OCR Text |
Show I f H'-zV- ' ( RELEASE INSTALLMENT FIVE I THE STORY SO FAR: Karen Water-son, Water-son, convinced by her lawyer, John Colt, that she has a claim to the island estate and fortune of her grandfather, Garrett Waterson, arrives In Honolulu to attempt to gain control of the property. Here she meets Richard Wayne, or Tonga Dick, as he is known throughout the South Pacific. He is a member of the Wayne family that has been in control of her grandfather's island, Alakoa, since the old man's disappearance. Although Tonga Dick knows who she Is, Karen attempts at-tempts to conceal her identity from him. Dick offers to take her sailing and she accepts. Dick, himself has not taken much of an Interest In the island estate, but his half-brothers, Ernest and Wil-lard, Wil-lard, are very worried lest Karen'i claims be valid. Next day as Dick takes Karen sailing she learns that he knows who she is and that he is taking her to Alakoa. She wants to go back to Honolulu Hono-lulu but he refuses to take her. Although she Is thrilled by the sight of the deep water island, Alakoa, Karen is afraid of what awaits her here. Dick finds that his uncle, James Wayne, is very 111. When Dick sees him, James Wayne is upset over the pending suit for the Island Is-land and tells Dick he will under no circumstances cir-cumstances come to a settlement. Now continue with the story. "I suppose tt amuses you," Earen said, "to make out that my grandfather grand-father was a great fool." CHAPTER V A slim Hawaiian girl called Lilua had shown Karen her room; and now this girl was back again tapping at the door panel. "Yes?" "Mister Dick wants to know if you would like to have coffee with him." Uncertain, Karen Waterson opened the door. Tonga Dick was surely the last person in the world she wanted to see. As she hesitated Lilua moved across the room and closed a casement case-ment that Karen had opened, and Karen experienced a sharp annoyance. annoy-ance. There was no air of service in the Hawaiian girl's movement or in her face; rather there was a faint irony in Lilua's eyes, as if she condescended con-descended to assist a helpless person per-son who didn't know how to take care of herself. Karen put a cigarette into an ebony ebo-ny holder, lighted it, and studied Lilua impersonally. Lilua had the creamy brown skin of the pure Hawaiian; Ha-waiian; her softly waved hair, black as any night, was drawn back over her ears, brushed severely. "How old are you?" Karen asked suddenly. Lilua's unwavering eyes seemed amused. "Eighteen. How old are you?" ' If Karen had conceived Lilua to be in any way less than her equal, that idea was evidently not shared by Lilua. Karen turned away. "Somewhat older," she said shortly. short-ly. "Tell Mr. Wayne I will come." "I'll show you where he is," Lilua said. Karen turned to look at her, impelled im-pelled by that steady gaze. "You're glad to see him back, aren't you?" Karen said. Lilua hesitated perceptibly, but her quiet voice did not change as she answered. "I haven't seen him for two years." Karen, her annoyance unaccountably unaccount-ably increased, followed Lilua through the house. Dick Wayne was stretched out before be-fore the fire in the big room whose immense doors opened upon the valley val-ley and the fog; Lilua immediately crossed the room to close those doors. Dick rose, looking apologetic. "I hope you'll make yourself comfortable com-fortable here. I'm sorry if you feel I've made things awkward for you. I think I'll be able to take you back tomorrow." "Good." In the stiff silence between them, tilua came and stood in front of Dick's chair, looking at him steadily. "Dick, you must be careful of this night. I don't like this night at all. E makani auanei, ke kau mai la ke kakai o Kakaipali " "That's rude, Lilu'," Dick stopped her. "You know she can't understand under-stand that." Lilua cast a contemptuous glance at Karen, and she did not translate; trans-late; but she went on iri English. "Pretty soon the clouds are going to rise higher, and the wind is going to blow through. And then it is going go-ing to rain, and even the rain is going go-ing to be a bad rain." Dick pulled at his cold pipe, his eyes morose upon the fire. "Don't think much of it myself," he admitted. ad-mitted. "The wrong gods are walking," Lilua said now. "The right gods never walk here any more. Remember Remem-ber how we used to hear them walking? walk-ing? But they haven't walked here ' for a long time. Something else is here instead. Sometimes I can feel it coming near. And tonight it is very close, terribly close; and even the dog is afraid." Dick Wayne stirred restively. Perhaps Per-haps he thought he knew what it was that was near; but he didn't want to look at it, yet. "You'd better bet-ter go get some sleep, Lilu'." "Dick, this is a wrong time." "Wrong time for what?" Dick snapped at her. Lilua glanced at Karen, but what she said next was unintelligible. "Dick," Lilua said, "Kai-Ale-Ale has been seen again. He hasn't been seenDick, he hasn't been seen since my grandmother died." Dick Wayne took time to explain this to Karen. "There's a big shark," he put in, in aside, "that the natives think is a god. I've never seen it, but they swear it's as big as a ship." "Kai-Ale-Ale is here again," Lilua said; "and there's another thing. The red mullet are running, Dick. Ever since the Islands first came out of the sea, when the red mullet have run a king has died." "You'd better go on to bed now, LIlu'," Dick said "You won't want me any more tonight?" "No; we have everything we'll need, I think." Lilua stood motionless a moment more. "Are you sure?" "Yes, yes, of course!" When Lilua was gone Tonga Dick Wayne sat looking into the fire, saying say-ing nothing; and Karen found herself her-self unwilling either to look at him or to speak. "Do all your servants call you by your first name?" Karen asked at last. Dick frowned a little. "She isn't exactly a servant Her people were a very proud people masters of this island before any haole ever saw it. And she she's lived here all her life, and I've known her all her life." "I don't believe," Karen offered, "that that girl has had her eyes off of you one moment since you've been in this house." Dick Wayne looked startled. "Huh?" "You don't mean to tell me that you didn't