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Although Mr. Kingley posted a notice where every one could see it, tothe effect that the man who had lost a black string tie at the banquetcould obtain the same by calling at the office and explaining how itcame to be in Ka-kee-ta's fist, no one appeared to claim the silk.Indeed, it was not long before Mr. Kingley and a majority of the gueststhought that Tessie must have imagined that some one had tried to chokeher, in an attempt to steal the Tear of God.
"She was excited!" they said indulgently. "And no wonder! But it isridiculous to think that any one would try to steal the royal jewel,when the queen was surrounded by friends and with her bodyguard and hisax behind her."
"You can't tell friend from foe in the dark, and when you are withfriends you are not looking for enemies," Joe Cary told them bluntly. Hewas perhaps the only one who believed that Tessie was telling the truth,when she said that when the lights went out a strong arm had caught herand pulled her from the table, and then Ka-kee-ta had snatched her andthrust her behind him.
"He can see in the dark!" she insisted with a shiver. "Just like acat!"
"You dreamed it," young Mr. Bill said with a grin. "When the lights wentout you were scared, and screamed, and Ka-kee-ta pulled you behind him.That's the way it was!"
"Was it?" But Tessie was not sure. The clasp of that strong arm had beentoo real for any dream. She could still feel the pull of the fiber thathad held the Tear of God about her neck.
"No, it wasn't!" contradicted Joe. "You are dead right, Tessie. Some onedid try to take your jewel from you."
"How do you know? You were at the other end of the room!" Mr. Billregarded him with scorn, because Joe thought he knew so much when Mr.Bill, who had been sitting right next to Tessie, knew so little.
"I know all right!" There was a confidence in Joe's voice which wasconvincing. "I knew as soon as the fellow touched you, Tess, and I wascoming to you even before you screamed. Ask Norah Lee! I bumped againsther when I jumped up. You know when the lights went on I was at yourplace!"
"That's true!" agreed Granny. "He was just beside me!"
Tessie looked frightened. Her lip quivered. "But why should any one wantto kidnap me?" she faltered. "I haven't done anything!" She looked atMr. Bill, but when he did not tell her, she turned to Joe.
"Yes, you have done something," Joe told her bluntly. "You've becomeQueen of the Sunshine Islands." Trust Joe to find a reason. Joe alwayshad a reason. That was why Tessie had quarreled with him so often. Sheusually hated his reason. "You told me yourself that Mr. Marvin saidthere was a bunch of people, Sons of Sunshine they call themselves, whowant a native ruler. They don't want a white queen. I bet this kidnaperwas a Sunshine Son who wanted that royal jewel, and if he could get youwith it, he would shut you up until you consented to abdicate in favorof a native!" There was a grim, triumphant smile on Joe's lips as heelaborated his reason.
"Such rot!" Mr. Bill was thoroughly disgusted with Joe's reason. It wastoo melodramatic to happen anywhere but on the moving picture screen.
"Oh, Joe!" Tessie whimpered and caught his arm. "Would any one do that?"
"A Son of Sunshine would!" declared Joe. "I say, Tessie, why do you wantto be the queen of those cannibal islands?" He sneered at the islands.
"Why--why I have to be," stammered Tessie, confused by the directquestion. "Uncle Pete left me the islands and made me the queen. Ican't help it, can I?" She appealed to Mr. Bill.
"Of course you can't!" He glared at Joe. How dared Joe insinuate thatTessie could help it. "You can't throw away a kingdom. No one would!"
"Pooh!" sniffed Joe. "Half a dozen islands overrun with nakedcannibals!" It sounded as if Joe had a very small opinion of Tessie'skingdom. "The first thing you know, they'll eat you," he prophesiedgloomily before he laughed. It was so ridiculous to think of any one,even a hungry cannibal, eating little Tessie.
Tessie screamed. Mr. Bill promptly put his arm around her. He turnedfiercely to Joe.
"Look here, Cary!" he began furiously. "Mind your words when you talk tothe queen!"
"Queen!" Joe Cary actually laughed. "Queen!" he repeated.
Tessie pulled herself from Mr. Bill's protecting arm. How splendid Mr.Bill was and how--"Joe Cary!" she gasped, pink with indignation.
"Cary!" exclaimed Mr. Bill, even more indignant than Tessie.
Joe's face sobered as he looked from Tessie to Mr. Bill.
"Pooh!" he said again. "What do kings and queens amount to now? They'rebeing knocked off their thrones pretty fast. Look at Russia and Germany!And at the best, they were never anything but a fairy tale. Keep youreyes on the other countries, on England and Italy and Spain, and someday you'll see things happen there. People are learning that they canpay too much for a figurehead and a pageant. An honest workingman isworth all the kings in the world. You know that, Tess! At least you usedto know it. I told you. And just because your Uncle Pete was washed upon the Sunshine Islands, and was able to stop the Sunshine king'stoothache the king adopted him and left him the islands. As if any onehad the right to will human beings to any man! The natives were fools toaccept him. You know they were! And as for your Uncle Pete, you'll bewise if you don't inquire about his life on the islands. Filthy brute!"Joe quite forgot himself as he talked about kings and queens.
"Why, Joe Cary!" Tessie could scarcely speak. But she could look, andher eyes flashed fire at the man who dared to stand before her and callher royal uncle names. What would Granny say? She was glad that Grannyhadn't heard him.
"Look here, Cary, you can't slander the dead!" exclaimed Mr. Billindignantly. "And keep your mouth shut about things you don't know," headvised curtly.
"Know!" Joe repeated the word scornfully. "I bet I know more about theSunshine Islands than the Queen there!" He nodded at big-eyed Tessie."I've made it my business to know. Every one else has been so wrappedup in the fact that Tess was a Queen that they haven't cared if herkingdom was only half a dozen little islands inhabited by cannibals."
