“It’s all the little bits put together that’s going to help us win this war.” “And prepare us to live in a more wonderful peace afterward. It’s learning to work together that’s so important.” “One person pulling in the wrong direction can upset the whole works.” Kitty made no reply, but she thought he must know what was on her mind even before he added, “I figure you’ve been wondering why Krome and Cary seem so intimate.” “You hit the nail on the head!” “We’ve both put a big question mark behind Cary, and when we see Krome buddying with him he gets a question mark, too.” “Not only Krome.” “That chap, Punaro, you were asking about?” “Uh-huh.” “What’s he done?” “I’ve hesitated a long time about mentioning it. It may seem I’m straining at a gnat.” “Let’s have it,” he urged. “You do hate to suspect people of being spies and saboteurs, especially when they’re right in the hospital with your own father.” “All the more reason you shouldn’t take any chances.” Quickly Kitty gave Brad an account of the little incident on the bus three weeks earlier. “It seems sort of absurd now that I’m talking about it for the first time to think the boy might have had anything to do with the fire at the oyster cannery, but that’s exactly what I have been thinking.” “I don’t think your suspicions are unfounded.” “If he used gasoline or kerosene to start that fire it was still fresh enough to flame up from those cigar ashes. And he certainly did get on the bus right at the cannery station.” “If that fire was the work of saboteurs the objective was no doubt the shipyards, not the cannery.” They walked on to Kitty’s door in silence. Then Brad said, “I sure wish you’d told me about this when it happened.” “Why? I can’t see that we can do anything.” “Maybe I could have managed to get a squint at Punaro’s shoes.” “Punaro’s shoes? But the gasoline, or whatever it was, had already burned off.” “But shell dust would still have been on the soles next morning.” “Say—that’s so! I hadn’t thought of that.” “You know all that land around the cannery has been built up of oyster shells,” explained Brad. “It was once only a marshy bog they tell me. If Punaro set that fire he’d be obliged to get shell dust on his shoes.” “The only paved sidewalk runs along the street where the bus stopped,” explained Kitty. “I noticed that the day we went over to open the Canteen.” “There’s a possibility I might still find out something.” “How?” “He probably stopped wearing those shoes with the burned stain. If he discarded them right away they’d probably still bear the evidence of shell dust.” “And even if you found out he’d really been there, Brad, where would it take us?” “I don’t know, but you can just be sure, Kit, I’m not going to let a thing like this slide by.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER SIX A REVELATION