The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-01-22
..PnOtected2 What situations?"

Protected? What situations?"
"What would have happened to
your claim on Alakoa if you had
been held on suspicion of murder?"
Karen's astonished eyes jerked to
his face. Murder" she gasped.
''What on earth are you talking
about?'
''What do you think my brothers
would have done if they had found
out that you were with James Wayne
when he died?"
But-but-"
''Oh, know you didn't mean to
harm him. Even without the-call
it excitement-of seeing you, dare
say he wouldn't have lasted another
twenty-four hours. But you know
how Willard and Ernest would have
seized upon the fact that you were
with kim-and sought to conceal it.
The investigation would have been
an ugly and uncomfortable thing"
st with him?" Karen repeated in
creduously. ''Why, Dick
"Yeu see," Dick said, you're not
honest with me even yet. Who did
you think picked up the broken Lei?
Tsura? Dear God! I'll never smell
ginger flowers again without re-
membering-"
Lei? What lei?"
''The lei I gave you, that brought
to year room, the night my uncle
died. The lei that you wore when
you went to see him. The lei that
broke, and still lay scattered all over
the 6oor when I found him sitting
there, dead"
''Ysu mean-you mean-you've
thought all this time"
'.I picked up the lei; I opened the
windows, and let the wind sweep
away the smell of ginger flowers,
and said nothing. I even respected
your ewn silence, and said nothing
TO yea"
ST think" Karen said, 81 could
have forgiven anything in the world
but that. This is too much, Dick. "
'You see,'" Dick said, 81 believed
m yeu-I believed in you as ]
haven't believed in anything since ]
can remember. God help me, I be-
ieve in you yet! But l can't any
longer believe that you are for me. -
"No," Karen said, her voice
strange and shaky, mot for you.
Never for you again."
"Again? You never were!"
when you came for me, and ]
ran away with you, from the Seal
I belonged to you as much as III
ever belong to anybody. More, per.
haps. Even when your-when Lii
VA turned up in your cabin, in that
savage, half-naked rig, I was dis
gusted and hurt, but I would have
got ever it, I think. Only-I didn't
know you then"
''You think you know me now?'
''As well as I ever care to, Dick.
When the Holokai was anchored
again in Alakoa's little bay, Dicl
Wayne had Karen rowed back to the
Seal from which he had taken hel
such a little while before. They
had been gone less than two hours
vet the circumstances under which
he had brought her to the Holoka
from the Seal seemed so far away
that they might have existed in an
other world.
AS she left the Holokai he offeret
her a steadying hand, to help he
into The small boat, but she stepped
down lightly without his help, hardl,
elancing at him. They had nothing
to say to each other as she left.
The Holokai's boat had hardly lief
her side when Alakoa's shore launcl
put out from the dock, bringing
the doctor for whom Dick had ra
diced. The same japanese physi
clan who had attended Jane
Wayne came aboard the Hole
kai briskly, looking as gravely wor
ried as his round moon of fac
would permit. Dick took him beloy
at once.
Lilua was resting more quietly
now, under the detachedly watchfu
eyes of the Chinese mess boy an
the Filipino cook.
''This girl has been stabbed,
Dick told DR.. Shimazu shortly
Every little has been done. DON
leave her until she can properly b
moved"
The japanese, evidently interest
ed by the notion that Dick Nigh
have stabbed the girl himself, CAV
Dick Wayne shrewd and curiou
look, but without learning anything
and Dick went on deck.
Garrett Waterson's vessel wa
standing in by now. Already tn
mournful blasts of her whistle wer
calling for a pilot. Dick Wayn
dropped oversize into the launch
drove it out of the bay in shor
cut through the boil of the break
ers, and went aboard the Sarah
A stocky Norwegian with curl
brown beard-his name was Stab
quist-met him at the rail, an
paced beside Dick as he went to tn
wheel.
might as well kick her on in,
Stahlquist said gloomily. ''The Oh
Mans in another fever siege
wouldn't know you probably, even
you could get him awake"
''How longs he sick?"