“Not bad for a nine-year-old,” Norma thought. “She’ll be a lady soldier some day.”
Of a sudden the calm sea appeared to have been lashed by ten thousand tiny whips. Then there came a race of a million tiny waves.
“That’s the bad Gremlins,” Patsy sprang to her feet. “They are whipping the sea. Soon the sea will be very, very angry and then—”
“Yes—yes, let’s go. I’ll race you back!” Norma exclaimed. “Now get set. One! Two! Three! Go!”
They were away like a flash.
Because she knew a short cut, Patsy was first in.
“Oh, good! Here you are!” Lieutenant Warren exclaimed. “We’ve been thinking of starting back.”
“Yes, yes!” Norma panted. “We must go at once. The Gremlins are whipping the water and—” she broke off short. “What nonsense!” she thought.
“So she’s got you believing in the Gremlins!” the gray-haired man of magic chuckled. “She’s got all of us here on the island converted to belief in those little people.”
There was little enough to make anyone believe in the bad Gremlins as they took off from the small dock. Now and then little flurries of wind rose and raced across the sea. That was all. Betty was at the wheel.