There was fried chicken with cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes, fresh, crisp celery, and baked squash. All this was topped with ice cream and very fine coffee.
Was Sally conscious of all this wealth of good things? Well, hardly. She was, first of all, tremendously interested in Captain Donald MacQueen who sat at her side. All her life she had dreamed of really knowing great and important people. Not that she wished to brag about it, far from that. She did long for an opportunity to study them, to feel their greatness, to try to absorb some of the qualities that had made them great. Now just such a man was giving the major portion of his time to her for one blissful half hour. A young lieutenant had taken over the task of entertaining Nancy, and he did not seem at all unhappy about it either.
Important to Sally also were the things Captain MacQueen was saying to her.
“This old friend of yours—his name is Kennedy, I believe—must be a great genius,” he suggested.
“Oh, he is!” she beamed.
“But it does seem strange that he should have entrusted such a priceless device to a, well, to any young person.”
“Perhaps it may seem that way to you,” was her slow reply, “but, Captain MacQueen, I think that too often those who boast of gray hairs underestimate the dependability, the devotion, yes, and the wisdom of the young people of today—and—and,” she checked herself, “I have worked with him for six years.”
“Everything you say is true.” His dark eyes twinkled. “But such a priceless invention! Look what it has accomplished today—given us a clean-cut victory, perhaps saved hundreds of lives and very precious cargo.
“Miss Scott,” he leaned close, speaking low, “this is one of the most important convoys ever to cross the Atlantic. Our enemy is not through. He will attack again and yet again, perhaps. But if we can always know, as we did today, the hour, the very moment of his attack—what a boon!”
“C. K. Kennedy is a very old man.” She was speaking slowly again, “He is an extremely modest man. In the case of another important invention he met with disappointment. I am sure he did not realize the real value of this secret radio.”