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Show co(C jf rB IffE STORY TI1US FAR: Zorie Corey Ii expected by her employer's wife, Mrs. polsome, to deliver thirty Invitations to lei Id person. She calls at her em-' em-' plover's home during a rainy evening jjjfl picks up the invitations. She has a late this evening with Paul Duncan, her lance, but fears she will be late for It. Utterly despondent about delivering the invitations, she leans against a telephone pole and cries. Suddenly a man appears. He listens to her story gravely, then rips the invitations from her hand, tears them up and tosses them Into the trash laskct. He halls a taxi and Instructs Ota driver to take her where she directs. I' Paul's uncle, Admiral Duncan, calls on Zorie. CHAPTER IV "What did ydti say?" he demanded demand-ed hoarsely. "What did you say to McGonigle? Did you promise an endowment?" en-dowment?" "I don't recall just what I said," his grandfather answered vaguely. "But it's all right." ' "It means I'll lose my job!" 1 "What of it? I have better Ideas for you." h . "On that plantation?" Paul asked ' hoarsely. He was breathing hard. "Yes. There's a fine opening for I you better than the one I men-' men-' Honed." I "I don't want it!" Paul cried. "Well, you're going to take it hm? You have just time to pack ind meet us at the plane. Look at k Hiss Corey," he said, smiling be-; be-; aevolently at Zorie as if she were the final proof of something. "She's sjl ready." Aunt Hannah's voice broke in, with sleepy irritability: "Ready for what?" She eame down the stairs, hold-in! hold-in! her pink quilted dressing gown about her short, plump figure. This is my Aunt Hannah Admiral Ad-miral Duncan," Zorie murmured. "Ready for what?" Aunt Hannah repeated aggressively. "Good morning, Aunt Hannah," Paul said in a sardonic voice. "My grandfather has just decided to take Zorie to Hawaii." Aunt Hannah stared. "What for?" "She's agreed to help me write my memoirs," Admiral . Duncan answered. an-swered. She stared at him, then at Zorie. "How how long will it take?" she jasped. "At least a year." said Paul. "It's dandy job." "But what's to become of me?" Aunt Hannah wailed. "I can't afford af-ford to run this house without the the assistance that Zorie gives me." "Rent a smaller house," said the - admiral coldly. ,rWhy should I?" she cried. ' Her nose had become pink as it always did when she was angry. "Zone is perfectly happy here. She's quite latisfied. I I won't let her go. I've always sheltered her. She's never traveled. She's too too young too Innocent She's" "How old is she?" the admiral curtly interrupted. "She's twenty - four," Paul an-rwered. an-rwered. "She can legally do as she pleases." the admiral said firmly. "She Is coming with us to the Is-lmds-hm?" "She cannot go!" Aunt Hannah tried. "She has obligations! She fcai a very responsible position with the head" . "She resigned it," the admiral 1 turtlr cut her off. 5 "You have no right coming in here ind interfering in our lives!" I I "You are," Admiral Duncan said testily, "a meddlesome woman with fining to say about it." "Listen to them!" Zorie marveled. "Not one of them is considering me .what I want. They're pushing He around as if I were a puck in a tekey game." J Annt Hannah at this moment ut-ked ut-ked a small scream. She was past the admiral at the The admiral turned and kneed at the stairs. Paul was i Wang at the stairs. Zorie turned W looked. A man was slowly coming down. 10 his left hand was one of Zorle's (.1 uncases. The other was hugged i !rer hls Tlht elbow, while, with jej "ght hand, he was balancing on shoulder her small trunk. ' 3 Tie swayed. She thought for a 0 ; ent she would faint. " th v man descendin2 the stairs was k bronzed, blue-eyed young J a to whom she had talked in the n He was smiline mysteriously yr. with one eyebrow up. He ei sinister. S, Pul toat luggage down!" Aunt ah ordered. ' ma?1 11 b fte car'" the admiral in t 8ame calm but authorita- "Tl fclitrH he mlght have used on I ifoi- occasion- many years pre-jj pre-jj when he had issued his his- "S a Jder' ',When yu nave the Wt!' Lieutenant Horton, you may pl those torpedoes go." 1" It,!?7811"10118 younS man walked JR? ioo St AUQt Hannah and 0111 Y S?" Aunt Hannah bleated. y tUT-T' Zorie asked huskUy, "is W!'d better be moving," Admiral t 