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Show Kboaiss mist oSci SlWWfy GRANVILLE CHURCH XoSjM Curt grinned and skimmed over i the rest of the letter hurriedly. Lee saw his growing excitement as he straightened in his chair. "Lee! They're coffering me the Job of Chief Engineer!" He took a deep breath and went on more slowly, soberly. "But they say the offer's contingent upon residence with family fam-ily for term of contract. Three years. Of course, if I had the Job I'd like to have you and the kids with me, but" j Lee rose and went around to him, pushing back the table to sit on his knees and look him gravely, mis-givingly, mis-givingly, in the eyes. Here was a situation to be handled, one to be nipped in bud. It took her a moment mo-ment to find the right words. "You'd like that Job, wouldn't you, darling?" It was more statement than question. ques-tion. He lowered his eyes. "Well, I'd I'd yes, sure I would! That'd be a real Job! Just think, Lee. Drainage, levees, floodgates, railroad, power plants all kinds of projects! And honey," his eyes flamed, "a chance to work on that overhead irrigation system I missed out on when we came north." He broke off again and his eyes went blank to hide, or try to hide, how much this could mean to him. "Well," he went on carefully, "it'd be something more than this kinder- CHAPTER I Arriving at Cabeza de Negro was like coming home. Neither Curt nor Lee had ever visited the one-time small fishing port in the old days, but that was the way it hit them now as it rose up out of the sea. Once it had been only a collection of manaca shacks on stilts, cut off from inland by fever-ridden marshes. An unhealthy spot for white men. Today aU that was changed or fast changing. They were up at dawn for the early docking and to watch the long, low blur on the horizon which slowly became the Tierra Libre coastline. Lee caught her breath as that blur took shape. Her memories of it were precious. True, she'd been happy since, and now she had the boys. But no happiness, happi-ness, not even the children, could ever erase from her mind those first years here with Curt. Hard work-ing work-ing days for him, in a Job for which he was born, romance and beauty in the tropic setting for her. Unconsciously she snuggled closer under Curt's arm as they stood at the rail staring landward. Unconsciously, Uncon-sciously, too, Curt was scowling, but Lee did not see this. Meanwhile, Buddy and Chuck were clamoring and tugging unnoticed un-noticed at the ends of their split leash they couldn't be allowed free run of the deck. "Anuvver dog wace, Daddy," begged Chuck in the fuzzy tones of a four-year old. He didn't yet have Buddy's clarity of speech, for Buddy was all of six and quite a man. Curt obligingly called, "One, two, three, go," and the children scampered scam-pered down the deck on all fours, barking and pulling their leashes taut This play brought Curt and Lee to the vessel's stern where their eyes caught the flat black smudge In the distance. A lean, low gray vessel was cutting in toward the coast farther far-ther to the north. "Headed for Soledad," Curt muttered, mut-tered, and the frown returned to his forehead. Lee clutched his arm. "It's a destroyer! One of ours, Jeff! Must be. And it's racing! Do you suppose . . . there wasn't any word on the bulletin board ..." Curt patted her hand and smiled down at her. "Don't be getting any ideas," he said, and was immediately conscious con-scious he'd taken a second or so too long in replying. "There's no revolution here. Uncle Sam's just paying a courtesy call. We're doing more of that than we used to throughout the Caribbean." "But it's speeding! See how the smoke lays flat from the funnels!" "That's caused by the wind from around Punta Cauca, honey. Our smoke would look the same if we were in that position." about them. They're rivals, Lee." "I have a feeling, I can't explain, but" She bit her lip. "No, that's a woman's trick, that's not fair." Finally, with reluctance, she said, "WclL at least it wouldn't do any harm to find out more about these people." "Sweetheart!" Curt shouted, and Jumped for her. Her next words were muffled against his shoulder: "Well, I hope I'm not a sugar-and-water wife," He didn't see the tears in her eyes. And that was the first step that led to their being here on the Pisces. The second? Curt had put in a short-wave phone call for Jerry Mclnnls, his closest friend during the years he'd worked in the tropics. Mclnnis was now Chief Engineer for the Associated Associ-ated Fruit Growers at Puerto Sole dad. The call came through later that morning. Greetings were quickly over. Then: "Jerry, what do you know about the Compania Agricola Tropical? Claim to have that swamp between the Negro and the Masica " "Yeh, I know, only it won't be a swamp much longer. They're doing a swell Job of reclamation, Curt. Well, I don't know much about them. Guy called Montaya heads the outfit. There's a whisper around he was hooked up with Cedillo in Mexico and got out by the skin of his teeth when that revolt failed. But that's only gossip, take it for what It's worth. Seems to have plenty dough behind him, but I don't know where it comes from. Old Man Moore probably has the low-down, low-down, but you know how tight-lipped he is." Moore was General Manager in Tierra Libre for Associated Fruit Growers. "Who's in with this Montaya?" "Don't rightly know, Curt. Montaya Mon-taya seems the only top man so far's I can see. There's a couple of Swedes I don't know anything about except they hold their liquor and don't talk. Youngish guys. And a Dutchman Hollander, I mean a chemical man. Panama disease has shown up over on our side and if they're going to raise bananas they'll have to find some means of combating" "Yes, sure. Bjt how come Associated Asso-ciated didn't have that piece tied up? Never heard of anyone getting ahead of Old Man Moore before." "Well, we've already got plenty of good land, all we can handle now or In the reasonable future. And this piece'U cost real money to develop. de-velop. Why all these questions, Curt?" "Under your hat, Jerry, they've offered me the job of Chief