breath.

"Thank heaven, Bowen, he names you as executor, not me."

"I shall decline to serve. It's an impossible situation, Hare. In the
first place, Skaggs was not an intimate friend of mine. I met him in
Constantinople five years ago and afterward handled some business for
him in New York. He had no right to impose upon me as if------"

"But why should you hesitate? You have only to wait for the year to roll
by and then turn your troubles over to the natives. Young Browne can't
marry Miss Ruthven inside of a year, simply because there is no Miss
Ruthven. She's Lady--Lady--what's the name?"

"Deppingham."

"And Browne already has one Mrs. Browne to his credit, don't you see?
Well, that settles it, I'd say. It's hardly probable that Browne will
murder or divorce his wife, nor is it likely that her ladyship would
have the courage to dispose of her encumbrance in either way on such
short notice."

"But it means millions to them, Hare."

"That's their unfortunate lookout. You are to act as an executor, not as
a matrimonial agent."

"But, man, it's an outrage to give all of it to those wretched
islanders. Bosworth says that rubies and sapphires grow there like
mushrooms."

"Bosworth also says that the islanders are thrifty, intelligent and will
fight for their rights. There are lawyers among them, he says, as well
as jewel diggers and fishermen."

"Skaggs and Lady Deppingham's grandfather were the only white men who
ever lived there long enough to find out what the island had stored up
for civilisation. That's why they bought it outright, but I'm hanged if
I can see why he wants to give it back to the natives."

"Perhaps he owes it to them. He doubtless bought it for a song and,
contrary to all human belief, he may have resurrected a conscience.
Anyhow, there remains a chance for the heirs to break the will."

"It can't be done, Hare, it can't be done. It's as clean an instrument
as ever survived a man."

It is, by this time, safe for the reader to assume that Mr. Taswell
Skaggs had been a rich man and therefore privileged to be eccentric. It
is also time for the writer to turn the full light upon the tragic
comedy which entertained but did not amuse a select audience of lawyers
on both sides of the Atlantic. As this tale has to do with the
adventures of Taswell Skaggs's heirs and not with the strange old
gentleman who sleeps his last sleep literally in the midst of the island
of Japat, it is eminently wis