'aid eerily, We mustn't V 5fc , Plane-hxn?" 1 Thb' ?XX rePted, "ia that?" ? V. I pped' Paul answered: A lCa11 him an evl1 e in yA rUi 18 my brther Steve." X M U Aunt HanBah whim- J You can't desert me like Zorie wondered at that moment if the three kisses she had bestowed on the brow of the cast-iron Buddha had anything to do with all this. When the two stewards had placed her two suitcases and her small trunk in the middle of the stateroom, state-room, Zorie Corey tipped each a dollar and wondered if it was enough. From their smiles and their thanks, she assumed that it was. Never having traveled, she was ignorant ig-norant about such things. She closed the door. She took a deep breath and looked about the room which was to be hers alone for four days and five nights. It was a. cozy room done in ivory and pale green. There were twin beds, each against a wall. There was a dressing-table with triple mirrors. She wondered what Mrs. Folsome was thinking about the telegram she had sent her from Salt Lake City. She had been tempted to send one saying, "So sorry. Going to Hawaii. Ha-waii. Your invitations in corner trash basket." The one she had sent said, "Dreadfully "Dread-fully sorry. In haste of departure lost your tea invitations. Please duplicate du-plicate and send me bill." And she had sent a telegram to Jimmy Hoffbrower, saying: "Your term paper finished. In drawer my typewriter table. Hope you pass all courses with flying colors." Her thoughts drifted to the big, bronzed young man she had met in the rain. Although she now knew who he was, he remained mysterious. mys-terious. His full name was Stephen She said coolly, "What are you doing do-ing here?" Decatur Duncan and he was, Paul had told her in the plane, in disgrace. dis-grace. Steve had been living in Germany. His political sympathies sympa-thies were very pro-Nazi. He had a rascally reputation. Steve was being taken back to Uluwehi by his grandfather, who, Paul said, was disgusted with him. "Steve is in the doghouse," Paul had explained, "and the less said the better." She slipped into sodden sleep. A series of hangings aroused her. Three men were in the stateroom and they were depositing luggage on the floor beside hers. It was beautiful luggage of all shapes and sizes, but all of a pattern, a soft faun color with bright red-and-blue bands about it, and all stamped in gold with the initials A.L. Zorie sat up and gazed at it. There were at least ten pieces of this handsome luggage. Then a girl came sailing into the room a girl of about Zorie's ag and size, and she was slim, daitc and beautiful. She had brown eyes and a dusky lovely skin. She looked as if she might be Spanish or French. j She hardly glanced at Zorie. She said coolly, "What are you doing in here?" She had the kind of accent that you associate with sophisticated people who have lived a great deal abroad not English, or French, or German, or Italian, or Russian, but a smooth blending of them all. "I I thought this was my room," Zorie answered meekly. The girl glanced at Zorie again, then stared. Her eyes seemed to grow huge. Her lovely color faded. "Who are you?" she gasped. "My name is Zorie Corey." "Where are you from?" Confused by her sharpness, Zorie told her. The girl stared at her a few seconds sec-onds longer, then her color improved. im-proved. She laughed and said, "We'll see about this. I paid for exclusive occupancy of this room and I intend to have it." She was, once again, sharp and vigorous and sure. She wa.s the kind of girl, Zorie" thought enviously, whom people don't push around. The girl sat down on the unoccupied unoccu-pied bed and snatched up 'the telephone. tele-phone. She asked sharply for the purser. When she got him, she said vigorously: "This is Amber Lanmng, Stateroom 221. There's someone else In here. I paid for exclusive occupancy occu-pancy of this cabin and I insist on having it." "I was supposed to have exclusive exclu-sive occupancy, too," Zorie said meekly. Amber Lanning glanced at her with raised eyebrows. She said vigorously: vig-orously: "The person who's in here says she also paid for exclusive occupancy oc-cupancy . . . What? Well, do something some-thing about it! I can't travel with another person. I refuse . . . What?" For some time Miss Lanning listened lis-tened with a bored expression to