“Of course not. We’re all soldiers and must serve where we can do the most good. Of course,” Norma added with a touch of longing, “it would be nice to live there a while with that fine, old grandfather, the imp of a child, and all the good Gremlins.”
“I’m planning to send Betty,” said Lieutenant Warren. “She has a good head for things.”
“She certainly has!”
“I’ll send Millie and Mary. There’ll be other girls arriving tomorrow. You’ll have to help train them.”
“Looks like a busy time ahead,” Norma laughed.
“You don’t know the half of it!” Lieutenant Warren agreed.
As they parted for the night, the clock on the mantel struck slowly twelve times.
“Midnight,” Norma whispered, slipping out on the porch.
The stars were shining bright. The moon was just rising back of Black Knob. All the planes had gone home. The night seemed very still.
Had she been able to look in at windows at Black Knob, as the good Gremlins do, she might have seen the grandfather and child fast asleep while on the spotter tower a gray-haired woman walked slowly back and forth. And in a warm corner, downstairs, two rough fishermen, guns at hand, nodded sleepily, keeping watch, just in case—