Lord of the Far Island (37 page)

e gone to London for a few days. He lent me his place. You look scared out of your wits. Sit down. Let me get you a drink.

sorry,I said. so bewildered. I can think clearly.

ome and sit down.

Slack was staring at Rollo. I heard him whisper: omething terrible have happened to Miss Silva.

Rollo had led me to the table and made me sit down in the chair which I had seen so many times in my dreams.

I just could not believe I was awake and this was really happening.

ou must tell me everything, Ellen,said Rollo. hat happened at the castle? The boy brought you, I see.

e came through a kind of cave.

Rollo poured something into a glass and said: rink this. It will steady you. I can see youe had a shock.

He put the glass into my hand but I couldn drink anything. I set it down on the table.

I said: here a tunnel from here to the castle.

He did not express any surprise. was concerned about you,he said. hat why I didn want to leave the place. I felt that something was going on there and that you needed looking after. I couldn get that affair of the boat out of my mind.

ou think someone was trying to murder me.

He nodded. sure of it,he said.

Not Jago, I thought. I won believe it was Jago.

want to get away to the mainland,I said. or a while at least.

f course. Il row you over.

think Il stay at the Polcrag Inn until Ie thought all this over.

t clear, isn it? Youe the heiress to that Island, a prosperous community. It real wealth. People will go to great lengths for the amount of money that represents, Ellen.

I laughed weakly. sorry,I said, ut I feel so bewildered so lost. Everything that has happened has been so strange. I the Poor Relation to be so rich. I only recently discovered all this.

ther people knew it and they acted accordingly.

hy are you so kind to me suddenly?

sorry for my past conduct. In any case, you were to be a member of our family. If Philip hadn died.

I heard those words again: hat happened in Philip Carrington bedroom.No, Jago, I won believe it of you. I can.

Rollo seemed suddenly alert.

hat happened to the boy the one you brought with you?

I looked behind me. Slack was not there.

e must be around,I said.

Rollo went to the door. I heard him calling Slack.

Now I was in the room alone I examined it with a sort of awed wonder. I went to the window and touched the curtains. This was more vivid than the dream.

What was I going to do? I should have stayed behind and talked to Jago. I would go back to him and tell him I must know the whole truth.

My mother must have been here often, for she had re-created every detail in the room in her picture. Why had it played such a part in my dreams? I was baffled.

I had found the room but of what significance was that? I had lived through the moment of doom when the door had opened and revealed Rollo.

There was something unreal even about himomething which was different. He was not the godlike creature I had seen when we were young through the eyes of his adoring younger brother. There was something different about Rollo.

The door opened and strangely enough the old feeling of fear began to creep over me.

It was Rollo again. His face distorted with angry annoyance.

can find the boy the mad boy,he said. here can he have got to?

e can have gone back to the castle.

hy did he run off like that? What was he saying?

omething about Silva. She was my half sister. He was saying something terrible had happened to her.

hat did he mean?

don know.

e crazy, that boy.

don think so. His mind works in a strange way, that all. He has what he calls fancies and powers.

e an idiot,said Rollo. ou haven had your drink. Youl feel better for it, you know.

I took it up and sipped it.

want to go to the mainland,I said.

l take you.

I stood up.

inish your drink first, and Il get the boat.

e left everything at the castle.

hy did you leave in such a hurry?

t seemed necessary then. Now

ou regret it?

He was smiling at me and the room seemed to be dissolving about him. I could only see his smiling face.

es, I think I was too hasty. I should have waited, should have talked to Jago

My voice seemed to be coming from a long way off. Rollo continued to smile at me.

oue growing very sleepy,he said. y poor Ellen.

feel very strange. I think I dreaming still. This room

He nodded.

ollo, what happening?

oue getting drowsy,he said. t the drink. A little sedative. You needed thatnd so did I.

ou Rollo?

ome. Wee going now.

here?

o the boat. That what you want, isn it?

I stood up and swayed unsteadily. He caught me.

ow,he said, t will be easy. Your coming like this. It couldn have been better. Curse that boy, though.

He put an arm about me to steady me and we went out of the room and into the passage. The cold air revived me a little.

hat happened?I cried.

I heard Rollo laugh softly. ll well. I didn expect such luck. Itl be over soon. Come down. Down the slope to the shore.

Something warned me. The doom feeling I had known in the dream was very strong.

don think I want to go after all I heard myself say.

on be obstinate. Youe going.

want to see Jago first. Of course I must see Jago. I ought to have talked to him asked him to explain.

I slid to the ground. I was lying among the bushes and I held on to these with all my strength.

hat wrong with you?Rollo was trying to pull me to my feet, but I clung with all my might to that bush. For a terrible realization had come to me. The dream had been right. My doom had come through that door, for my doom was Rollo.

The drink he had given me was drugged. I knew that now. This hazy sleeping feeling was meant to overcome my resistance so that he could do with me what he wanted. Why Rollo? For what possible reason could he want to kill me? He did want to. That conviction was with me strongly. Rollo had come through the door of doom and Slack Slack had gone.

Even at such a time I was able to feel relief because I had been wrong about Jago. Oh, Jago, why did I run away from you? What is the answer to all this?

Rollo was dragging me away from the bush and I could retain my hold no longer. I was powerless against him and I could only delay him.

He had lifted me. on struggle,he said. t won help you at all. It will only make me angry. Go to sleep. That the best thing you can do.

It was rough going for him carrying me. I heard him cursing me under his breath. I could distinctly hear the waves breaking on the shore and I knew what he was going to do. For some reason it was important for him to have me out of the way and he was going to kill me. He was going to row out a little way and throw me into the sea and I should be unable to struggle because the drowsiness was increasing with every minute and I should soon be oblivious of everything.

