn’t any right to hinder you.” Norah was sobbing openly now. “And you have no right to lose any chances. We can’t let that beastly thing go out, to sink other ships full of women and kiddies like the Lusitania babies. Goodness knows I’m f-fool enough,” said poor Norah. “But at least I can put a match to a fire!”
“She’s quite right,” Jim said, quietly. “All serene, Nor. Buck up, old kiddie!”
“Jim—you can’t——!” Wally burst out.
“I can’t agree to it,” John O’Neill said, wretchedly.
“She’s quite right,” Jim repeated. “The job is bigger than we are. It’s only a question, as she says, if all three of us can check those people at the cave: and if we can get the beacon lit in any other way, we simply have no right to reduce our number by one-third. There really should be no danger: she has only to put a match to it, and get away before the firelight shows her up.” He spoke firmly, but his young face was drawn and haggard. “I am quite sure dad would say the same.”
“I know he would,” Norah said.
“And I thought this was rather a lark!” said Wally, with a groan. He turned and walked to the window.
“If you are certain your father would be satisfied, I have no more to say,” O’Neill said. “It certainly makes an enormous difference: three can stop a rush where two would be hopelessly outclassed. And the man coming down from the headland wouldn’t have a chance: the people on the submarine would get him in a minute.”