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.”