ry of pain, he fell fainting at my feet.

CHAPTER XV

AN INTERLUDE, DURING WHICH WE READ IN RUTH BELLENDEN'S DIARY AGAIN *

* The editor has thought it well to give at this point the
above extract from Ruth Bellenden's diary, as permitting some
insight Into the events which transpired on Ken's Island after
Jasper Begg's discovery and Edmond Czerny's return.

May 5TH.--My message to the sea has been heard. Jasper Begg is on Ken's
Island. All that this means to me, all that it may mean, I dare not
think. A great burden seems lifted from my shoulders. I have found a
friend and he is near me.

May 6th.--I have seen Jasper to-night, and he has gone away again. He
is not changed, I think. It is the same honest, English face, the same
cheery English voice. I have always said that Jasper is one of the
handsomest Englishmen I have ever seen. And just as on my own yacht, so
here on Ken's Island, the true English gentleman speaks to me. For
Jasper is that above all things, one of Nature's gentlemen, whom the
rough world will never disguise nor the sea life change. He would be
thirty-five years of age now, I remember, but he has not lost his
boyish face, and there is the same shy reticence which he never could
conquer. He has come here according to his promise. A ship lies in the
offing, and he would have me go to it. How little he knows of my true
condition in this dreadful place. How may a woman go when a hundred
watch her every hour?

May 7th.--Clair-de-Lune, the Frenchman, came to the bungalow very early
this morning to tell me of certain things which happened on the island
last night. It seems that Jasper is still here, and that the storm has
driven away his ship. I do not know whether to be sorry or glad. He
cannot help me--he cannot!--and yet a friend is here. I take new
courage at that. If a woman can aid a brave man to win her liberty, I
am that woman and Jasper is the man. Yesterday I was alone; but to-day
I am alone no longer, and a friend is at my side, and he has heard me.
His ship will come back, I say. It is an ecstasy to dream like this!

May 10th.--I have spent four anxious days--more anxious, I think, than
any in my life. The ship has not returned, and Jasper Begg is still a
fugitive in the hills. There are three of his companions with him, and
we send them food every day. What will be the end of it all? I am more
closely watched than ever since this was known. I fear the worst for my
f