The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1942-04-23

dering Seal, and put them back
where they belonged-where he had
told them to stay. He waited for the
reel of the Seals lights, the sick
check of her motion which would
mark the physical concussion be-
tween John Colts will and the actu-
alities of land and water.
There was moment, suspended
IN hair-breadth contest, in which he
knew the Seal could not live-that
the one-eyed Ramey had made one
mistake too many. Then, unaccount-
ably, by a whim of the sea, the
Seal shook off the reef through a
course in which no vessel had ever
succeeded yet--and was free in
open water. Even the broken-toothed
coral seemed to have failed Dick
Wayne.
Take your anchor up" Dick said.
His voice was so low that Inyashi,
waiting near as he was, had to ask
him to repeat.
Weigh your anchor, and give me
the Diesel! What is this? Doesn't
anything | say ever stick any more?'
The Seal was in the open sea;
but now the Holokai was coming out,
brought by a shorter and easier
way. When Dick Wayne had brought
her through the treacherous and an
Cling channel he set his hip against
the wheel, letting the Holokai buck
brokenly against the cross chop.
"Inyashi," Dick said, "that is our
boat"
"Our boat, Captain?"
'I'm going aboard that boat and
bring her back" Dick said.
Something special showed in In
yashi then. Sometimes people won
dered why squatty little yellow
man, who looked like a clerk in a
japanese dry goods store, should be
right-hand man to Dick Wayne. If
they had been watching, they might
have found out something about that
now. Inyashi's face wrinkled in a
peculiar grin; it was deferential
still, but peculiar drawing of the
lips made the eye teeth show, so
that all at once, without ever step
ping out of his place, Inyashi was
something else than he had been
before.
"Are all the Kanakas aboard?"
Dick asked.
"All five, Captain Dick"
Bring 'em here"
The crew of the Holokai didn't
look like much as Inyashi brought
them up to the wheel which Dick
still held. These were slovenly look
ing men, not very well washed. Their
faces were dark; the hair Of some
of them had crinkly bush; the
noses Of some were nothing else but
fiat, and the lips noticeably thick.
A Polynesian who, on a surfboard,
seems the image of god, can look
like scum in dungarees.
'You see that boat up there?"
Dick said.
None of them said anything, and
their faces were inexpensive. The
question was rhetorical. Whatever
these brown-skinned men might
miss in this world or the next, they
never missed anything on the face of
the sea.
"We're going to come up close on
that boat in a minute" Dick said.
We're going to swing SO close to
her that maybe We'll smash her rud-
der off. I'm going aboard, and I'm
going to take her back to Alakoa.
After I've gone aboard, the Holokai
is going to stand by for maybe ten
minutes. Within ten minutes the
malahine boat will turn and 60 back.
If it doesn't turn"
Dick Wayne stopped moment,
while he turned the Holokai more
carefully into the wake of the Seal s
lights.
'Then, Captain?" Inyashi prompt
ed. In the undistinguished yellow
face the canine teeth were showing
in Inyashi's peculiar new smile.
''If," Dick said, "the Seal does
not turn in ten minutes after I have
boarded her, the Holokai will come
alongside the Seal and lash fast"
"And them" Inyashi said again.
Zone way or another" Dick said,
"I'm going to take the Seal back
to Alakoa."
Dick Wayne didn't even look at
the faces of the Kanakas-he knew
what was there. They were looking
at each other then, but not in sullen-
ness nor rebellion. The faces of
these men were thick-skinned as
leather, weathered by thousand
tropic suns; but now there was GU
rious drawing up of the faces of the
first man and the third-different
from a smile, and at the same time
nothing else-as if the deep-skinned
leather had been, drawn up by inner
cords.
If any haole had anything these
men could understand, Dick Wayne
had it; and they understood him
now. Without looking at them at
all, he knew that they would take
the Seal, if he named the Seal, no
matter what else happened after
that. Dick had to grin a little,
but not without affection, as he rec
ognized that he was perfectly GER
tain of what these men could be
counted on to do.
Get your buffers out to star
board.'
The Seal was all out, and, as Dicl,
already knew, Ramey's boat had a
surprising turn of speed; but there
was nothing she could do to get
away from the Holokai, in the open
sea. The Holokai had been built
for sail, but she had taken to her
power with a surprising surety, SO
that under her Diesel she went over