CHAPTER NINE
INTO THE MARSHES
Kitty had so much on her mind that night she couldn’t sleep until afterone o’clock. She didn’t even hear the alarm clock next morning, and wasroused by the sunlight streaming across her bed. She pulled on herbathrobe and ran to the kitchen.
“What time is it?” she asked Jane.
“Eight o’clock. Yo’ Pah done et breakfus and went to de horsepital.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Wa’n’t no use to bother you. You wus sleepin’ jus’ like a sho nuffkitten.”
“But there was something special I wanted to talk to Dad about thismorning.”
“You’ll see him tonight.”
“But I’m going with a bunch of Canteen workers to fix supper for theboys on the beach late this afternoon.”
Kitty had just started back to her room when the phone rang. She foundit was Hazel Dawson.
“Listen, dear, I heard you say once you always go to town on Saturdaymorning,” came her friend’s voice over the wire.
“Yes, I do. Is there anything I can get you?”
“If it wouldn’t be too much bother, I’d like you to get me a set ofchessmen.”
“A set of chessmen?” Kitty could not hide her surprise. Chess hadbecome intimately associated in her mind with Cary and his partners.
Hazel laughed. “In my old age I’ve suddenly decided to become a chessfan.”
“It does seem to be quite a fad around here,” admitted Kitty.
“I haven’t any way to get the money to you before you go.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Kitty. “What price do you want to pay?”She recalled that her grandfather’s ivory chessmen had been veryvaluable.
“Oh, the cheapest ones you can find will do for me, plastic or woodwill be all right. I only want them so I can learn the game.”
As Kitty put down the phone after this unusual request, she wonderedwhat was behind it. She had no doubt that Hazel’s motive in learningthe game had some connection with Lieutenant Cary’s chess playing. Yetthe two made no pretense at friendship.
Though she had missed her father at breakfast Kitty was determined tosee him before she went to town, so she decided to go to the hospital.By nine she had eaten breakfast and was ready for the weekly shoppingexpedition.
“Is you gwine to tek Billy to town wid you?” asked Jane seeing Kittydressed so early.
“Yes. He has to have a new pair of shoes. Hope I can get somenon-rationed ones. He’s already used my last coupon.”
“Dat boy can sho stomp out dem shoes.”
“You’d better wake him up and give him breakfast by the time I comeback. I’m going to run up to the hospital to see Dad a few minutes.”
All the guards and attendants at the hospital knew Kitty as thedaughter of the Chief Pharmacist’s Mate. She always gave them a smile,a jaunty salute and passed in without comment. A few minutes later sheslipped noiselessly into her father’s office. He was busy going oversome order sheets with a junior officer, so Kitty sat down near thedoor till he was at leisure.
“See you in a few minutes, Kitten,” her father said when the pettyofficer went out and his stenographer came up with some letters to besigned.
Kitty thought how wonderful it was to live where she could occasionallydrop in on her father at his work. He had not finished the letters whenthe door was opened wide and to her amazement young Punaro stepped inand picked up her father’s half-filled wastebasket. He didn’t see hertill he turned to go back to the hall, where he had left the largecanvas-sided container which he rolled along the halls to collect trash.
By the ominous look he sent her she knew instantly he recognized her asthe same girl who had come upon him unexpectedly at the galley docklast night. Before he came back with the empty basket her father calledher to his desk. He waited a moment till Punaro closed the door.
“What’s on your mind, Kitten?” he asked, dropping his professionalmanner like a mask.
“Plenty,” she said. “I don’t like that Punaro fellow coming into youroffice for one thing.”
Her father threw back his head and laughed. “Now, now, you mustn’t besuspicious of everyone who has a slightly olive cast to his complexion.”
“He has a very Italian name, too.”
“You seem to forget they’re fighting on our side now.”
“Yes, but some of them here are still friends of the Hitlerites.”
Knowing from experience that money could often make a person forgetunpleasant things Mr. Carter took out his billfold. “Guess you’d like alittle change for the trip to town.”
Kitty laughed. “You’ve never known me to refuse money, have you, Dad?”
“Not yet.” He handed her a bill. “You might get Billy that ball andmitt he’s been begging for. It’ll soon be warm enough for him to playoutdoors all day. Maybe the ball will keep him from climbing so manytrees.”
Kitty smiled. “He’s a regular monkey when it comes to trees. When Itake him to the park he picks out the tallest and climbs up it like acat.”
“I’m afraid Nina spoiled him, letting him climb that old magnolia inour yard back home.”
“Dear Aunt Nina, how I miss her.” Kitty sighed as she put the moneyinto her purse. “Yours is the second order for playthings I’ve had thismorning.”
“Why? Billy ordered something else?”
“Not Billy. Hazel Dawson wants me to get her a set of chessmen.”
“Hazel wants a set of chessmen,” he said, puzzled.
“Seems to be getting quite a fad. Lieutenant Cary plays every time hecomes to the USO hall.”
“Oh.” Mr. Carter’s tone carried a world of meaning.
“Oddly enough it’s generally with someone from the galley. First it wasChief Krome and last night it was that young fellow, Punaro, who was inhere just now.”
Kitty’s watching eyes caught the surprised look that came into herfather’s face.
“Dad, how long has Punaro been in the service?”
“I don’t know. Two or three months, I imagine.”
She felt he was annoyed with her, but couldn’t keep from saying, “Itdoesn’t take so many months for them to show their true colors, doesit?”
“Why so much interest in this raw recruit?”
