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.
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