Although this seemed to wrap things up, fifteen minutes later there were two more news reports: In the first, a plane had been seen that morning along the southern coast of Vancouver Island. Soldiers in the area related its seeming descent by East Sooke Farm, but no one saw it land or enter the water. Divers will be sent to look once a possible point of entry has been determined. There is some speculation that this plane is the Argot and, if so, it is speculated that it may have crashed and its crew escaped by parachuting. Soldiers are still looking for the parachutists, but so far there is no sign of them or their parachutes.

We all heaved a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

The second news report said that Mrs. Brookman, whose car it was that was ruined by Gladys Brookman, had been reached by phone.

“I knew she’d bash it up,” said Mrs. Brookman.

When told about Robert Madden, she said, “He was the soldier she went up to see? A married man?” Upon hearing which and asked for a comment, Mrs. Madden dumped Mr. Madden’s strawberry Jell-O on his head.

“What did I do?” asked Mr. Madden, who still remembers nothing.

When asked whether there had been a romance between them, Miss Brookman said, “No comment.” But authorities now suspect that the meeting between Mr. Madden and Miss Brookman was not accidental, as she had previously stated. Lieutenant Colonel McGee is quoted as saying, “I am glad that we have put the hitchhiking story to rest. It never really held water, I thought. As usual I am proven right.”

“Lieutenant Colonel McGee seems more concerned about continuing his usual state of being proven right than anything else,” I said.

“Shh,” said Winifred. “Is there more?”

But the news had moved on to Nanaimo’s Slug Festival training sessions, so we switched the radio off.

We all sat silently for a moment.

“No comment?” said Wilfred.

“That’s terrible!” said Winifred. “What will Mother think of Daddy now? We’ll never live down the unwarranted shame and degradation.”

“It’s not good,” agreed Wilfred.

“How do you train a slug?” asked Zebediah.

“You shut up!” said Winifred and Wilfred.

“Yes, but I have to say ‘No comment’ was the perfect response from Gladys,” said Old Tom. “Because Mrs. Brookman, unbeknownst to her, may just have saved the day. The story of Gladys picking up a hitchhiker was never terribly plausible. You could hear they were already questioning why Mr. Madden would be hitchhiking when his wife was in Comox with their car. But if he were meeting Gladys, well, that’s something else. And we never even thought of that. And he can never deny it because he can’t remember anything. Thank heavens for Gladys’s reputation and Mrs. Brookman’s loose tongue.”

“But it’s terrible for Mother,” said Winifred.