But Robert's calculations came to nothing, because he discovered that all the Americans had been invited by the East Africans to "be guests." Watching the stern-faced East African militia patrols on the streets of Lihue, Robert could only return home in frustration.
Meanwhile, out at sea, Rogge and his group also sensed that something was wrong.
Charles frowned. "Mr. Rogge, have you noticed anything strange?"
Pretending to share the feeling, Rogge replied, "I also feel that there's something odd about the sea today, but I can't quite put my finger on what the problem is."
"It's the ships. Although Kauai has never been especially closely connected with the other islands, we would usually still see ships at sea. Yet up to now, we haven't seen a single one," Charles said.
As they drew closer and closer to Kauai, Charles's mood worsened. There was not even a fishing boat near Kauai today. That was far too suspicious.
"Mr. Rogge, before you left Kauai, did you notice anything unusual on the island?" Charles asked.
Rather than answering directly, Rogge asked, "Unusual? Mr. Charles, have you discovered something amiss?"
"So far, we haven't even seen a single fishing boat. It's too eerie. I'm worried that something may have happened on Kauai that we don't know about," Charles said.
Rogge said "worriedly," "Before I left, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Could we be overthinking this?"
After giving it some thought, Charles said, "Perhaps. But given Kauai's situation, even if something major happened, there probably wouldn't be much danger."
Charles believed that Hawaii, and Kauai in particular, was so close to Honolulu on Oahu that no one would dare stir up trouble right under the Americans' noses.
Before long, the outline of Kauai finally came into view. Though they still had not