Show D ISRA I 1 installment EIGHT TRE THE STORY go 80 karen karea waterson convinced ca e d by her lawyer john joha colt coll that 2 the 9 hai bas a claim to the liland island estate of I her grandfather itanO father garrett waterson waterloo hu 1 come to honolulu to attempt setting tie the property in an effort to had and out about tho the wayne amity now la 10 control 0 of alakna the island she he as ae ept apts a date to ro 90 ailing oldring with richard tonga dick wayne against her wishes he h takes take her to alagoa arriving there they find james wayne dicks uncle and manager of the property very during the night of their visit he be li is found dead 1 dick and karen leave lor for hanoi honolulu al jtb the next day on the w way ay back dick tells heui karen he loves lovei hero her but they quarrel trel over disposing of her bar claim to the island bland later dick meets john colt and telli telis him he has new mews for or him now continue with the story difficult to imagine john colt murmured many things that actually happen are difficult to imagine who would have imagined tor for example that the granddaughter of 0 garrett waterson would turn up on my boat wearing false whiskers yet I 1 give you my word john that is exactly what she did neither karen nor john colt seemed entertained 1 I see the american ambassador to japan dick said and some tobacco company boys going out to their stations in china and quite a sprinkling of movie stars from hollywood and a gentleman who cut a throat in singapore to my positive knowledge you are pretty well acquainted john colt inquired suavely among cutthroats cut throats only among those indigenous to the pacific I 1 also see here half a dozen gentlemen that I 1 cannot quite place A few years ago I 1 would have said that they were american financiers of the hit loot and run type I 1 had understood that conditions t 10 n s on the mainland were to no longer favorable to those types you seem well informed this is a crossroads dick said you get a perspective upon both sides of the pacific from here but I 1 still cant make out those wandering financiers oh I 1 get it now since they have been smoked out of the mainland naturally quite a few of them would come here of course fugitive empire builders by godl john I 1 see you are not alone 1 I naturally dick said pleasantly quite a few of your type are here already looking around to see if anything Is lying loose I 1 must say john that your plans seem better thought out than most im afraid that you are the type that thinks things through your prospects look excellent john fram the outside im inclined to think so myself john colt said would you say that your chances are worth one hundred thousand dollars john only the faintest suggestion of contempt showed in john colts eyes as he smiled Have your brothers authorized you to make that offer 1 I seen them dick admitted they have already gone back to alagoa however I 1 think you will find it necessary to deal with me im afraid I 1 cant let you dicker with my brothers much too easy to cheat and I 1 am afraid john colt said his bis voice so modulated that in the general din of the lanai dick had almost to read his bis ups that im not interested in dickering with either you or your brothers you definitely refuse one hundred thousand im sorry perhaps care to make a counter offer im sorry colt said again tonga dick wayne looked at karen waterson tor for a full minute and kis his frivolous manner dropped away twice karen met his eyes but both times dropped hers hero again dick wayne was looking at her with a real and unaffected regret one proposition more colt he be said and this Is my last one hundred thousand dollars to yu you and one third share in alagoa to miss waterson miss mis waterson colt said la is not bot interested in any proposition at all karen tonga dick said you have just heard the end of your pacific adventure john colts face rashard was hard and serious but there was a glint of intense satisfaction in his eyes which he could not repress dont let him worry you he said eald softly to karen hes shown his hand band and its just as I 1 said the waynes a hope in the world exactly why there has never been any reason for compromise from the first unless thop knew they were beaten they would offer no compromise at all dick wayne emptied his glass snapped mapped it down upon the table and pushed back his chair ill see you in a couple of days he be said to karen on alagoa that surprised an answer out oui of iter her alagoa Ala koa were not coming to alagoa oh yes you are or at least he lc is hell probably want to bring you along he turned to john colt the offers I 1 made I 1 made on my own took he said aid they are now withdrawn but ill tell you why I 1 made them it may interest you very much VIP I 1 I 1 0 so I 1 imagine wayne said john colt smoothly that you are lying not particularly john colt drawled you have a lost case wayne im going to kill your case dick said tonelessly no im going to do worse to you than that im going to give my brothers the means with which to kill your case to do that will cost me a great deal in some very obscure ways it will in fact cost me more than my s share hare of alagoa is worth that is W why hy I 1 offered to settle with you I 1 for M miss I 1 ss Water sons sake but principally c tor for my own im sorry that you refused but youre finished colt through wa washed shed up done 1 I get what you mean john colt smiled if you think a little further tonga dick said see sea even more clearly what I 1 mean your case has one hole bole in it ask yourself what that hole bole is karen waterson watching john colts face saw a curious thing happen then the taint faint tired smile on colts face lingered there still but after a moment karen saw that it was only the form of it that remained colts eyes were fixed hard on tonga dick and karen thought she had never seen anything like the intensity of that stare it if ever a man tried to look into another mans mind and take it apart apar to colt was trying it now dick wayne was filling his pipe the very fact that he was smoking a pipe at