This son, Robert Browne, was in school when the joint will was designed, and he was to have Skaggs's fortune at the death of Wyckholme, in case that worthy survived.
All this would have been very simple had it not been for the instructions and conditions agreed upon by the two men.

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.

The penalty to be imposed upon them if the conditions were not complied with--neither to be excusable for the defection of the other--lay in the provision that the whole industry and its accumulated fortune, including the land (and they owned practically the entire island), was to go to the islanders--or, in plain words, to the original owners, their heirs, share and share alike, all of which was set forth concisely in a separate document attached.

Wyckholme named Sir John Allencrombie as one executor and Skaggs selected Alfred Bowen, of Boston, as the other.
As Wyckholme was the first to die, Skaggs became sole owner of the island and its treasures, and it was he who made the final will in accordance with the original plans.
The island of Japat with its jewels and its ancient chateau--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 chateau found response in the equally whimsical Skaggs, who constantly bemoaned the fact that it was impossible to spend money.