Show 3 CARIBBEAN l 1 If ii Jl H BRENDA CONRAD I STORY SO Anne beautiful of a wealthy New newspaper coes on an jj to Puerto Rico where Pete a reporter on her father's l stationed as a V. S Army In On the hoat she meets ft Miguel llmA an engineer named Richard whom she Is Immediately suspicious la spile of the that he looks like a I typical She does not know that l- a German agent ordered destroy Puerto Rico's water meets the but does not tell that has reason to be of his refuses to 4 L CHAPTER III Anne closed the door of Room behind her and stood for a under the open door of Room o few steps own from had been slightly and without knowing why or she had felt that somebody was landing behind She it close and listened or steps along the waxed but none After a moment went across the room to the and looked down into the v. here she and Pete had The of opened fa Koto the patio 1 She turned and went over to her stacked in the corner on other side of the Again knowing exactly she the flat case lying on top of steamer and looked It was just as she had packed and yet somehow it The rubber band around the batch Of letters of introduction lying on top of her dressing gown was twist's ed as if it had been slipped back She had put it carefully n-i flat so that it wouldn't mar the edges of one of the envelopes that was broader than the She looked back at the then to the table and took her out of her She it and struck the powdered puff sharply on the brass face of her suitcase the girl she as she blew the powder the way a police inspector had her once in New On t brass oblong were three clearly rr thumb The most distinct was probably her the oth-J were began to unpack her softly to Ks she was almost through she rd Uto sharp quick click of high Vj Is out in the and a light usuri ible knock on her door She the and opened My How simply lie girl standing in a gingham a blue bow her fuzzy lafTy-colored her by blue sparkling with d out her hands don't remember Il's gorier Sue Latti- Rie sixth of Miss Oakley's school for young ladies back mm Anne's Of all Waal re here of Anne course I remember I haven't changed a Only fere's your You still look I'm not I'm Russell arid the fj of two hulking aged and two and a all flashed I ack too j Sue who got from boys when the rest of Oakley's young ladies were and lank and hope- where except on the hock- 1 ut- what are you doing down Anne demanded on the bed and crossed under darling Russell's firm sent she said with a more and I thought be a wonderful chance for to get I thought it Bid be You know the I hadn't heard about and 1 simply hate re trying to Bet V brightened expectantly you meet a Taussig on e I want you to help us You he's awfully to Russell He's one of leading sanitary that's what Russell P brown legs Jw fd wet over to the Russell down there r if her blue eyes as a child's do I ll w-as my fault finish M I. T. He but the baby you e looking over Sue's Down at a hy the Af rm Richard in a Og I I linen suit and brown-and- his tEer tips lift contemplative looking H than he had IE aboard C the be- like u Df red mouth She looked like an unhappy six he likes it all she admitted half really me that wants him to get That's why I'm having Taussig to dinner tomorrow night So he can talk to You'll won't And be awfully nice to Anne will She looked out the sell's so I'll have to go now Remember eight Russell will come for you look there's Diego A tall heavy set man of about with iron-gray the pock-marks on his face visible from where they was sitting at one of the small tables at the corner of the absorbed in his newspaper and cup of He had a short clipped mustache and shaggy and an air definitely an Anne thought is she your friend Miguel Valera's But he's not like the He mixes with the Of course he's he's not Puerto And my dear She lowered her voice to a He has a mistress You know it's quite customary down It's perfectly above except their wives pretend they don't know I've got to go It's perfectly swell having you I'll see you Anne nodded She turned back to the window As she looked she saw Diego get up and make his way casually through the arcade into the Almost immediately Richard Taussig got up Even more She lowered her voice to a He has a casually he strolled over to the table Diego had left and picked up the folded He came back to his chair and sat down Anne watched him unfold the moving back instinctively a little behind the long chintz She could see very clearly the piece of letter paper inside Taussig glanced around glanced up at her looked down at the paper in of him a and slipped it unobtrusively into his He put the newspaper down on the got up and strolled into the The Officers Club at El Morro was inside the overlooking the golf the graveyard and the Atlantic It was part of the old Spanish When the waiter had gone Anne Pete do you know anything about a man named Richard He was on the Pete said He kept from looking at know all about He's an internationally known sanitary He's dining with the General on and the Governor He has the blessing of just Do you suppose he can do anything about the water supply at the wish he'd start ii he But you don't have to worry about He can't help his face He's He poured the rest of his beer into his other Public Relations is sort of my job do you happen to know Russell Anne I know Pete said Porter is the local representative of He's In charge of a big job they've He looked at his The officers had thinned leaving the women sitting see you What about Anne shook her dining with somebody Miguel She Don't tell me you're like Sue He looked at her You haven't fallen in love with that have Her gaze wandered out across the rolling green lawn to the ocean She had asked herself that all the way from the The note she'd found in her mail box have a so I won't disturb but I'll be around at six and if you aren't engaged may I take you to had set her heart dancing and her eyes sparkling as she stuffed it into her bag and ran out to the Maybe that was what it She hadn't been in love often enough to be very sure about But it was something-something new and different Miguel Valera waited for Anne to sit It hadn't occurred to her that they wouldn't have dinner or that she could be suddenly dashed as she was when she stepped out of the elevator and saw his uncle Diego and his cousin Graciela there in the lobby with understand you are a newspaper Miss Don Diego His smile was quick and warm Anne was instantly aware of two The first was that he thought it amusing that such an attractive young woman should be anything of the sort The second was that it was odd he should have known She had carefully concealed it from Miguel Pete Wilcox was the only other person on the Island who knew Unless She thought about the letters in her There was one to the correspondent of the press syndicate her father's papers used in Puerto And that meant that Diego must have talked to Richard Taussig during the afternoon and that they'd talked about It was all worked on my father's if that's what you she wasn't much am pleased to hear We believe a woman has a higher place in She should let her husband take care of If she hasn't a Anne surely wouldn't be difficult for Miss Graciela put her cocktail on the Her cheeks were At no time would Anne ever have believed that the appearance of Mr Richard Taussig could effect anything but Just then she was distinctly She actu ally found herself smiling and saying with the utmost cordiality to the man she objected to more any other man she Miss Taussig He turned to must be delighted to be back home again It's so per feet Anne found herself blinking a lit dressed in immaculate white was as courteous as Don Diego himself is my Mr Miguel They shook is a great Mr Taussig There was nothing to indicate that they had ever seen or heard of each other was the same when they all went into dinner Only once did she have the quick sense of fear that she'd had the afternoon in the ship's That was when Mr Taussig started to put his green guide book on the floor beside his chair She held out her not because she wanted to see it but because it was something they could talk about that perhaps Graciela could talk about She hadn't said a word since he Anne tried to analyze what had happened just What he said Miss this is my It was bland and but there had been something else in Taussig put the book down on the other side of his course when the bases here are fin I imagine your unemployment problem will be he understand the five-hundred-acre law will work an additional hardship on your Does it affect your father is not a Miguel Valera It was the longest meal Anne ever sat If her own voice had been a record and her on a motion-picture screen across the room they couldn't have been more detached from her It seemed hours before the coconut sherbet served in polished half coconut shells came and went and they had At she thought as they finally got up to she was sure of a number of things she hadn't been sure of before One was that Miguel had asked her to dinner just because he was Latin and polite to visiting Another was that Graciela was not bright enough to realize or to realize that her open resentment of Anne was Or maybe it Maybe liked their women to be But chiefly she knew that she was either stark raving mad or that Richard Taussig was something profoundly different from what they all thought he DE |