“Just that!” Norma agreed. “Sorry I can’t tell you more, but they’ll tell you more, when they learn to trust you and that will be very soon, I’m sure.
“Goodbye and good luck.” She gripped Betty’s hand hard. “Watch out for the bad Gremlins and give my love to Patsy.”
“Okay, I will.” Betty sprung into the motorboat and they were away.
Norma returned to Harbor Bells to sit by the fire for a long time thinking and dreaming, then to eat her dinner and retire for a few hours of sleep. Her shift at the Sea Tower for the present was to be the wee, small hours of the morning. “The most important of all,” had been Lieutenant Warren’s words for it. “It is during these hours that thieves, housebreakers, and safe-crackers prowl a city’s streets, that ghosts walk, and spies fly the skies or creep beneath the sea.”
“And that the bad Gremlins get in their dirty work,” Norma laughed.
In spite of their fun Norma knew that the task she was undertaking was a serious one. Rosa and a girl named Marie were to work with her but she was to be in charge.
When at last Norma took her place at the chart table with Rosa at the switchboard and Marie ready for any task that might come her way, there was a sober look on her face such as had seldom been there before.
Two hours passed. Norma’s eyelids were growing heavy; the first night was going to be hard. Then the switchboard rattled and Norma repeated after some voice:
“Two heavy twin-motors going south, fast!”
“That’s from Kittywake,” said Rosa. Norma searched her chart, then marked a spot while Marie was droning through a phone: