"Good-bye, Alick! My last thoughts will be of you and my last prayer that God will bless you. If I could only see you for a minute I think I should be satisfied. But if you can't come, write and say you forgive me. It has been all through my love for you that I am here, so think the best of me." Bessie signed the letter, filling up the remaining space with crosses, and then wrote with her own hand-- "P.S.--It's a weak to-day, so if anything is to be done there's no time to lose." Fenella saw through the girl's pitiful subterfuge, but knew well that Gell could do nothing. There was only one man in the island who could have saved Bessie, and that was the Judge who had tried her. Why hadn't he? All the way home in the train Fenella asked herself this question. The only answer she could find was that Stowell was afraid of offending the Governor, owing so much to him. But oh, if he had only resisted her father in this case--standing up against him and fearing no one--how she would have loved him! She found Government House shuddering with awe, as if a tornado had swept through it and gone. At length Miss Green explained what had happened. Mr. Stowell had called to see the Governor and been turned out of the house! Hardly had she reached her room when her father followed her into it. "I suppose you know that Stowell has been here?" he said. "Yes. What did he come for?" "To threaten me--that's what he came for. To threaten me that if I attempted to carry out the sentence of the law on that girl in Castle Rushen he would prevent it." Fenella tried to conceal the joy that was rising within her. "What do you think he intends to do?" she asked. "Appeal to the Home Secretary against me, I suppose. I shouldn't wonder if he leaves the island in the morning. And if he does, and brings back a pardon, it will be a vote of censure upon me--nothing short of it." The Governor strode across the room in his wrath, and then suddenly drew up on seeing that Fenella was smiling. "But I see who is the cause of the man's insane conduct," he said. "Who?" "You! You've broken with him, haven't you? Because he had the misfortune to encounter that woman long ago you hold him responsible for everything she has done since. So to satisfy your ridiculous qualms he falls back upon me. The fool! The damned fool! And you are no better! I don't know what's taking possession of women in these days. I'm sick to death of their feminist imbecilities and the braying of their male asses!" "But father...." "Don't talk to me," said the Governor, and with blazing eyes he swept out of the room. Then Victor _had_ done something! He _did_ care for her! And now he was going to take some great risk to save the life of the girl in prison. A momentary qualm about her duty to her father was swept down by the tide of her love for Stowell. After all, he was the man she had thought him to be! God bless and speed him!