And then the answer came, a deep-toned muffled roar, that seemed to shake the sea.
“They’ve found them,” Mrs. Duke said. “That’s a bomb.”
“They were there. They’ve found them!” Sally wanted to shout for joy. She said never a word, just stood there thinking: “Good old C. K. will be famous because of his secret radio. I won’t be court-martialed and thrown out of service for bringing it on board. Perhaps it has saved the convoy from attack, may save it again and again. Glory! Glory!”
Just then there came another roar. This was followed by a series of pom-pom-poms.
“That’s antiaircraft fire,” said Danny’s mother.
“Does it come from our destroyers?” Sally asked.
“No. We are the ones who have airplanes, not they. Besides, our guns on the destroyers don’t sound like that. You’ll hear them. There! There’s one now!”
There had come a boom that seemed to roll away to sea. There was another and another.
All this time, for all the world as if they were anchored in some harbor, the forty ships laden with freight and human cargo kept their places and moved majestically forward.
“It’s beautiful,” Danny’s mother murmured.