CHAPTER FIFTEEN   A CONFESSION

Kitty waited until her father had eaten dinner before bringing up the subject that had weighed on her mind since the previous evening. She knew she would have no peace until she had made a clean breast of the whole thing. When her father was in his big chair in the living room she sank on the couch near by.

“Dad, how long does it take a germ—like a strep germ—to develop after a person gets infected?” she asked.

“Two or three days, sometimes sooner. We still have a lot to learn about such things.”

“Then it’s all my fault that Billy’s ill.”

“Your fault?” Mr. Carter dropped the paper he had just picked up.

“I thoughtlessly took him where there’re plenty of germs. I—I was so intent on something I wanted to find out, I didn’t even think of the danger.”

“What are you talking about, Kitty? It’s absurd blaming yourself for his illness. You’ve taken excellent care of him ever since you came from school.”

“But, Dad, we went out into the marshes where they dump the hospital waste.”

“You—what?” Her father stared at her, shocked. Then she could see by his expression that he was recalling their conversation about the disposal of the hospital waste.

“That’s why I asked you where they dumped it. I went there Saturday afternoon.”

“You and Billy alone?”

She nodded. “But I had a good reason for wanting to go, Dad, a very good reason.”

He looked puzzled, but his tone was not unkind when he said, “I can’t imagine any reason that would take a sensitive girl like you out to a dump pile.”

“I know you think I’m crazy. But it’s a long story and I’ll have to start at the beginning.”

“Well, sit back calmly and stop twisting that pillow.”

Kitty tossed the pillow to the other end of the couch and burst into tears. “Oh Dad, I’ve been so miserable for the last twenty-four hours I could die. It’s all because I’m too proud. I wanted to do something big for my country—something spectacular. I’ve let it make me indifferent to everything else.”

“You’re doing what you can, Kitten, in your Canteen work.”

“Yes, I love that, but I wanted to do even more. I thought I could uncover the work of some saboteurs. I—I tried even to keep it all from you, to do it all myself, that is Brad and I.”

“Kitty, calm yourself,” her father said almost severely. “You’re being very incoherent. Tell me what all this is about.”

“I hardly know where to start to make you understand why I’ve been so secret about it.”

“The place to start is at the beginning. I suppose all this has happened since you came home from college.”

“Yes, of course. In fact the very day I decided to go into Canteen work.” Then she told him of her experience in the launch when she had introduced Hazel and Lieutenant Cary. “That was the first hint I had that something was wrong somewhere. Brad was with me, and in on it from the very beginning.”

“So you’ve been suspicious of Lieutenant Cary since then. Has anything else occurred to justify such suspicions?” asked Mr. Carter, viewing his daughter’s confession more seriously now.

“Oh, lots of things—that is with people also closely associated with him.” Then she told about Punaro and her belief that he was connected with the cannery fire, and later their coming unexpectedly upon him at the dock. “It looked to both Brad and me that he was hiding a tightly nailed box with the rubbish on the barge.”

“Um-m,” grunted her father significantly.

“Dad, that’s why I wanted to go out to the dump pile and see what the situation was for myself.”

Her father had risen and was now pacing the floor. He turned toward her sharply and said, “Surely you didn’t go ashore there?”

“Oh, no, we only rode by it.”

“Then Billy didn’t get the germ from that dump—or there was no greater chance of his getting it there than anywhere else. But the foolish thing, Kitty, was you two going alone. You might have taken Brad with you as long as you had discussed these things with him.”

“He was down at the beach for the afternoon. I picked up more clues down there, too, which made it seem certain supplies are going out from our hospital to the German subs. One of the Coast Guard men told about them finding Bayshore Bakery bread on one of those captured subs.”

“If that was all they’re getting I might not have so much to worry about,” said her father.

Kitty glanced at him sharply. “What do you mean, Dad? You think they’re getting more than that?”

“No doubt they are.”

Kitty knew he was keeping something from her. However, she was determined now to tell him all. “Another strange thing happened yesterday that may or may not be significant.”

“Yes. What was that?”

“It was odd, after seeing old Uncle Mose on Terrapin Island Sunday, someone on the troop train yesterday asked me about him.” Kitty gave a sprightly account of the veteran returned from the Pacific. “And by the way I have that dollar and must take some tobacco to the old man.”

“And what connection does all this have with the clues you’re running down?”

“Vera Parsons told me that the owner of Terrapin Island was near when I was talking to that fellow. She said he actually glared at me when he heard I’d been on the island. Of course it was all posted over with ‘No trespassing’ signs, and maybe we shouldn’t have eaten our supper there.”

“We did no harm. Those signs generally apply to hunting, fishing and fire-making.”

“But Dad, Brad and I are wondering if this Beeson isn’t in on the dirty work.”

He paused in front of her, his face showing alert interest. “How do you figure that out?”

