As usual leave-takings were hard for Nancy, too. But most of all she had hated to say good-bye to Vernon Goodwin. He had brought Tommy so close to her once more. How she had hated to disturb him with the news of her departure! She had urged him to insist that they send out a searching plane as soon as he was able to go.
“I’ve made Major Reed promise to see it through,” Nancy told Vernon. “Now everything depends on your speedy recovery.”
“I’ll do my best,” he promised. “But I surely hate to see you go.”
“No more than I hate to go—with so much at stake here,” she replied. “But when you’re in the service it’s Uncle Sam who gives the orders.”
Vernon’s bony hand took hers a moment. “If it hadn’t been for you, Miss Nancy, I doubt if I would have come through.”
“The whole staff was pulling for you,” she reminded him.
He saw how frail and worried she looked, and tried to speak consolingly. “You go on to your new duties with an easy mind, Miss Nancy. I’ll give ’em no rest till a plane goes looking for Tom. We’ll bring him back if he’s still on that island.”
There were others, too, whom Nancy had left behind with real regret—Miss Hauser, Major Reed, Ida and Shorty were special favorites. Having Mabel with her, however, meant more than any of the others could have.
“They’ll be following pretty soon,” said Mabel, who seemed able to drift more lightly through the changing currents of their life than Nancy could.
“I know that’s the program now, but you never can tell what will happen in this man’s war.”