Engineer. Engi-neer. Wanted to know more about them. Think they're reliable?" "Well-1, yes, Curt, they are, so far's I know. But I'd hate to have you make a decision on my pay-so." A wary, reluctant note had crept "They're offering me the job of Chief Engineer!" Once more, as he stood against the rail with Lee, Curt went over in his mind the string of events leading up to their presence here on the Pisces as he'd done so many times these past several nights, lying awake in the dark. He started with the proposition itself. it-self. He and Lee had been dawdling over a late breakfast, while the children chil-dren played on the lawn within range of the open windows. He had the morning paper folded to handy size and propped against the coffee urn, and was sunk in a roving reporter's re-porter's column purporting to give the progress of bomb-proofing the Panama Canal. It took Lee several efforts to break through to him. It was the final "Jeff Curtis!" that did it, and he looked up to discover she'd been running over the morning mail. There was a storm signal in her eyes and she was tapping the knuckles knuck-les of one hand with a long, flat envelope. "Who do I know in Cristobal?" he said easily. "Why, no one, I guess. There's old Jim Bragg over on the Pacific side. Letter? Gimme." "Some day, my fine lad," she began be-gan promisingly, "when you bury yourself in the paper oh, what's the use?" She gave up and handed him the letter. He ripped it open, slid out the several sheets of enclosure. "Only mailed from Cristobal" He read aloud the letterhead: " 'Compania 'Com-pania Agricola Tropical, San Alejo, Tierra Libre. Port, Cabeza de Negro. Ne-gro. Cable, CAT.' Huh. Who do you suppose they are? Cabeza's that little fishing village down the coast from Soledad, but I never heard of San Alejo." He glanced at the end of the letter. "Signed, 'Apolonio Montaya, Mon-taya, President and General Manager.' Man-ager.' Never heard of him." He ran his eye down the first page and looked up to exclaim: "Why, honey, it's a new banana outfit! Opening up twenty thousand hectares between the rivers Masica and Negro. But that stuff's all swampland 1 You remember, Lee, that big stretch of swamp across the Negro, dotted with a few spots of Jungle?" j "And the mosquitoesi garten stuff I'm doing now. Twenty thousand hectares is quite an order." "Yes, I know. But you'll leave It to me to decide, won't you?" "Well-1, yes, Lee," he faltered. "I guess I'll have to." She looked a long moment into his eyes, then pushed a forefinger in circles through his thick, curly hair before kissing him lightly. "It will hurt, dear," she said quietly, qui-etly, "but you'll have to forget It. There are Buddy and Chuck. We can't take them to a malarial swamp and with Buddy ready for school this year." "But, Lee, they cover that herel They say" He swallowed hard, dodging her steady gaze. "They say they have excellent accommodations accommo-dations halfway up the Quebrado Mountains, including school, hospital, hospi-tal, clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis ten-nis courts. They claim there's no fever in their settlement San Alejo they call It and Lee, we ought to like It as well as we liked Puerto Soledad." "We were happy in Soledad, darling. dar-ling. Don't think I can ever forget. for-get. But we left Tierra Libre because be-cause we wanted children and thought this country and climate best for them." "I know," he answered unhappily. She got up and stood at the window, win-dow, hands locked behind her. At length, without turning, Lee asked, "How do you know they're responsible people?" "I wouldn't accept without investigating investi-gating thorn!" "The letter is headed San Alejo, Tierra Libre, but it's mailed in a plain envelope from Cristobal," she mentioned. "Oh, that's explainable. They put their mail aboard an Associated ship at Soledad, no doubt, whose purser dropped it at Cristobal for faster air service. It came by air, you know." "And the plain envelope?" "Well-1 ..." Curt fidgeted. "I don't think that means anything. Maybe they were out of printed ones. Or perhaps," his voice quickened, quick-ened, "in mailing it on an Associated Associat-ed vessel they were being wary of Associated finding out too much into Mclnnis' voice. "Who's been handling the job?" "Chigger Mitchell." "What! Old Mitch? He's a good man. What happened they need an-' an-' other?" "Well, you know how Mitch was kind of tough on labor. A driver and all that. And he could sure find a guy's weak spot and dig under the skin. He didn't get the name 'Chigger' for nothing. Well, he must've made an enemy over there who wanted a souvenir. Anyway, his ears were missing when they found him just a few days ago, it was and they had to use a basket for the rest of him. These machetes are bad stuff, as you know well enough." Early in the morning Curt wired his acceptance to the C. A. T. people's peo-ple's New Orleans office. Back came, overnight, a contract for signature. sig-nature. And things moved fast. The freighter Pisces, one of a small fleet of Norwegian vessels chartered to the C. A. T. outfit, would be held over a day in New Orleans awaiting them. Loaded with rails, cement, lumber, machinery, It was bound for Cabeza de Negro, the new C. A. T. port at the mouth of the Rio Negro. Curt had less than twenty-four hours to wind up all his affairs in the States, store the car, arrange for care and lease of the house through an agent, for forwarding of their mail . . . Their mail! The first batch, re-addressed re-addressed and sent by air to New Orleans, caught up with Curt just before they sailed. Busy with details de-tails of baggage and boarding ship, he hastily stuffed the handful of letters let-ters into his pocket. It was hours before he thought of it and hauled it forth for inspection. inspec-tion. The ship had reached the mouth of the Mississippi; they'd dropped the pilot and were headed out into the Gulf. One letter was a small plain envelope, postmarked Puerto Soledad, Tierra Libre. Inside was a brief note. "Mr. Curtis. Don't bring your family to San Alejo, don't come yourself. Don't come! Zora Mitchell." Mitch-ell." (TO fifi' CONTINUED) |