“Then you did spring the trap Miss Hauser spoke of?”
“Indeed we did. We had had a plainclothes man watching Tini ever since we got to port, but without you on the inside even he might have failed.”
“Oh!” breathed Nancy, just beginning to realize fully how important had been her position.
“We had had an eye on this woman who posed under the name of Mrs. Webber, before. She serves as the sister of any of the ring who have girls coming into the port.”
“I see,” said Nancy. “She looked capable of such a post—a hard-looking sister!”
“Tini got in such a dither to see Mrs. Webber that night, because Carl said he was flying out to see her before she left. She was to meet him for lunch at the Chinese restaurant next noon—then alert orders came and she couldn’t get out, so she thought she had to go to Mrs. Webber so Carl could understand why she broke the date.”
“Then Tini was not really crooked—a spy,” said Nancy in a tone of relief. She couldn’t bear to think that, even of Tini.
“No—just foolish when it comes to a realization of the danger she might have placed this convoy in.”
“Did that have anything to do with the delay in our leaving?”
“I’m afraid it did.”