accordance with the original plans.

The island of Japat with its jewels and its ancient château--of modern
construction--represented several million pounds sterling. Its owners
had accumulated a vast fortune, but, living in seclusion as they did,
were hard put for means to spend any considerable part of it.
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. For five years after its
completion the two old men, with an army of Arabian retainers and Nubian
slaves, lived like Oriental potentates in the huge structure on the
highlands overlooking the sea.

Skaggs seldom went from one part of his home to another without a guide.
It was so vast and so labyrinthine that he feared he might become lost
forever. The dungeon below the château, and the moat with its bridges,
were the especial delight of these lonely, romantic old chaps. One of
the builders of this rare pile was now sleeping peacefully in the
sarcophagus beneath the chapel; the other was lying dead and
undiscovered in the very heart of his possessions. Their executors were
sourly wondering whether the two venerable testators were not even then
grinning from those far-away sepulchres in contemplation of the first
feud their unprimitive castle was to know.

The magnificent plans of the partners would have been a glorious tribute
to romance had it not been for one fatal obstacle. The trouble was that
neither young Miss Ruthven nor young Mr. Browne knew that their
grandfathers lived, much less that they owned an island in the South
Seas. Therefore it is quite natural that they could not have known they
were expected to marry each other. In complete but blissful ignorance