Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/214

 messages were of international importance, but each time that she deciphered one, Joan felt as though state secrets could not be more thrilling. The paper contained some such record as this:


 * BAZ: (from the Billington): Pipe down scrubbed bags.
 * BWQ: Pipe down aired bedding. (All these disappeared.)
 * ABS: Recall all absentees.
 * ERU: Pipe down washed clothes.
 * CNF: There will be time for the crew to get their dinner. ("I do wonder what they're going to do afterward!" said Joan. "And how busy they must be, piping down such a number of things!"
 * ERX: Shake out reef in scrubbed hammocks.

"Now that's really absurd!" Joan said. "How do you take a reef in a scrubbed hammock, and why should you want to shake it out? Why, the Billington gives those ships no peace; she's just like a fussy old hen with a brood of chicks—at them every minute."

"What I don't see," said Garth, "is how they can hoist those answer signals so fast. There are perfect heaps of flags all hanging up in order on the signal-bridge. They have to