" It is, by this time, safe for the reader to assume that Mr. Taswell Skaggs had been a rich man and therefore privileged to be eccentric.

"I think I'll listen to it, Jackie," replied Mr. Skaggs, quite soberly.

As the outcome of this midnight proposition, Taswell Skaggs and John Wyckholme arrived, two months later, at the tiny island of Japat, somewhere south of the Arabian Sea, there to remain until their dying days and there to accumulate the wealth which gave the first named a chance to make an extraordinary will.

Skaggs and Wyckholme purchased the land from the natives, protected and eased their rights with the government and proceeded to realise on what the natives had unwittingly prepared for them.

But, as Messrs. Wyckholme and Skaggs owned the land and the other grants, there was little left for the islanders but arbitration.

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.

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.

Wyckholme's dream of erecting an exact replica of a famous old château found response in the equally whimsical Skaggs, who constantly bemoaned the fact that it was impossible to spend money.

Skaggs seldom went from one part of his home to another without a guide.

I can assure you positively, as representative of the opposition, that the grandchildren of Skaggs and Wyckholme are not going to divorce or marry anybody while I'm here, Britt and Saunders and Bowles to the contrary.

Mr. Skaggs wasn't a gentleman.

You'll find how easy it is when you get back to London and have to testify in the Skaggs will contest.

As he paused at the top to await the approach of his companions, Chase turned to the white-faced Princess and said, between his teeth: "If Skaggs and Wyckholme had been in the employ of the devil himself they could not have foreseen the result of their infernal plotting.

Two days and nights crept slowly into the past, and now the white people of the château had come to the eve of their last day's stay on the island of Japat: the probationary period would expire with the sun on the following day, the anniversary of the death of Taswell Skaggs.

No man in the despised house of Taswell Skaggs slept that night.

"Chase, if you don't get your blooming cruiser here before long, we'll be as little worth the saving as old man Skaggs, up there in his open-work grave," Deppingham was saying as he threw himself wearily into a chair in the breakfast room.

Get up!" CHAPTER XXXIV IN THE SAME GRAVE WITH SKAGGS Down in the village of Aratat there were signs of a vast commotion.

"Bowles," said he, "it's a rotten shame they didn't think to say good-bye to old man Skaggs.

They no longer were interested in the island of Japat, except as a reminiscence, nor were they concerned in the vagaries of Taswell Skaggs's will.

To be perfectly explicit and as brief as possible, Lady Deppingham and Robert Browne divided that amount of money and passed into legal history as the "late claimants to the Estate of Taswell Skaggs.

They now had nothing in common with Taswell Skaggs; Skaggs is not a pretty name.

They now had nothing in common with Taswell Skaggs; Skaggs is not a pretty name.

The personal estate passed into the hands of the islanders, from whom Skaggs had appropriated it in conjunction with John Wyckholme.

Their experts had examined the property before the death of Mr. Skaggs; they were not investing blindly in the great undertaking.

SKAGGS, K. G. Essays for better reading.