The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1942-01-15

Charles" Dick said, "that girl is
Karen Waterson."
The Chinese became instantly i'm
mobile. Charles Wong wore thick
glasses, and certain indescribable
lack of bone in his nose gave him
permanent look of extreme and
studious application. This did not
change now, yet Dick knew that
Wong was thunderstruck.
IF she had hoped to confer with
your uncle" Wong said at last,
perhaps"
mo use of it," Dick said inpa-
tiently. "She would do nothing what
ever without talking to John Colt.
Keep to yourself who she is Well
say nothing to my uncle at ALL"
He went striding off through the
big koa-wood rooms, leaving the Sec
retary paralyzed under the weight
of hundred unanswered questions.
James Wayne, deeply swathed in
blankets, sat behind a vast desk.
His handclasp was quick and strong,
as it always had been, though Dick
thought there was a tremor in it
now. But it was James Wayne's S
face that arrested Dicks attention,
so that he wondered instantly how
old his uncle really was. Because
he had always been clear-eyed,
pink-skinned, and vigorous, always
able to put in full day in the sad
die, they all were inclined to forget
that James Wayne must be deep
into his seventies, by now.
For the first time, Dick Wayne
was looking at his uncle and seeing
an old man. Haggard, gray-skinned,
deep-carved with the lines which the
years had saved up for him, only to
mark him with them suddenly, over
night-the face of James Wayne was
almost unrecognizable to Dick.
II got your radio, sir" Dick said.
81 came on under all power as soon
as the message was in.''
81 should think" his uncle said
slowly, ''you would have come any
way, without so urgent an appeal" "
Even, Dick noticed, James
Wayne's voice had changed; it
sounded weary and dry. His old
temperate manner of speech was
there, and the courtesy, almost like
kindness, which had marked his
speech all his life, even when deal
ing with his enemies, was there /;
but rustiness was in it now.
James Wayne's eyes were fixed
hard on Tonga Dicks face, and
those eyes, clear and direct as ever,
now seemed to burn. "Is there any
message?" he demanded sharply.
Dick stood straight and stiff be-
fore his uncle's desk; James Wayne
did not ask him to sit down. Dick
felt his body stiffening, against his
will, until he stood rigid as a spar.
"No message, sir" he said.
dispatches, then?"
"No, SIR"
James Wayne stared at him, his
eyes boring hard into Tonga Dick.
"You mean to say-you mean to say
no message, no letter-no any
thing?"
Nothing, sir"
"Yet-he got the despatch from
me? He got the word, at the same
time you did?"
"I'm certain of it."
For a moment more they looked
at each other, the old mans eyes
alight with anger, and in his face
not disbelief, but an inability to ac-
cept the answer.
Dick Wayne returned the OLD
mans stare levelly, without express
sion except for that rigidity which
had come on him against his will.
There was something strange and
electric there in that room, in those
moments. It was in the haggard
face of the old man, and in Tonga
Dicks stiff silence; but most of all
it was in the meeting OF their eyes.
Into that room had suddenly come
layer upon layer of reticent mys-
terry.
'This is Incredible" said James
Wayne, his unwinking eyes fastened
hard upon Tonga Dicks face.
Dick said nothing, and the mo-
ments ticked by in such a silence
that Dick thought he could count
the pulsing of his own heart.
IF this is true" James Wayne
said sharply, then how does it hap
pen that you are here?"
I'm here against my orders"
Silence again: but now after 9