Secrets of Radar — Background and Themes

he knows about guns,” the other whispered. “What d’you know about that!”

“Now.” The girl straightened up to fix her eyes on the sergeant. “You take it.”

The sergeant took over. The girl held a watch on him. The sergeant was on the spot. A girl had offered him a challenge. As a gentleman he had accepted the challenge. His face tensed as the seconds—one, two, three, four, five—ticked away.

“Now,” came from the girl in a hoarse whisper.

The sergeant’s fingers moved like triggers. Instantly the gun boomed. They waited one, two, three, four, five seconds. Then came the dull roar of the exploding shell.

They waited again—one, two, three, four, five—up to the count of twenty. Fragments of the shell could be heard dropping. And then, at the edge of the cloud appeared a gray shadow that rapidly developed into a black ball.

“By thunder! They got that balloon in the bag!” one of the boys exclaimed.

Turning about, the sergeant held out his hand to the girl. She took it, man to man, a good hearty grip.

“That,” said one of the privates, “is better than the boy chinning the rope. You’d ought to go in for magic, Miss. There’s money in magic.”

The girl smiled, but made no reply. She glanced away at the shadows of the palm tree. The black dwarf was still there. Not knowing why, she shuddered, but she still did not tell him to go away.

The steel ball reached earth some distance away. The first gunner, still a bit of a skeptic, ran over to retrieve it.

“You never touched the steel ball!” he called on the way back.

“But he got the balloon!” the girl insisted. “That was very good indeed for the first try.”

“Thank—O—Thanks.” The sergeant made a bow. “Sometimes the Captain says I’m good and sometimes he says I’m—well, never mind just what he says. It’s not fit language for a lady.”

“I’m no lady,” the girl laughed. “I’m just a soldier, a WAC. So let’s just be nice and natural. Shall we have another try?”

“Oh sure! As many as you like.” The sergeant adjusted his gun.

A telephone attached to a tree jangled.

“I’ll get it.” The first gunner jumped up.

“It’s for you, Sergeant,” he announced a moment later.

“Be right there.” The sergeant was away.

There was a serious, all but stern look on the sergeant’s face when he returned. “Sorry, lady,” he half apologized. “School’s dismissed for today.”

“Why—what—” she began.

He broke in: “Some nasty old Jap bombers are headed this way to mess things up a bit. And did they pick on a swell day to do their stuff! They’ll come hopping out of the clouds, drop their bombs and drop back into the clouds again.”

“Before we get a good crack at ’em,” the first gunner broke in. “The dirty—”

“Lady, you’d better scram,” said the sergeant. “This is no place for you right now.”

“I hear ’em comin’!” The second gunner’s ears were covered by a listening device.

“I’m not leaving,” the girl said, as she shook her hair into a tangled mass. “This may be a man’s war, but they’ll have to put me in the guard house to keep me out of it.”

“Oh! Miss! I’m sorry,” the sergeant exclaimed, “but orders are orders. No ladies.”

“Who’s giving the orders?” she snapped. “You’re a sergeant. I’m a second officer of the WACS. You tell me who’s ranking officer on this gun! I’m staying! And we’re going to get one of those bombers!”

“Get what? Get—” A strange light shone in the sergeant’s eyes like the glint of a diamond. “Last time they got a whole gun crew and one was my particular pal,” he grumbled. He whistled a bar of “Lady Be Good”, then said: “Have it your own way. Let’s get set.”

By this time the enemy planes could be heard rumbling through the overcast.

“They’re heading for the airdrome. We’re practically on the edge of it,” the sergeant explained. “They may take time to wipe us off the map first,” he added as a comforting afterthought.

If the girl heard, she made no sign.

“They’ll circle over the place first, won’t they?” she asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

“That’s what they most generally do,” the sergeant agreed.

“That’s when we’ll get them,” she murmured, as she adjusted her radar set. “They’ve got one-track minds, those Jap pilots have. They circle about in the same track two or three times.”