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Show INSTALLMENT NINETEEN This is the concluding installment ' to this story of the DEEP WATER ISLAND, Alakoa, "What is this?" Dick asked. "Didn't you know that James Wayne has been making additional payments on Alakoa, all through the last twenty years?" "I thought he was; I couldn't prove it, I guess." "You can prove it now. That's a receipt from Garrett Waterson for two hundred and seventeen thousand thou-sand dollars. Incompetent or not, he was properly paid for Alakoa; and that receipt Acknowledges it. I thought I'd better get it for you and save you a headache." "Karen," Dick asked, "why have you done this?" "I'm sick of having you worry for fear I'm going to get your island away from you. I don't want your old island. You'd better take care of that receipt, and not sit there creasing it all up. Your brothers are going to want it and I suppose, after all, Alakoa is more theirs than yours." He wondered irrelevantly if he should tell her that this was not so; but let it pass. "What are you going go-ing to do now?" "I'm going back to San Francisco and look for a job." "But Garrett Waterson will want " "I'm not going to fasten onto him. He's got troubles of his own." There was a long silence after that "It seems to me," Dick said at last, "that neither one of us has been very sensible about any of this. All the way along we've kept fighting fight-ing over the most trivial things islands, is-lands, and grandfathers, and Kanaka Kana-ka girls, and who busted a lei on James Wayne's desk. It certainly looks as if we ought to run out of things to fight and quarrel over, pretty soon." "Don't you know," Karen asked, "whose lei that was? Don't you know who was with James Wayne when he died?" "I don't even care," Dick said. "I care. It's taken me a week's detective work even to find out what you were talking about. And I'm going to tell you about it, whether you're interested or not." "I just don't think it's important now," Dick said. "I do. Because that was what really broke us up. It made you say things to me that were perfectly awful unforgiveable things, Dick. And I didn't know, then, even what you meant when you talked about a brokii lei." "If only you had told me " "I couldn't tell you because I didn't know. I know now. When you went into your uncle's office, and found him dead, there was a broken lei of ginger blossoms on the floor; and you thought that it was the lei you gave to me. But I've had to talk to Tsura, and Lilua, and Hokano, before I even found out that much." "You mean to tell me that you really weren't there? You weren't with James Wayne that night at all?" "Of course not. But I've pieced together what happened, now. The lei you gave me that night was a lei that Lilua made for you; but that was not the only lei she made. She made another lei for Hokano? and he was wearing it, when he came looking for her that night." "You mean that it was Hokano who " "Hokano was looking for Lilua. I could have told him where to look for her. But he couldn't find her because she was in your room." "Karen, I swear that nothing " "Oh, I know. As a matter of fact" a malicious little twinkle flickered in Karen's eyes "I think I had already warned you to lock your door. But Hokano didn't know anything about that. He saw James Wayne's light; he stepped into James Wayne's office through the window, and demanded to know where Lilua was. Of course your uncle was furious that a large, very wet Kanaka should come crashing into his office through a window. His anger was too much for him, on top of everything else. He stood up and threatened Hokano; and then just suddenly collapsed and was gone. Hokano leaned across the desk, io see if he was really dead. The ginger blossom lei caught on the corner of the desk and broke; and just then Tsura came tapping at the door, peddling her glass of milk." "Hokano told you this?" "Most of it Who else could? He was the only one who knew." "This is all very surprising," Dick said. "I don't think so. I don't think it's even interesting. I went to the trouble to find out because I wanted to know what you were talking about I can't remember now why I thought it mattered." "And I still don't think it matters," mat-ters," Dick said. "I don't think it matters at all what either one of us has said or thought or done." "In short" Karen said, "you haven't a leg to stand on; so, that being the case, you favor calling the whole fight off." He stepped Into James Wayne's office through the window, and demanded de-manded to know where Lilua was. "I have no doubt," Dick agreed, "that I am a complete fool. Worse than that much worse I am also unlucky. I simply don't get the breaks and