The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1942-01-29
Noto go on Nth the story.

ing rights. He was actually astound-
ed when he found out he had won
it ALL"
81 suppose it amuses you," Karen
said, ito make out that my grand
father was a great fool"
'You shouldn't mind" Dick
smiled. "You and John Colt are
trying to establish that he was an
imbecile"
Karen flushed; and Dick finished
more gently.
His last years here were spent
in running through his money.
have no doubt that he was very
much surprised when he came to
the end of it with bang. After
he was broke he found that out of all
the people who had filed this house
he had hardly one real friend. He
must have recognized, himself, at
the last, that he was not the man
to handle the island. And the island
itself was all he had left.''
$50 the Waynes did him out of
it." Karen said.
A sultry spark showed behind Dick
Wayne'S eyes for moment, but
his tone was composed, even lazy.
"Alakoa was a taro-patch island
when James Wayne took it over. No
cane grew here at all, until water
was fiumed from the windward to
the leeward side-a project of such
unbelievable difficulties that no one
ever even considered it, except
James Wayne. But now there are
power plants and deep wells, miles
of pipe and fiume-there's a tunnel
through a mountain of lava; and
cane plantations lie where there was
only sow thistle and horseweed.
There are big cane mills-even Ala
koa's own ships on the sea. Thou
sands of cattle are running the up
lands now, and they are of the fin
est breeding in the Islands; but mile
upon mile of worthless country had
to be planted in imported grasses
before that could be made to come
true. Those are the things that have
made Alakoa valuable-things built
and fought for by James Wayne,
and no one else. And those are the
things that John Colt wants to get
his hooks into now"
Karen bit her lip; she was silent
for a full minute, and when she
spoke she took an entirely new tone.
Il have no idea what you expected
to gain by bringing me here, but"
"You are here" Dick said weari-
ly, because John Colt sent you
cruising with me, to find out some
things he doesn't know. You can't
imagine it, but certain affairs are a
good deal more important to me
than John Colts spying processes.
IF you think" Karen snapped at
him, "that either John Colt or
have the least interest in you what
ever"
'I think you have" said Dick.
'sFor one thing, / can tell you this
your case is never going to come to
trial"
cts already on the calendar! No
body can stop it, now."
II can," Tonga Dick told her.
"Ask yourself, Karen, just what
John Colt is so anxious to learn"
Karen Waterson flushed. She could
have ignored the cool conviction of
Dick Wayne's words; but now she
was wondering just what John Colt
had suspected-and feared-that had
made him so unnecessarily curious
about Tonga Dick. And she was
wondering why she herself had ever
been such a fool as to match wits
With this cool, hard-bitten man,
whose purposes she could not under
stand. 1t seemed very long ago
that she had made herself believe
that she could conceal her identity
from Tonga Dick.
Karen stood up abruptly. "This-
this-I don't want to talk about this
any more"
Dick stepped close to her and his
hands cupped her shoulders. Pm
sorry" he said. 81 didn't mean to
get you stirred up The only hope
there is in this thing, for anybody,
is that you and ! somehow make
out to understand each other"
Karen Waterson tried to harden
her eyes, but she could not. Un-
reasonably, incredibly, all the brit
tie temper went out of her at the
touch of Dick Wayne's hands. Her
eyes dropped and her lips trembled,
and she wanted nothing so much in
...~~1J a. Lo LoIl -, xl.c - -