ld succeed.
But now that we have come these thousands of miles in our poor little
boat; now that we have arrived at the end of the world and our real work
is still before us, my heart suddenly sinks down--down. I'm
frightened--I'm almost ill: and your words and your face are so grave,
Roger! Your very tenderness and kindness make it worse, for somehow, it's
as if you thought there might be a good-bye. It makes me realize that,
after all, the greatest danger is to be run by you and George. You have
both come for my sake; and--you are going to risk your lives."

"Risk your lives!" repeated a voice; and turning quickly, Virginia and
her cousin saw Lady Gardiner, who had lately developed a rather stealthy
way of creeping noiselessly behind her friends.

Virginia's mood was not one to promote presence of mind. She was
speechless; but Roger stepped in to the breach.

"We were talking of a swim that George and I propose to have in these
pleasant waters," he remarked. "There are supposed to be a good many
sharks about, and Virginia is advising prudence."

"Oh!" breathed Lady Gardiner. "She is quite right. We will all join our
persuasions to hers. But the Countess tells me this island is actually
New Caledonia, the French penal settlement. Isn't that where your friend
Miss Dalahaide's brother is imprisoned?"

"I believe so," said Virginia.

"How exciting! And how well you've kept the secret of this expedition! Is
there any chance of our coming across the interesting murderer?"

"Don't call him that!" Virginia cried hotly. "How do you suppose that it
would be possible for us to come across him? Do tourists who go to
Portland 'come across' prisoners who have been convicted of
murder--whether innocent or not? Noumea isn't the only port we have
visited. It is on our way. We shall stop a day or two, and then--we shall
go on somewhere else."

"Quite so," drily returned Lady Gardiner.

It was noon when they slowly steamed into the beautiful harbour of
Noumea, and before them lay the crime-cursed land, fair with the fatal
fairness of deadly nightshade.

There, for nearly five years, Maxime Dalahaide had not lived, but
existed. To give him back to life, she had come thousands of miles and
spent more than twenty thousand pounds. What would they find that he had
become, if those precious documents which Roger had obtained proved as
potent as they hoped? Would his brain and heart have been strong enough
to bear the hopeless agon