I heard the boat scraping on the sand. He lifted me up.

A sudden flash of inspiration came to me. t was you who tampered with the rail at Dead Man Leap,I said.

oue had a charmed life, Ellen until now.

ollo, tell me whywhy what have I done to you?

oue in the way. That all.

ut howhow? What can I mean to you?

on ask questions. Say your prayers.

ou came down here to kill me. Why?

said don ask questions.

He had put me roughly into the boat. I tried to scramble out but he was ready for me.

on be a fool. I don like violence.

ou don mind murder,I said. t was you you who murdered Philip.

f Philip had lived there wouldn have been any need for this.

ollo, I know you are going to kill me. You owe me a little time.

here no time to lose. There never is,he retorted tersely.

This was the end then. I knew exactly what was going to happen. My sleepy body would receive the embrace of the sea and my heavy clothes would drag me down down to oblivion.

But I was wrong. Indeed I had a charmed lifer was it that there were people to care so much for me?

There was a shout and I heard Rollo furious exclamation. And there was Jago himself. He was on the shore, then wading out to sea. He had knocked Rollo aside and snatched me out of the boat.

llen,I heard his voice through the waves of sleepiness which swept over me and I was filled with exultation. y Ellen.

I awoke in my bedroom in the castle. It was daylight and Jago was sitting by my bed. He bent over me and kissed me.

ll well, Ellen,he said.

t was a dream. It was the dream.

o, it wasn a dream. It was very real. He went off in the boat after I carried you back to the house. It was a rough sea and the chances are he didn reach the mainland.

ago, I so bewildered.

mportant things first. I love you; you love me; although I must say you didn show it last night. I was waiting for you to come to me as you promised. I waited and waited. Then I searched everywhere for you. By that time Slack came back in a state of alarm. He said you were on Blue Rock and that there was a man there who intended to harm you.

ow did he know?

e seen him before.

e came to the Island.

es, he did. He had the house on Blue Rock for a week or more ever since Manton went to London. The artist had let the place to him during his absence.

o he could have tampered with the Ellen. Why why did he want to kill me?

t a simple reason. With you out of the way his wife would have come into a great deal of money.

is wife.

ilva.

uthe dead.

Jago shook his head. t may be that she is not. In fact it certain she isn, otherwise his actions would be pointless. That boy Slack sly creature pretending to be half baked all the time and knowing so much more than the rest of us!

ollo wanted money. I can believe it.

told you, didn I, that their financial empire is tottering. Theye seen it coming for some time. That was presumably why he married Silva. Then he discovered the contents of your father will and that you came first. They were very ready for you to marry Philip which would have made them sure of the Kellaway fortune.

hilip oh Philip! What happened to Philip? I heard.

es, I know what you heard. You were in the dungeons because you discovered I was meeting Hawley there and you knew Hawley. You hid yourself that you might eavesdrop. Then the necklace betrayed you. Ellen, how could you doubt me?

had to know. I was afraid you might have done something.

hich would have stopped your loving me?

he one discovery I made was that nothing can do that.

hen it was all worthwhile. But it was a near thing. If that devil had been five minutes earlier he would have had you at sea and then God knows what would have happened.

ell me everything that took place.

e had to piece a lot of it together myself. I haven confirmed it. But this is what it seems like to me: Your father was not sure whether or not Silva was his daughter; he strongly suspected that she was James Manton. So did James Manton himself because he and Silva mother had been lovers. Rollo, who was interested in art, met James Manton in London, where he was having an exhibition, and he heard from him about the Island and the Kellaways. He came down and met Silva and as she lived on the Island and he had discovered that she was the elder daughter he naturally believed that she would inherit the Island. He had heard of course that there was a younger daughter who had been taken away by her mother and in whom the father had shown no interest. The rich spoils of the Island meant that it would fetch a high price if it were sold and the Carringtons needed a very large sum to bolster up their tottering empire. So he married Silva secretly and took her to London. Your father died and Carrington then discovered that there was one who came before Silva and that was you. If you had married Philip they would have persuaded you to sell the Island and invest as they advised, which would have meant their using your money.

nd you, Jago, came to London.

o see you. To find out what was happening. I learned that all was not well with the Carrington interests and although I did not know that Rollo Carrington had married Silva and, like everyone else, believed her dead, I understood why the family were so anxious to welcome you. You were my wardnd still are, remembernd it was my duty to look after you. I engaged a private detective to make a thorough study of the Carrington affairs. He was rather a shady character; the nature of his work had made him so. By being in the household he found out more than I ever could through other sources. I came up to London and broke into the Carrington soiree, where I met you and promptly fell in love with you.

must have been very attractive with the Island to come.

ou and the Far Island, Ellen, were irresistible.

he Island certainly is.

nd you yourself are not uncomely. How I loved your spirit right from the start. It was set off by that poor little Esmeralda.

nd Philip died.

t was an accident. Poor fellow. It was a disastrous thing to have happened. Hawley was assiduously going through some papers in Philip room when Philip disturbed him. Philip kept a pistol near his bed and he threatened Hawley with it, demanding to know what he was doing. Hawley lost his head and struggled with Philip to get the pistol away from him. It went off, alas, killing Philip. Hawley is a sharp characterery experienced in all kinds of adventures He saw what trouble he was in. He very skillfully arranged it to look like suicide and got away with it.

ago, you didn hire him to kill Philip?

ood God, no. I was horrified by his death.

ut he was going to marry me, taking the Island with me.

was going to try to stop that. I was going to lay before you all the information I had gathered about the Carringtons, and I had a notion that you were not exactly madly in love with Philip and were at that time questioning the wisdom of rushing into marriage. I was counting on getting you at least to postpone the wedding for a while.