The Bluffton News

THURSDAY. MARCH 5. 1942

SYNOPSIS

CHAPTER I—Karen Waterson, convinced by her lawyer, John Colt, that she has a claim to the island estate and fortune of her grandfather, Garrett Waterson, arrives in Honolulu to attempt to gain control of the property. Here she meets Richard Wayne, or Tonga Dick, as he is known throughout the South Pacific. He is a member of the Wayne family that has been in control of her grandfather's island, Alakoa, since the old man's disappearance. Although Tonga Dick knows who she is, Karen attempts to conceal her identity from him. Dick offers to take her sailing and she accepts.

CHAPTER II—Dick goes to the home of his half-brothers, Ernest and Willard, for a conference regarding their interest in Alakoa. In the course of their discussion it is revealed that the Wayne family obtained the island for a small sum and under the direction of the boys' uncle, James Wayne, it has been developed to where it has assets of around three million dollars. The Waynes are worried that Karen may have a good claim to the island.

CHAPTER III—Next day as Dick takes Karen sailing she learns that he knows who she is and that he is taking her to Alakoa. She wants to go back to Honolulu but he refuses to take her.

CHAPTER IV—Although she is thrilled by the sight of the deep water island, Alakoa, Karen is afraid of what awaits her here. Dick finds that his uncle, James Wayne, is very ill. When Dick sees him, James Wayne is upset over the pending suit for the island and tells Dick he will under no circumstances come to a settlement.

CHAPTER V—Dick tries to get Karen to reach a compromise for settling the status of Alakoa, but she will have none of it and tells him to discuss the matter with John Colt, her lawyer. She also tells him that a native house-girl, Lilua, is romantically interested in him. He laughs this off.

CHAPTER VI—That night during a storm, James Wayne is found dead at his desk. Dick realizes that he has died from overwork but believes some sort of shock must have been the immediate cause. He believes Karen was with his uncle at the time of his death. Dick now decides to take Karen back to Honolulu.

CHAPTER VII—On the way back Dick tells Karen he loves her. They discuss plans for disposing of her claim to the island and she tells him that the matter must be settled with Colt. They quarrel over this and on reaching Honolulu part on unfriendly terms, each decided to make a fight for Alakoa. While Karen is telling John Colt about her experiences with Tonga Dick she discovers that Colt too is in love with her.

CHAPTER VIII—Dick Wayne attempts a compromise with John Colt and when his offer is refused he warns the lawyer that his case is washed up and the end of Karen's Pacific adventure is in sight. Dick then goes to Alakoa and examines the books of the island property and learns that over a long period of time James Wayne had been paying out large sums of money for "old debts."

He calls a conference with his brothers.

Now go on with the story.

"Except possibly," Tonga Dick suggested mildly, "your own untrustworthiness. Though I might add one other secondary reason . . ."

His brothers ignored the insult.

"But of course," Ernest said with sarcasm, "he confided in you."

"I ran into Garrett Waterson while I was knocking around the South Seas," Dick explained. "Later, Uncle Jim found it convenient to have me carry certain messages to Garrett Waterson. That's all there was to that."

"Messages? What messages?"

There was no reason for holding back anything now. He had been employed by old Garrett Waterson on condition of complete secrecy as to Waterson's whereabouts, identity—even his very existence. He had decided to break that pledge, rather than permit John Colt to seize Alakoa in the name of Karen Waterson or anyone else; but now that Garrett Waterson had come into the open of his own accord, that consideration was abolished.

"For a long time I didn't know what messages," Dick told them. "I believe I know now."

They failed to catch him up on that, and the oversight emphasized their bewilderment.

"But why on earth," Ernest demanded, "should he have wished to hide himself? That's the mystery here."

"There's no mystery about it," Dick declared. "The only reasons his actions look mysterious to you is that they were perfectly simple.

Garrett Waterson was always a man of violent temperament. Everything he did was in terms of violent extremes; the projects he attempted, the fights he got into—even his eating and drinking—everything was always on a spectacular scale with him. When he was overtaken by ultimate ruin, his reaction to that was violent too. He left Alakoa, and Hawaii, in a tremendously bitter state of mind. He wanted to get away from the past, and from the part of the Pacific that he knew, and never again see anyone who had known him. And he carried out his attitude in terms of violent extreme, just as he had always done everything else. That's all there was to that.

What's complicated about it?"

"It's fantastic," Ernest declared. "It's completely unreasonable. I never heard of anything like it."

"That's because you never hear of anything that happens in the world outside Alakoa," Dick said. "You don't even take part in the life of Honolulu. If you did, you would know that Garrett Waterson's reaction to his financial collapse is a very common sort of thing. Very often men jump out of skyscrapers, or shoot themselves, or drown. And a great many more just drop from view, and you never hear about them any more. Garrett Waterson was one of those—that's all."

"Dropping from view is one thing," Willard said heavily, "and going to extraordinary lengths to hide yourself, and conceal who you are, is something else."

"Waterson went to extraordinary lengths in everything he ever did."