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_Kitty Caught the Surprise on Her Father’s Face_]
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“Some things have happened recently to stir my curiosity,” she answeredevasively. Her father’s attitude repelled her further confidences, nordid she feel this was the place to talk too much. But she wasdetermined to learn the one fact for which she had come.
“I must go now, Dad. But tell me one more thing.”
“Anything you want to know except military secrets,” he replied,becoming playful again, because she was so serious.
“Why do they haul the hospital refuse away on a barge instead ofburning it in the incinerator as they do in other hospitals?”
“We had an explosion at the incinerator several weeks ago. For somereason they’ve been slow in getting it fixed.”
“I see,” said Kitty with a significant nod. “And in the meantime Isuppose the garbage is hauled off somewhere in the marshes and burned?”
“That’s right.” Suddenly her father’s face became very serious, and hesent her a penetrating glance. “What are you driving at, Kitty, withall these strange questions?”
“Haven’t time to explain now,” she said evasively. For so long Kittyhad had to solve her own problems, when her father was at distantstations, that she had not yet learned how to make a confidant of him.Nor did she want to run the risk of having him put a stop to herinvestigations. But she made bold to ask one further question.
“Do you know where they haul the garbage, Dad?”
He led
her to the window and pointed across the marshes. “See thatsmoke on the horizon.”
“Yonder—way south?”
“That’s it. That’s where they burn it.”
“Why so far away?”
“We couldn’t stand the stench if it was too close. Even at thatdistance a southwest wind will bring the odor into my window. I’llsurely be thankful when they use the incinerator again.”
Kitty’s mind was clicking like a teletype machine as she left thehospital. She hadn’t used their boat in a week, and felt she wasentitled to a little gasoline for explorations.
Billy looked forward to these weekly visits to town with keen delight,so Kitty didn’t have the heart to curtail his enjoyment. They paidtheir usual visit to the toy department at the dime store, and took apeep at the ducks in Bayshore Park. At noon they ate at a lunchcounter, perched on high stools, which Billy adored. Afterward Kittymade her weekly food purchases at the grocery store on Bay Street,opposite where she always left her boat.
When the grocery boy had packed her things into the launch Kitty lookedat Billy, gave him a knowing wink and asked, “Want to go exploring?”
“Oh, Kit, where?”
“You’ll see. ’Way into the marshes.”
Billy’s eyes grew round. “Into a cove or somepen, where pirates hidetheir booty?”
“No telling what we’ll find ’way off in the marshes.”
It was already one-thirty, and at five Vera was to pick Kitty up forthe trip to the beach. She would have to do her exploring in thatinterval of time. She had made a careful note of the location of thatsmoke smudge on the horizon, as her father pointed it out from hisoffice. However, Kitty didn’t feel sufficiently familiar with themarshy inlets to take a short cut to the spot. She decided the safestcourse was to return near enough to Palmetto Island to get her bearingsfrom there, and seek out the channel through which the barge from thehospital traveled in going to the dump.
“Aren’t we gonner explore?” Billy asked in a disappointed tone when thesmoke stacks of the Marine Base came into view.
“We’re going to turn off into this inlet right here,” Kitty reassuredhim.
A bit of wind was blowing, making whitecaps dot the deep green water.Though the weather was pleasant enough ashore, there was a sharp tangon the water that brought a glow to their cheeks.
In the narrowing inlet southwest of Palmetto Island, Kitty had to cutdown her speed to keep from running aground in the curving channel. Shehad never been in this section of the marshes before, and she thoughthow easy it would be to get lost on the crisscross winding inlets thatinterlaced the marshy islands. Most of these green mud flats weretreeless, but far off in the direction of that smoke smudge, which washer destination, the horizon was broken by palmettoes and pines.
“Where’s the pirate’s lair?” Billy finally asked, growing impatient toreach some destination.
“We’re almost there,” Kitty assured him. They were near enough now tosee two or three spirals of smoke rising from a mound of rubbish dumpedon a sloping shore.
Fortunately the wind was out of the east and carried smoke away fromthem, so Kitty had a clear view of the dump. She shivered to seebuzzards circling above the smoking pile of refuse. What a fittingplace, she thought, for spies to meet for their diabolical planning!Had some foreign agent met Punaro here this morning to take away thatbox of supplies she had noticed on the barge?
As she drew nearer she saw the rubbish was burning on an old oysterreef off the north end of a large island. The southern side was denselyovergrown with palmettoes, pines, oaks and a tangled thicket ofmangroves along shore.
“Get out the field glasses, Billy,” she ordered “and we’ll see if wecan find any pirates.”
“Oh-h!” gurgled Billy. He made a dive for the stern locker where theykept odds and ends. It was all wonderful make-believe to him.
Kitty had slowed the launch, and before she took the glasses she cutoff the motor and let the boat drift. A quick survey of the dump heapmade her want to explore, even if it was a repulsive spot, but that wasout of the question with Billy along. She was afraid to come even thisclose for fear he would pick up some germ. The very thought made herhand him the glasses and start the motor again.
Though it was already growing late she decided to take a turn aroundthe small island. She was glad she had taken the chance when shereached the opposite side. There she found a deep, open channel, movingeastward toward the sea. Billy kept looking through the glasses towardthe island while Kitty studied the channel.
“Looks deep enough to float a sub,” she thought.
“Kit, let’s go home!” exclaimed Billy, sudden terror in his voice.
“Why?”
“I saw somebody looking at us from the woods yonder. Maybe it was apirate.”
Though Kitty took the glasses from her small brother’s hands she couldsee nothing in the mangrove jungle. Had it been only his vividimagination, or had he seen someone? However, she did not tarry to findout as she gave her motor all the power it would take and headed forhome.
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