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Show T A faint flicker of self assertion reappeared in Ernest Wayne. "You can't order us " 1NSTAI.I.MKNT NINE IMF. STORY SO I'M!: Karen Water-son, Water-son, conviiu-rd by hor lawyer, John loll, that sho has a claim to the Island estate of her Rranrifather, (iarrett Water-pin, Water-pin, has come to Honolulu to attempt jetting the property. In an cITort to find out soniethlns about tho Wayne family, bow In control of Alattoa, the Island, she iccepts a date to co sailing with Richard Rich-ard (Tonga lMck) Wayne. Against her wishes he takes her to Alakoa. While there, James Wayne, Dick's uncle and manager of tJie property, Is found dead from over-work. Next day on Uie way back to Honolulu Dick tells Karen he loves her, but tliey quarrel over her claim to the estate. Dick later tries to work out a compromise settlement with John Colt and when he fails he tells Karen and Colt Uiat their adventure Is to end soon. He goes back to Alakoa and is in the midst of a conference with his two half-brothers, Willard and Ernest Wayne. Now continue with the story. "You see." Dick said, "as this contest for Alakoa sifts down, all the original aspects of the case are going to have to be investigated with the utmost thoroughness and made public. You understand that, I suppose?" sup-pose?" Willard Wayne said with an unnecessary un-necessary intensity, "Just what do you mean by that?" "I mean that it is very likely even inevitable that a lot of things are going to be brought to light that nobody's thought about for a long time. Isn't that so?" "Don't know what you're driving at," Ernest mumbled. "How well, for instance," Dick Wayne asked them, "do you think that you knew James Wayne?" "We've worked with him all our lives," Willard said impatiently. "And yet, did it ever occur to you he might know some things you never nev-er suspected at all?" "Nonsense!" "For example," Dick went on, his voice lazy, "take the exact circumstances circum-stances under which old Garrett Waterson left here just at the time the Waynes bought this island." "That has nothing to do with it," Ernest declared. "The entire transaction trans-action was closed before Garrett Waterson disappeared." "This disappearance," Dick prodded prod-ded them; "the tradition has been that he set sail southwest, in his own schooner, and was never seen again wasn't that it?" "Well? Can we be expected to account for " "Didn't you happen to know," Dick Wayne asked them, "that when Garrett Waterson sailed, our father was with him?" : They were not looking at him now; but their eyes were fixed upon each other, and an unspoken question ques-tion passed between them. Tonga Dick leaned forward, his face hardening. "The old rumor is that Garrett Waterson must have been lost at sea," he bore down on them. "And yet and yet, our father fa-ther came back " Dick saw Willard Wayne's heavy neck redden; the color rose and rose until Willard' s eyes, no longer slow and mild, stared bleakly out of a purple congestion. Ernest, however, howev-er, turned a sickly green, and behind be-hind his glasses his eyes could not be seen. Dick's own eyes turned ugly. "So you did know that?" he said. "You've known it for a long time, haven't you?" "Stop," said Willard Wayne thickly. thick-ly. "You don't know what you're saying!" "I take it," Dick said, "that. I was not supposed to know about that little circumstance." Willard's voice rose. "I object to your tone," he blustered. "I object to the whole line you've taken. It isn't up to us to go raking through the dead ashes of the past!" "You've told me what I wanted to know," Dick said. "You put me in mind of a couple of tide pools full of octopi easy to see to the bottom of, but not pretty to look at. I can understand now why James Wayne never trusted either one of you!" "What what " The edge of Ernest Er-nest Wayne's voice sounded frayed out, raveled. "What do you mean?" he finally got out. "How long," Tonga Dick asked them, "have you two supposed yourselves your-selves to be the sons of a murderer?" murder-er?" Ernest Wayne stood up violently, both hands gripping the edge of the desk. "That's a lie!" he shouted. Willard Wayne sat motionless. "Well?" he said at last, "I don't wonder that John Colt scares you out of your wits," Dick said. "I should think he would!" There was a silence then, raw and uncomfortable. Willard Wayne spoke to Ernest, his voice heavy and dead. "You see, I was right. We have to go back to Honolulu at once tomorrow. Some way, somehow, we've got to settle out of court with John Colt, at any cost." "Yes," Ernest said. Dick could see the man visibly twisted between a cupidity that could not face loss and a cowardice which was afraid of something else. It was not a pretty sight. "You won't have to go to Honolulu," Honolu-lu," Dick said sardonically; "you can save yourselves the trip. John Colt will be here within twenty-four hours." "Colt? Here? What could make liirn come here?" "I make him come here," Tonga tick said. The eyes of the two brothers snapped sharply to Dick's face. Probably they did not believe him; but they were grasping at straws. "You hold something over John Colt?" Willard asked. "Do you mean," Dick asked incredulously, in-credulously, "am I in a position to blackmail Colt?" "Somewhere in that man's life," Willard Wayne said, "there must be something that he doesn't dare have turned up. It's been our only hope, all along, that we could find out what it is. And if you've got hold of it?" Dick Wayne had meant to tell them, tonight, what he knew. He had meant to tell them that their father had not killed Garrett Waterson Wa-terson had even meant to give them an irrefutable proof. But now his temper broke, and he could not bring himself to tell them anything at all. He stood up. "Get out of here," he ordered them. "Get out of here, and stay out! I can't stand looking at you any more!" A faint flicker of self assertion reappeared re-appeared in Ernest Wayne. "You can't order us " Willard Wayne stood up and signaled sig-naled to Ernest with his eyes. Together, To-gether, after a moment's hesitation, they left the room. CHAPTER IX Dick Wayne - went to