“Yes, indeed!” Kitty was out of bed with a bound, and soon had on her clothes. “Anything develop while I was away yesterday?” she asked.
“Very satisfactory development. They got Beeson all right.”
“How about Uncle Mose?”
“He was quite safe in his cabin, so they left him there.”
“That’s a relief! What about Punaro?”
“He wasn’t on Terrapin Island, or Mangrove either. There’s a possibility his boat went down in the storm, when he tried to return here—or perhaps get to Terrapin Island. They found the rifle.”
“The rifle!” exclaimed Kitty.
“The one that shot the slug into Brad. It was in a cache on Mangrove Island along with several boxes of medicine and hospital supplies. The stuff all bore Punaro’s fingerprints.”
“The gun, too?”
Hazel nodded. “The whole set-up seems quite clear now,” she continued. “The Germans have evidently been coming in as far as Mangrove Island in their rubber boat. There they change to different clothes and an old bateau kept hidden in the mangroves, in case they meet anyone on their way to Terrapin.”