Rae Soares

“ Rothwell paused for breath and Wilbur languidly remarked, “Anything more connected with this idea of yours?”
“Rodger Wilbur, you are a man who does not deserve the luck which Dame Fortune is laying at your door. You don’t deserve to hear anything about a plan that will pull more in a day than your measly law gives you in a month.”
“Come Rothwell, don’t get angry. Explain yourself a bit.”
“Well, my plan is this; let us go to Honolulu, get the teeth in that valley, bring them back to New York, and sell them as artificial teeth. ”

“ Ito directed her. Long did he gaze after her, and not until a policeman had told him to “move on” did he leave the spot.
“What a beautiful woman,” he muttered. By the way which the young woman arranged her hair Ito knew that she was unmarried. A wild thought flashed through his brain; why not try to get this young woman for his wife? He had forgotten the faithful and patient Hatsu, forgotten [Pg 42] the little baby which he had never seen, forgotten everything connected with his past life, save that he had fallen in love with this beauty. ”

“ José was a recent arrival and had as yet not become acquainted with the ins and outs of a Portuguese grocery store.
“All these stores have a little back room where men may come together for a good time,” replied Manuel with the superiority born of a year’s stay in Honolulu. “The store keepers want to make money (and who does not?) so they put in a barrel of wine in one corner of this little back room, and a table in another. [Pg 71] They propose that a game be played and that the loser treat the crowd to wine. ”

“ Even the ‘goodness’ part would be largely above par in a plain, ugly woman, let alone in a beautiful one. So I’ll take off a few requirements, and if you can find me a woman who is not a flirt even in the strictest sense of the word, and who never has been accused of trying to make a man love her, and, when she has him in that fix, declare that she only ‘likes him,’ and ‘hopes that they’ll always be friends’; if you can find such a woman, I’ll—but you can’t.”
The subject was dropped, and shortly after Andrews left the club. ”

“ In that blessed paradise, I can surely make enough money to support both of us. Then, too, our house will be free of rent; and that is quite a saving.”
Maria was silent, but Gabriel could read in her silence that she, too, was pleased with the prospect which he was painting.
“Had we better get married before the boat sails, or shall we wait until we get to Honolulu?” he asked.
“Oh, let us wait until we get to the Islands, and then we can tell better what lies before us.”
“Let it be as you say,” Gabriel responded, inwardly well pleased that Maria was as enthusiastic about the islands as he was. ”

“ We send in a man with a marked coin to purchase a drink. We usually have him buy a bottle of wine which he brings out to us. Then we go in and arrest the store keeper. We nab the cash drawer, get the marked coin and bring it to court with the bottle for testimony. It’s easy to convict in this way.”
João Pinto, known to the rest of the force as “Long John,” overheard this conversation. Long John was in love with Maria, and Maria was Manuel’s daughter. Supposing that her father should send Maria to sell the wine on the morrow? ”

“ Harris turned and saw a young member of the club who had been present when his challenge had been made. “Hello, George, what woman do you mean?”
“The one walking with old man Roberts.”
Harris looked in the direction which his [Pg 84] friend pointed, then gripped his arm convulsively.
“What the mischief are you gripping me that way for? If all women affect you this way no wonder you say that no beautiful woman is good. But, man, you are pale as a ghost. Are you ill?”
“I am not well. Let’s go to the club.” ”

“ Diana was silent. “Then you still do not love me?” he asked.
“I really do not know,” she replied softly.
Harris started for the door.
“John,” she called.
He left the door and flung himself beside her chair.
“I love you,” she said; “I love, love you.”
It was the same old story, the telling of which [Pg 93] has never made it grow out of fashion. He caught her up and kissed her again and again.
“Won’t Andrews be glad that I am at last to settle down and marry the most beautiful woman on earth?” he asked playfully. ”

“ THE RAID AT PUNCHBOWL here were ten grocery stores within a radius of half a mile from where Manuel Jacinto lived, and all catered to the Portuguese trade. Not enough people lived around there to keep more than two grocery stores in comfortable circumstances, yet the owners of the eight others managed to pay their bills, their yearly license fees, and to put money in the bank.
And Manuel Jacinto was thinking of adding another store to the long string. Others made money so why couldn’t he? ”