"They're not cannibals now!" declared Tessie.
"They were! Your Uncle Pete was almost eaten by them!"
"They've been civilized and Christianized!" insisted Tessie. "Uncle Billbuilt a church. It has a corrugated tin roof, and when the sun shines onit the natives think it's silver. The Home of the Silver God, they callit. Ka-kee-ta told me!" She flashed an indignant glance at the scoffer.
"That shows how civilized and Christianized they are," laughed Joe. Hewas determined to express his thoughts for at least once. "Your UnclePete built a motion picture theater, too, Tess, and it saved him from arevolution. But once a cannibal always a cannibal. It's in their blood,and it will take more than one generation to get it out. I wish you'dgive up the job. You don't want those islands. You can't live on them!Give them up!"
"Give them up!" Tessie could not believe her own pink ears.
"Give them up!" Mr. Bill echoed the words incredulously.
"You bet! You won't dare live there. The Sons of Sunshine won't let you,and they're right. You don't belong there. Show your sense of truth andright and give them up. Let the natives elect their own ruler. It's theonly fair way," begged Joe.
"I suppose you'd like me to go back to selling aluminum in theEvergreen!" Tessie proved that she could be as scornful as she could besweet and shy. But her scorn did not make any impression on Joe.
"I would!" he declared. "I'd love to see you back there in your littleblack dress earning your own way. And I'd love to have you to walk homewith again. And I'd love to go in to a dinner of Granny's boiled beefand raisin pie again. I'd like to go back to where we were when youheard you were a queen! Can't you see, Tess," he pleaded, "that thereisn't anything in this queen business any more? Come on and give it up!"
"You're a socialist!" stammered Mr. Bill, so amazed at such plainspeaking that he could do nothing but stammer. "You're a rankanarchist!"
Joe tore his eyes from indignant Tessie to stammering Mr. Bill. "If youthink that a hatred of queens--white girl queens--for cannibal islandsis socialism the
n I am a socialist," he said boldly. "What do you knowabout Tessie?" he demanded abruptly. "You never saw her until thismusical-comedy-queen business began."
This was so true that Mr. Bill and Tessie both blushed.
"Well, I see her now," Mr. Bill managed to say. "And I'll help her be aQueen. The idea of asking any one to give up a kingdom! I never heard ofsuch an absurd thing in my life!" It was so absurd that he laughed.
"If she doesn't give it up I'll bet it will be taken from her,"prophesied Joe. "The Sons of Sunshine are after her. And they are afterthe Tear of God, too. You saw that gink on the porch the night Tessheard she was a queen. I'll bet he was a Son of Sunshine! And if youever find anything about that man last night you'll find he was aSunshine Son too, or I'm a goat! The third time he may get to you, andthen you'll remember what I said," he told Tessie gloomily.
But Tessie had pulled herself together, and now she laughed at hisgloomy prophecies. She did not believe them. How could she when Mr.Bill, who knew so much more of the world than Joe Cary, told her thatwhat Joe said was ridiculous. Just what you might expect from a rankanarchist. But she stopped laughing when Joe looked straight into herblue eyes and said very soberly, far more soberly than he had spokenbefore: "But even if you are a fool, Tess, I'll stand by you. I'll helpyou! You can always count on me!"
"Well, upon my word!" gasped Tessie, her eyes following him as he walkedaway. "The idea of Joe Cary talking to me like that!"
"Yes, the very idea," agreed Mr. Bill. "But don't think of it anotherminute! The fellow's cracked. I'll bet Dad doesn't know what a socialisthe is!"
"You wouldn't tell," begged Tessie in a panic, for if Joe lost hisposition in the Evergreen what would he do? He hadn't inherited anisland kingdom and even if he had-- She shook her head. She couldn'tunderstand Joe.
"No, of course I shan't tell!" Mr. Bill spoke loftily, as if Tessieshould have known that he did not tell tales. "Give those fellows ropeenough and they hang themselves. He's so green with envy that he isn't aking that he can't do anything but rant."
"I don't think it was that!" frowned honest little Tessie. "I don'tthink Joe would ever want to be king of any island!"
"Try him!" advised Mr. Bill scornfully. "Just try him. I never knew asocialist to keep on spouting socialistic rot after he had money to buyhim decent food and clothes and a bath. But don't let's talk about him!I'm glad you're a queen. It's the most romantic thing I ever heard, andI'm strong for romance. I used to think there wasn't any left in theworld." He smiled at Tessie, who looked the very flower of romance. "I'mdarned glad you're a queen!" he said fervently.
"I'm glad, too," murmured Tessie, quite ready to forget Joe Cary. "Idon't care what Joe Cary said! And I am going to try and be a goodqueen and do my duty by my people! Be simple and honest, is what MadameCabot said."
"Of course you are! But what is there in this Sons of Sunshinebusiness?" curiously. "Anything?"
"I'm afraid there is!" A little frown broke the pretty curve of Tessie'seyebrows. "It's true. Joe is right that some of the people want a nativeruler. They rebelled against Uncle Pete, but he kept them down. Now thathe is gone they don't want a white queen. They aren't the best people,Ka-kee-ta said," she explained apologetically. "They're the--the lowerclasses. And they haven't seen me! They don't know how I plan to helpthem!"
"They'll adore you the minute they do see you!" declared Mr. Billunsteadily.
"Oh, I hope they will!" faltered blushing Tessie.
"Of course they will! Didn't I?" Mr. Bill caught her hand and squeezedit hard.
The Amazing Inheritance Page 13
