The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-02-26
''What is this?" Dick asked.

What IS thlS! LICK asked.
Didn't you know that James
Wayne has been making additional
payments on Alakoa, all through the
last twenty years?"
ST thought he was; I couldn't
prove It, l guess"
"You can prove it now. That's a
receipt from Garrett WaterSon for
two hundred and seventeen thou
sand dollars. Incompetent or not,
he was properly paid for Alakoa;
and that receipt acknowledges it. I
thought I'd better get it for you
and save you headache"
Karen" Dick asked, why have
you done this?"
'rI'm sick of having you worry for
fear I'm going to get your island
away from you. don't want your
old island. You'd better take care
of that receipt, and not sit there
creasiAg it all up. Your brothers
are going to want it-and suppose,
after ali, Alakoa is more theirs than
yours"
He wondered irrelevantly if he
should tell her that this was not so;
but let it pass. "What are you 60
ing to do now?"
'I'm going back to San Francisco
and look for job"
"But Garrett Waterson will
want"
'I'm not going to fasten onto him.
He's got troubles of his own"
There was long silence after
that. ''It seems to me-" Dick said
at last, "that neither one of us has
been very sensible about any of this.
All the way along we've kept fight
ing over the most trivial things-is-
lands, and grandfathers, and Kama
ka girls, and who busted a lei on
James Wayne's desk. It certainly
looks as if we ought to run out of
things to fight and quarrel over,
pretty SOON"
Don't you know" Karen asked,
t'whose lei that was? Don't you
know who was with James Wayne
when he died?"
81 don't even care" Dick said.
"I care. It's taken me weeks
detective work even to find out what
you were talking about. And I'm
going to tell you about it, whether
you're interested or not"
SCI just don't think it's important
now," Dick said.
'tI do. Because that was what
really broke us up. 1t made you
say things to me that were perfectly
acknowledgements things, Dick.
And / didn't know, then, even what
you meant when you talked about
broken lei"
"If only you had told me"
'I couldn't tell you because I
didn't know. know now. When
you went into your uncle's office,
and found him dead, there was a
broken lei of ginger blossoms on
the floor; and you thought that it
was the lei you gave to me. But
I've had to talk to Tsura, and Lilua,
and Hokano, before even found
out that much"
"You mean to tell me that you
really weren't there? You weren't
with James Wayne that night at
aIl?"
"Of course not. But I've pieced
together what happened, now. The
lei you gave me that night was a lei
that Lilua made for you; but that
was not the only lei she made. She
made another lei for Hokano; and
he was wearing it, when he came
looking for her that night"
"You mean that it was Hokano
who"
s'Hokano was looking for Lilua. I
could have told him where to look
for her. But he couldn't find her
because she was in your ROOM"
Karen, I swear that nothing"
ooh, / know. As a matter of
fact" a malicious little twinkle
fiickered in Karen's eyes-'I think
I had already warned you to, lock
your door. But Hokano didn't know
anything about that. He saw James
Wayne's light; he stepped into
James Wayne's office through the
window, and demanded to know
where Lilua was. OF course your
uncle was furious that a large, very
wet Kanaka should come crashing
into his office through window.
His anger was too much for him,
on top of everything else. He stood
I'D and threatened Hokano; and then
lust suddenly collapsed and was
gone. Hokano leaned across the
desk, to see if he was really dead.
The ginger blossom lei caught on
the corner of the desk and broke;
and just then Tsura came tapping
at the door, peddling her glass of
milk"
"Hokano told you this?"
"Most of it. Who else could? He
was the only one who knew"
"This is all very surprising" Dick
said.