what I asked him,” Sally whispered excitedly. “He said I was to take these radios with me, that I was to get someone who could be trusted to help me and, as I found time, to test the radios, listen in for any other radios that might be using those wave-lengths, do all I could to see what could be accomplished with them to aid our country.”

“That,” Nancy said, “is the strangest thing I ever heard.”

“Not so strange after all,” Sally said soberly. “He knew I was going first to a school close to the sea where I might listen for messages. Then, too, I am to be a WAVE. Perhaps I shall travel in a convoy across the sea. What a chance that will be to try out the radios!”

“Yes, what a chance!”

“Nancy,” Sally whispered tensely, “will you be the one who can be trusted? Will you join me in testing C. K.’s radios?”

“Why, I—” Nancy hesitated. “Yes! Yes, I will. You are my friend. C. K. is my friend. I also love America, and want to help, so why not?”

And that is how it came about that, as they walked slowly back to their staterooms on a ship that was a ship in name only, Sally and Nancy talked of radio and of the day when they would be full-fledged WAVES serving their country.

“And here’s hoping they put us on an honest-to-goodness ship!” Sally exclaimed.

“Here’s hoping,” Nancy echoed.

CHAPTER THREE A MESSAGE IN CODE

In the meantime, with a worried look still on her face, Barbara sat at a small table drinking hot chocolate while her companion, in the chic blue WAVES suit, enjoyed a coke.

“Hot chocolate will make you fat,” said Belle Mason, Barbara’s new friend.

“I’m fat already,” Barbara smiled. “An even hundred and fifty.”

“You’re big, not fat,” her companion corrected. “That’s not a bad weight at all for your height. What are you to do for the WAVES?”

“That’s just it.” Barbara’s frown deepened. “I don’t know much about anything but cooking, housework, and laundry.”

“Home laundry?”

 Prev. P 12/121 next