“Uncle Mose told us Beeson comes here to the hospital for food scraps for his hogs. Brad and I figure there’s obliged to be a middleman to make the contact between the hospital and the spies from the subs.”

Chief Carter’s face was eager as he said, “Kitty, you may have picked up a missing link!”

She jumped to her feet now, and stood facing her father. “Dad, you’ve been keeping something from me, too!”

“You May Have Picked Up a Missing Link!”

“I’ll have to admit I have, Kitten. You had enough on your young shoulders without being burdened with my problems.”

Suddenly apprehension pierced her heart. It was one thing to work for the sheer thrill of trapping spies, but quite another to find her father was really involved.

“Dad, what is it?” she asked. “Does all this in any way affect you? A while back I thought it might and then—”

“I’m afraid it does, Kitty. But go on, I want to hear your reasons for believing Beeson is involved.”

“For one thing he leased that island after we went into the war. That certainly could have been done with an ulterior motive. Second, he moved Uncle Mose out of his cabin up to the other end of the island. Uncle Mose used to live in sight of the hospital dump pile. Also he has a look-out in the pine thicket.”

“A look-out?”

“Brad climbed the pine after we got Billy down Sunday. It’s wired to make climbing easy. There’s a seat at the top with a marvelous view of the entire marshes and out to sea.”

“But you didn’t mention all this Sunday.”

“We thought right away it was connected with the whole dirty business. Hazel was along, so we decided to say nothing until we could figure things out better.”

“Is that all?”

“We figured that a small radio could be carried up on Beeson’s back, so he could direct action from his look-out. He could watch people coming from any direction, and warn small boats coming in from the subs. Seemed like a perfect set-up.”

Her father looked at her a moment and a slow smile spread over his face, in spite of the anxiety still in his eyes. “Kitten, you show remarkable talent for becoming a first-class detective.”

She pursed her lips. “Too nerve-racking, Dad.”

“Is that all you’ve picked up about Beeson?”

“Beth Gilcrist, a Canteen worker over in Bayport, who meets all the troop trains, told me Beeson meets most of them, too.”

“Hm-m, so he does, eh? He seems to have no scarcity of gas for these trips back and forth.”

Mr. Carter sat down on the couch, and stared into space, as he thought over what she had told him.

“And another thing. Brad found out from the man who looks after the incinerator that repair parts have come for it twice, and were not what he ordered.”

“Hm-m, looks like somebody at the factory may be cooperating in keeping it out of order,” Mr. Carter surmised.

“That’s exactly what Brad and I figured out. That’s why we feel so certain the barge goes into the marshes for more reasons than to haul off garbage.”

Mr. Carter made no reply to this but just sat staring ahead of him. Kitty recalled what he had said as they were coming home that evening. The inspector was coming down and there was a shortage in his department. She had thought when he mentioned it that he meant a financial shortage. Now an appalling possibility entered her mind.

“Dad, could your shortage have anything to do with all this?”

“Definitely it could, Kitty. The amazing things you have just told me may help me clear up a very embarrassing situation.”

Kitty recalled that he had said once that there were some things he couldn’t talk about even to his own daughter, but she now ventured to ask, “Can’t you tell me about it now, Dad?”

“I’m going to,” he retorted in a tone that implied his desperation. “But this is for you alone, Kitty. Not even Brad is to know.”

Her eyes widened. “But you think he is trustworthy, don’t you?”

“Of course—absolutely! Nevertheless this is to go no further.”

“Certainly. If that’s the way you want it.”

“As you have probably guessed Willard Dawson lost out here for the very shortage I am now facing.”

“But I’m sure he was not to blame either. Who could look at his fine face and believe him capable of—of anything dishonest? He simply couldn’t be a traitor any more than you, Dad!”

“Of course we feel certain of that. That’s why I asked to be sent here. I’ve been in hopes of clearing up the situation.”

“Hazel came here for the same reason, didn’t she?”

“Yes, she did. But so far—that is until you told me all this tonight I’ve run into nothing but snags.”

“Just what did you mean when you said there was a shortage?”

“All medical supplies must pass through my hands. I have to O.K. all orders. I have been most careful in making those orders—yet at the end of each month the sum total of materials used far exceeds the normal use of a hospital our size.”

“You mean medicines, bandages and things like that, Dad?”

“All expendable supplies used in the hospital—medical supplies, of course.”

“Those are the kind of things they’d be badly in need of on a German sub?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Do you suppose those sneaks are getting some of the stuff out of the hospital along with the food?”

“In fact, Kitty, the whole set-up may be for the purpose of getting our medical supplies instead of food. Almost anyone can get hold of food to let the enemy have, but the drug business is quite a different thing.”

Kitty felt the gooseflesh prickle along her spine.

“Oh, Dad, suppose I hadn’t paid any attention to all those queer things!”

“Don’t be too complacent about it all, Kitty. We haven’t caught the saboteurs yet, nor pinned anything on anybody.”