e
getting the British heirs to join in the suit to overthrow the will. The
only point is this: the islanders must not have the advantage that your
absence from Japat will give to them. Now, I'll----"

"But, good Lord, Judge Garrett, I can't go to that confounded island,"
wailed Browne. "Take my wife over among those heathenish----"

"Do you expect me to handle this case for you, sir?"

"Sure."

"Then let me handle it. Don't interfere. When you start in to get
somebody else's money you have to do a good many things you don't like,
no matter whether you are a lawyer or a client."

"But I don't like the suggestion that my wife will be obliged to die in
order----"

"Please leave all the details to me, Mr. Browne. It may not be necessary
for her to die. There are other alternatives in law. Give the lawyers a
chance. We'll see what we can do. Besides, it would be unreasonable to
expect his lordship to die also. All you have to do is to plant yourself
on that island and stay there until we tell you to get off."

"Or the islanders push me off," lugubriously.

"Now, listen intently and I'll tell you just what you are to do."

Young Mr. Browne went away at dusk, half reeling under the
responsibility of existence, and eventually reached the side of the
anxious young woman uptown. He bared the facts and awaited the wail of
dismay.

"I think it will be perfectly jolly," she cried, instead, and kissed him
rapturously.

Over on the opposite side of the Atlantic the excitement in certain
circles was even more intense than that produced in Boston. Lord
Deppingham needed the money, but he was a whole day in grasping the fact
that his wife could not have it and him at the same time. The beautiful
and fashionable Lady Deppingham, once little Agnes Ruthven, came as near
to having hysteria as Englishwomen ever do, but she called in a lawyer
instead of a doctor. For three days she neglected her social duties (and
they were many), ignored her gallant admirers (and they were many), and
hurried back and forth between home and chambers so vigorously that his
lordship was seldom closer than a day behind in anything she did.

There was a great rattling of trunks, a jangling of keys, a thousand
good-byes, a cast-off season, and the Deppinghams were racing away for
the island of Japat somewhere in the far South Seas.

CHAPTER III

INTRODUCING HOLLINGSWORTH CHASE

While all this was being threshed out by the persons most vit