icable!" she cried, furious.

He nodded thoughtfully, fumbling with his lips.

"Won't you tell me why?" she pleaded.

He shook his head. "You wouldn't understand," he added in a tone of
maddening commiseration.

"I shan't stay!" she declared angrily.

"Oh, I think you will," he replied gently.

"I'll get away and inform on you if I have to swim."

"It's a long, wet swim," he mused aloud--"over a mile, I should say.
Have you ever swum over a hundred yards in your life?"

She was silent, choking with rage.

"And furthermore," he went on, "there are the Clovers. Excellent people,
excellent--for my purposes. I have found them quite invaluable--asking
no questions, minding their own business, keen to obey my instructions
to the letter. I have already instructed them about you, my child. I
trust you will be careful not to provoke them; it'd be a pity ... you're
rather good-looking, you know ..."

"What do you mean by that?" she stammered, a little frightened by the
secret menace in his tone. "What have my looks to do with ...?"

"Everything," he said softly--"everything. Not so far as Ephraim is
concerned; I'll be frank with you--you needn't fear Ephraim's hurting
you, much, should you attempt to escape. He will simply restrain you,
using force only if necessary. But Mrs. Clover ... she's different. You
mustn't let her deceive you; she seems kindly disposed enough; she's
pleasant spoken but ... well, she's not fond of pretty women. It's an
obsession of hers that prettiness and badness go together. And Ephraim
_is_ fond of pretty women--very. You see?"

"Well?"

"Well, that's why I have these people in so strong a hold. You see,
Ephraim got himself into trouble trying to pull off one of those
bungling, amateurish burglaries that his kind go in for so extensively;
he wanted the money to buy things for a pretty woman. And he was already
a married man. You can see how Mrs. Clover felt about it. She--ah--cut
up rather nasty. When she got through with the other woman, no one would
have called her pretty any longer. Vitriol's a dreadful thing...."

He paused an instant, seeming to review the case sombrely. "I managed to
get them both off, scot free; and that makes them loyal. But it would go
hard with anyone who tried to escape to the mainland and tell on
them--to say nothing of me.... Mrs. Clover has ever since been quite
convinced of the virtue of vitriol. She keeps a supply handy most of the
time, in case of emer