Sally had been good friends for some time. That was why Sally had dared trust her with C. K.’s secret and one of her much treasured black boxes.

“Oh!” she had exclaimed on seeing Nancy on the train that carried her to Mt. Morris and her new home. “You’re really going to be a WAVE!”

“Surest thing!” Nancy had thrown her arms about her. “And you, too!”

“That’s right,” Sally agreed. “Oh, boy!” she had whispered when they had found a seat together. “Do you take the load off my mind!”

“Why? How come?” Nancy demanded in great surprise.

“Shush, it’s a secret.” Sally’s voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s a deep secret. You know old C. K.?”

“Yes, of course. He’s given Bob—that’s my brother, you know—and me a lot of fine suggestions.”

“Well, he and I have been working on something for weeks and weeks. It’s a lot too deep for me, but it’s a radio that works with wave-lengths shorter than any that have been used yet. You know what that might mean?”

“Yes, I—I guess so. You could send messages to someone having the same sort of radio and no one else could hear them.”

“Not a soul.”

“Wonderful! Did you get it worked out?”

“Yes, only a few days before I was to leave, I took one portable radio to a place twenty miles away and talked to C. K. back there in his shop. We could hear each other plainly. That was a great day for C. K.”

“And for you.”

“Yes, but a greater one came when he took me into his shop that day before I left and said: ‘Sally, I want you to take these two black boxes with you.’”

“‘But, C. K.,’ I said, ‘those are your two secret, secret radios, your choicest possessions!’

“‘I can make more of them.’ That’s what he said. Then he went on, ‘Once I tried to give one of my inventions to our country. I failed and later someone stole it from me. Now, Sally, it’s your turn—’”

“How strange!” Nancy whispered. “What did he mean?”

“That’s 

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