The Greatest Works of Earl Derr Biggers (Illustrated Edition). Earl Derr Biggers

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СКАЧАТЬ John Quincy and his aunt were leaving the dining-room after breakfast Kamaikui, stiff and dignified in a freshly-laundered holoku, approached the boy.

      "So very happy to see you safe this morning," she announced.

      "Why, thank you, Kamaikui," he answered. He wondered. Was Kaohla responsible for his troubles, and if so, did this huge silent woman know of her grandson's activities?

      "Poor thing," Miss Minerva said as they entered the living-room. "She's been quite downcast since Dan went. I'm sorry for her. I've always liked her."

      "Naturally," smiled John Quincy. "There's a bond between you."

      "What's that?"

      "Two vanishing races, yours and hers. The Boston Brahman and the pure Hawaiian."

      Later in the morning Carlota Egan telephoned him, greatly excited. She had just seen the Sunday paper.

      "All true," he admitted. "While you were dancing your heart out, I was struggling to sidestep a Cook's tour of the Orient."

      "I shouldn't have had a happy moment if I'd known."

      "Then I'm glad you didn't. Big party, I suppose?"

      "Yes. You know, I've been terribly worried about you ever since that night on the avenue. I want to talk with you. Will you come to see me?"

      "Will I? I'm on my way already."

      He hung up the receiver and hastened down the beach. Carlota was sitting on the white sand not far from the Reef and Palm, all in white herself. A serious wide-eyed Carlota quite different from the gay girl who had been hurrying to a party the night before.

      John Quincy dropped down beside her, and for a time they talked of the dance and of his adventure. Suddenly she turned to him.

      "I have no right to ask it, I know, but—I want you to do something for me."

      "It will make me very happy—anything you ask."

      "Go back to Boston."

      "What! Not that. I was wrong—that wouldn't make me happy."

      "Yes, it would. You don't think so now, perhaps. You're dazzled by the sun out here, but this isn't your kind of place. We're not your kind of people. You think you like us, but you'd soon forget. Back among your own sort—the sort who are interested in the things that interest you. Please go."

      "It would be retreating under fire," he objected.

      "But you proved your courage, last night. I'm afraid for you. Some one out here has a terrible grudge against you. I'd never forgive Hawaii if—if anything happened to you."

      "That's sweet of you." He moved closer. But—confound it—there was Agatha. Bound to Agatha by all the ties of honor. He edged away again. "I'll think about it," he agreed.

      "I'm leaving Honolulu too, you know," she reminded him.

      "I know. You'll have a wonderful time in England."

      She shook her head. "Oh, I dread the whole idea Dad's heart is set on it, and I shall go to please him. But I shan't enjoy it. I'm not up to England."

      "Nonsense."

      "No, I'm not. I'm unsophisticated—crude, really—just a girl of the Islands."

      "But you wouldn't care to stay here all your life?"

      "No, indeed. It's a beautiful spot—to loll about in. But I've too much northern blood to be satisfied with that. One of these days I want dad to sell and we'll go to the mainland. I could get some sort of work—"

      "Any particular place on the mainland?"

      "Well, I haven't been about much, of course. But all the time I was at school I kept thinking I'd rather live in San Francisco than anywhere else in the world—"

      "Good," John Quincy cried. "That's my choice too. You remember that morning on the ferry, how you held out your hand to me and said: 'Welcome to your city—'"

      "But you corrected me at once. You said you belonged in Boston."

      "I see my error now."

      She shook her head. "A moment's madness, but you'll recover. You're an easterner, and you could never be happy anywhere else."

      "Oh, yes, I could," he assured her. "I'm a Winterslip, a wandering Winterslip. Any old place we hang our hats—" This time he did lean rather close. "I could be happy anywhere—" he began. He wanted to add "with you." But Agatha's slim patrician hand was on his shoulder. "Anywhere," he repeated, with a different inflection. A gong sounded from the Reef and Palm.

      Carlota rose. "That's lunch." John Quincy stood too. "It's beside the point—where you go," she went on. "I asked you to do something for me."

      "I know. If you'd asked anything else in the world, I'd be up to my neck in it now. But what you suggest would take a bit of doing. To leave Hawaii—and say good-by to you—"

      "I meant to be very firm about it," she broke in.

      "But I must have a little time to consider. Will you wait?"

      She smiled up at him. "You're so much wiser than I am," she said. "Yes—I'll wait."

      He went slowly along the beach. Unsophisticated, yes—and charming. "You're so much wiser than I am." Where on the mainland could one encounter a girl nowadays who'd say that? He had quite forgotten that she smiled when she said it.

      In the afternoon, John Quincy visited the police station. Hallet was in his room in rather a grouchy mood. Chan was out somewhere hunting the watch. No, they hadn't found it yet.

      John Quincy was mildly reproving. "Well, you saw it, didn't you?" growled Hallet. "Why in Sam Hill didn't you grab it?"

      "Because they tied my hands," John Quincy reminded him. "I've narrowed the search, down for you to the taxi drivers of Honolulu."

      "Hundreds of them, my boy."

      "More than that, I've given you the first two numbers on the license plate of the car. If you're any good at all, you ought to be able to land that watch now."

      "Oh, we'll land it," Hallet said. "Give us time."

      Time was just what John Quincy had to give them. Monday came and went. Miss Minerva was bitterly sarcastic.

      "Patience are a very lovely virtue," John Quincy told her. "I got that from Charlie."

      "At any rate," she snapped, "it are a virtue very much needed with Captain Hallet in charge."

      In another direction, too, John Quincy was called upon to exercise patience. Agatha Parker was unaccountably silent regarding that short peremptory cable he had sent on his big night in town. Was she offended? The Parkers were notoriously not a family who accepted dictation. But in such a vital matter as this, a girl should be willing to listen to reason.

      Late Tuesday afternoon Chan telephoned from the station-house—unquestionably СКАЧАТЬ