A moment later Brad was scaling the tree by the route Billy had taken. “He can climb ’most as good as me,” boasted Billy. “I’m going up, too.” “Indeed, you’re not! You’re never going to climb such a high tree again.” While Billy picked up his imaginary gun once more and played at shooting them, Kitty’s mind was in turmoil. Finding this tree lookout was certainly a sequel to what Uncle Mose had told them. It seemed quite obvious that the man who had leased Terrapin Island wanted to be sure that this end of the estate was kept entirely private, even to the extent of moving an ignorant old negro from his life-long home. “Can you see very far?” she asked, when Brad reached the top. “Plenty. The highest lookout that could be found in the entire marshes.” Kitty felt sure he must be right, for the ancient pine looked to be the father of all the pines in the entire thicket. When Brad again stood beside her on the cushiony brown carpet of needles he said, “Kitty, that wire has been strung up there recently.” “How do you know?” “It’s still loose, and not embedded in the trunk anywhere.” “You must be right. Even wisteria vines growing around pine trunks soon press tightly into them.” “Kitty, I’m sure glad we headed for this spot.” “You’re telling me! The minute Dad told me Beeson came over to the hospital to haul stuff off for his swine I thought he might be mixed up in the dirty business.” “Evidence is piling up bit by bit.” “Looks as though we ought to be able to bring ’em to justice sometime soon.” “But when you come to think of it, Kit, we haven’t got a single thing that would really convict anybody of anything.” She looked puzzled and distressed. “That’s true,” she had to admit. “Just because some Bayshore Bakery bread was found on that sub, and because we saw a nailed-up box on a trash barge doesn’t prove anything about ‘who dunnit.’” “And just because there’s an easy way to climb this pine that has a seat at the top doesn’t prove that anybody on this island is a spy.” “Of course boys have been building seats in trees for hundreds of years. Maybe it was old Uncle Mose’s young ‘Massa’ when he was last here.” “Not very likely. That seat was put up there so recently that the nails aren’t even rusty—and you know that doesn’t take long in this salty air. And what’s more, there’s a boarded up shield on the side toward the Marine Base. It’s so cleverly camouflaged you’d hardly know it from the ground—see.” Only after Brad pointed it out did Kitty see the brown painted wood in the thick upper branches. “If they are using light signals for subs out at sea the Coast Guard would surely see them from the beach,” said Kitty. “They probably don’t use lights, but some other signal code.” They walked slowly toward their landing place and Kitty let Billy run ahead to join her father and Hazel. “He can hardly wait to tell them about climbing the pine,” Brad said.