XV

In spite of her brave words, Tessie did not feel brave when she thought

of Frederic Pracht and his threats. She shivered and turned pale, and

there was a frightened look in her big blue eyes. She wondered if Mr.

Pracht had told her the truth about the islands and the people and their

customs--their barbarous customs.

She suddenly discovered that she knew almost nothing about the kingdom

her Uncle Pete had left to her. She had been a queen for almost a month,

and she had been so busy spending the island revenues that she had

scarcely glanced in her library books. She blushed with shame. Joe Cary,

who had no claim to the islands at all, knew far more about them than

she did. He talked as if the Sons of Sunshine were like the I. W. W. or

anarchists who threw bombs when and where they pleased. Now that she

realized how ignorant she was, Tessie could not understand how she had

been satisfied to know nothing. She had only been interested in spending

the money Mr. Marvin had given her. She had not taken so much as a

minute to learn anything about the history of the islands, nor anything

about the people who lived on the islands. It wasn't right, she told

herself with shame.

"I'm a rotten queen," she confessed to Granny in a disgust so deep that

it colored her cheeks and brought a black frown to her smooth white

forehead. "But I don't have to keep on being a rotten queen." And she

flew to the telephone and called for Marvin, Phelps & Stokes and asked

eagerly for Mr. Douglas--Mr. Gilbert Douglas.

"This is Qu--I mean this is Tessie Gilfooly," she corrected herself with

a shamed little laugh, for in her present humble state of mind she did

not feel that she had any right to call herself a queen.

"Hello! Your Majesty!" chuckled Bert. Tessie could hear him laugh over

the wire, and the hearty chuckle cheered her. "What can I do for you

to-day?"

"You can tell me if you have heard anything about the special

representative from the Sunshine Islands." Tessie quickly told him what

he could do for her. "It seems to me he should be here by now."

"That's a funny thing!" exclaimed Bert. "I just put on my hat to come

over and tell you what we have heard of that very representative. He--"

Bert hesitated and then went on reluctantly--"he is still in the

islands."

"Still in the islands!" repeated Tessie faintly. "Why--why--I thought

he was to come at once!"

"He was captured by a bunch of rebels. Sons of Sunshine they call

themselves," explained Bert slowly. He was finding that it was not

nearly so pleasant to carry bad news as it had been to carry good news.

"My goodness gracious!" cried Tessie. "My gracious goodness! They won't

hurt him, will they? They won't boil him in sh-shark oil?" Her voice

shook as she asked the question, but of course Bert would tell her that

it was ridiculous to think that any one would be treated in such a

savage fashion in these civilized days.

But Bert hesitated. "Well," he said at last, "when you get down to brass

tacks your people aren't much more than savages, Queen Teresa, and they

do things in a savage way. I don't honestly think that they would boil

any one in oil, but you never can tell what cannibals will do. Anyway

the party that is in power--that was your uncle's party, you know, the

same as our republicans, as I understand it--is doing everything to

straighten matters and show the Sons of Sunshine that it will be to the

advantage of the islands if King Pete's will is carried out. I expect

the rebels will free the special representative at once and he will be

along as soon as he can. You're not to worry. You're not on the

islands. You're safe here in Waloo. You haven't anything to worry

about."

"Haven't I?" quavered Tessie. "Did you hear what happened the other

night at the Evergreen banquet? If it hadn't been for Ka-kee-ta, I would

have been kidnaped. The store detective hasn't found out a thing, and

Mr. Kingley thinks I imagined it. But I didn't. I didn't!" she insisted.

"Even if I don't have to worry, I do. I can't help it! Do you know, Bert

Douglas, that I don't know anything about those islands! Not a single

solitary thing!"

"I don't know much!" Bert frankly admitted his ignorance, and he did not

seem ashamed of it, but then Bert was not a king, he was only a lawyer.

"I guess there isn't much to learn. You see, they were almost unknown

until your Uncle Pete was washed up on them and put them on the map."

"You must have papers and things?" suggested Tessie, pinkly ashamed that

she had not asked the question before.

"I'll gather up everything I can find and come right over," offered Bert

eagerly. "Shall I?"

"Do!" begged Tessie. "I just can't wait another minute to learn all

about them!"

She was a little disappointed in the big law firm of Marvin, Phelps &

Stokes as she hung up the receiver. Surely some one in the office should

have known about the property of a client. She didn't believe that the

lawyers knew as much as Joe Cary. Joe! She took the receiver from its

hook again and asked Central to give her the Evergreen, please. When

Central at last reluctantly connected her with the big department store,

she breathlessly demanded Joe Cary.

"Hello, Joe!" she said as soon as she heard his friendly voice over the

wire. "This is Tessie!"

"Hello, Tess! What do you want me to do?" For experience had taught Joe

that when Tessie called him up it was because she wanted him to do

something.

