Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-10-27
CHAPTER VII

again. She again tested the latch.
1t held.
When she was awakened in the
morning, by the phone ringing, the
door was open again, but no longer
banging, because the ship had
stopped rolling.
She waited for Amber to answer
it, but Amber did not awaken. She
was lying on her back. Her face,
in the clear, cold light of early
morning, was shocking. All color
was drained from it, and it was COM
pletely relaxed. Her mouth was
open little and she seemed hardly
to be breathing. Fascinated by what
she saw, Zorie stared. 1t was not
now the face of ruthless, imperi-
Gus girl, but that of a girl with no
Illusions, no faith, no hope.
Zorie snatched up the phone as it
started to ring again.
The admiral's voice said heartily:
Good morning, Zorie, good morn
ing! It's beautiful day-a fine day
for work-hm? What do you say we
get to work as soon as you've had a
bite Of breakfast"
"All right" Zorie said in her me-
lodiously meek voice.
She found the dining-room, which
was almost empty-it still lacked
eighteen minutes of eight a. inland
a steward directed her to a small
table against the wall.
The walters did not seem to have
much to do, but it was a long time
before one of them came to her
table. He looked insolent, and when
he asked for her order, he was al
most rude.
She presently felt eyes staring at
her. She glanced up. At table
two removed from hers sat the man
with scrubby red hair and powerful
sloping shoulders-the man she had
seen last night outside her room
lighting a cigarette and, later, at
the Palm Room bar with Winthrop
Lanning
His stare was so absorbed that it
did not disconcert him when her
eyes met his. They were express
sionless. His long dark face was
expressionless. He was searching
and searching her face. It was not
admiration. 1t was the most intense
concerted inquiry.
Zorie felt the heat of embarrass-
ment and resentment flash into her
cheeks. She looked away. A waiter
brought him his breakfast Its main
dish was a large thick steak. He
carved it and ate it with a ravenous-
ness that appalled, her. His express
sion was bestial. He ate swiftly,
boiling the steak, gulping his coffee.
Now and then he stared at Zorie.
He presently lighted a cigarette, got
up and left.
Zorie was finishing her cold coffee
when Paul came in and sat down in
the empty chair across from her
He looked as if he hadn't slept we'll.
He was haggard and gray and his
eyes had the blurred look of suffer-
ing.
Darling, look" he said. "I'm
terribly sorry about last night, but
this whole thing goes much deeper
than you may suspect. l admit I'm
jealous of Steve. I've always been
jealous of him. But it isn't just that.
I know that you haven't had much
experience with his kind. and I was
SO afraid he'd turn your head"
He looked at her with a tentative,
hopeful smile. She felt sorry for
Paul; sorry for his unhappy, clever,
analytical mind.
II know how he affects women.
But should have had enough brains
to see then, as l do now, that you're
much too wise, much too fine and
balanced to let a man like Steve
turn your head"
eyes, Paul." she said gravely.
1.-The reason the admiral is so dis
gusted with Steve" Paul went on,
lis that the United States Navy is
a tradition in our family. A Duncan
has been a naval officer in every
generation for hundred and thirty
years. John Paul Jones Duncan, for
whom I was named, was an officer
on a Yankee corvette when he first
saw the Islands.
"There've been Duncans present
at every important American naval
engagement-18l2, the Civil War, the
Spanish-American War, the last war.
My father went down with the In
vincible, you know, at Jutland.
Grandfather, with all his faults, is
damned fine patriot. And he wanted
one of us to carry on the tradition.
IT'S a proud tradition. Won see So
Steve went to Annapolis, and Steve,
in turn, became a lieutenant, jig.
Am I boring you, Zorie?"
NO." she said hastily. "Of course
you aren't boring me-" Her eyes
had no doubt betrayed her. She
was looking inward again. She was
seeing Steve, tall and splendid, on
the bridge of battleship. 1t was
where she had intuitively seen him
when they stood beside the telephone
pole in the rain.
II feel so terribly sorry about it."