The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-06-25

| and began to Shuffle. He lOOKeo | cool and comfortable in the spot less white linen suits which one oi l the house servants had laid out before lunch. It fitted his tall tthin frame as though it had been 1 cut to measure. Sitting there at the table, his bony face half-hid- den from the light, he was a per feet picture of the successful Amer liean business man enjoying a mo- ment's diversion from the routine of his work. His hair was gray ing, but his close-clipped mustache was as black as his jutting eye brows.
 He glanced idly about the room and, catching the saturine green teyes of the half-drunk Mallory, I nodded pleasantly, impersonally. It was little short of amazing, the solitaire player unused, how quick lly Mallory had broken. Half-back on the county polo team, golfer, tennis and handball star of con- siderable note, the man had gone completely to pieces under the strain ilof nearly three weeks of enforced iidleness on this heat-encompasSed isle.
 The President of the United States Textile Corporation consid- cred the matter and decided that unless they were freed before long, someone would have to kill Mall lory He was startled by his own thoughts A month ago he would have viewed the impending mur- der of a fellow citizen with horror. Now he found himself judging Nal lory impartially and looking upon the possible taking off distracted ly, without concern.
 Williams too, he could do with out. He remembered the clothes in which Williams had arrived. Too niftily cut, they had been. Blue. pin-checked and with slant ling pockets. The man was always interrupting his solitaire with his silly blither about Chicago and the grain market.
 He wondered if Williams knew how he hated him. If this soul destroying tension was not lessen ed, he, Hamilton, might be driven to doing something about it. He carefully placed a red seven upon black eight.
 Martin, now. He pouted. His whole face pouted, black eyes, Ro- man nose, thin pink lips; they all pouted. His silence and morose- ness was almost as irritating as Williams unquenchable garrulty. Extremes, amid all this heat, were bad, If the mans eyes would not swivel around the room sol Those l slightly popped eyes distracted Hamiltons attention from his soli- Etaire and caused him to make ex- asperating blunders. He wondered Whether Martin would stop look ling like that if one asked him. to desist. Or would he just sit there in stony silence and stare? Ham, ilton stole a glance at him and felt his nerve lends prickle. Yes, still staring.
 The girl was a plucky one. Not his type, perhaps, but he was con- scious of a distinct admiration for the way she was holding her own against the weather and the men. When she had first arrived, Ham ilton had thought she would break down. She had eaten little. The vivid coloring faded out of her smooth cheeks. She spent much of l her time m her own room. When ] she emerged, her eyes were sus- piciously pink But she had seemed to gather strength with the passing of time. No doubt she had been forced to, for with every new day the men had become more ardent in the attentions. It had been di- verting, watching her handle them.
 
 Strangely enough, Hamilton did not resent Lucci. Of all the men on the heat-raddled island. Lucci was alone in remaining true to type. He looked, thought, talked and acted exactly like One-shot Lucci, gangster chief. Hamilton 1 had been gratified when that ev- ening at dinner, he had discovered that the grangster, too, was in love with the girl Nancy.
 He had liked the way Lucci had parried Nancys look of scorn when the gangster had informed the en- tire assemblage that the girl would henceforth be regarded as his on pain of instant and brutal punish ment Mallory had gulped greedily at his champagne Williams had flushed fllrtively. Martin h a q looked at Lucci with eyes like those of rattle snake.
 Yes, little fear of going mad with all these to watch He shuffled the pack and dealt the cards into a meticulously straight line. It