mean?' he went on, still more timidly. 'It's a
joke, isn't it? John, here's my hand. If I were a leper would I offer
you my hand? Am I a leper, John?'

"He held out his hand, and what in high heaven or hell did I care? He
was my friend. I took his hand, though it cut me to the heart to see the
way his face brightened.

"'It was only a joke, Lyte,' I said. 'We fixed it up on you. But you're
right. It's too serious. We won't do it again.'

"He did not laugh this time. He smiled, as a man awakened from a bad
dream and still oppressed by the substance of the dream.

"'All right, then,' he said. 'Don't do it again, and I'll stand for the
drinks. But I may as well confess that you fellows had me going south
for a moment. Look at the way I've been sweating.'

"He sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he started to step
toward the bar.

"'It is no joke,' Kaluna said abruptly. I looked murder at him, and I
felt murder, too. But I dared not speak or strike. That would have
precipitated the catastrophe which I somehow had a mad hope of still
averting.

"'It is no joke,' Kaluna repeated. 'You are a leper, Lyte Gregory, and
you've no right putting your hands on honest men's flesh--on the clean
flesh of honest men.'

"Then Gregory flared up.

"'The joke has gone far enough! Quit it! Quit it, I say, Kaluna, or
I'll give you a beating!'

"'You undergo a bacteriological examination,' Kaluna answered, 'and then
you can beat me--to death, if you want to. Why, man, look at yourself
there in the glass. You can see it. Anybody can see it. You're
developing the lion face. See where the skin is darkened there over your
eyes.

"Lyte peered and peered, and I saw his hands trembling.

"'I can see nothing,' he said finally, then turned on the _hapa-haole_.
'You have a black heart, Kaluna. And I am not ashamed to say that you
have given me a scare that no man has a right to give another. I take
you at your word. I am going to settle this thing now. I am going
straight to Doc Strowbridge. And when I come back, watch out.'

"He never looked at us, but started for the door.

"'You wait here, John,' he said, waving me back from accompanying him.

"We stood around like a group of ghosts.

"'It is the truth,' Kaluna said. 'You could see it for yourselves.'

"They looked at me, and I nodded. Harry Burnley lifted his glass to his
lips, but lowered it untasted. He spilled half of it over the bar