CHAPTER NINETEEN
TRAPPED
The instant Kitty made that threat she was appalled at her daring.Lieutenant Cary might have a pistol and fire in her direction in thedarkness. Terrified she crouched in the chair. Cary didn’t move orspeak for what seemed an eternity. Then she heard an almostimperceptible rattle of paper. He must be trying to slide those ordersfrom under his coat, to remove the evidence of his guilt.
“Leave those papers under your coat!” she ordered.
The paper rattling ceased. Then suddenly she caught the sound offootsteps in the hall. It would do no good for her to scream and callfor help. Anyone passing down the hall was not likely to have a keythat would fit this door. She couldn’t forget that Cary might have agun. But would he dare use it with someone in hearing?
Kitty decided this was the best moment for action. Her bare feet madeno sound as she glided across the floor. If she could only reach thedoor while someone else was near she might have a chance. Even afterhaving been in darkness for quite a while her dilated eyes coulddistinguish little in the room. No doubt their surroundings were stillmore veiled to Cary.
She had only reached the back of the desk when she heard a key slipinto the door lock. Relief flooded over her in a great wave, only to befollowed by stark terror at what Cary might do if her father came inand found him here.
The door swung in and the light flashed up. Almost at the same momentCary hurled himself at Chief Carter. The impact was so completelyunexpected that Carter was thrown back against the partly open door,and it closed with a bang.
“So, it’s you, Cary!” exclaimed Mr. Carter, even as he went down.
Kitty seized Cary’s coat as he made a lunge at her father. A momentlater she realized that someone, who had been coming here with herfather, had been shut out by the banging door. He was now pounding itimpatiently. Kitty sprang to open it, and a blue-uniformed officer,whom she had never seen before, rushed to her father’s aid. Fortunatelyhe was armed, and a minute later had backed Cary into a corner. Theorder sheets from Chief Carter’s desk had slipped from under thephysician’s coat and were scattered over the floor.
Her father got to his feet and faced the officer. “Well, CaptainRogers, this is a bit of luck!”
The Captain laughed shortly, without shifting his gaze from Cary. “Wescarcely dared hope to catch him in the act.”
“I expect we’ll have to give credit for the catching to my daughter,”replied Chief Carter, glancing proudly at Kitty.
“How did you manage it, young lady?” asked the severe-looking Captain.
Kitty thought how terrified she would be to face him at a trial. He hadthe look of a man whose dealings with law-breakers had soured him onthe world.
“I must confess I didn’t do any managing,” Kitty admitted ruefully. “Iwas sitting here waiting for Dad when in came Lieutenant Cary.”
“Waiting in the dark?” her father asked.
“I turned off the light to watch the storm—see what I could seeoutside,” Kitty floundered.
“So—he didn’t realize anyone was in here?” asked the officer.
Kitty’s excited breath caught in her throat a moment before she couldexplain, “He went straight to Dad’s desk with a flashlight, and pickedup those order sheets.” She pointed to the papers strewn over thefloor. “He stuffed them under his coat.”
“We must have come just as he did that,” surmised her father.
“No! It seemed an eternity. I told him not to move or I’d shoot.”
“But Kitty, you had no gun!” exclaimed her father. “Why do you takesuch foolhardy chances, my child?”
“Then you came! I was going to try to get out the door while someonewas passing. I didn’t dare hope it was you.”
Though Captain Rogers hadn’t taken his eyes off Cary for a moment,Kitty saw the shadow of a smile twitch around the straight lines of hismouth. Then he spoke suddenly, “Mr. Carter, please phone Minger to comeup with some handcuffs. Our Lieutenant here looks like a volcano thatmay erupt at any moment. No doubt it’s bitter for him to know he hasbeen caught by this alert young lady.”
Cary, at bay in the corner, seemed turned to stone. His baleful glanceshad swept from one to the other as they spoke, but otherwise not amuscle of his face changed to betray his real feelings. No doubt theNazis had trained him so well, that to die for the Fuehrer, in anattempt to serve him, was a coveted sacrifice.
The Petty Officer with the handcuffs came up in an amazingly shorttime, Kitty thought. He, too, was a stranger to her. When the irons hadbeen snapped over the physician’s wrists Captain Rogers said, “Take himaway, Minger. I’ll join you later.”
