It was at this moment that Fenella entered the room. Neither of the men saw her. She stood noiselessly at the door.
"If I do what you want, order your arrest, what's the first question the Court will ask you—why did you help the prisoner to escape? Then the whole wretched story of your relations with the girl Collister will come out. And what will be the result? Fenella's name will become a byword. It will be the common talk of every slut in the island that she came second after your woman .... your offal."
Stowell flamed up with anger for a moment, and then choked with tears. After a short silence he said,
"I can never be sufficiently grateful to you, Sir, for what you've done for me. As for Fenella, I can hardly trust myself to speak. The thought of her suffering is the bitterest part of my own. I would live out the rest of my life on my knees if I could undo the wrong I have done her. But I cannot bring her down with me. I cannot take up again my life as a Judge after it has been so hideously disfigured and ask her to share it. Let me go to prison...."
Sobbing in his throat Stowell could go no further. Fenella, sobbing in her heart, crept noiselessly out of the room.
The Governor, in spite of himself, was visibly affected.
"Look here, my boy," he said. "I'll tell you what I'll do. It's going far, perhaps too far for the safety of the public service, but to prevent worse things happening I'll take the risk. I'll stop that warrant and hush up this miserable scandal on one condition—that you say nothing, take leave of absence on grounds of ill-health, go abroad and never come back again."
Stowell shook his head.
"Why not? Good gracious, why not? The guilty ones have gone. Your secret is safe. Except ourselves, nobody knows it. Why shouldn't you?"
"I dare not," said Stowell.