Part 31 (1/2)

”Of course I'm not worried about Tessie since she telephoned that she was all right,” went on Norah. She could feel that there was a tension in the office atmosphere, and as she did not understand it she talked nervously. ”I know she is all right, but----”

”How do you know she is all right?” burst forth Mr. Bill. ”She may have been forced to send that message. You don't know that she is all right at all!” He contradicted Norah flatly and rudely.

Joe looked at him in surprise. ”She was all right when she left the cottage,” he impatiently reminded Mr. Bill. ”She was right enough to eat some breakfast and change her clothes. Of course she is all right, and,”

he turned his eyes on Mr. Kingley, who squirmed uneasily. ”I'm inclined to think that Ka-kee-ta is right, that Tessie will be found before the morning edition of the _Gazette_ goes to press. How about it, Mr.

Kingley? Do you agree with me?”

”I hope so. I sincerely hope so,” stuttered Mr. Kingley, who found it very disagreeable to be singled out as Joe had singled him. ”I do hope she will be found long before then.”

”Ka-kee-ta's looking for her now,” Norah went on. ”He didn't wait a second, but went off with the candy under one arm and his ax under the other.”

”Mr. Douglas wants to see Mr. Kingley,” broke in the office boy from the doorway.

”Douglas?” Mr. Kingley looked as if he had never heard of any Mr.

Douglas.

”Bert Douglas from Marvin, Phelps & Stokes,” Mr. Bill told him. ”Send him in,” he said to the boy. ”Perhaps he can tell us something.”

Bert came in with much dignity and importance. He glanced at the little group--Norah and Mr. Bill and Joe--which had formed in front of Mr.

Kingley, and he explained at once why he was there.

”Mr. Marvin sent me over to tell you, Mr. Kingley, that the special representative from the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands, Mr. Pitts, has arrived to confer with Queen Teresa. As you have taken the queen under your protection, he thought you should know at once.”

There was not a sound, but the air was heavy with significance. They all felt it. Joe Cary stepped forward.

”Then there really are Suns.h.i.+ne Islands?” He sounded as if he had never really believed that there were any Suns.h.i.+ne Islands.

Bert looked at him in surprise. ”Of course!” he said. ”The special representative is a white man--James Pitts. He has had charge of King Pete's business affairs. He was on the islands when King Pete died, and then, just as he was ready to leave, the radicals, Sons of Suns.h.i.+ne, they call themselves, you know, locked him up. But he had sent Ka-kee-ta with a lot of important papers to a lawyer in Honolulu, and the lawyer brought him here. Pitts managed to escape and has just arrived. We were glad to see him, for we had so many contradictory messages from him and about him, that we scarcely knew what to think. I suppose they were sent by the radicals.”

Joe stared at him before he drew a long breath, and turned away. ”Mr.

Kingley,” he said impulsively, ”I beg your pardon!”

”I should think you would,” Mr. Kingley told him gruffly.

”All we have to do now,” went on Bert, still rather overfull of importance, ”is to find Queen Teresa, and then we can settle everything up. Mr. Marvin thought perhaps--” He looked suggestively at Mr. Kingley, who hurriedly shook his head and fairly bellowed his reply.

”No, I don't! I don't know where she is! You go right back and tell Mr.

Marvin I don't know! This is all very interesting and very romantic, but it doesn't do my work. If there is nothing I can do for you, I would suggest that I have the morning mail to look over. Send in Miss Jenson,”

he curtly told the boy who ran in to answer his buzzer.

Joe, stalking out behind the others, could not refrain from a last word.

He would have choked if he had not spoken. ”You mean Mr. Gray, don't you?” He grinned sarcastically. ”The _Gazette_ should be told of the arrival of James Pitts, special representative of the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands, whose queen was found in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Evergreen.”

Mr. Kingley regarded him with cold eyes. ”Will you kindly shut the door behind you?” he said so frostily that any thermometer would have registered his temperature as far, far below zero.

XXIV