Lieutenant Cary’s head was held high as he walked out. His only act ofdefiance was to step deliberately on the scattered order blanks.
Kitty could scarcely wait for the door to close before she asked, “Oh,Dad, tell me about Brad. Is he going to be all right?”
“We hope so, Kitten,” her father replied gently. “The wound isn’t sobad. The bullet was extracted without too much trouble, and no boneswere shattered.”
“He lost so much blood before I could do anything for him,” she saidwith regret.
“His strength will come back as soon as he has a transfusion.”
“Oh, Dad, it’s all been so awful!” wailed Kitty. Suddenly she threw herarms over his shoulders and burst into tears.
Her father held her to him a moment consolingly. “This last experiencewas a little too much, eh, Kitten?”
“I just knew he was going to kill you the minute you opened that door!”
“Well, he didn’t! Let’s hope the worst is over now.” Mr. Carter wenttoward a cabinet in the corner. “I’m going to fix you a small dose ofmedicine to calm your nerves.”
“Oh, I’ll be all right in a moment.”
“No, you’d better take this,” her father insisted. “You’ll need it tofortify you. We still have much to talk about. Captain Rogers may wantto ask you some questions.”
“Why? Is he—”
“Yes. He’s the man I sent for when you told me all you had uncoveredthe other day.”
Kitty felt rather stunned at this information, yet relieved, too. Shewould be glad to get the whole business off her mind, and all thisinformation into responsible hands.
Captain Rogers had gathered the scattered papers and was examining themwhile Kitty drank the medicine and let her father lead her again to thebig armchair. He placed two other chairs close, then found an oldsweater and wrapped it around his daughter’s bare feet.
“You mustn’t get chilled after such a trying day,” he said.
Then he joined Captain Rogers at his desk and they stood conferring inlow tones for a few minutes. Gradually Kitty began to feel relaxed, andinfinitely relieved that the suspense of these last weeks had at lastreached a climax. She was now impatient to talk over everything withher father and his superior officer. There was much she wanted to know,too.
“Feeling better?” asked her father, coming back and standing by herchair. He took the damp kerchief from her head, and ran his fingersthrough her tumbled curls.
“Oh, much!”
“Well, suppose you tell us what happened this afternoon when you andBrad went out to Terrapin Island.”
Captain Rogers came over and sat astride a straight chair, his armsfolded over the back as he faced her. This informality instantly putKitty at her ease, while she gave a detailed account of her afternoonup to the time she had brought Brad home.
“Young lady, you have shown remarkable keenness in handling thissituation,” said the Captain.
Kitty flushed. “Oh, no. I’ve made lots of mistakes. You don’t know.”
“Oh, yes, I do,” he retorted. “Your father has told me everything up todate. However, I must admit you made one mistake in the very beginning.”
She met his piercing brown eyes squarely. “I know,” she nodded. “Ishould have reported my very first su
spicions to the FBI.”
“Exactly! No sensitive young lady should attempt to deal with Nazi orJap saboteurs.”
“But I was afraid to tell anyone until they had been maneuvered into aposition where they could really be caught.”
Captain Rogers laughed unexpectedly. “She doesn’t have a very highregard for the secret investigators of her country, eh, Carter?”
“Oh, I don’t mean it that way!” Kitty hastened to apologize. “But yousee from the very beginning I—I was afraid that somehow thisoffice—Dad’s office—was involved. One doesn’t run to the FBI aboutthings where one’s father may be concerned.”
Captain Rogers glanced significantly at the Chief Pharmacist’s Mate.“Well, Carter, I suppose that puts a stop to my scolding.” He suddenlygrew serious again as he turned to Kitty to say, “Young lady, if youhad known what perfect confidence we have in this dad of yours youwould have had no fears. When we sent him here we knew he was the oneman who could stop the dirty business going on—if anyone could.”
It was Chief Carter’s turn to look surprised. “But I asked to be senthere!” he exclaimed.
Captain Rogers laughed. “You were only one step ahead of us. We hadplanned to ask you to take this post in hopes of clearing up thetrouble.”
