"It was a dream. It was the dream... ."
"No, it wasn't a dream. It was very real. He went off in the boat after I'd carried you back to the house. It was a rough sea and the chances are he didn't reach the mainland."
"Jago, I'm so bewildered."
"Important things first. I love you; you love me; although I must say you didn't show it last night. I was waiting for you to come to me as you'd promised. I waited and waited. Then I searched everywhere for you. By that time Slack came back in a state of alarm. He said you were on Blue Rock and that there was a man there who intended to harm you."
"How did he know?"
"He'd seen him before."
"He came to the Island."
"Yes, he did. He had the house on Blue Rock for a week or more... ever since Manton went to London. The artist had let the place to him during his absence."
"So he could have tampered with the Ellen. Why... why did he want to kill me?"
"It's a simple reason. With you out of the way his wife would have come into a great deal of money."
"His wife."
"Silva."
"But...she's dead."
Jago shook his head. "It may be that she is not. In fact it's certain she isn't, otherwise his actions would be pointless. That boy Slack ... sly creature... pretending to be half baked all the time and knowing so much more than the rest of us!"
"Rollo wanted money. I can't believe it."
"I told you, didn't I, that their financial empire is tottering. They've seen it coming for some time. That was presumably why he married Silva. Then he discovered the contents of your father's will and that you came first. They were very ready for you to marry Philip which would have made them sure of the Kellaway fortune."
"Philip ... oh Philip! What happened to Philip? I heard... ."
"Yes, I know what you heard. You were in the dungeons because you'd discovered I was meeting Hawley there and you knew Hawley. You hid yourself that you might eavesdrop. Then the necklace betrayed you. Ellen, how could you doubt me?"
"I had to know. I was afraid you might have done something... ."
"Which would have stopped your loving me?"
"The one discovery I made was that nothing can do that."
"Then it was all worthwhile.... But it was a near thing. If that devil had been five minutes earlier he would have had you at sea and then God knows what would have happened."
"Tell me everything that took place."
"I've had to piece a lot of it together myself. I haven't confirmed it. But this is what it seems like to me: Your father was not sure whether or not Silva was his daughter; he strongly suspected that she was James Manton's. So did James Manton himself because he and Silva's mother had been lovers. Rollo, who was interested in art, met James Manton in London, where he was having an exhibition, and he heard from him about the Island and the Kellaways. He came down and met Silva and as she lived on the Island and he had discovered that she was the elder daughter he naturally believed that she would inherit the Island. He had heard of course that there was a younger daughter who had been taken away by her mother and in whom the father had shown no interest. The rich spoils of the Island meant that it would fetch a high price if it were sold and the Carringtons needed a very large sum to bolster up their tottering empire. So he married Silva secretly and took her to London. Your father died and Carrington then discovered that there was one who came before Silva and that was you. If you had married Philip they would have persuaded you to sell the Island and invest as they advised, which would have meant their using your money."
"And you, Jago, came to London."
"To see you. To find out what was happening. I learned that all was not well with the Carrington interests and although I did not know that Rollo Carrington had married Silva and, like everyone else, believed her dead, I understood why the family were so anxious to welcome you. You were my ward—and still are, remember—and it was my duty to look after you. I engaged a private detective to make a thorough study of the Carrington affairs. He was rather a shady character; the nature of his work had made him so. By being in the household he found out more than I ever could through other sources. I came up to London and broke into the Carrington soiree, where I met you and promptly fell in love with you."
"I must have been very attractive with the Island to come."
"You and the Far Island, Ellen, were irresistible."
"The Island certainly is."
"And you yourself are not uncomely. How I loved your spirit right from the start. It was set off by that poor little Esmeralda."
"And Philip died."
"It was an accident. Poor fellow. It was a disastrous thing to have happened. Hawley was assiduously going through some papers in Philip's room when Philip disturbed him. Philip kept a pistol near his bed and he threatened Hawley with it, demanding to know what he was doing. Hawley lost his head and struggled with Philip to get the pistol away from him. It went off, alas, killing Philip. Hawley is a sharp character—very experienced in all kinds of adventures. ... He saw what trouble he was in. He very skillfully arranged it to look like suicide and got away with it."
"Jago, you didn't hire him to kill Philip?"
"Good God, no. I was horrified by his death."
"But he was going to marry me, taking the Island with me."
"I was going to try to stop that. I was going to lay before you all the information I had gathered about the Carringtons, and I had a notion that you were not exactly madly in love with Philip and were at that time questioning the wisdom of rushing into marriage. I was counting on getting you at least to postpone the wedding for a while."
"And you got Hawley to have a key cut for you."
"Yes, I did. I wanted to have a word with you on your own in that house. I was seeking every opportunity to meet you. I thought that if we met there by chance I might be able to hint at something... ."
"It was a crazy thing to do."
"You'll find in the years to come that I often do crazy things. You're going to love some of the crazy things I do. I'd do a great deal to get you, Ellen, but I suppose I'd stop at murder. I was so anxious about you. I didn't trust those Carringtons. Then Philip's death changed everything."
"What will happen to the Carringtons now?"
"You'll be hearing about their collapse, I daresay, in a few weeks' time. But let's not worry about them. I want to talk to you, Ellen. There's so much to plan for ... so much to say. Just think of it, Ellen... the two of us together on the Island."
I lay still thinking of it.
The Outcome
I married Jago a month later.
Everything was clear to me by that time. Rollo's body was found a few days after that night when I had walked into my dream room and found him there. After his encounter with Jago he had had no alternative but to put to sea and try and reach the mainland; and the sea was not in a benign mood that night. Whether he had been unable to manage the boat or not I am not sure. It may well have been that he accepted defeat, for a few weeks later the collapse of the Carrington interests was announced in the papers. It was one of the greatest financial disasters of the century. Many people had lost their money in the crash and there was talk of a prosecution which might have taken place if Rollo had lived. It was presumed that he had deliberately chosen death by drowning.
I owed so much to Slack who, when he had seen Rollo, had recognized him as the man with whom Silva had run away, and he had instinctively known that he was there for no good purpose; so he had hastened back through the tunnel and brought Jago to save me just in time.
That seems to be all of our story.
Gwennol married Michael Hydrock eventually and they work together on the book about his family. Jenifry went to live with them. She had always been devoted to her daughter and had been afraid from the first that I might snatch some advantage from her even before she had been anxious on account of Michael. We are quite good friends now—though we could never be close—and I often smile to think of how I had suspected her of wishing me ill because of the reflection I had seen of her in a distorting mirror by candlelight.