ts had become whiter than snow?
My dear Miss Fairclothe, people don't change like that. Behold
yourself: even the jungle and sun, even I, couldn't change you. The
flesh wavered, but the soul held true. I won't play the hypocrite and
say I am glad you were too strong for me. I am not. I wish I could
have made you like myself. Now I'm going away and forget you and all
this, and the whole affair of civilization. If you feel sorry for me
your emotion is wasted. On the whole it will be a relief for me.
Business, and so on--I was getting pretty well bored with the whole
thing."

He staggered grotesquely toward the dock and halted.

"And don't you worry about Payne. You'll find him. Trust the woman to
find the man she's marked for her victim! No, no! Don't grow
indignant; I'll change 'victim' to 'mate.' There's really little
difference. Payne's all right." A quiver of pain convulsed him.
"He's got some brains, too. Not too much, but enough. You two are too
perfectly matched for anything to keep you apart, and, having joined
one another, too perfectly matched to avoid fighting." He chuckled
faintly behind his bandages. "Oh, yes, you'll fight, my dear girl,
take my word for that; he's got a will of his own, too. But your
fights will be embraces in disguise."

He tottered toward the river and again turned.

"Will you shake hands with me before I go?" he asked.

"Why, yes," she said. "Of course."

Garman chuckled, but turned away without touching her proffered hand.

"I merely wanted to know," he said, and went staggering on his away
aboard the Egret. He mumbled an order and an oath to the captain. The
Egret slipped swiftly down the river.

Annette watched until the yacht had gone. When she turned round Roger
was coming toward her. She cried out, a cry of relief, of happiness,
of love.

"Annette!" he whispered, and came close to her.

"Wait, wait!" she said. "There are things to be explained."

"I know." He moved back a step. "I was a brute, too."

"What?"

"Garman----"

"Oh--that! It was terrible, I know, but you were not the aggressor. I
mean about the note."

"Do notes--or things like it--matter now?" he asked.

"Yes; they matter very, very much. I wish to explain. I--I went out
there to Palm Island to fight out my fight with myself."

He looked at her radiant young face and said: "You won."

"Yes, that is the wonderful part of it: I didn't know whether I would
win when I