The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1942-03-13

At the door when Dick opened it
was the tiny figure of kimonoed
Japanese girl. Her hair, usually as
neat as polished ebony, was down all
about her face, and through it her
eyes stared so widely that they
showed the whites.
mister Dick-you comet"
"What is it? What is it now?"
81 tap on Mister Wayne door,
take Mister Wayne him milk. Mis-
ter Wayne, he not answer.
"Well, did you go in?"
"No, no, mol"
"Where is he? In his Officer"
"Yes-office. Plenty light but no
speak. Something moves in there
hear something move! But nothing
in there will speak"
Dick Wayne drew a deep breath,
and the air of the hall was so clam
my upon his lungs it was as if he had
breathed in the outer rain.
Cali right"
Once more he went striding
through the house, the broad old
fioorboards speaking under his
tread, and the tables of the Japanese
girl pattering behind him.
There was line of light under the
door of James Wayne's office; but
as he reached for the latch the jap
anese girl f1attened herself against
the wall, fearful lest she accidental
ly see into the room, and Tonga
Dick Wayne himself hesitated. He
knew what was within.
James Wayne still sat in the chair
behind his vast desk, in the same
place he had sat during so much Of
twenty hard driving years. But now
his head was forward upon the desk,
and by the slack emptiness of his
uncle's hands Dick knew that this
was the end.
All over the floor were scattered
the ginger blossoms of a broken lei.
When Dick Wayne had made GER
tain that his uncle was dead, he
picked up the scattered ginger bios
SONS, and, opening a easement,
threw thea out into the night.
He went to the door. The Japa-
nese girl looked smaller than ever,
standing there with her back pressed
tight against the koa-wood wall, as
if trying to hide herself from things
unseen. ''Send the Missey here" "
he said.
"Missey Lilua?"
''No, no! The haole Missey."
eyes, Mister Dick"
Gas soon as you have sent the
haole Missy to me, bring me
Charles Wong"
As Dick turned back into the room
he spotted one more of those in
escapable ginger flowers under the
corner of the desk. He picked it
up and put it in his pocket. Then
he went and stood at the window,
looking out into blackness, unnind-
full of the cold spit of the rain. It
seemed to him a long time before
Karen came.
Isis something wrong?" Her
words were faltering. HAS any,
thing happened?"
Dick Wayne stared, astonished.
Deep in his pocket his fingers were
still rolling between them the petals
of that last ginger flower; but Kar-
ems eyes were communicative
and he saw that she did not so much
as glance at the floor to make sure
that the flowers were gone. Sud-
denly a terrible pity for this girl
got the better Of him and he shut
his jaws.
''Dick," Karen cried out, what
is it?"
He was unable then, plying her as
he did, to tell her that he knew she
already had the answer to that.
flames Wayne is Dead" he an
swered.
''This-this is terrible thing"
Perhaps not"
''What do you mean?"
Dicks voice was hard and bitter.
eff you are going to take this island,
perhaps it is better that you take it
from me and from my brothers
not from the man who made it what
it is"
Karen Waterson stood staring at
him blankly. Until now it had
seemed to Dick Wayne that moth
ing he had ever said to her had
reached her completely in its full
meaning; but now he knew that he
had hurt her as definitely as If he
had struck her across the face. The
silence that followed had strange
hopeless quality about it, empty,
yet singularly acute. Dick was glad
that Charles Wong now appeared,
moving quickly into the room.
Charles Wong went straight to the
desk,s but his eyes were questioning
on Dicks face.
EYES," Dick answered the unspo-
ken question.
A wave Of swift emotion crossed
the Chinese secretary's face; he
raised one hand and his fingers ran
through his heavy hair.