were obliged to humbly admit, in the seclusion of their own councils, that it was to

. Britt's brain was a whirlpool of suggestions, tricks, subterfuges and-yes, witticisms-that Saunders never even pretended to appreciate, although he was obliging enough to laugh at the right time

Pong out for a walk?" her ladyship would interrupt languidly,

rownes, Lord and Lady Deppingham were laboriously fanning them

rds," growled he for the hundredth time. "I think

he complained, determined to be stubborn to the end. "They know entirely too

mistake in choosing these rooms. It is cooler on that side of the house. I'm not too pr

eppy, but I don't mind going over there now with you-just fo

in the Americans at dinner that evening in the grand banquet hall. Across the bottom of Mrs. Browne's formal little note, her husband had jauntily scrawled:

e effect that "A previous engagement would prevent, etc." The polite lie made it necessary for them to venture forth at dinner time to eat their solitary meal

he night with violent cramps in his stomach. He suffered in silence for a long time, but, the pain growing steadily worse, his stoicism gave way to alarm. A

ildly at the ceiling, "but I've been poisoned. The demmed servants-ouch!-don't yo

hing syrups, and his master, far from dying as he con

. Later on, the rather haggard victim approached Browne with subtle inquiries. Browne also had a headache, but said he wasn't surprised. Fifteen minutes later, Deppingham, taking the bit in his quivering mouth, unconditi

servants' hall, followed directly by the Brownes and Mr. Britt. The nativ

doing? Discharging them after we've had

neaks. They're assassins. They tri

sharp cry of relief as Britt came dashing down the corridor. "We must engage them all over again," she lamented, after explaining the s

uttered, looking at the half-d

s returned to their duties, but not without grumbling and no end of s

choolboy, almost ready to hope that the servants would bear him

ritt. "They've got knive

to no end of trouble, cleaning up

e use. A half-dozen excursions were planned by the now friendly beneficiaries; life on the

f course, that the great fight would take place in England; they were simply active as outposts in the battle of wits. The

such a hurry to get marr

d marry before he's thirty, a woman twent

ou. I was married twice before I was th

unders. "You left a

are other men's wives now." Saunders was half an hou

osing interests. Rasula, the Aratat lawyer, in mass meeting, had discussed the document. They understood its requirements and its restrictions; they knew, by this time, that there was small chance of the original beneficiaries coming into the proper

arriage between the heirs was out of the question. Then the islanders laughed as they toiled. But they were not to be caught napping. Jacob von Blitz, the superintendent, stolid German that he was, saw far into the future. It was he who set the native lawyer unceremoniously aside and urge

diamond fields and had no difficulty in securing employment with Skaggs and Wyckholme. Those were the days when the two Englishmen slaved night and day in the

es. It was he who acted as intermediary at the time of the revolt, many years before the opening of this tale. Through him the two issues were pooled; the present co-operative plan was the result. For this he

desert the chateau. If they had been able to follow his advice, the new residents would have been without "help" to the end of their stay. The end of their stay, he figured, would not be many weeks from its beginnin

rked in the bank, and the three Boer foremen also, had houses up there where it was cooler, but Von Blitz w

e. Marriages were performed by the local priests. There were no divorces. Perhaps there may have been a few more wife murders than necessary, but, if one assumes to call wife murder a crime, he must be reminded that the natives of Japat were fatalists. In contradi

f the sea. Five minutes later the whole town of Aratat knew that the smoke of a steamer lay low on the horizon. No one doubted that it came from the stack of the boat tha

There was no one in Aratat too old, too young or too ill to stay away from the pier and its vicinity. Bowles telephoned the ne

is stolidity gave way to something resembling exhilaration. He cast more than one meaning glance at the chateau, and those near by him heard him chuckle from time to t

straw hat was at least a head higher than the turban of Rasula

than to his neighbour. "And young," he added a few minutes l

-look

wonder in his soggy eyes. Then, a thrill of satisfaction shot through his brain. He turned a look

mer was a