Santego-Bay from the direction of St Pierre, and even more excited when a column of

smoke arose from the town and he

was told that serrurier's two-bit army was surrounding the Base and they could
expect an attack any moment
But a man cannot keep up that pitch of excitement and now, at five in the morning
with the sun just about due to rise, he
felt bored and steepy His eyes were sore, and when he closed them momentarily it
felt as though there were many grains of
sand on his eyeballs He blinked them open again and stared at the radar screen,
following the sweep of the trace as it
swept hypnotically round and round
He jerked as his attention was caught by a minute green swirl that faded rapidly
into nothingness and he had to wait
until the trace went round again to recapture it There it was again, just the
merest haze etched electronically against the
glass, fading as rapidly as it had arisen He checked the direction and made it 174
degrees true
Nothing dangerous there, he thought That was nearly due south and at the very edge
of the screen; the danger--if it came-
-would be from the landward side, from Serrurier's joke of an air force There had
been a fair amount of air activity
earlier, but it had died away and now the San Fernandan air force seemed to be
totally inactive That fact had caused a
minor stir among the officers but it meant nothing to Harmon, who thought sourly
that anything that interested the officers
was sure to be something to keep bun out of his sack
He looked at the screen and again caught the slight disturbance to the south As an
experienced radar operator he knew
very well what it wasn-there was bad weather out there below the curve of the
horizon and the straight-line radar beam
way catching the top of it He hesitated for a moment before he stretched out his
arm for the telephone, but he picked it up
decisively His instructions were to call the Duty Officer if anything --repeat,
anything--unusual came up As he said, "Get
me Lieutenant Moore;" he felt some small satisfaction at being able to roust the
Lieutenant from whatever corner he was
sleeping in
So it was that when Commander Schelling checked into his office at eight that
morning there was a neatly typed report
tying squared-up on his blotting-pad He picked it up, his mind on other things, and
got a jolt as the information
suddenly sank into him like a harpoon He grabbed the telephone and said hoarsely,
"Get me Radar Surveillance--the
Duty Officer"
While he waited for the connection he scanned the report again It became visibly
worse as he read it The microphone
clicked in his ear "Lieutenant Moore---- off--- duty? who is that, then? --- All
right, Ensign Jennings, what's all this about bad
weather to the south?"
He tapped impatiently on the desk as he heard what Jennings had to say, slammed
down the telephone and felt the sweat
break out on his brow Wyatt had been right--Mabel had swerved to pay a visit to San
Fernandez His body acted
efficiently enough as he selected all the information he had on Mabel and packed
the sheety neatly into a folder, but a
voice was yammering at the back of his mind: it'y goddam unfairi why should Wyatt
be right on an unscientific hunch?
Why the hell didn't Mabel stick to what she should have done? How in God's name am
I going to explain this to Brooks?
He entered the radar section at a dead run and one look at the screen way enough He
suring back on Jennings and
snapped, "Why wasn't I told about this earlier?"
There was a report sent to your office by Lieutenant Moore, sir"
"That was nearly three hours ago:" He pointed at the thickening green streaky on
the bottom edge of the radar screen "Do
you know what that is?"
"Yes, sir," said Jennings "There's a bit of bad weather blowing up
"A bit of bad weather?" said Schelling thickly "Get out of my way, you foot" He
pushed past Jennings and blundered out
into the sunlit corridor He stood there indecisively for a moment, then moistened
his lips The Commodore must be told, of
course He left the radar section like a man heading for his own execution with
Ensign Jennings staring after him with
puzzlement in his eyes
The officer in Brooks's outer office was dubious about letting Schelling in to
bother the Commodore Schelling leaned over
his desk and said deliberately, "If I don't get to see the Commodore within two
minutes from now, yowu find yourself
pounding the anchor cable for the next twenty years" A small flame of satisfaction
leaped within him as he saw that he
had intimidated this officer, a weak flame that drowned in the apprehension of what
Brooks would have to say' Brooky's
desk way ay neat as ever, and Brooks himself sat in the same position as though he
had never moved during the last two
days He said," Well, Commander? I understand you want to speak to me urgently"
" Schelling swallowed "Er--- yes, sir It's about Mabel"
Brooks did not move a muscle, nor was there any change in his voice wanat of
tension suddenly enveloped him as he
asked evenly,'What about Mable'
Schelling said boldly, "She seems to have suring off her predicted course"
"Seems? Has she or hasn't she?"
"Yes, sir; she has"
"Well?"
Schelling looked into Brooks's hand grey eyes and gulped "She's heading right for
us" He became alarmed at the
Commodore's immobility and his tongue loosened, "She shouldn't have done it, sir
It's against all theory She should have
passed to the west of Cuba I don't know why she turned and I don't know any other
meteorologist who could tell you
either There are so many things we don't---"
Brooks stirred for the first time "Stop prattling, Schelling How long have we got?"

Schelling put the folder down on the desk and opened it "She's a little over a
hundred seventy miles away now, and she's
moving along at eleven miles an hour That gives us fifteen, maybe sixteen, hours"
Brooks said, "I'm not interested in your reasoning--I just wanted a time" He suring
round in his chair and picked up a
Telephone "Give me the Executive Officer-- Commander Leary, I want you to put Plan
K into action right now" He glanced
at his watch "As of 08:31 hours That's right-- immediate evacuation"
He put down the telephone and turned back to Schelling "I wouldn't feel too bad
about this Commander It was my
decision to stay, not yours And Wyatt didn't have any real facty--merely vague
intuitions"
But Schelling said, "Maybe I way too rigid about it, sir"
Brooks waved that away "I took that into my calculations, too I know the
capabilities of my officers" He turned and looked
out of the window "My one regret is that we can't do anything about the people of
St Pierre But that, of course, is
impossible We'll come back as soon as we can and help clear up the mess, but the
ships will take a beating and it won't be
easy" He looked at Schelling "You know your station under Plan K?"