"I want you to come right over and tell me everything you know about

these Sons of Sunshine!" Her voice quivered as she spoke of the Sons of

Sunshine.

"What do you mean?" asked Joe sharply. "What have they been trying to do

now?"

"My goodness!" Tessie was frightened. "You don't really think there are

any of them in Waloo, do you? I thought you were jollying when you said

the man who tried to take me from the Evergreen banquet was a Son of

Sunshine. I never believed there were any of them in Waloo!" Her teeth

chattered, and cold fingers seemed to be running up and down her spine.

"I don't jolly about serious things. I honestly believe that the man you

found on the porch that night was a Sunshiner, and I am just as sure

that the man who tried to rob you at the banquet was one, too. I can't

prove it, and the store detective laughs at me, but I know I am right.

Don't have anything to do with them, Tess. They're brutes! They wouldn't

stop at anything!"

"I know!" impatiently. "And I'm scared to death, Joe Cary! I wish you'd

come right over and tell me what you know!"

"I'll run up this evening."

"You tell Mr. Kingley I want to see you right away, and he'll let you

come right away," guessed Tessie. She would die if she had to wait until

evening.

"I shan't ask any favors of old Kingley," Joe told her stiffly.

"Oh, Joe!" Her breath caught in a sob. "Not when I ask you? Please,

please? I'm frightened!" Her quivering voice told him how frightened she

was.

"All right!" he said quickly. "I'll come over, but for heaven's sake

keep your shirt on and don't lose your head!"

"I don't want to lose my head," she agreed meekly. "That's why I want

you to come right over. And, Joe, you're a darling!"

"Oh, am I?" gruffly. "We'll see about that!"

The information Bert gathered proved to be most unsatisfactory to

Tessie. It only told about Uncle Pete's will and certain properties

which he possessed in the Hawaiian Islands. There was scarcely a word

about the people or the politics of the Sunshine Islands.

"You don't know as much as I do," complained Tessie, as she pushed the

papers aside. She looked at him, and disappointment was written all over

her face.

"No, I don't suppose I do! You've had Ka-kee-ta to tell you things. But

I say, you're not really worrying, are you? You needn't because we are

all going to stand by you. Mr. Marvin said the other day that he rather

thought he would send me along when you go to the islands to see that

everything is all right."

"Bert Douglas!" She stared at him and a little of the worry slipped from

her eyes. "How perfectly wonderful! And perhaps Mr. Kingley will send

Mr. Bill! Mr. Bill told me last night. His father wants him to look over

the islands. With you and Mr. Bill everything will be perfect!"

"Sure to," agreed Bert, although he did look a trifle disappointed when

he heard that Mr. Bill was to be a member of the royal party.

But Joe Cary was not so sure that Bert and Mr. Bill would make

everything all right for Tessie. He shook his head.

"You have to remember that you will not be dealing with civilized

people, Tessie," he said frowningly. "Oh, yes, some of them are

civilized in a way, but from what I hear your Uncle Pete was as big a

savage as any of them. He did build a church and import a missionary,

but when the missionary disappeared he didn't send for another."

"What became of the missionary?" Tessie was afraid of the answer. Her

red lips lost their color as she asked for it.

"Just as well not to ask too many questions," suggested Joe. "No one

ever heard. He just disappeared. The Sons of Sunshine were organized to

fight your Uncle Pete's revolutionary ideas, you know. Old customs was

the war-cry. And they swear they will never have another white ruler.

There is something back of it all that I can't get hold of yet and it

means trouble. Your Uncle Pete should have known better than to have

left you such a mess. His money was all right, but he didn't need to

leave you his troubles. The natives will never accept you as their

queen!"

"Ka-kee-ta did," Tessie tearfully reminded him.

"Ka-kee-ta was your Uncle Pete's tool and slave. He thought your Uncle

Pete was a god, but I expect at heart Ka-kee-ta's still a savage. Don't

you trust him. Hang it all! I wish you'd refuse to have anything to do

with the darned old islands! I'm afraid for you!" And when Joe Cary was

afraid, there was real cause for fear.

"I'm afraid too!" gulped Tessie, and impulsively she told him about

Frederic Pracht and his offer and his threat.

"There it is!" exclaimed Joe. "They've begun, you see, and nobody knows

where they will stop. They won't come out in the open. They fight in the

dark. Tessie, you're so little and helpless and sweet!" His hand shot

out to close on her fingers. "You can't fight them!"

But the touch of his fingers gave Tessie courage to stop whimpering and

sit up straight. "I can!" she insisted, her head high. "I'm Irish, you

know, Irish enough not to give in until I know I'm beaten. And I trust

Uncle Pete. He wouldn't have left me the islands if he hadn't thought I

could manage them. And I'll have Granny and Johnny! And Bert Douglas is

going with us! And so is Mr. Bill! We ought to be able to handle a lot

of ignorant natives!"

