What was that _something_ she would tell him if he got Neil safely away?
It was to be a reward for his own loyalty--he knew that, by the half fearing tremble of her voice, the sobbing catch of her breath, the strange glow in her eyes.

With her brother away would she confide in him?
Would she tell him the secret of her slavedom to Strang?
Nathaniel was conscious of no madness in the wild hope that filled him; nothing seemed impossible to him now.

Marion would meet him at midnight.

She would go with him to the boat, and then--ah, he had solved the problem! He would use no force.

He would tell her that Neil was in his canoe half a mile out from the shore and that he had promised to leave the island for good if she would go out to bid him good-by.