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Part 1 by E.O. Costello The following characters are © their owners: E.O. Costello: Orrin F.X. Brush, A. Abel Pickering, Franklin J. Stagg, Georgina Lupino, Dan Lupino, James Meffit, Thomas Vison Richard Bartrop: Ilsa Klench Kjartan Arnorsson: Bjorn  Wednesday, 25 July 1934, 1645 Folks 'round here'll give ya a good argument as t'what's th' leadin' sport here in th' Spontoons. Some'll back cricket down in th' Euro parts. You'll get a whole lotta folk up on th' main island backing boat racin' or swimmin', especially when th' boys did us proud at th' 'lympics a few years ago. You ask me, though, it's watchin'. People watchin's a sport, all right. Most folk are amateurs, doin' it for th' funovit, passin' th' timea day. Others are pros, though, like th' headwaiters in th' big hotels. Or th' souvenir vendors. Or cops like me. For us, makin' practical usea what we're seein' is how we earn our livin'. Which is sorta what I was doin' at th' Marine Air Terminal. I'd been called in by th' Chief hisself, a few days ago. The Althing here in th' Islands had finally gotten off its duff an' had found th' scratch t'put together a real, professional detective force fer th' Islands, nonea these scratch-up teams like we'd had before. 'Course, there was gonna be only two detectives: me, an' a new fella they wuz bringin' in from way-and-gone somewhere to head it up. I decided to kill a little time, while waitin' for the 6:29 RHA from Honolulu, and give one of th' memos th' Chief gave me a look-see again. |