notice that?" For a moment Dick looked worried. wor-ried. "Bunch of nonsense," he said. "Can it be possible," Karen asked, "that she believes all that that stuff?" "Of course. Different races have different ways of talking about the factors that make things happen." "Well" Dick hesitated, and visibly vis-ibly shifted ground. "Well, it seems to me extremely remarkable that you and I are sitting here tonight, together by this fire." "It is through no wish of mine," Karen said. "I'm sorry. I still can't understand under-stand why you're not interested. For one thing, this might very well have been the house in which you were born. The room you are to sleep in tonight might have been the very room." "I thought of that." "There's a lot of history in this old house," Dick went on. "Of course the most interesting part of it, or at least the most highly colored, col-ored, goes back to your grandfather's grandfa-ther's day, before you were born at all before the Waynes came in. In' his day the house was never silent and empty, as it is now." "You Waynes have certainly turned it into a tomb." "I'm sorry, sometimes," he said, "that those old days are gone. There are things that are rigid, and dull too, about the Wayne regime." She looked at him and the shared moment broke up. "How do you know all this?" "The Waynes were very close friends of Garrett Waterson." "To the profit of the Waynes," Karen said with repressed bitterness. bitter-ness. Tonga Dick shook his head, not in denial, but in objection. "Your grandfather ended up utterly broke. You see, he was the last of the great old catch-as-catch-can traders. Island trading was a tough game after the sandalwood gave out, but Garrett Waterson had a tremendous robust energy, and he made himself two or three fortunes. But all that was over a good many years before be-fore he sold Alakoa. I doubt if he had made a cent for at least a decade. He had no business judgment; judg-ment; even his ownership of this island was an accident. He won Alakoa in a poker game with the native king and even that was partly part-ly by mistake, because he thought he was gambling for just the fishing fish-ing rights. He was actually astounded astound-ed when he found out he had won it all." "I suppose it amuses you," Karen said, "to make out that my grandfather grand-father was a great fool." "You shouldn't mind," Dick smiled. "You and John Colt are trying to establish that he was an imbecile." Karen bit her lip; she was silent for a full minute, and when she spoke she took an entirely new tone. "I have no idea what you expected to gain by bringing me here, but" "You are here," Dick said weari-fr, weari-fr, "because John Colt sent you cruising with me, to find out some things he doesn't know. You can't imagine it, but certain affairs are a good deal more important to me than John Colt's spying processes." "If you think," Karen snapped at him, "that either John Colt or I have the least interest in you whatever what-ever " "I think you have," said Dick. "For one thing, I can tell you this your case is never going to come to trial." "It's already on the calendarl Nobody No-body can stop it, now." "I can," Tonga Dick told her. "Ask yourself, Karen, just what John Colt is so anxious to learn." Karen Waterson flushed. She could have ignored the cool conviction of Dick Wayne's words; but now she was wondering just what John Colt had suspected and feared that had made him so unnecessarily curious about Tonga Dick. And she was wondering why she herself had ever been such a fool as-to match wits with this cool, hard-bitten man, whose purposes she could not understand. under-stand. It seemed very long ago that she had made herself believe that she could conceal her identity from Tonga Dick. "If you don't mind," Karen said, "I think I shall go to bed now." Tonga Dick let her go. j CHAPTER VI In his own room, Dick .Wayne found a little fire burning brightly, and he wished belatedly that he had asked Karen if a fire had been laid for her. He did not know that Lilua had put Karen in almost the only room in the house that had no fireplace fire-place at all. A heavy lei of golden ginger blossoms blos-soms hung on the foot of the bed; the blossoms filled the whole room with a spicy fragrance, heavy and pungent. pun-gent. Instantly Dick knew who had made that lei, and put them there; and for a moment he was troubled. Then, on an impulse, he picked up the lei and went walking through the house. He recognized Karen's room when he came to it by the crack of light under the door. He knocked and the door was opened. "Here," he said, pressing the lei into her hands. He was unable to keep a shade of irony out of his voice. "Aloha." He turned and went back to his room. He half expected to hear her door slam behind him, but it did not. Dick stripped to his shorts and put out the lights. As he flung himself between the coo sheets the many-voiced many-voiced wind was drowned by the swift rush of rain first a whisper, then a drumming roar as water beat against walls and casements by sheets and buckets. The rain was still coming down in torrent upon torrent as he went to sleep. He was awakened by the touch of a hand upon his shoulder; and, though it was a gentle hand, it was so dripping wet with cold rain that the shock brought him bolt upright. The fire still burned, its slim flames twisting and hissing from the spatter spat-ter of rain in the chimney, and by its light he saw that Lilua was there. "What the devil is this?" "Dick," Lilua said, "you have to get up." "What's happened? Is there anything any-thing wrong?" "Something is terribly wrong," Lilua Li-lua said. "Something has happened. It's happened just now within the last ten minutes." "Oh, Lord!" He got up then, and turned on the lights. "I'm sorry to wake you up, Dick but I tell you, I know." Dick, pulling on his flannels, looked at her curiously. She had dropped to the floor the huge ti leaf with which she had sheltered her head as she came running through the rain, and her hair bushed wildly about her shoulders. Her eyes were no longer quiet, but alive with a terror ter-ror she was helpless to control. In another moment there was a quick fluttery tapping at the door and a thin little voice outside was calling, "Mister Dick! Mister Dick!" (TO BE CONTINUED) |