And the most terrible thing about it all is that she has constantly urged me to leave the island--to go, and never return.

Great God, what does it all mean?
I love her more than anything else on earth, we have been inseparable since the day she was old enough to toddle alone--and yet she would have me leave her! No power on earth can reveal the secret that is torturing her.

No power can make Strang divulge it." "And Obadiah Price!" cried Nathaniel, sudden excitement flashing in his eyes.

"Does he not know ?" "I believe that he does!" replied Neil, pacing back and forth in his agitation.

"Captain Plum, if there is a man on this island who loves Marion with all of a father's devotion it is Obadiah Price, and yet he swears that he knows nothing of the terrible influence which has so suddenly enslaved her to the prophet! He suggests that it may be mesmerism, but I--" He interrupted himself with a harsh, mirthless laugh.