Page:The Black Camel (IA blackcamel0000earl).djvu/230

JULIE and Jimmy Bradshaw sat on the white sand of Waikiki and gazed at an ocean that stretched, apparently empty of life, from this curving shore all the way to the atolls of the South Seas.

“Well, I suppose I’d better be getting along downtown,” remarked the boy. He yawned, and dropping on his back, watched the white clouds drift lazily across a cobalt sky.

“Picture of a young man filled with pep and energy,” Julie smiled.

He shuddered. “Very poor taste, my girl, introducing words like that into a conversation at Waikiki beach. It must be that, after all, I have given you a very imperfect idea of the spirit of this place. Here we loaf, we dream——”

“But you'll never get anywhere,” Julie reproved.

“I’m there already,” he answered. “Why should I bestir myself? When you’re in Hawaii you’ve no place to go—you’ve reached heaven, and a change couldn’t possibly be an improvement. So you just sit down and wait for eternity to end.”

Julie shrugged. “Is that so? Well, I’m afraid I’m not built that way. Great for a vacation, yes— this place is all you say of it. But as a permanent residence—well——”