"Bill Kingley! Bert Douglas! What do they know about the Sunshine

Islands? I suppose I'll have to go, too, Tessie! I can't let you take

your old Granny without me! She's been too good to me," he explained.

"Are you going to take Norah Lee, too?" He seemed to want to know just

who would compose the party. He looked at her eagerly when he spoke of

Norah.

"Of course. I'll have to have some one to answer my letters. It will be

splendid to have you, Joe! I shan't worry another minute. You are such

a comfort! Before you came I was scared to death, but now--" She caught

his hands and squeezed them. "It's such fun to be a queen, Joe," she

whispered, all her fears forgotten as she thought of the pleasant party

she was going to take to the Sunshine Islands.

"Is it, little girl?" tenderly.

"Is it! You know I never had anything in all my life until Uncle Pete

died, and then in a flash I stopped being nobody and was somebody. I

should say I was somebody! Old Mr. Kingley never knew I was on earth

until I became a queen, and now he has given me a banquet and unlimited

credit, and Mrs. Kingley invited me to dinner, and Ethel Kingley has

asked me to join her bridge club, and Mr. Bill--Mr. Bill is here all the

time!" She flushed as she spoke of Mr. Bill.

"You like Bill Kingley, don't you, Tessie?" he asked gently.

The color in Tessie's cheeks deepened. "Of course I like him," she said

frankly. "I adored him before I ever knew him and now--" She raised her

head and looked at Joe. "He's so kind and interested," she explained

softly. "He thinks it's awfully jolly for me to be a queen."

"He would!" Joe was rather scornful of Mr. Bill's thought. "He hasn't

sense enough to see that thrones are nothing but targets now. It may

have been all right in the old days to have kings and queens, Tessie,

I'm not questioning the past, I'm too busy with the present and the

future, but it isn't all right now. The people don't need them. You

shouldn't be proud and happy to be a queen. You should be angry and

indignant!"

"Why, Joe Cary!" There was no doubt that she was indignant and angry,

but it was not because she was a queen. "How can you talk like that? The

idea! The very idea! I asked you to help me and if you only insult me--"

She turned away so that he would not see the tears which filled her

eyes.

"Oh, Tessie! Silly little girl!" His arm was around her. "I wouldn't

hurt you for the world, but I have to tell you the truth. I can't lie to

you the way other people do! I can't do it! I think so much of you,

little Tessie! I hate to have you even play you are a queen!"

She pulled herself free and stared at him. "Play!" she cried furiously.

"Play! I am a queen, Joe Cary, and you know it! Just because I've known

you for years and years is no reason why you--you--" She was so angry

that she could not say another word. She could not look at him either

for the tears overflowed her eyes. "I wish you'd go!" she managed to

stammer.

Joe never thought of going. He had a shamed sort of feeling as if he had

broken a little girl's doll, and he took Tessie in his arms again and

kissed the tears from her soft cheeks.

"Tessie!" he murmured. "Little Tessie!"

She could feel the hard beat of his heart under her head. She had never

supposed a man's heart would beat like that. Her own heart often thumped

more madly, but a man's heart was different. She pushed him away. Joe

Cary need not think that he could say the things he had said to her and

then kiss her and expect her to forget his hard words. How dared he kiss

her when he talked as he did! She was a queen! She was! And men didn't

kiss queens! Men had been killed for less than Joe had done.

"Joe Cary," she began angrily, but he would not let her say another

word. He closed her lips with the palm of his hand.

"Give it up, Tessie," he said breathlessly, swept from his feet by the

soft sweetness of her lips. "Give up this ridiculous fairy tale and----"

"Why, Joe Cary!" She pushed him away, all wide-eyed astonishment. "Stop

being a queen! The idea! I want you to know that I like being a queen!

And I'm not afraid now! Not a bit! I don't care that for the Sons of

Sunshine!" And she snapped her fingers at the rebels.

Joe looked at her and thought how dear and sweet and childish she was.

If she were ten years old she could be no more unreasonable.

"I hope you'll always feel that way," was all he said, for he understood

perfectly that nothing he could say would influence her now. He would

have to leave it to Fate to show her what it meant to be the queen of

half a dozen islands filled with savages.

It was not altogether Tessie's fault that she was so unreasonable and

turned such a deaf ear to his plain, practical words. When Mr. Bill came

in a few moments later, he did not scold Tessie and tell her that she

was a little fool to think that she was a queen. Mr. Bill took her hand

and raised it to his lips.

"Queen Teresa!" he murmured adoringly.

Tessie shot a triumphant glance at Joe before she went to put on her

wrap, for she and Mr. Bill were going out to dine.

