, though the place was not quite so holy as it had
been. Also, he applauded Isaac Ford for having ignored the outcome of
his one step aside. Very well, he, too, would ignore it.

The dance was breaking up. The orchestra had finished "Aloha Oe" and was
preparing to go home. Percival Ford clapped his hands for the Japanese
servant.

"You tell that man I want to see him," he said, pointing out Joe Garland.
"Tell him to come here, now."

Joe Garland approached and halted respectfully several paces away,
nervously fingering the guitar which he still carried. The other did not
ask him to sit down.

"You are my brother," he said.

"Why, everybody knows that," was the reply, in tones of wonderment.

"Yes, so I understand," Percival Ford said dryly. "But I did not know it
till this evening."

The half-brother waited uncomfortably in the silence that followed,
during which Percival Ford coolly considered his next utterance.

"You remember that first time I came to school and the boys ducked me?"
he asked. "Why did you take my part?"

The half-brother smiled bashfully.

"Because you knew?"

"Yes, that was why."

"But I didn't know," Percival Ford said in the same dry fashion.

"Yes," the other said.

Another silence fell. Servants were beginning to put out the lights on
the _lanai_.

"You know . . . now," the half-brother said simply.

Percival Ford frowned. Then he looked the other over with a considering
eye.

"How much will you take to leave the Islands and never come back?" he
demanded.

"And never come back?" Joe Garland faltered. "It is the only land I
know. Other lands are cold. I do not know other lands. I have many
friends here. In other lands there would not be one voice to say,
'_Aloha_, Joe, my boy.'"

"I said never to come back," Percival Ford reiterated. "The _Alameda_
sails tomorrow for San Francisco."

Joe Garland was bewildered.

"But why?" he asked. "You know now that we are brothers."

"That is why," was the retort. "As you said yourself, everybody knows. I
will make it worth your while."

All awkwardness and embarrassment disappeared from Joe Garland. Birth
and station were bridged and reversed.

"You want me to go?" he demanded.

"I want you to go and never come back," Percival Ford answered.

And in that moment, flashing and fleeting, it was given him to see his
brother tower above him like a mountain, and to feel himself dwindle and
dwarf to microscopic