The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-12-11
CHAPTER ii

1t was nearly midnight when Rich
ard Wayne called upon his brothers.
They had been expecting him ear
lier in the evening, and only an OBJ
jectionable message he had sent
them by phone had kept them wait
ing for him at an hour strictly out
side of their habits.
Richards two brothers, Ernest
Wayne and Willard Wayne, sat in
large room which, in spite of its
prim order, showed the wear of the
humid years. The whole thing man.
aged a transplanted New England
look; obviously nothing had been
changed here for long time.
The two brothers who here await
ed Richard Wayne seemed to have
been bred and raised by the New
England furniture. Both were older
than Richard, and when he looked
at them he was sometimes happy to
remember that they were only his
half-brothers, after all.
''It does seem to me, Dick" Err
nest Wayne said fretfully, "that you
would show a little interest in what
is happening here" Ernest, tall and
thin, did not look entirely well; he
wore gold-rimmed glasses, which
did not seem to be strong enough
for his purpose, and when kept up
late he developed a peaked look. II
don't suppose" he complained,
THAT you realize you've kept us
waiting here almost four hours. We
held dinner for you full thirty
five minutes"
Dick sighed and sat down. eff I
weren't interested ! wouldn't be in
Honolulu at ALL" he said. 'Now,
please try not to get all excited,
will your"
"You don't realize the seriousness
of the situation, Dick" Willard said
heavily, without heat. ''This thing
is critical in the extreme-perhaps
even desperate. Uncle Jim can't
seem to understand that he is not
invulnerable. He has delayed, and
delayed"
"You think he'll lose his shirt?"
His two brothers stared at him.
"It's unbelievable" Willard said at
last. "You sit there and ask if we
will lose the case much as you might
ask if it were going to rain. The
island of Alakoa has been a family
possession for more than twenty
years; everything we have In the
world is tied up in it. Uncle Jim
has given the best of his life to
building it into what it is today. And
now we stand to lose it, you sit
there just as nonchalant as-as-"
"As hog on ice," Dick suggest
ed. "'As duck with its eyelids,
SO he with his nose"
He rested his head upon the back
of his chair, half closed his eyes,
and tried not to think about his
brothers.
"As / understand it from your let
ters," he said now, "the complaint
is that when our mutual father
bought the island of Alakoa from
Garrett Waterson he practically
cheated the old boy out of his eye
teeth-is that the story?"
"Father was an industrious and
intelligent man." Ernest Wayne said
with annoyance.
"Do you know anything much
about the original swindle?" he
asked them.
ST object to your tone" Willard
Wayne said; and Dick was aston
ished by the vigor of his brothers
resentment. Garrett Waterson was
disreputable old pirate. He was
a waster and a speculator of the
worst sort-absolutely typical Of a
certain kind of riffraff which trou-
bled the Islands in the early days.
If father saw values in Alakoa that
Waterson did not, that certainly was
Waterson's lookout. But now comes
this girl. this grasping, piratical lit
tie adventures, intent on seizing not
only the whole of Alakoa, but all the
development which has cost Uncle
Jim the best years of his life, and"
.'Have you checked the identity OF
this girl?" Dick interrupted.
"She's Garrett Waterson's grand
daughter, all right" Willard admit
ted. Naturally we hoped to dis
prove her identity. 1t now seems
that we cannot. Karen Waterson was
born in San Francisco in June, 1912
that is to say, shortly before the
a;earoearance of Garrett Waterson