I suppose that's the worst thing you can say about any man." "You get as good breaks as anyone any-one does. The principal trouble with you is that you don't show any sense." "I think it's time for both of us to show a little sense. People never get anywhere trying to dope out who was to blame for what. If people like to be together, that should decide de-cide what they're going to do." "Such as ?" "What's the sense in going to Honolulu? Hon-olulu? I don't have to go to Honolulu, Hono-lulu, and neither do you. The Holo-kai Holo-kai can just as well put about and lay a course for Nuku Hiva. How do you know you wouldn't like Nuku Hiva? I'll bet any amount you'll think it's a whole lot prettier than San Francisco." "My word," Karen smiled faintly. "I believe it's meant to be a proposal!" pro-posal!" "Call it what you want to," Dick said. "Don't you think don't you think" "Would you like to know what I think? I think you're tiresome. You sit there talking on and on, when all a person wants is to go' to sleep. Now, you can sit there talking to yourself as long as you want to, but I'm going to sleep, anyway," said Karen. Dick stood up. "I've got a great mind to set a course for Nuku Hiva anyway, and make you like it!" Karen laid her head on her arms and closed her eyes. "You're always al-ways shanghaiing somebody," she said. "But ask yourself what does it ever get you?" Dick stood looking down at her quiet face, and wondering why he had ever hoped to understand this girl. "Nothing, I guess," he admitted ad-mitted at last CHAPTER XVII He went out into the main cabin, sat down at the table, and laid out a hand of solitaire; but when it was laid out he sat staring vacantly at the cards. He had reason enough to be sick of solitaire. Then presently pres-ently he became aware that he was infinitely weary, and that he had as much reason as Karen to be in need of sleep. He laid his head on the table, convinced now that there was no longer on the face of the sea any uncertainty worth keeping a man awake; and was almost immediately im-mediately asleep. He must have slept a long time, for when he awoke daylight was coming in the ports. In front of him on the table had been placed a tray containing a wilted sprig of celery, and a glass of cold water that sloshed about with the Holo-kai's Holo-kai's roll; but it didn't seem to him much of a joke. Then as he shook the sleep out of his eyes he was suddenly aware that something was wrong. The sun appeared ap-peared to be rising in the west; and when he had thought about that for a minute he knew that they should have been in Honolulu many hours ago. He could hardly believe' that the Holokai had been into Honolulu harbor, and set Karen ashore, and put to sea again, without waking him up; but that was the only explanation ex-planation he could think of at first Certainly the Holokai was tearing southward at a roaring clip. He went on deck and found In-yastai In-yastai at the wheel. "What's the idea of not waking me up in Honolulu?" "Honolulu?" "Don't stare at me like a blockhead!" block-head!" Dick shouted. "What time did we leave Honolulu?" "We we haven't been to Honolulu, Hono-lulu, Captain." "You haven't been well, where do you think you're going?" "Why Why Oh, I was afraid of this," Inyashi moaned. "Well, speak up! What do you think you're doing?" "Miss Waterson Miss Waterson she said you had changed the course, Captain. She said you wanted want-ed me to bring about and lay for the Marquesas. She said you had decided not to go to Honolulu. She said you were asleep, and she said I was supposed to " "Dear heaven," Tonga Dick said. "You go ask her yourself. She's up there in the bow. Captain Tonga, Ton-ga, I try to set what course you say. But I didn't know what to do when she came and " The mainsail was partly to blame; the Holokai's low-swung booms made part of the deck invisible from the wheel. But the real reason rea-son that Dick had not found Karen before now was that he had not expected ex-pected her to be there. It had been very definitely fixed in his mind that she was gone from his ship, gone altogether out of his life. He went forward hesitantly, partly part-ly humble, partly dazed by his luck. He stood close beside her at the rail, and drew her against him with one arm. "Well, good morning!" Karen said. "Do you always sleep in your clothes? Because I don't think it does them any good." Dick said stupidly, "We we didn't go to Honolulu after all, did we?" "Certainly not. Silly effort of yours chasing off to Nuku Hiva. Did you think you'd get away from me as easily as that?" A great cloud of flying fish went up before the bows of the Holokai, making a flickering rainbow on the face of the warm sea. THE END |