“Then you knew the fault was not in this office?”
“Certainly.”
“But you dumped Chief Dawson down in Santiago.”
“That was only a blind to throw the guilty parties off the track untilwe could pin the goods on them. Dawson understands all that, but ispledged to secrecy.”
“Well, for goodness sake!” burst forth Kitty. “If I’d had any idea ofall that I would have told everything long ago.”
“If several people had had an idea of all this we might never havesprung this trap,” explained Captain Rogers.
“You speak as if it were really sprung,” said Kitty eagerly.
“It is—practically.”
“It seems rather certain that Punaro is responsible for young BradMason’s wound. He was away from the hospital all afternoon. I’ll orderhis arrest shortly. As for Beeson, he’s practically a prisoner on thatisland until this blow is over. We’ll be prepared to handle him as soonas we can get out there.”
“You won’t let anything happen to poor Uncle Mose?”
“We’ll do our best. The old darky is certainly entitled to his reward,too, in opening your eyes to so much.”
“But there are others. Brad thinks one of the ward attendants may behelping, too.”
“Oh, yes. They figure they have a perfect set-up,” said Captain Rogers.“First they put the incinerator out of order to make an opening fortraffic into the marshes. Lieutenant Cary, with the assistance of yourfather’s stenographer—”
“Dad’s stenographer?” exclaimed Kitty, completely shocked.
“I was just as surprised as you, Kitten, when that amazing fact dawnedon me,” explained Mr. Carter. “Miss Dales seemed such a quiet, clingingvine sort I couldn’t feature her daring to mix in anything like this.”
“Why, Dad, I can’t believe it! She acted as though she would doanything in the world for you.”
“She had been Dawson’s secretary, so I thought surely she was allright.”
“We were rather relieved you kept her on,” put in Rogers. “We had oursuspicions of her all along. Any change might have put them too much onthe alert.”
“If you hadn’t given me a hint about her, Captain Rogers,” said Carter,“I might not have thought of setting this trap tonight. We finished upthese order sheets just before I left the office and I told her to mailthem.”
“Instead she left them where Cary could get them tonight—as she hasdone numberless times before, so he could add his order for medicinefor the German subs, above your signature.”
“Exactly!” said Mr. Carter.
“So that’s why there’s been so much suspicion about the orders that goin,” said Kitty. “But how has Lieutenant Cary been getting hold of theextra supplies when they come back?”
“The shipments are carried to Cary’s office. That’s in the normalroutine. It is a very simple matter for him to take out the extrathings he has ordered. Punaro, in collecting rubbish, places thesupplies intended for German subs under the trash in his dump cart, andlater hides it aboard the rubbish barge.”
“And Beeson?” asked Kitty. “You really think he’s the middleman?”
“No doubt of that,” replied Captain Rogers. “He probably carts offquite a bit of fresh food with him when he comes for scraps for hishogs.”
“That’s just what we figured,” said Kitty. “And I suppose Hazel Dawsonwas right about Lieutenant Cary playing chess with Krome to keep himoccupied while Punaro gets away with the dirty work in the galley?”
“No doubt that’s been his program.”
While they had been talking, the fury of the wind had increased. Mr.Carter kept glancing uneasily toward the rattling windows.
“Captain, if you’ll excuse me I think I’d better go back to ourbungalow and bring my little boy and his nurse here. This wind isreaching an alarming force.”
“Yes, yes, of course! They say it’s likely to reach hurricaneproportions by morning.”
Mr. Carter got up quickly. “I’m afraid it’s going to be ahead ofschedule. Our small cottage is no place to spend the night.”
Kitty threw aside the old sweater and jumped to her feet, frightenedfor Billy.
“No, dear, you’d better not come with me. No use for you to get wetagain,” said her father. “You’ve been through enough for one day. Hazelis on night duty. You can get some sleep in her room.”
“Yes, young lady, you mustn’t take any more chances. We may need youhere in the morning anyhow to answer further questions.”
“I’ll stop by and tell Hazel you’re going to her room,” said her fatherwhen they started out. “I’ll arrange for Billy and Jane somehow here.Restrictions will be let down for such an emergency. So you just puteverything out of your mind and get some sleep.”
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