“Then the girl on the cliff says: ‘One single. High. Off five miles. Going south.’
“The WAC knows from the spot on the switchboard where the girl is. She reports the call. Another girl locates the spot on a chart. A third WAC reports to three men. One of these men represents the Army, one the Navy, and one the Civil Aeronautics Authority. These men consult their records. Perhaps they discover that no plane belonging to any of their organizations is supposed to be on that spot.”
“And then they send out a fighting plane,” Norma suggested.
“Not yet. Perhaps that girl watcher heard a vacuum sweeper instead of a plane, so they wait.”
“And?”
“Then, perhaps two minutes later, there comes a flash from another watcher—this time a fisherman’s wife.
“Flash! One single. High. Going south. Very fast.”
“‘Three hundred miles an hour,’ someone says. Then a fighter plane goes up. And soon, if it’s really an attack, the sky will be filled with fighter planes.”
“Lives saved—many lives saved by the WACs,” Norma enthused.
“We shall have done our part,” Lieutenant Warren replied modestly. “And that is all our country expects from any of us.”