* * * * *
Jack's trembling arm tightened a trifle on Mary's waist. He could feel
_her_ trembling.
"Come, Mary," Kesserich repeated.
Still she didn't reply.
Jack wet his lips. "Mary isn't going with you, Professor," he said.
"Quiet, Barr," Kesserich ordered absently. "Mary, it is necessary that
you and I leave the island at once. Please come."
"But Mary isn't coming," Jack repeated.
Kesserich looked at him for the first time. "I'm grateful to you for
the unusual sense of loyalty--or whatever motive it may have been--that
led you to follow me out here tonight. And of course I'm profoundly
grateful to you for saving Mary's life. But I must ask you not to
interfere further in a matter which you can't possibly understand."
He turned to Mary. "I know how shocked and frightened you must feel.
Living two lives and then having to face two deaths--it must be more
terrible than anyone can realize. I expected this meeting to take place
under very different circumstances. I wanted to explain everything to
you very naturally and gently, like the messages I've sent you every
day of your second life. Unfortunately, that can't be.
"You and I must leave the island right now."
Mary stared at him, then turned wonderingly toward Jack, who felt his
heart begin to pound warmly.
"You still don't understand what I'm trying to tell you, Professor,"
he said, boldly now. "Mary is not going with you. You've deceived her
all her life. You've taken a fantastic amount of pains to bring her up
under the delusion that she is Mary Alice Pope, who died in--"
"She _is_ Mary Alice Pope," Kesserich thundered at him. He advanced
toward them swiftly. "Mary darling, you're confused, but you must
realize who you are and who I am and the relationship between us."
"Keep away," Jack warned, swinging Mary half behind him. "Mary doesn't
love you. She can't marry you, at any rate. How could she, when you're
her father?"
"Barr!"
"Keep off!" Jack shot out the flat of his hand and Kesserich went
staggering backward. "I've talked with your wife--your wife on the
mainland. She told me the whole thing."
* * * * *
Kesserich seemed about to rush forward again, then controlled himself.
"You've got everything wrong. You hardly deserve to be told, but under
the circumstances I have no choice. Mary is not my daughter. To be
precise, she has no father at all. Do you remember the work that
Jacques Loeb did with sea urchins?"