“It’s not for me.” Leaning across the table Sally allowed her voice to drop. “It’s much more important than that, I hope. It’s for our old friend Uncle Sam. The things I did up there on the roof are part of it, just as my learning code will be. You are such a nice boy, I want you to have a part in it.”
“Well, thanks—” Danny was visibly embarrassed. “Thanks a lot: I’ll help all I can.”
The truth is that Danny was to have a much greater part in the undertaking than either he or Sally knew.
“And now for one more try at the two black boxes,” Sally whispered excitedly after the girls had said good-bye at the gangplank of their ship that really wasn’t a ship at all.
“It works! And it’s going to help a lot, that aerial is,” Sally exclaimed a few minutes later.
This was true. They were able now to catch the “put-put-put-put” of those secret broadcasts sent from radios out somewhere on land or sea very plainly. That night they stayed up till midnight, and were able to locate seven different broadcasters.
“They are all part of something big, I know that,” Sally insisted. “But is it a sub pack, a flight of planes, or a convoy of ships?”
“Only time will tell,” was Nancy’s reply.
Just then they caught the sound of voices in the hall and suddenly their secret listenings to the great unknown were at an end. For if the secret radio were to remain just that, they must take great care not to expose either the black box or the purpose of their own midnight meetings. The two conspirators did not intend to be found out.