I gulped down a mouthful of sorely needed fresh air. "Christine, my darling," I whispered, "how in heaven's name did you get here?" "I swam over from the shore," she answered breathlessly. "I landed on the saltings just opposite the garden." "You did _what_?" I exclaimed. I stared at her in amazement. "You swam in the dark across the estuary?" She nodded. "There was no other way of reaching the island. Marie had promised to send you a message by Jimmy, but instead of keeping her word she must have given it to Dr. Manning. He came to my room and told me what he was going to do. I made up my mind then that as soon as they started I would try to follow them. I got out through the window and I managed to climb down by the creeper. I thought the tide would be too strong for me, but I didn't care either way. If I wasn't in time to help you, I just wanted to be drowned." She stopped, and her eyes fell upon an old-fashioned American bowie knife which was hanging from the wall at the head of the stairs. With a quick movement she stepped forward, and, unhooking it from the nail, began to saw away feverishly at the ropes which fastened me to the banisters. She had just cut through the first strand when I suddenly realised that at any moment Manning might return. "Shut the door before you do anything else," I explained. "Lock it and bolt it top and bottom. If they guess where you are----" I had no need to finish, for Christine hurried off at once, and, forgetting my injured shoulder in the excitement of the moment, I gave an impatient tug at the nearly severed cord. I was rewarded by such a stab of pain that before I could stop it an involuntary grunt broke from my lips. "What is it? What's the matter? You are hurt after all!" With a face whiter than ever, and her eyes full of concern, Christine had hastened to where I was standing. "It's nothing much," I said. "I blundered over a bit of wire they'd stretched across the path and I rather think I've cracked my collar-bone. It will be all right as soon as I've tied it up." She knelt down beside me, and with trembling fingers set about the task of freeing my wrists. I heard her give a sudden gasp of horror as she saw the state they were in. "Oh, the brutes!" she sobbed. "The utter brutes! How can God allow such people as Manning to exist?" "He won't allow it much longer," I replied grimly. The cut ends of the rope pattered down on to the floor, and, shaking myself loose, I stepped forward, a free man. Christine dropped the knife and rose unsteadily to her feet. The next moment I was crushing her soft wet body in my uninjured arm, and pressing kisses upon her bare neck and shoulders. "My own dear love!" I whispered. "I must have been mad ever to let you go." I strained her to me, kissing her again and again, until the little round oilskin cap that she was wearing slipped off her head, and her slender beauty was almost hidden by a rippling torrent of dark brown hair.