For several minutes the suppressed silence lay over the lookout station. Then Gale let out a whoop: “They’re coming this way—the whole lot of them—maintaining a uniform speed, too. Must be flying in formation. Get headquarters, quick!”
Jan sprang to the phone. Half a minute later Jan said: “Here you are.”
Gale’s hand trembled as she picked up the receiver. “Headquarters?” she said in a calm voice.
“Right,” came back.
“Good! This is G. G. J. speaking. Wish to report large formation of enemy planes due east from this station—a hundred or more miles away. Flying west at identical speed.”
“Formation,” said the voice at the other end, “may be practice flight. Keep on them and report again in three minutes.”
Gale obeyed orders. In exactly three minutes she was back on the phone. “Formation of enemy planes still traveling west,” was her report. “Maintaining identical and uniform speed. Think they can be seen as a dark spot on the horizon.”
“Okay. We’ll check on that and send out scout planes.” was the answer. “Keep your radar on them. Report at intervals.”
Gale did keep her radar on those planes. If they were flying to attack the secret forest or the distant city, she had made a scoop that would be remembered.
A quarter of an hour had not passed before she was sure that this was indeed an enemy bombing and fighting force.