the explanation from the purser's department. de-partment. She hung up the phone with violence, vio-lence, jumped up and said, with gestures: ges-tures: "It isn't even a mixup. He says they're packed. He says the government demands so many cabins cab-ins every voyage for defense workers work-ers and navy wives and such and that we're lucky to have accommodations accommo-dations at all. He says he'll try to do something about it. Well, he'd better." She tipped the three waiting stewards. stew-ards. She glanced at Zorle's worn old suitcases and ber battered old trunk. It was the size and shape of a modern field trunk, or foot locker. Zorie's father had used It on camping camp-ing trips and it looked it "Are these yours?" Miss Lanning asked. "Y-yes," said Zorie. If there had been any other place to go, she would have gone. But there were no other places. Zorie sat on her bed while the dark-skinned girl briskly unpacked her bags and hung things up. She hung up dresses and skirts and gowns and nightgowns and lounging pajamas and coats and other, things in both closets until both were full. Then she went about hanging things on hangers about the room until there wasn't a hook left. Zorie was sure she was hanging up a great many of these things needlessly; that she would not have a chance to wear a fraction of this wardrobe on the trip. The telephone rang. Amber fairly , leaped across the room to answer it. "Yes?" she cried, on an ascending ascend-ing soprano scale. "Who? Wait a minute." She glanced resentfully at Zorie. "It's for you." Zorie tremblingly took the phone. She was relieved and happy at the interruption. Now Miss Lanning could shower or dress or do whatever what-ever she wanted without the feeling that every movement she made was being watched. "Yes?" Zorie said meekly. "Hullo, honey." It was Paul. He sounded in much better spirits than when she had last seen him, and she hoped he had had a couple of drinks, although Paul disapproved of drinking. drink-ing. "Make yourself beautiful," Paul said, "and come and join us in the admiral's suite for cocktails and dinner. din-ner. We'll dance afterward. We're dressing. Will you?" "Of course," Zorie said maekly. "It's number Twenty-seven, on B Deck," Paul said. "Make it snap-I snap-I py, darling, will you?" I "Yes," said Zorie. When she turned from the phone, she saw that Amber Lanning had not taken advantage of her privacy at all. She was wandering about the room. Zorie was, she realized, caught in another trap set by her meekness. She did not have the courage to go about the relatively simple job of undressing, showering and dressing, because this girl, with her simple egotism, her unquestioning self-assurance had her buffaloed. Zorie glanced at her wrist-watch. It was almost six. Ten minutes must have gone by while she sat there, unable to move, frozen by whatever the word is for the exact opposite of confidence, sureness and courage. - The bed on which she sat was shaking gently, but this was not entirely due to the state of her rrves. Even as she wondered about it, the stateroom tilted ever so little, and she realized that, while she was sleeping, the "Samoa" must have left its pier, and that when Miss Lanning looked out of the porthole port-hole and made her ecstatic remarks, the last of San Francisco was to be seen, and that they were now at sea. Miss Lanning leisurely took from hangers and drawers the things she might or might not be intending to wear this evening. The telephone rang again and she answered it. "Yes, Uncle Win!" she cried. "Yes, dear. But of course, darling!" dar-ling!" She seemed very excited. She spoke rapidly in Spanish. Then: "No! I'm sure. She's just a nice sweet little American girl. All right. I'll see you in about forty minutes." Zorie glanced again at her watch-Forty watch-Forty minutes! The time was now 6:28. More than half an hour since Paul had phoned. But she could not move; She was chained to her bed by her meekness. Zorie started to get off the bed, then relaxed again. There was very little she could do or would do until her roommate was gone. So she waited and perspired and fumed. Miss Lanning took a long shower. It took her forever to dry herself. She came out of the bathroom, bath-room, all pink and glowing, and sat down at the dressing table. (TO BE CONTINUED) |