all at a tea made him look more at ease thereby as if he alone ot of all the people on that broad aanal was completely at home i youre thinking ol of exactly the same thing I 1 am john dick assured him softly once more the eyes of the two men met and held 1 I imagine wayne said john colt smoothly that you are lying steadily unhurried controlled there was nothing in john colts voice to indicate that he knew what it was to doubt yet somehow karen knew with utter certainty that colt was shaken more deeply shaken perhaps than he would have admitted even to himself and when karen saw that she was oppressed by a gray conviction that john colt gambling for alagoa in her behalf had irrevocably lost it was late in the evening when alk dick dropped anchor in AIa Ala koas little bay and immediately was driven up to the old house high in the gorges his brothers as he might have expected had bad already retired it was surprising in how many superficial ways they imitated the virtues of james wayne without ever seeming to accomplish anything thereby dick did not cause them to be roused at once instead he sent tor for charles wong and with the assistance si of the efficient chinese set bout about a brief survey of the condition of AIa Ala koas koals books A careful audit would have been necessary in order to check through with any accuracy that great array of his uncles books which recorded the financial transactions of alagoa dick knew what he was looking tor for however he steamed rapidly through such of the summaries as 83 interested him the story that those books told should have pleased anybody but it did not please dick wayne he was hunting tor for something else the existence of which he only suspected and to which he was perfectly certain his brothers had no clue at all when he had hunted a long time without result it became apparent to him that charles wong under guise of assistance was in subtle ways managing to confuse his search and bring it to nothing As this became di definitely finitely evident dick wayne went back and searched again and this time found what he sought it was an inconspicuous item tor for the year 1930 easily brushed over and obscure in mean ing when found it consisted of nothing more than an entry under miscellaneous cel operating expense old debts 25 1 the entry was posted where it did not belong belonga st practice untypical of either james wayne or charles wong 1 and dick turned sharply upon the chinese what debt was wa this 1 I dont know sir you posted this entry yes I 1 did well did you pay out this money no sir mr wayne always handled lat that item himself always what do you mean by that wong fell ell silent but now dick wayne knew where to look for what he wanted hurriedly he checked back through the books tor for previous years every year tor for seventeen years that same vague item was to be found sometimes small sometimes enormous according to the way the year had gone over that period of seventeen years almost s stood t against that single va vague gue phrase old debts A curious thing in a way tor for as far as dicks perfunctory survey of the records could make out there had never been any old debts at all other than those meticulously funded and otherwise disposed for the space ot of a minute tonga dick stared hard at charles wong and was able to convince himself that the chinese knew no more mor than he did and perhaps considerably consid bably less dick dismissed wong and planted himself at his uncles desk he ordered coffee and while tsura was getting it for him he sat for a time thinking hard his eyes covered by his hi hands shands by the time his coffee ap feared he had made up his mind bring my brothers here he told this the japanese girl tsura looked at him in ina a startled I 1 way his brothers were his elders and senior se bior to him in I 1 n the control of alagoa but he had commanded that they appear in the same burtone cur curt atone tone that he had ordered coffee yes mister dick she whisked out of the room perhaps the japanese girl was a little afraid of the room itself since the death of james wayne judging it to be an appropriate hangout tor for devils dick was finishing a second cup of coffee before his brothers came good of you to show up ernest wayne said sardonically 1 I understand said willard wayne that through your gene generous roua courtesy miss waterson has been a house guest here in tact fact slept here the night uncle jim died true tonga dick agreed tsura bring two more coffee cups we dont want any coffee ernest said for them both bring them anyway sit down you two willard Wll lard who had started to lower himself into a chair hesitated in some annoyance but gave in somewhere early in their childhood there must have been a time when the two elder brothers had domi bated dick by main force of age and size and although dick could not event even remember that time ernest and willard had never been able to in their relationship he would always seem to them an unjustifiable rebel scandalous in manner and wrongheaded wrong headed in his pursuits ernest who was shivering a if little t maintained his self assertion by remaining on his feet 1 I would certainly like to know he said with asperity what your purpose was in that here 1 I bringing that woman no purpose at all dick grumbled they looked at each other meaningfully ing fully and dick noticed again the extreme nervous irritability which he had seen in them whenever they had met since his return to hawaii that nervousness looked compatible enough in the tall thin ernest who never seemed to feel entirely well but it ft was incongruous in the thick thickset willard wayne with his smooth firmly padded cheeks and his slow moving eyes for this nervousness was that of men haunted by an inescapable fear dick knew that he had enough dynamite in his hands to blow their whole situation apart and he had decided that he was willing to accept the cost to himself of using it but there was something else he wanted to find out first there was a shadow of wicked mischief in his him mood now as he set out to prod it out of them TO BE CONTINUED |