“ The next morning, Manuel rose earlier than his usual early hour, and waited for Gabriel.
“Ah, my boy,” he said walking toward the road as Gabriel finally made an appearance, “if you are as slow as that on the plantation, your boss will hurry you up with his big black whip.”
“The bosses do not use whips any more,” Gabriel responded.
“They do not? How do you know?”
“The American said so.”
“The American lies. I have a brother there who went over with the first lot of Portuguese, which left on the Priscilla nearly twenty-five years ago, to Honolulu. ”

“ One week—pau! No pilikia.”
“That’s the only thing we can do I guess,” said Wilbur. “If his daughter is anywhere as pretty as that flower girl we saw yesterday on the wharf, you have no kick coming. Besides I’ll be here every day gathering those teeth. Say, did you notice what a lot of them there are here?”
“More than even I dared hope. Our fortunes are made.”
Between them, the Hawaiian and Wilbur managed to carry Rothwell so that the motion caused but little pain to the wounded leg, and they soon arrived at the grass hut in which the guide and his daughter lived. ”

“ Manuel did not understand what the American was saying, but he made a very good guess and smiled knowingly at Gabriel as he walked up to the registrar.
“Married or single?” he was asked.
[Pg 30] “Single. I intend to marry Manuel’s eldest daughter as soon as we get in Honolulu.”
His remark was translated to the American, who rubbed his hands gleefully. “Better and better,” he said. “There goes a man who will make Hawaii his permanent home. In years to come he will be able to vote and for all we know, some of his children may serve in our legislature.” ”

“ Accustomed to low wages in their own country, they live accordingly. Coming to America, with its higher wages, they keep their old methods of living and save money. It was not surprising, then, that at the end of two years Ito had nearly a thousand dollars in the bank. By careful investments at the end of the third he was the owner of a sum which would accredit him a rich man should he go back to Japan. Should he go back to Japan, or should he remain in America and have his wife come to him? Letters had been but few between them, as Hatsu could neither read nor write. ”

“ The invitation was accepted and Roberts was soon at Ah Pung’s home. It was a pretentious dwelling, for Ah Pung had money. He had married a Hawaiian woman who possessed a large quantity of land. A part of this her husband had sold to enable him to buy opium, and after the second trip, he was counted a rich man.
Ah Pung had a daughter. Though dark-skinned, Kealoha was fair to behold. She had inherited her mother’s Hawaiian beauty, and her only Chinese characteristic shown from her eyes. ”

“ Nobody has seen you. The old fellow up there is asleep and we can get up to Pearl Harbor with this wind before daybreak. Once there, you can remain in hiding ’til night. Then I’ll come and transfer your cargo into the Moi Wahine.”
Capt. Mitchell favored the plan and with the Moi Wahine in the lead, the two schooners sailed to Pearl Harbor, where the Fanny was anchored. The Moi Wahine was sailed back to town and moored at her usual place.
“Nobody will be the wiser, old chap,” he said to Ah Pung. “We’ll stay at home today and tonight the opium will be brought back. ”

“ A CHANGE OF OPINION I. f course it happened at the club. Things of this kind always happen at a club, either because the members feel freer to discuss the weaker sex when they are not around, or because some men think a club the only place for such speeches.
John Harris made the remark, and Walter Andrews, the pet of half the ladies in the town, was its bitterest opposer.
“I do not believe it,” he said vehemently. “You can not make me believe it.”
“Nevertheless, my boy, I repeat; no one ever saw or heard of a really beautiful woman who was good. ”

“ Finally, Ito called his wife and said, “We cannot live in this miserable condition any longer. I have decided to go to America and see what I can do. They tell me that America is a land wherein the poor man may become rich. Raising the soy bean is not hard. I will leave you here to tend to it. In three years or, maybe, two, I shall send for you, and together we shall live in what will resemble former days. If I fail, I shall return.”
[Pg 40] In vain did Hatsu protest that she was just as happy now in the days of want as she had been in the days of plenty. ”

