I hadn’t heard from Huntington for a long, long time. But he did some work for me in the past.”
“What’s going on, Dad? And what was all that about a letter?”
Thomas Brewster sighed. “Oh, the letter. Forget you ever heard about it. Dr. Weber told me Jim Huntington was lost at sea sailing up to Hawaii from New Zealand. Got caught in a terrific storm, and his sloop sank. He was able to send a radio signal of his position, but Weber said a sea and air search has failed, so far, to discover any trace of Huntington or his sloop.”
“Gee, that’s really too bad. Do you know why he wanted to see you and Dr. Weber?” Biff asked.
“I have an idea. And if what I think is true, then Jim Huntington’s loss is a very real one for the whole world.”
“I heard you mention there might be danger – ” Biff stopped. A spark of excitement flashed across his face. His blue eyes lighted up.
“Danger, Biff? Well, we’ve been in tight spots before. You, in China, and with me in Brazil.” Tom Brewster paused, then said slowly, “There’s always an element of danger in the work we do for Ajax.”
Biff, his face serious, nodded his head. He was thinking of Hawaii, our fiftieth state. What danger could there be there?
The telephone operator at the Royal Poinciana Hotel on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, looked up as her luncheon relief came into her small room.
“Hi. Am I ever glad to see you! I’m just about starved. I’m on a diet. Not for much longer, though. Hey, something funny’s going on. That old gent in suite 210. Made a stateside call just now and didn’t hang up when he finished. Imagine! He left the phone off the hook. I’ll tell a bellboy to hop up there when I go out.”
CHAPTER III
Worried Twins
Although he didn’t want to show it, eleven-year-old Ted Brewster was just as excited as his sister over the call from Honolulu. He slipped quietly over to the door of the study. He wanted to know what the call was all about. He got there just in time to see Monica ushered firmly out as Biff closed the door behind her.
“Who was it, sis?” Ted demanded.
“Don’t know.” Monica shook her head. “It was just the operator saying she had a call from Honolulu for Mr. Thomas Brewster.”
“You’d better go out and hang up the phone in the kitchen,” Ted ordered.
Monica left the room and returned almost immediately.
“You didn’t listen in?” Ted asked suspiciously.
“Course not! I have very excellent manners. No lady would listen in.”
“Ha,” Ted sneered. “You, a lady? A ’leven-year-old-lady!”
“I’m older than you,” Monica replied.
“Ten minutes older. Call that older? I don’t. And don’t tell me you never listen in. How ’bout yesterday? When I was talking to Peteso? I suppose you didn’t try to listen in then.”
“That’s different. You’re only a kid.”
“A kid!” This was too much. “And what about you? You think you’re so grown up.”
The twins glared at one another. Then, without any reason, glares suddenly turned to smiles, followed by unexplained, uncontrolled laughter. Neither one of the twins could stay angry very long. When their giggles died away, they strained their ears toward the study door.
“Sure is a long call,” Ted said. “Hope nothing’s gone wrong.”
“Gone wrong? What could go wrong, Ted?” Monica’s voice showed her concern.
“I don’t know. But I sure hope that call doesn’t mean we’re not going to Hawaii.”
Now Monica was really worried. “Golly, I just couldn’t bear it. Not to go!”
“Me, too. Biff gets to go everywhere. When do I get to go anywhere?”
“Or me?”
The two sat in silence, thinking how cruel the world was to eleven-year-olds. The Brewsters’ summer cottage on Vineyard Lake – that was nothing. Their speed boat and water skis, they seemed like nothing, too. And their Christmas trip to Florida, visiting their grandparents – what were all those things compared to going to Hawaii? They had been to many places in continental United States, but neither of the twins had ever been out of the country. Well, even if Hawaii was now part of the U.S., they preferred to think they were going to an exotic new land.
That was why, when their father had told them just a week before he was going to take the whole family with him to Hawaii, the twins’ joy knew no limits.
They had known their father was going to Hawaii for a three weeks’ stay. He was to attend an international conference of mining engineers. He was even going to deliver one of the most important speeches at the meeting.
Biff Brewster was the oldest of the three Brewster children. He had gone with his father on several of his explorations. But Biff was sixteen, an age Ted could hardly wait to reach. Biff even had his driver’s license. To Ted, this was the highest goal anybody could hope to reach.
The Brewster family had been having a cookout in their backyard when Mr. Brewster made his wonderful announcement.
“One more week, and it’s off to Hawaii,” he said.
“Is Biff going?” Ted asked.
The children’s father had smiled and turned to Mrs. Brewster. “Let’s pack the small fry and take them along, too.”
“What!” whooped Ted, his hot dog hitting the grass and his lemonade spilling all over his shorts as he leaped to his feet.
“And me? Me? I’m going, too!” Monica hurled herself at her father, her arms circling his neck.
“Easy there, princess. I’d rather have this food inside me, not on the outside.”
Thomas Brewster put his daughter down. He looked into her eager, upturned face. Her hazel eyes sparkled. She had never looked prettier to him, and Mr. Brewster had always thought her the fairest princess of them all. Copper-colored hair framed her oval, pixie face. The summer sun had bronzed her clear skin. Keeping up with her brother Ted had given her a straight, sturdy figure. A nuisance at times, when her spirits shot higher than Pike’s Peak, she was the darling of the family, and had to be squelched only three or four times a week.
“What about it, Ted?” Mr. Brewster said teasingly. “Think your sister ought to come along, too?”
“Sure, Dad. Sure.” was the quick reply. Monica flashed a loving look at her brother.
“All right, if you say so. Okay by you, Mother? And you, Biff?”
“You mean we’re all going?” A look of disbelief crossed Mrs. Brewster’s face.
“That’s right. Time we all had a vacation together. I won’t be too busy at this meeting. And I’m sure we’d all like to visit our fiftieth state.”
Biff followed his father’s words without speaking. He surely felt good, though, about what his father was saying. Biff knew how envious his brother and sister were of the trips he had made. This time, they were going along, too. The whole family! They’d have a swell time. Dad was really tops.
A smile softened Biff’s strong-featured face. His blue-gray eyes lighted up. He moved off the deck chair where he was sprawled and walked over to drape an arm over his mother’s shoulders. He was taller than his mother, with broad, square shoulders. For a sixteen-year-old, Biff was big and husky. He had to be, to have come out of his many adventures unharmed.
“Won’t it be swell, Mom!” he said. “Dad couldn’t have done anything to make Ted and Monnie happier.”
Now, looking at his father’s worried face, Biff wondered if the call from Dr. Weber might mean a change in