nterested. Dad fished out an old Trig that
he used when he was a boy and I have some new angles that will keep my
esteemed rival stirring up his gray matter for some little time."

"Good for you! Joyous congratulations! You've got the idea!" cried
Linda. "Go to it! Start something all along the line, but make it
something founded on brains and reason and common sense. But, Donald, I
was watching for you. I wanted to say a word."

Donald Whiting bent toward her. The faintest suspicion of a tinge of
color crept into his cheeks.

"That's fine," he said. "What was it you wanted?"

"Only this," she said in almost a breathless whisper. "There is nothing
in California I am afraid of except a Jap, and I am afraid of them, not
potentially, not on account of what all of us know they are planning
in the backs of their heads for the future, but right here and now,
personally and physically. Don't antagonize Oka Sayye. Don't be too
precipitate about what you're trying to do. Try to make it appear that
you're developing ideas for the interest and edification of the whole
class. Don't incur his personal enmity. Use tact."

"You think I am afraid of that little jiu-jitsu?" he scoffed. "I can
lick him with one hand."

"I haven't a doubt of it," said Linda, measuring his height and apparent
strength and fitness. "I haven't a doubt of it. But let me ask you this
confidentially: Have you got a friend who would slip in and stab him in
the back in case you were in an encounter and he was getting the better
of you?"

Donald Whiting's eyes widened. He looked at Linda amazed.

"Wouldn't that be going rather far?" he asked. "I think I have some
fairly good friends among the fellows, but I don't know just whom I
would want to ask to do me that small favor."

"That is precisely the point," cried Linda. "You haven't a friend you
would ask; and you haven't a friend who would do it, if you did. But
don't believe for one second that Oka Sayye hasn't half a dozen who
would make away with you at an unexpected time and in a secluded place,
and vanish, if it would in any way further Oka Sayye's ambition, or help
establish the supremacy of the Japanese in California."

"Um-hm," said Donald Whiting.

He was looking far past Linda and now his eyes were narrowed in thought.
"I believe you're RIGHT about it."

"I've thought of you so often since I tried to spur you to beat Oka
Sayye," said Linda. "I feel a sort of responsibility for you. It's to