"Hush, child!" said Varrick. "Don"t say any more. It is plain to me that you can not be sent back to your uncle. I will see what can be done for you. You shall be my _protegee_ for the present."
"How young and sweet and fair and innocent the girl is!" he told himself.
Placing the girl in the housekeeper"s charge, he had a long consultation with Doctor Roberts.
"If you will allow me to make a suggestion," returned the doctor, "I would say, send Jessie Bain to school for a year, if you are inclined to be philanthropic. She is a wild, beautiful, thoughtless child, and it has often occurred to me that her education must be very limited."
"That will be the very thing," returned Varrick. "I wonder that this solution did not occur to me before. I am going away to-day," he added, "and wonder if I could get you to attend to the matter for me, doctor?"
"I will do so with pleasure," returned Doctor Roberts. "In fact, I know the very inst.i.tution that would be most suitable. It"s a private boarding-school for young ladies, patronized by the _elite_, and I feel a.s.sured that Professor Graham will take the greatest possible pains with this pretty, neglected girl, who will be heir only to the education she gets there, and her youth and strength with which to face the battle of life."
When the result of this conference was told to Jessie Bain, she sobbed as if her heart would break.
"I don"t want to leave you, Mr. Varrick!" she cried, "indeed I don"t.
Let me go home with you. I am sure your mother will like me. I will be so good to her."
It was explained to her that this could not be. They could scarcely pacify her. It touched Hubert Varrick deeply to see how she clung to him.
He parted with her in the doctor"s home, whence she had been taken, leaving his address with her, with the admonition that she should write to him every week, and tell him how she was progressing with her studies; and if she wanted anything she was to be sure to let him know.
He went back to the hotel to bid good-bye to Mrs. Northrup; but somehow he could not bring himself to say one word to her about Jessie Bain.
As he boarded the evening boat for Clayton there was not a more miserable man in all the whole wide world than Hubert Varrick. He paced the deck moodily. The thousands of little green islands upon which the search-light flashed so continuously, had little charm for him. Suddenly as the light turned its full glare upon a small island midway up the stream, rendering each object upon it as clearly visible as though it were noonday, under the strong light Hubert Varrick"s eyes fell upon a sight that fairly rooted him to the spot with horror.
In that instantaneous glance this is what he saw: A young and lovely girl crouching on her knees, in the long deep gra.s.s under the trees, her arms outstretched in wild supplication, and bending over her was the dark figure of a man. One hand clutched her white throat, and the other hand held a revolver pressed to her white brow. The slouch hat he wore concealed his features. The girl"s face, framed in that ma.s.s of curling dark hair, the white arms--great G.o.d! how strangely like Gerelda"s!
Was he going mad? He strained his eyes to see, and a terrible cry of agony broke from his lips.
"Captain!" he shrieked, "somebody, anybody, get me a life-boat, quick, for the love of Heaven! Half my fortune for a life-boat--quick!"
As he cried aloud, the island was buried in darkness again.
CHAPTER IV.
"THE GIRL WHO PLAYS AT FLIRTATION MAY FIND SHE HAS GRASPED A TWO-EDGED SWORD," SAID THE HANDSOME YOUNG CAPTAIN, LOOKING FULL IN GERELDA"S BEWITCHING, HAUGHTY FACE.
The captain who was pa.s.sing, stopped short and looked at Hubert Varrick in amazement as he cried out, wildly:
"Get me a life-boat, somebody--anybody! Half my fortune for a life-boat!"
"What is the matter?" asked the captain, sharply. "Has some one fallen overboard?"
When Varrick answered in the affirmative, the captain gave orders that a life-boat be at once lowered by the crew, calling upon Varrick to point out, as near as he could, where the drowning man was.
"I will go, too," Varrick answered, springing into the boat; and an instant later the boat was flying over the waves in the direction which Varrick indicated.
"Which way, sir?" asked the man at the oars.
"Straight toward that little island yonder," was the hoa.r.s.e reply. "Make for it quickly! Here, take this bank-note, and, in Heaven"s name, row sharp! No one is drowning, but there is a young and lovely girl at the mercy of some fiend on that island yonder!"
The man dropped his oars.
"If you had told our captain that, he would never have sent out a life-boat," declared the man. "He thought it was some one drowning near at hand, for the story of Wau-Winet Island is no news to the people hereabouts."
"What do you mean?" cried Varrick.
"I can tell you the story in a very few words, sir," returned the man; "and surely there"s no one more competent to relate it than myself. I can relate it while we are rowing over to Wau-Winet Island:
"Some six months ago a stranger suddenly appeared in our midst. He purchased Wau-Winet Island, and a few days later a score or more of workmen appeared one night at Alexandria Bay, and boarded a tug that was to take them out to the island.
"These workmen were all strangers to the inhabitants around Alexandria Bay, and they spoke in a different language.
"They lived upon the island for a month or more, never once coming in contact with the people hereabouts.
"All their food was brought to them. Soon their mysterious manners became the talk of all the country round.
"In a month"s time they had erected a grand stone house--almost a castle--hidden from any one who might chance to pa.s.s the island, by a net-work of trees.
"At length the gray-stone house was completed, and the strange, uncanny workmen took their departure as silently as they had come.
"The people were warned to keep away from the place, for the workmen had left behind them a large, ferocious dog who menaced the life of any one who attempted to land on Wau-Winet Island.
"Only last night an event happened which I shall never forget if I live to be the age of Methuselah. I was standing near the dock, when suddenly some one laid a heavy hand on my shoulder.
"Glancing up with a little start, I saw the man who had so lately bought Wau-Winet Island standing before me. By his side, leaning heavily upon his arm, yet swaying strangely to and fro, as though she were scarcely able to keep her feet, was a woman in a long black cloak, and her face covered by a thick veil.
"Before I had a chance to speak, the gentleman bent down and whispered hoa.r.s.ely in my ear:
"I want you to row us as quickly as possible, to Wau-Winet Island. You can name your own price."
"I wish to G.o.d I had refused him. I started to help the lady into the boat, but he thrust me aside and helped her in himself, lifting her by main strength.
"For an instant she swayed to and fro, like a leaf in a strong wind; but he steadied her by holding her down on her seat, both of her hands caught in his.
"I had scarcely pushed out into midstream ere I fancied I heard a low, choking cry. The woman had wrenched one of her hands free, and like a flash she had torn off her thick veil, and then I saw a sight that made the blood run cold in my veins, for over her mouth a thick scarf was wound, which she was trying to tear off with her disengaged hand.
"Her companion caught her hand with a fierce imprecation on his lips, and the struggle that ensued between them made the boat rock like a cradle. In an instant he had forced her back into her seat, and drawn the veil down over her face again.
"But in that brief instant, by the bright light of the moon, I had caught a glimpse of a face so wondrous in its loveliness and its haughtiness that I was fairly dazed. I did not know what to do or say, I was so bewildered.
""You must make quicker time!" cried the gentleman, turning to me.
"At last we reached the island, and despite her struggles, he lifted her out of the boat. Then he thrust a bill into my hand, saying grimly, "You can return now."
"But while he was speaking, never for an instant did his hold relax upon the girl"s arm, though she writhed under his grasp.