to posterity--with
reservations.

CHAPTER II

AN EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENT

It appears that the Messrs. Skaggs and Wyckholme, as their dual career
drew to a close, set about to learn what had become of their daughters.
Investigation proved that Wyckholme's daughter had married a London
artist named Ruthven. The Ruthvens in turn had one child, a daughter.
Wyckholme's wife and his daughter died when this grandchild was eight or
ten years old. By last report, the grandchild was living with her father
in London. She was a pretty young woman with scores of admirers on her
hands and a very level head on her shoulders.

Wyckholme held to his agreement with Skaggs by bequeathing his share of
the property to him, but it was definitely set forth that at the death
of his partner it was to go to Agnes Ruthven, the grandchild--with
reservations.

Skaggs found that his daughter, who married Browne the American,
likewise had died, but that she had left behind a son and heir. This
son, Robert Browne, was in school when the joint will was designed, and
he was to have Skaggs's fortune at the death of Wyckholme, in case that
worthy survived.

All this would have been very simple had it not been for the
instructions and conditions agreed upon by the two men. In order to keep
the business and the property intact and under the perpetual control of
one partnership, the granddaughter of Wyckholme was to marry the
grandson of Skaggs within the year after the death of the surviving
partner. The penalty to be imposed upon them if the conditions were not
complied with--neither to be excusable for the defection of the
other--lay in the provision that the whole industry and its accumulated
fortune, including the land (and they owned practically the entire
island), was to go to the islanders--or, in plain words, to the original
owners, their heirs, share and share alike, all of which was set forth
concisely in a separate document attached. Wyckholme named Sir John
Allencrombie as one executor and Skaggs selected Alfred Bowen, of
Boston, as the other.

As Wyckholme was the first to die, Skaggs became sole owner of the
island and its treasures, and it was he who made the final will in
accordance with the original plans.

The island of Japat with its jewels and its ancient chateau--of modern
construction--represented several million pounds sterling. Its owners
had accumulated a vast fortune, but, living in seclusion as they did,
were