“Oh! Many, many times!”

“Did you ever assist him?”

“Oh, yes! Of course! It was all great fun. He had big charts showing every center, every phone. I helped him mark down each new installation.”

“Ah!” the examiner breathed.

“Yes, and we had a grand little shop in the basement where we worked things out—lots of new things.” Norma’s eyes shone. “There were many rural centers where the switchboards were in stores. When a number was called a light shone on the board. But that wasn’t enough. The storekeeper couldn’t always see the light.”

“And what did you do about it?”

“We fixed up a new board, just Dad and I. Put a tiny bell on every line.”

“I see. The light flashed, the bell rang, and then the storekeeper really knew all about it?”

“Yes. But the light sometimes failed, so we put on bells with different tones. Each line spoke for itself.” Norma laughed. “We called it the musical switchboard.”

“And you say you’ve never worked?” The examiner laughed.

“That! Why, that was just fun!”

“Perhaps it was. The best work in the world is the kind we can think of as fun. All that time you were fitting yourself for two of our most important departments—Communication and Interceptor Control.”

“Can—can you really use me?” Norma was close to tears.

“Can we? Oh! My child!” The examiner all but embraced her. “We’ll make a major out of you! See if we don’t!”

 CHAPTER IIIINTERCEPTOR CONTROL

CHAPTER IIIINTERCEPTOR CONTROL

Norma was not long in discovering the reason for that last surprising outburst of her examiner. When at last the report was finished, they looked up to find the row of chairs empty.

“Well!” the examiner breathed. “That’s all for today. This,” she added, “is not my regular work. My training was finished many weeks ago. I have been away from the Fort for some time doing a—well” she hesitated—“a rather special sort of work. Now I’m back for a brief spell. They were shorthanded here.”

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