Tessie moved away impatiently, and then came back to kiss Granny's cheek. "Don't you fret, Granny," she said in her turn. "What could that Pracht man do to me?"

"He could kidnap you and turn you over to those cannibals!" Granny tremulously told her of one thing that Pracht could do. "And you heard how they treat rulers they don't like? I declare, Tessie, I wish your Uncle Pete had left those islands to an orphan asylum instead of to you!

It ain't going to be all pleasure being a queen!"

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.

"h.e.l.lo! 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 bra.s.s 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.

"h.e.l.lo, Joe!" she said as soon as she heard his friendly voice over the wire. "This is Tessie!"

"h.e.l.lo, 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 G.o.d, 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.