“ Kealoha burst into tears. “You white men are so cruel,” she sobbed out in Hawaiian. “Not [Pg 19] content with defrauding us out of our lands, you wish to keep us from marrying one another.”
Roberts bit his lips. He disliked to see woman in tears. He took her hands in his and said gently, “Kealoha, listen to me.” ”

“ But how are these Hawaiians treating you?”
“As if I were Kamehameha himself.”
“Grub good?”
“A sick man is not particular and seldom wants much grub. They’ve got a sticky substance they call poi, which they use in place of bread that’s great. Try some,” and Rothwell pushed over toward Wilbur a highly polished calabash containing a greyish substance. ”

“ You don’t look like you had enough magnetic power to cure a fly.”
“Nevertheless I have enough to heal your daughter.”
“How did you know that it was my daughter who was ill?” the astonished father asked. “You have only just arrived, haven’t you?”
“I found out it was your daughter who was [Pg 52] ill, by my magnetic power,” Bollinger answered, evading the last question.
“If that don’t beat all!” ejaculated the old man.
“Allow me to see your daughter,” asked the healer. ”

“ THE NEW MAGNETIC HEALER he town had been literally flooded that year with quacks and fakers in the shape of men who either claimed to be able to cure disease in any form, or professed to have some scheme by which men and women could get rich in two weeks. ”

“ Most of them want their money before they begin to work, but this one wants to cure before he gets his pay.”
Meanwhile Camilla was reading her cure not twenty times an hour, but sixty: “Dear Camilla, I love you. Won’t you be mine? Answer me when I come tomorrow,” she read, and she did not wait to say “Yes” the first time to Bollinger himself, but said “Yes” every time she read it.
Dr. Bollinger went to visit his patient very early the next morning to see how the “cure” had worked. Papa Knight met him at the door, his face all aglow with smiles. “By George!” he said, “but you are a wonder. Why! ”

“ The old Hawaiian saw them and knew what they were after. His daughter had told him of the plans and, like her, he objected to having them put to the use which the two strangers planned.
“They shall not do it!” he exclaimed, “they shall not take away the teeth of those brave men.” He followed Rothwell and Wilbur and appeared among them as they were filling their bags with teeth.
“Up higher,” he said, pointing to a smaller precipice, “was where the men of Maui fell. They were noted for their beautiful teeth. My daughter tells me that the haoles are making a [Pg 66] collection of teeth. ”

“ You number one sailor; you take my boat to Waiau now.”
Roberts understood the ruse and got up smilingly from his box and went over to Ah Pung’s rice schooner. The sails were hoisted and the little schooner bounded out of the harbor. Instead of turning to his right, to where Waiau lay, Roberts steered the schooner in the direction of Diamond Head.
In response to the Chinaman’s inquiring look Roberts said, “That government schooner is out somewhere. We’ll have to find out where before we can do anything.” ”

“ His wine was purer, it was older, and it was stronger than the kind the other stores supplied. The players got drunk faster at Manuel’s than they did elsewhere, and more than one fight was fought in that little back room. Finally a man was seriously injured in one of these fights and then the police began to sit up and take notice.
“We’ll raid that place tomorrow night,” said the Sheriff to a friend who brought him news [Pg 72] of the latest escapade for which the wine in Manuel’s place was responsible.
“By the way,” asked the friend, “how do you raid?” ”

“ If the cure fails, I do not want a cent; if it works—but we will talk of the pay later.”
“Queer fellow that,” said the old man to himself as the healer left the house. “He’s different from all the other magnetic healers I’ve heard of before. ”

“ But the manager was cross that day [Pg 99] and of course he said ‘no’; said he’d quit giving passes to people. I told that to Jim and he was dreadfully disappointed; told me he wanted to see the place before he went back to the States. So I went to my engineer and asked him to take Jim as a brakeman. At first he refused, but I insisted, and while we were talking, a kanaka woman came up and said that her Joe wouldn’t be able to work that trip, as he was sick.
“I jumped up and made the engineer promise to take Jim in his stead. ”