After hearing all this Kitty felt still more uneasy about her experience earlier in the afternoon. Could it be possible that the man Billy had seen on the island was the same who owned that boat hidden in the mangroves? She had noticed no boat herself, but one certainly could have been hidden in the dense shrubbery that overhung the water.
Kitty was relieved when their supper was ready, and the hungry boys had been served. Vera poured the hot coffee, and Sally supplied them with fresh bread from the Bayshore Bakery.
“Makes you feel sort of funny, eating this bread and knowing the Germans have recently eaten bread out of the same kind of wrappers,” said Kitty, giving Brad a significant look as she handed him a high-piled plate.
“Let’s sit over on that palmetto log,” he suggested when she picked up her own plate.
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[Illustration: _“The Coast Guard Saw It All,” Ned Told Them_]
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Other couples had paired off, and Kitty was glad that at last she had a chance to talk privately with Brad.
“What about that boat you saw?” she asked in a low tone when they were seated.
“Wish the others hadn’t spread the news around.”
“Do you think it has any connection with the mysterious business we’re trailing?”
“There’s no telling. If it leaks out at the hospital that people are getting wise to the skulduggery it may put a temporary stop to the dirty business and throw us off the trail.”
“Where did you see that boat?” Kitty asked.
“South end of that island—opposite where they’re burning the hospital waste.”
Kitty’s fork stopped in mid-air, and she stared speechless at Brad a moment. “Why Brad, I passed that very spot today.”
“You?” he exclaimed incredulously. “What were you doing there alone?”
“Not alone. Billy was with me.” Briefly she gave him an account of her day, beginning with the conversation in her father’s office. “Brad, I’m convinced Punaro is smuggling something out of the hospital with the garbage. Who knows but what he’s the one keeping these U-boats supplied with fresh bread, green vegetables and stuff like that.”
“They’re getting it from somewhere, and that’s a certainty,” stated Brad. He was silent a moment, then said anxiously, “But Kitty, you shouldn’t have gone off there in the marshes alone.”
