Part 45 (1/2)

The questions multiplied with the smoke-wreaths and in the blue haze which enveloped hiible suspicions gradually crystallizing into three funda pulled off at Diablo Rock and Bandrist were back of it The isolation of the island was threatened by the increasing activities of the American fleet in that vicinity Mascola's opportunity was only a ory's frown deepened What Rock and Bandrist were doing at Diablo concerned him in itself, not at all In so far as it related to Mascola's interference, however, it was all-important Mascola was the one man who stood between him and his cherished dreained, would it not be pursuing a ”cart before horse” policy to continue his expensive militant opposition to the Italian? Why not fathom the motive which lay behind Mascola's action? If Diablo held a secret, the guarding of which threatened his business existence, why should he not as an American citizen take the initiative and----

His meditations were disturbed by a soft tap on the office door dickie Lang entered

”I knew I'd find you here,” she said ”Sray I've coo on like this Forget for a while and co a mussel-bake on the beach and they've sent for you If you have ever eaten kelp-baked runion should run to-night too, and I want you to see theh his tousled hair and shook his head

”I' for a radio froirl interrupted ”It won't take one of the boys five one” She came closer and placed a hand on his arm ”Please coory had no alternative Leaving ith one of the night men to send him any radio despatch at once, he followed dickie to the beach, where the service ory sank to the sand beside the dark mound of dampened kelp and watched the operations of the chef as he busied hi the heavy pieces of canvas which covered the sea-grass

”It's nature's fireless-cooker,” explained the girl as she took her place beside hi in an oven like that if you kno It's sih too All you have to do is to scoop out a hole in the sand and line it with rocks to hold in the heat Then build your fire and let it burn for a couple of hours to get a good bed of coals Cover them with a thin layer of damp kelp and put in the potatoes Another layer of sea-weed, then the roasting-ears After that come the fish, wrapped in paper Then the et the with a lot of heavy kelp and batten it doith a big piece of canvas The whole trick is knowing just when to open the oven Nothing can burn so it's better to leave it too long than to try to hurry things”

Gregory took the tin-plate, piled high with its s delicacies, and leisurely freed a succulent mussel from its shell As he placed it in his enuine pleasure and the anxious lines slowly disappeared from his face

”What do you think of theasp his appreciation dickie s contents of his plate He looked like a newlike a et their troubles

About the dying drift-wood fire, the service

”There's a long, long trail a-winding Into the land of my dreams”

As their voices rose above the dull boohts turned to the words of the song The trail had been long How long and how devious, he had never quite before realized Perhaps it was because he was tired and the firelight made him think The ”land of his dreams”

was still far ahead Blocked fro which lay like a dark shadow across the path

”_Over there Over there_”

He started and looked involuntarily toward the phosphorescent line of breakers Over there? Once it hadBeyond the gleaed shore-line of El Diablo

”And on't coory's eyes narrowed When ”it was over, over there,” perhaps it would be over everywhere Then, and only then, would he reach ”the land of his drealad that she could not read his thoughts concerning the end of the long trail

”What were you thinking of, just then? I never saw you look like that before”

It was the eternal feory shook his head ”I never did look like that before,” he said

”Because I never thought quite that far So”