"At the Kingleys," she told Joe with shining eyes, for a month ago

Tessie never thought that Fate could ever arrange matters so that she

would dine at the Kingleys as an honored guest. But the Tessie of a

month ago was not the Tessie of to-day, not a bit. No wonder the

Kingleys, even Mrs. Kingley, now looked at her admiringly and made much

of her.

When she came back with her rose wrap floating from her shoulders, her

face rosy, too, and her eyes as bright as stars, even Joe had to look at

her in admiration. But he groaned as well as admired. What was going to

happen to little Tessie! Granny shook her head at another new frock,

although that famous blind man on his galloping horse could have seen

that she was peacock-proud of her granddaughter.

"Don't forget Ka-kee-ta," she said to Tessie, as if Ka-kee-ta were a

pocket handkerchief and must not be forgotten.

"Oh, Ka-kee-ta!" Tessie stamped her satin slipper. "I wish I could lose

Ka-kee-ta! I hate to have him always at my heels!"

"It's part of the price of being a queen," Joe said gently.

Tessie looked at him and frowned sulkily. "I'm not going to pay anything

to-night!" she said sharply. "I shan't take Ka-kee-ta! Come," she held

out her hand to Mr. Bill. "We'll go out the other way, and he'll never

know but I'm in here. I just can't be bothered with him to-night. It's

so stupid to have a bodyguard when I have you." She smiled at Mr. Bill.

"You bet it is!" stammered Mr. Bill, holding her fingers tight in his

big paw.

Granny watched them slip away, and then she turned to Joe.

"She's just a foolish little girl," she said, as if she were thinking

aloud.

"She'll make a grand woman," prophesied Joe, and he sighed, also.

"That may be." But Granny did not seem quite as sure as Joe that Tessie

would make a grand woman. "What's going to change her, Joe?" she asked

curiously. "What's going to change a silly little girl into a grand

woman?"

"Love," Joe told her boldly and valiantly.

"Love!" Granny repeated the word. "That may be, Joe. Love does strange

things. Maybe it can change Tessie. Understand, I don't blame Tessie,

Joe. The poor little thing never had anything in all her life until now.

No wonder her head is turned. But maybe love can turn it right again."

"It can!" insisted Joe. "Love is the strongest force in the world, you

know, Granny. It is nothing for love to straighten a pretty girl's head.

It's this queen business that bothers me, Granny. This fool queen

business! What do you think about it, anyway?"

Granny snorted contemptuously. "I'm beginning to think that my son Pete

died as big a rascal as he lived." Granny did not mince words when she

told Joe what she thought. "And that's saying a good deal. I don't like

these Sunshine Islands, Joe, and if I have my way, we won't stir a step

toward them. I'm afraid of the savages, but I'm not telling Tessie that.

Every girl dreams some day she'll be a queen and now that my girl really

is a queen, I'm not the one who'll tell her she was better off when she

was selling aluminum in the Evergreen."

Joe squared his shoulders as if he put a burden on them.

"Well, I will," he said stoutly. "I don't believe in deceiving people

even for their own good."

Granny looked at him admiringly, but there was something more than

admiration in her faded eyes. Was it pity? "You always were a brave boy,

Joe Cary," she said. "And you're young enough to believe in yourself.

But girls are different from anything you've met yet. You've got to

handle them different. But what's the use of an old woman like me

talking to you? You'll have to find out things for yourself."

"Yes," agreed Joe proudly. "I'm the kind that has to find things out for

himself."

"Stay and have dinner with me?" asked Granny with cordial hospitality.

"Now that Tessie's gone to Kingley's and Johnny's at that Boy Scout camp

I'll be all alone if you don't stay."

"Where's Norah Lee?" Joe questioned carelessly, but he flushed a bit.

"We can ask Norah, too," Granny told him quickly. "She don't often stay

for dinner. She's a great help to Tessie, Joe, but Tessie pays her good

wages so I suppose Tessie is a help to her, too."

"That's the way it works out. When a fellow helps you you help him, too.

And Norah would be a peach if she wasn't all for business."

"That's just--what was the word we heard so much about during the war?

Camouflage? That's just camouflage, Joe. No girl is all for business on

the inside even if she is on the outside. You take my word for it that

inside a girl is all for romance. That's the way the good Lord made

girls." And she nodded her pepper-and-salt head knowingly.

"I wonder!" Joe said eagerly, and he looked at Granny as if he would

like to believe her.

"I know!" declared Granny. "And now I'll go and ask Norah Lee if she

wants to eat with us, and then we can talk about these islands of

Tessie's some more. I didn't know until to-day that a man could have

more than one wife in the Sunshine Islands. The old king, Pete's friend,

had three. It makes me wonder about Pete. But there's one thing sure,

Joe Cary, Tessie shan't have but one husband. I don't care anything

about their old customs!"