“Then he seemed nice again when we sailed on that boat, but when I actually saw you girls fly over the Pacific Ocean, it was too much for me. We recognized the Sky Rocket, and knew you were after us. I wanted to give up then, but Les said nobody would ever find us here at Lanai....”
“But didn’t you know that he was a counterfeiter, after you lived here?”
“No, of course not. I never knew till this afternoon. Of course I’d often seen that man before—the one that the detective caught—but I thought he was just the overseer. Les has always been away from here most of the time, so he needed somebody to manage the plantation.”
“Is there much of a plantation?” asked Linda, suspiciously.
“I guess not,” admitted Fanny. “We do raise a few pineapples. But I never saw any great quantities. And there are only a couple of native boys working here.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about your marriage, anyhow. So long as Sprague married you under a false name, and in Mexico besides, I guess it can easily be annulled. You won’t have to see him again.”
Fanny was silent, worn out with the tension of telling her story. Stretching back, she buried her face in the ferns. Linda and Dot looked at each other in hopeless dismay. Here was the girl whom Linda had threatened to prosecute to the uttermost, completely in her power, and she felt only sympathy for her!
“You poor kid!” said Dot, feelingly, as if Fanny were years younger than she was.
“Oh, I know it’s my own fault,” said Fanny, with a suppressed sob. “It was acting a lie in the beginning. But I never dreamed it would lead to anything like this. I thought if you—the real Linda Carlton—ever did appear, I’d just hand over the money, and maybe you’d give me back part of it for my work in the picture.”
“I suppose,” said Linda, “that we have to learn for ourselves that deceit never pays. But somehow, I can’t be hard on you, Fanny. And I’ll tell you why. It’s because of the very first thing you told us—that you are an orphan. It’s so much more difficult if you haven’t parents to teach you. I—haven’t a mother—but I have a wonderful father and a loving aunt.... So, somehow, I just feel as if I hadn’t the right to judge you....”