“Who are they? People?”

“No, they’re huge rocks that slant away into the sea. When there’s a bad storm it’s just terrible to see the way the waves come roaring in.

“When that sub came up out of the water,” the child’s voice dropped to a whisper, “I laid right down on Black Head and—and hid my face behind a little bush.”

“That was a wise thing to do.” Had this child really seen a German submarine rise close to this island? Norma wondered. “It makes it all seem so close and so real,” she whispered to herself.

“There they are!” the child cried as they emerged from the pines. “That’s Black Head.” She pointed. “That’s Gray Head—”

“And the other must be Bald Head,” Norma laughed.

“Yes, and right out there was where the sub came up.” Again the girl pointed. “Come on!” Seizing her companion’s hand, she dragged her along at a furious pace.

“Right here,” she said, vastly excited. “I was just sitting here watching for planes, when I looked down—”

Suddenly she broke off. There came the whir of wings and then, just before them in the water at the foot of Black Head, two beautiful eider ducks came to rest.

“Going north,” Patsy whispered. “The first ones I’ve seen this year.”

In her excitement she allowed her voice to rise and suddenly the ducks were gone.

“Did you see that?” Patsy exclaimed. “They crash dived, just the way the sub did, only it didn’t crash dive right away. Oh, no! You can’t think how scared I was. Three men came up from the conning tower. They had a rubber boat and were blowing it up.”

“Coming ashore,” Norma whispered.

“Yes, that’s what I thought. And was I scared! If they had seen me they would have shot me. Grandfather would have heard and there would have been a battle.”

“A battle?”

“Oh, sure! We can fight a battle, a real battle. Grandfather has two tommy-guns. You ought to see him shoot them. Even Miss Jane Morrison can shoot them, and so can I.”

How strange all this seemed to Norma as she sat there in the glorious sunshine watching the eider ducks who had come up again some distance away.

“Why did they crash dive?” she asked at last.

“Because they heard a plane. I heard it, too. It was coming from the land, an American fighter plane. I can tell them when I hear them, yes, and when I see them, too.

“You should have heard those men on the sub,” Patsy laughed. “How they jabbered! They went down below, then they crash dived.”

“What did you do?”

“I jumped up and told Grandfather, and he told Beth and Bess and they told the fort. Pretty soon there were just lots and lots of planes, but just no sub at all.”

“Too bad,” said Norma, “but how did your grandfather tell Beth and Bess?”

“Shish!” Patsy put a finger to her lips. “That’s a military secret.”

“Not bad for a nine-year-old,” Norma thought. “She’ll be a lady soldier some day.”

Of a sudden the calm sea appeared to have been lashed by ten thousand tiny whips. Then there came a race of a million tiny waves.

“That’s the bad Gremlins,” Patsy sprang to her feet. “They are whipping the sea. Soon the sea will be very, very angry and then—”

“Yes—yes, let’s go. I’ll race you back!” Norma exclaimed. “Now get set. One! Two! Three! Go!”

They were away like a flash.

Because she knew a short cut, Patsy was first in.

“Oh, good! Here you are!” Lieutenant Warren exclaimed. “We’ve been thinking of starting back.”

“Yes, yes!” Norma panted. “We must go at once. The Gremlins are whipping the water and—” she broke off short. “What nonsense!” she thought.

“So she’s got you believing in the Gremlins!” the gray-haired man of magic chuckled. “She’s got all of us here on the island converted to belief in those little people.”

There was little enough to make anyone believe in the bad Gremlins as they took off from the small dock. Now and then little flurries of wind rose and raced across the sea. That was all. Betty was at the wheel.

“I’m going to send three of you over there to help out, at least for a while,” Miss Warren confided to Norma.

“Oh! I’m glad!” Norma exclaimed. “It’s really not safe for them there, three old fishermen, an aged inventor, two spinsters, and a child.”

“And if you were there, you would protect them!” the Lieutenant laughed. “However, I wasn’t thinking of safety, but of the rare opportunity they have for airplane spotting.

“Of course,” she added after a moment, “it will, at best, be only an outpost. Our main station will always be at Indian Harbor.”

If her superior was not, at that moment, thinking of the possible dangers of life on Black Knob, Norma most surely was. After recalling Patsy’s words, she thought, “Spies have been landed on American shores from submarines and may try again. Black Knob would make a marvelous hideout if only—”

At that moment she was seeing a picture of herself and the aged inventor standing at the log cabin’s windows that were like loop-holes, and firing tommy-guns while Patsy dragged up fresh belts of ammunition.

Real danger replaced her dreams and that in a very short time for, as if by magic, the sea began rolling in a most alarming manner and the wind began to tear at them like mad.

“I—I can’t hold her on her course,” Betty panted. “It’s a quar—quartering wind and every wave thro—throws—”

At that a wave, larger than the rest, came splashing across the deck.

Half drowned Norma sprung to her feet, but Lena was before her. Crowding Betty aside, she seized the wheel and, bracing herself like a veteran, she brought the boat about to head it squarely into the storm.

She held it to this course until there came a brief lull. Then again she took up a direct course toward the shore.

The lull was short-lived. Soon the wind was once again cracking about their ears and the boat was bouncing like a cork.

With lips set in a straight line and every muscle drawn tight as a bow string, Lena braced herself for the task that lay before her.

Dark clouds engulfed them like a shroud. Waves, reaching for the boat and missing, gave forth serpent-like hisses as they broke into foam.

Suddenly Norma’s lips parted for a scream of warning. The scream failed. A fierce gust of wind drove it down her throat. Before them, so close it seemed they could not miss, were two jagged piles of gray rock.

“Like the jaws of a giant sea serpent,” she told herself with a shudder.

She stole a look at Lena. She was like a statue. Her strong arms were rigid. One moment they raced toward one reef, the next they had whirled half about and were racing for the other. Then, as a great wave, white with foam, hit them, they were lifted high to be shot forward in a mass of foam.

“Made it,” Norma heard the astonishing Lena murmur.

It became apparent at once that this reef formed a barrier that held the water back for, once across it, they found themselves in calmer waters.

Lena’s answer to this was full speed ahead and not one of them dared cry:

“Lena! You are wrong!”

All too well Lieutenant Warren, who had spent many months on the New England coast, knew that they had been caught in one of those brief but terrific storms that from time to time ravage the coast.

A quarter hour passed, then again they were in the midst of the storm.

For a full hour after that, never flinching, nor asking for quarter, the stout Lena held to her post until with a deep breath that was half groan and half a sigh of relief she slid the small boat into the narrow slip by the dock. Here, behind the breakwater, they were safe.

Sergeant Tom, who had been anxiously awaiting word from them, caught the line. Lena leaped to the dock, then, drenched as she was by cold salt water spray, went racing for Harbor Bells.

At that moment words were running through Norma’s mind, the words of a child:

“The bad Gremlins do that.”

As she trudged up the hill toward the spot where dry clothes, a roaring, open fire, and steaming coffee awaited them, Norma said to her Lieutenant:

“Lena was magnificent!”

“Yes,” was the quiet reply. “We all have our big moments. Your big moment too will arrive, perhaps sooner than you think.”

“Will it?” Norma asked herself. There was no answer.