For Andria was right, he had never meant to return, his warnings to her and Salome had all been a blind; Beryl Corselas, when first he found her, had been a burden to get rid of, he had not dared to let her stay in England or let his name be heard in connection with her. Here in this island he had meant her to disappear for good and all--but, of course, to his deep sorrow and surprise! He was so careful a scoundrel that he had acted a part even before the servant who was his miserable slave and the woman he had engaged because of her probable unscrupulousness. That he had warned them had been all that kept Egerton from cursing himself for a fool all the way from England. One paragraph in a paper had made those sham warnings real. Lord Erceldonne had sent for his son, and two days after set out in hot haste for his secret retreat, terrified that his plans might have flourished so well as to ruin him. In the long pause Andria’s slow pulses were loud in her ears; but she had pulled herself together. After all, it was natural that Egerton should come first, natural that he should be puzzled how to open a difficult subject; and of course he must be in Raimond’s confidence. But when he did speak it was not about the man he had brought with him. “Miss Holbeach,” he said slowly, “you said you had been frightened. Do you mean in this house? Or out of doors? I warned you, you remember!” “You warned me, and yet you left me here with a defenseless girl,” she said almost inaudibly. She cared little now for the horrors she had suffered; he had come to take them away. Raimond was here; it was all past and gone. “There was no reason not to leave you here,” he lied calmly. “I will be quite frank with you, there had been a reason; but I learned from Salome that it had quite disappeared.” There was a sort of lethargy in Andria’s soul; nothing mattered now but Raimond. Yet at the plausible untruth she shook it off. “It appeared again the very night you left here!” she cried. “A man came, a little, wizened man, like an ape, that hurried around the house and climbed up the jalousies like a monkey. And the next day I saw his face over my shoulder in the pond, a leering thing that mouthed at me----” “The pond! I told you to keep away from that path,” the anger that was sincere at last steadied her nerves. “I went to get Beryl. She had strayed there.” The governess looked him in the face with eyes that were magnificent. “I took care that she never went again. But that’s not all. There are beasts here, dreadful jaguars. All night long they hunt and sniff about the house, they climb the jalousies and--I’ve seen their eyes!” with a shudder. “Oh, Mr. Egerton, take us away!” The man had started to his feet. “It is what I came to do,” he answered hurriedly. “Believe me, I had no idea of this. I thought the place was safe--Salome said so.”