The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-05-22
CHAPTER XIV

AOds COklttAlOC0 tlkC 4AlL01O CAA0 VAIN
ing which was an extension of the
wake for the death of James Wayne;
relaxing now into an emotional deb
acle which had forgotten the reason
that it began. Consequently the crew
of the Holokai, held on the vessel
when they had expected to go
ashore, was in resentful and surly
mood. From that frustrated and
dark-skinned crew any skipper could
expect sullen handling of lines and
gear, and the uneasy, heavyweight
ed obedience Of men who like moth
ing about their work. But this time
as Dick Wayne swung aboard the
Holokai something different hap
pened.
Tonga Dick came aboard relaxed
and smiling, and every move that
he made was lazy. The easy droop
of his whole figure would have
seemed, at first glance, to be that
of man upon whom anybody could
impose. And yet, as soon as he
stepped aboard, peculiar and un-
explairiable discipline came over the
whole length of the Holokai. The
crew forgot the doings behind the
beach, and the drinking they had
missed, and the girls they had
missed; suddenly they wanted moth
ing except to be out of range of the
inevitable explosion.
Tonga Dick didn't see any of that.
He didn't notice the unaccustomed
smartness with which deck Kanakas
got out of his way, nor the naval
precision with which Inyashi attend
ed him-not too close. The rail felt
unnatural as he swung over it be-
cause his hands were cold and trem-
bling; and he was seeing nothing ex-
cept the wavering lights of the Seal,
probing out through a channel which
no one aboard her knew.
The tall rollers that came across
two thousand miles of Pacific were
breaking low upon the coral reefs.
No one could make his way through
there who had not been born among
those reefs-not as the tides lay
now. Certainly Captain Ramey, bad
navigator and weak pilot, could not
find his way through. Dick watched
the Seal swing perilously in the rip
of the tide; he waited confidently,
even hopefully, knowing what kind
of rock was reaching for the Seals
plates. Presently, he believed, he
would take the people off the foun-
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 conclusion be-
tween John Colts will and the actu-
alities of land and water.
There was a 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 whim of the sea, the
Seal shook off the reef through
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 Diesell 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, shat is our
boat"
sour 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 a squatty little yellow
man, who looked like a clerk in
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. fnyashi's face wrinkled in q
peculiar grin; it was deferential
still, but a 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