Kitabı oku: «Маленькая хозяйка большого дома / The Little Lady Of The Big House», sayfa 10
“Her mother was the Queen of Huahoa,” Graham answered. “Her father was an English gentleman. They were dead at the time of the swim, andNomare53 was queen herself. Yes, she was young. She was beautiful as any woman anywhere in the world may be beautiful. Thanks to her father’s skin, she was not golden brown. But you’ve heard the story undoubtedly—”
He looked at Dick, who shook his head.
“You’ll tell me the rest of the story some time,” Paula said.
“Dick knows it. I don’t understand why he hasn’t told you.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Perhaps because he’s never had the time.”
Graham laughed.
“I was once a king of the cannibal isles, or of a paradise of aPolynesian isle54”.
“I see”, Paula waited for Dick to help her off.
8
“Cigars! And boxes of candy, gloves, or anything,” Ernestine said, smiling.
“But I don’t know Mrs. Forrest’s records, either,” Graham protested. “However, if in five minutes—”
“Ten minutes,” Paula said, “and to start from opposite ends of the pool. Is that fair? If you touch me, you win.”
Graham looked his hostess over with secret approval. She was clad, not in the single white silk slip, but in a coquettish suit of changeable light blue and green silk—almost the color of the pool; the skirt slightly above the knees; with long stockings, and tiny bathing shoes. On her head was a jaunty swimming cap.
Graham walked down to the other end of the hundred-and-fifty-foot pool.
“Paula, you’ll be caught for sure,” Dick warned. “Evan Graham is a real fish man. I saw the rock he dived from at Huahoa. That was after his time, and after the death of Queen Nomare. He was only a youngster—twenty-two. And he did it. So, get ready!”
“It’s almost a shame to play tricks on so reputable swimmer,” Paula said while both waited the signal.
“He may get you before you canturn the trick55,” Dick warned again.
“All OK,” one of Dick’s guest, Bert, assured. “I went in myself. The pipe is working. There’s plenty of air.”
“Ready!” Dick called. “Go!”
Paula climbed the scaffold and jumped into the water. The moment she entered the water, Graham swung out on the platform and waited. He was confident that he could outspeed her, and his dive entered him in the water twenty feet beyond her entrance.
But at the instant he was in, Dick dipped two flat rocks into the water and struck them together. This was the signal for Paula to change her course. Graham heard the noise and wondered. He swam to the far end at high speed. He pulled himself out and watched the surface of the pool. Little Lady was drawing herself out of the pool at the other end.
