The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1942-02-19

Steadily, unhurried, controlled
there was nothing in John Colts
voice to indicate that he knew what
it was to doubt. Yet, somehow.
Karen knew with utter certainty that
Colt was shaken-more deeply shak-
en- perhaps than he would have ad-
mitted even to himself; and when
Karen saw that, she was oppressed
by gray conviction that John Colt,
gambling for Alakoa, in her behalf,
had irrevocably lost.
It was late in the evening when
Dick dropped anchor in Alakoa's S
little bay, and Immediately was
driven up to the old house high in
the gorges.
His brothers, as he might have
expected, had already retired. 1t
was surprising in how many super
fetal ways they initiated the virtues
of James without ever
seeming to accomplish anything
thereby. Dick did not cause them to
be reused, at once. Instead he sent
for Charles Wong, and with the as
sistance of the efficient Chinese set
about brief survey of the condition
of Alakoa's books.
A careful audit would have been
necessary in order to check through,
with any accuracy, that great array
of his uncle's books which recorded
the financial transactions of Alakoa.
Dick knew what he was looking for,
however; he steamed rapidly
through such of the summaries as
interested him.
The story that those books told
should have pleased anybody, but it
did not please Dick Wayne. He was
hunting for something else, the ex-
istence of which he only suspected,
and to which he was perfectly cer-
tain his brothers had no clue at all.
When he had hunted long time
without result it became apparent
to him that Charles Wong, under
guise of assistance, was in subtle
ways managing to confuse his
search, and bring it to nothing AS
this became definitely evident Dick
Wayne went back and searched
again, and this time found what he
sought. 1t was an inconspicuous
item for the year 1880, easily
brushed over, and obscure in mean
ing when found. It consisted of Moth
ing more than an entry, under mis-
cellaneous operating expense: "Old
debts, $25,000."
The entry was posted where it did
not belong-a practice untypical of
either James Wayne or Charles
Wong, and Dick turned sharply upon
the Chinese.
"What debt was this?"
81 don't know, SIR
"You posted this entry?"
"Yes, / did,"
swell, did you pay out this mon
ey?"
mo, sir; Mr.. Wayne always han
died that item himself"
Always? What do you mean by
that?"
Wong fell silent; but now Dick
Wayne knew where to look for what
he wanted. Hurriedly he checked
back through the books for previous
years. Every year for seventeen
years that same vague item was to
be found, sometimes small, some
times enormous, according to the
way the year had gone. Over that
period of seventeen years almost
100000 stood against that single
vague phrase-"Old Debts" A curl
Gus thing in way; for, as far as
Dicks perfunctory survey of the rec
ords could make out, there had nev-
er been any old debts at all, other
than those meticulously funded and
otherwise disposed.
For the space of a minute Tonga
Dick stared hard at Charles Wong;
and was able to convince himself
that the Chinese knew no more than
he did-and perhaps considerably
less.
Dick dismissed Wong and planted
himself at his uncle's desk. He or
dered coffee, and while Tsura was
getting it for him he sat for time
thinking hard, his eyes covered by
his hands. BY the time his coffee ap-
peared he had made up his mind.
Bring my brothers here" he told
the japanese girl.
Tsura looked at him in a startled
way. His brothers were his elders,
and senior to him in the control of
Alakoa; but he had commanded that
they appear in the same curt tone
that he had ordered coffee.
Eyes, Mister Dick" She whisked
out of the room. Perhaps the Japa-
nese girl was little afraid of the
room itself, since the death of James
Wayne; judging it to be an appropri-
ate hangout for devils.
Dick was finishing a second cup of
coffee before his brothers came.
Good of you to show up" Ernest
Wayne said sardonically.
"I understand, said Willard
Wayne, 'that through your generous
courtesy, Miss Waterson has been a
house guest herein fact slept here
the night Uncle Jim died"
''True," Tonga Dick agreed.
'Tsura, bring two more coffee
cups"
1--WE don't want any Coffee" Err
nest said for them both.
Bring them anyway. Sit down,
you two.'
Willard, who had started to lower
himself into a chair, hesitated in
some annoyance, but gave in. Some
where, early in their childhood,
there must have been a time when
the two elder brothers had domi-
mated Dick by main force of age and
size. and although Dick could not