The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-01-08

81 don't think you're so very char
liable, either to her or to me. Not
even to yourself"
TO myself"
He was silent.
'She's beautiful, Dick" Karen
said. ST can see that. But I hate
her, Dick. When I look at the dark,
coppery color of her skin, and think
of you touching her-it seems to me
that I can never look at brown
skin again without"
"Stop it! You don't know what
you're saying"
"Well, she is of different color"
"Karen-that girl is your cousin. "
A few seconds passed while she
comprehended that; then she
whirled sharply toward him. "You
mean to tell me"
"You wondered why Lilu' has
charge of the whole house on Ala
koa? You wondered if there wasn't
special answer to that? Well, now
you know the right answer. Lilu' is
Garrett Waterson's granddaughter
just the same as you"
He faced her squarely. Her whole
body seemed to have gone tense,
but for the moment she was unable
to speak; and he never found out
what she would have asked him
first.
From within the ship issued a
thin, small, and somehow distant
sound-unrecognizable and inarticu-
late, but so thoroughly unaccounta-
BILE in the ordinary world of reality
that every figure upon the deck of
the Holokai was instantly struck mo-
tionless. Even the perpetually trot-
ting Inyashi stopped, and stood fro
zen on the swaying deck. They were
waiting to hear if that sound should
come again, once more cutting
through the laboring of the little
ship, and the great, persistent rush
and wallop of the sea.
1t did not come again; but after a
moment Dick knew that what he
had heard was a woman's terrified
scream.
It was Dick himself who burst into
action. He raced aft, sprang into
the ladder well, and in a second
more was in the main cabin, where
he, and Karen, and Lilua had faced
each other such little while ago;
and here he stood, for a moment
balancing to the sea
He didn't see her at first. That
cabin, deep, but narrow as the little
ship, seemed strangely empty; he
had paced alone here a thousand
times, without ever sensing the ut
ter vacancy that was here now. The
door of his little cabin, wedged into
the stern, was Tapping loosely
against its latch-swinging half
open, then banging shut again with
out catching, with the perversity of
all doors. He sprang the length of
the cabin with a furious activity;
and booted that door into its wall
catch, once and for all; but there
was no one in the camped stall
where he usually slept.
Then, turning, he saw her; and
was instantly by her side. LiIua lay
in little crumped heap at the end
of the table, and half under it. He
had seen death many times; but it
seemed to him now that he had new
er seen anyone so utterly ifeless, so
completely slumped into an unut-
terable Oblivion, as Lilua's form
seemed there, dropped like seaweed
left on the beach.
He picked her up in his arms
gently as he could, but so handi-
capped by the Holokai's roll that he
cursed the helmsman for not hold
ing the vessel steadier into the seas.
He got her down onto his own bunk
at last. He kissed her mouth as he
laid her down, then sought the source
of the blood that was staining his
shirt, and the bunk upon which he
had placed her. There was a knife
wound under Lilua's left breast
how deep he could not tell. He
snatched cotton from an emergency
cabinet nailed to the wall, and
crammed it deep into the wound.
She stiffened convulsively when he
did that. It was his first intimation
that she was alive.
He tucked a blanket ever her
tightly, so that she would not be
rolled by the Holokai's pitch, and
stepped to the door. The Chinese
mess boy had appeared uncertainty
from the pantry; Dick seized him.
and pulled him into the bunk room.
ITO BE CONTINUED1