Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/202

 any such crashing news as this. The message, flashed from Honolulu, finally reached the Kyoto Maru when the news had nearly returned whence it came. For the big Japanese liner was only three days away from Yokohama now, swinging steadily across the last blue reaches of the Pacific.

A steward brought the message to where Mr. Bolliver and Jane sat over their luncheon. Mr. Bolliver put on his glasses and lifted the slip of paper, where the words which had raced so far to reach him stared up blackly. With admirable restraint he folded the paper and put it, without haste, into his pocket. He picked up his fork and went on eating, with no notion of what was on his plate.

"What was it?" Jane asked, her eyes steadily on his face.

"Business," said Mr. Bolliver; "troublesome business, my dear."

"I can't tell her now," he muttered later, striding fiercely up and down the deck. "Shanghai may have better news. There'll be time before then for much to happen. And if she must know, the tidings will be no more terrible then than now."