“Forgive me for—­that—­back there—­Marion,” he whispered.  “It was because I love you—­love you—­” He freed her hand and stood back, choking the words that would have revealed his secret.  He lied now for the love of this girl.  “Neil is out there waiting for me in a small boat,” he continued, pointing beyond Obadiah’s to the lake.  “I will see him soon, and then I will return to Obadiah’s to tell you if he has left for the mainland.  Will you promise to meet me there—­to-night?”

“I will promise.”

“At midnight—­”

“Yes, at twelve o’clock.”

This time it was Marion who came to him.  Her eyes shone like stars.

“And if you make Neil go to the mainland,” she said softly, “when I meet you I will—­will tell you—­something.”

The last word came in a breathless sob.  As she slipped into the path that led to St. James she paused for a moment and called back, in a low voice, “Tell Neil that he must go for Winnsome’s sake.  Tell him that her fate is shortly to be as cruel as mine—­tell him that Winnsome loves him, and that she will escape and come to him on the mainland.  Tell him to go—­go!”

She turned again, and Nathaniel stood like a statue, hardly breathing, until the sound of her feet had died away.  Then he walked swiftly up the foot-path that led to Obadiah’s.  He forgot his own danger in the excitement that pulsated with every fiber of his being, forgot his old caution and the fears that gave birth to it—­forgot everything in those moments but Marion and his own great happiness.  Neil’s absence meant nothing to him now.  He had held Marion in his arms, he had told her of his love, and though she had accepted it with gentle unresponsiveness he was thrilled by the memory of that last look in her eyes, which had spoken faith, confidence, and perhaps even more.  What was that something she would tell him if he got Neil safely away?  It was to be a reward for his own loyalty—­he knew that, by the half fearing tremble of her voice, the sobbing catch of her breath, the strange glow in her eyes.  With her brother away would she confide in him?  Would she tell him the secret of her slavedom to Strang?  Nathaniel was conscious of no madness in the wild hope that filled him; nothing seemed impossible to him now.  Marion would meet him at midnight.  She would go with him to the boat, and then—­ah, he had solved the problem!  He would use no force.  He would tell her that Neil was in his canoe half a mile out from the shore and that he had promised to leave the island for good if she would go out to bid him good-by.  And once there, a half a mile or a mile away, he would tell her that he had lied to her; and he would give her his heart to trample upon to prove the love that had made him do this thing, and then he would row her to the mainland.