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are a shocking bad pair, aren’t they?” he inquired. “But Hawaii, you know, seems to have no appreciation of art. If you've noticed the paintings they buy to hang in their parlors—the wooden waves put on canvas by the local Rembrandts—I may be a third-rater, but I couldn’t bring myself to do stuff like that. Not even for a new pair of———”

“Come here!” cut in Charlie sharply. “You lied to me.”

Smith shrugged. “You put things bluntly for one of your race, Officer. It may be that I distorted the situation slightly in the interests of———”

“The interests of what?”

“The interests of Smith. I observe that there is something wrong here, and I much prefer to keep out of it———”

“You are in it now. Tell me—did you enter that beach house to-night?”

“I did not—I’ll swear to that. True, I stood beneath the window for a few minutes.”

“What were you doing there?”

“I was planning to make the sand in the shelter of the pavilion my lodging for the night. It’s a favorite place of mine———”

“Go back to beginning,” cut in Chan. “The truth this time.”

“I hadn’t been out to the beach for three days and nights,” the man told him. “I got a little money, and I’ve been stopping down-town. When I was out here last, this house was unoccupied. To-day my money was gone—I’m expecting a check—it hasn’t come.” He paused. “Rotten mail service out here. If I could only get back to the mainland———”

“Your money was gone,” Charlie interrupted.