In the narrowing inlet southwest of Palmetto Island, Kitty had to cut down her speed to keep from running aground in the curving channel. She had never been in this section of the marshes before, and she thought how easy it would be to get lost on the crisscross winding inlets that interlaced the marshy islands. Most of these green mud flats were treeless, but far off in the direction of that smoke smudge, which was her destination, the horizon was broken by palmettoes and pines.
“Where’s the pirate’s lair?” Billy finally asked, growing impatient to reach some destination.
“We’re almost there,” Kitty assured him. They were near enough now to see two or three spirals of smoke rising from a mound of rubbish dumped on a sloping shore.
Fortunately the wind was out of the east and carried smoke away from them, so Kitty had a clear view of the dump. She shivered to see buzzards circling above the smoking pile of refuse. What a fitting place, she thought, for spies to meet for their diabolical planning! Had some foreign agent met Punaro here this morning to take away that box of supplies she had noticed on the barge?
As she drew nearer she saw the rubbish was burning on an old oyster reef off the north end of a large island. The southern side was densely overgrown with palmettoes, pines, oaks and a tangled thicket of mangroves along shore.
“Get out the field glasses, Billy,” she ordered “and we’ll see if we can find any pirates.”
“Oh-h!” gurgled Billy. He made a dive for the stern locker where they kept odds and ends. It was all wonderful make-believe to him.
Kitty had slowed the launch, and before she took the glasses she cut off the motor and let the boat drift. A quick survey of the dump heap made her want to explore, even if it was a repulsive spot, but that was out of the question with Billy along. She was afraid to come even this close for fear he would pick up some germ. The very thought made her hand him the glasses and start the motor again.
Though it was already growing late she decided to take a turn around the small island. She was glad she had taken the chance when she reached the opposite side. There she found a deep, open channel, moving eastward toward the sea. Billy kept looking through the glasses toward the island while Kitty studied the channel.
“Looks deep enough to float a sub,” she thought.