Sullenly Tini stuck her four letters into the flames. Nancy paused a moment beside her to see that they really burned. While they waited a group of nurses had come in with a camouflaged captive.
“Oh, there’s Tini!” one of them called. “Did you catch Nancy?”
“Me catch Nancy!” exclaimed Tini with mock humility. “It’s Nancy who catches me always!”
“What do you mean?” asked Ida Hall, who was in the group. She glanced from one to the other, sensing that something was very wrong between them.
“Nancy’s much too good for me to catch her at anything,” continued Tini, unmindful of how her sarcasm might be taken.
When she stalked off alone Nancy spoke to Ida wearily, “I was still hiding when the gun was fired.”
“Then you and Janice Williams were the only two who weren’t caught,” Lieutenant Hauser told her a few minutes later. “You’ll have the honor of presiding at supper and serving the ice cream and cake.”
This brought exclamations of delight, which only subsided when Lieutenant Hauser lifted her hand for silence. “But I have something that I think will be even more welcome,” she said.
“Hope it’s mail from home,” said Nancy. During the past week she had longed for that letter her mother had been writing on the night she heard about Tommy.
“Exactly what it is,” said Miss Hauser.