Page:Off For Hawaii.djvu/145

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A STORM IN THE VALLEY.
131

a good fellow as she supposed, but thought it best to say nothing on the point. Presently Oliver leaned over toward me and, when the girl's back was turned for an instant, whispered: "Shall I ask her if she knows Koloa?"

"Yes, but don't say too much," I whispered in return.

"By the way, you haven't said why you are out here," said Cora Soule, as she ordered in some extra coffee for Dan, who had already had two cups—but then that coffee tasted immense after that night in the rain.

"Oh, we came out partly to see the sights," said Oliver carelessly. "We also wanted to meet a fellow named Joe Koloa, but we didn't find him."

"Joe Koloa! I know him," returned the girl. "He worked for papa a short time."

"Is that true?" cried Oliver. "If you won't mind I would like to know what sort of a man he is."

"He's a very strange sort of a creature," was the answer. "He has had some education, but it seems to have turned his head. Sometimes he goes around in the wildest sort of fashion, swinging his arms like a windmill and saying he is going to be rich—that he is going to own the biggest pearls in the world."

"We heard about some of his doings," put in