“But it’s so very important,” Sally insisted.

“More important than making good with the WAVES?” Nancy asked soberly. “For my part I can’t think of a thing in the world that could be half as important as that. That’s just how I feel about it.”

“Yes, that’s right. Oh! If I were thrown out of the WAVES I’d just want to die.” Sally’s face took on a tragic look. “And yet—”

“And yet, what?”

“Well, you just don’t know old C. K. Kennedy, that’s all. I’ve been working with him since I was fifteen and now I’m twenty-one.”

“Working at radio? What did you know about radio when you were fifteen?”

“That’s just it. I didn’t know a thing. You see, a radio came dropping right out of the sky and—”

“Out of the sky?” Nancy stared.

“Yes, right into the middle of a meadow where I was looking for a meadowlark’s nest.”

“Say! Why don’t you talk sense? You can’t expect people—”

“Shush,” Sally whispered. “Here’s the gangplank of the 'U.S.S. Mary Sacks.’ We’ll have to get right in. Don’t betray me. I’ll explain it all later.”

As they entered, a girl in the nobby blue uniform of a WAVE said:

“Take the ladder to Deck Two. Turn to the right and there you are.”

“Yes,” Sally said to Nancy, with a sharp intake of breath, “there we are. Right in the midst of things. Some sharp-eyed examiner will probe our minds to find out how much we know, how keen we are, what our motives for joining up were, and—”

“And then she’ll start deciding what we can do best,” Nancy broke in.

“And if she decides I’ll make a good secretary to an Admiral,” Sally sighed, “I’ll wish I hadn’t come. Well—” She took a long breath. “Here we go up Fortune’s ladder. Wish you luck.”

“Same to you.” Then up they went.

In the meantime the big girl, Barbara, opened her bag, shook out her clothes, packed some away in a drawer, hung others up, then dropped into a 

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