bed, but it seemed to him that he was not allowed al-lowed to stay there long. The first light was hardly showing in the sky when his brothers were at him again, literally clamoring at his very bedside. bed-side. Evidently they were angry, in addition. ad-dition. "What is the meaning of this?" Ernest Wayne demanded, spinning a yellow sheet of paper onto the bed. "What's the meaning of what?" "Nobody but you," Ernest accused him, "could have had that radio message sent." Dick picked up the paper, and by the poor but increasing light read what was typed upon it. Instantly he was more wide awake than as if he had never slept at all. "When did this come in?" "Just a few minutes ago," Willard Wil-lard told him. "You ought to knqjv. There isn't anybody else that could." Tonga Dick looked at" the message mes-sage again. It read: MAKE NO SETTLEMENT UNTIL I ARRIVE GARRETT WATERSON Dick's first reaction was, for special spe-cial reasons of his own, one of immense im-mense relief. But his next thought, which followed immediately brought him a new uncertainty. The new turn of events relieved him of certain cer-tain necessities; but it also took the game out of his own hands in a way that he did not like. Ernest Wayne's nervousness did not permit him to wait Dick out. "Well what have you got to say?" "This message is genuine," Dick told them. "This is incredible this is fantastic," fantas-tic," Ernest said unsteadily. "Some kind of a hoax," Willard added. "There's no hoax about it," Tonga Dick assured them. "How do you know this?" Willard demanded. "I work for him," Tonga Dick said. "You what?" Ernest Wayne bleated. bleat-ed. "He's lying," Willard expressed himself. "And just why," Dick asked with elaborate patience, "should I be lying7" ly-ing7" , , ... "Willard," Ernest said, do you suppose this thing could possibly be true? Because if Garrett Waterson is alive, and we can produce him do you see what that means? John Colt's case is absolutely exploded." "Is it?" Dick said. They were stopped once more. Ernest Er-nest and Willard were both deathly pale overwhelmed by more unforeseen' unfore-seen' uncertainties than they were able to handle. "You mean," Willard said at last, "that Garrett Waterson really is incompetent?" in-competent?" "I mean," Dick said, "that the whole situation is going to be just exactly what old Garrett Waterson I cbooscs to make it." "What on earth," Ernest asked Willard in a bewildered way, "are we supposed to do now?" Tonga Dick kicked out of bed with a movement of exasperation, and hunted around for a bath towel. "I tell you what you're going to do," he roared at them. "You're going to go and tell Tsura 1 want three eggs for breakfast! I have no doubt it will take both of you to handle han-dle that problem you don't seem to be able to do anything alone. Get out!" Ernest and Willard Wayne morosely mo-rosely watched Tonga Dick as he ate his breakfast. He was able to enjoy that, in a way. Uncertain as he was about what this new turn of the wheel might mean, the confusion of his brothers was so much greater as to provide a form of entertainment. entertain-ment. Even when they had abandoned the presumption that Dick was lying, ly-ing, they could not get over their suspicion that the man who had signed himself Garrett Waterson was an impostor. "I ran into Garrett Waterson while I was knocking around the South Seas," Dick explained. "Later, "Lat-er, Uncle Jim found it convenient to have me carry certain messages to Garrett Waterson. That's all there was to that." "Messages? What messages?" There was no reason for holding back anything now. He had been employed by old Garrett Waterson on condition of complete secrecy as to Waterson's whereabouts, identity even his very existence. He had decided to break that pledge, rather than permit John Colt to seize Alakoa Ala-koa in the name of Karen Waterson or anyone else; but now that Garrett Gar-rett Waterson had come into the open of his own accord, that consideration consid-eration was abolished. "For a long time I didn't know what messages," Dick told them. "I believe I know now." They failed to catch him up on that, and the oversight emphasized their bewilderment. "But why on earth," Ernest demanded, de-manded, "should he have wished to hide himself? That's the mystery here." "There's no mystery about it," Dick declared. "The only reasons his actions look mysterious to you is that they were perfectly simple. Garrett Waterson was always a man of violent temperament. Everything he did was in terms of violent extremes; ex-tremes; the projects he attempted, the fights he got into even his eating eat-ing and drinking everything was always on a spectacular scale with him. When he was overtaken by ultimate ruin, his reaction to that was violent too. He left Alakoa, and Hawaii, in a tremendously bitter bit-ter state of mind. He wanted to get away from the past, and from the part of the Pacific that he knew, and never again see anyone who had known him." "It's fantastic," Ernest declared. "It's completely unreasonable. I never heard of anything like it." "Dropping from view is one thing," Willard said heavily, "and going to extraordinary lengths to hide yourself, and conceal who you are, is something else." "Waterson went to extraordinary lengths in everything he ever did," Dick retorted. "The Pacific is a big place and there are more than twenty-five thousand islands in it; but only a few of them have any white inhabitants, and I suppose Garrett Waterson knew half the people in the' Pacific. He couldn't imagine leaving the Pacific any more than he could imagine living inland, so of course it was pretty hard for him to evade the people that he knew. When a man is trying to drop out of sight, and fails at it for a while, it's apt to become an obsession ob-session with him. He gets to thinking think-ing that everybody he sees is talking talk-ing about him, secretly. So he draws apart more and more, until at last" "It's completely unreasonable," Ernest Wayne said again. "Human nature always seems unreasonable un-reasonable to people who don't know anything about it. Unreasonable is what it is; you just have to get used to it." ITO DECOM IMEDJ |