‘You knew that I was very rich, and I soon tumbled to it that you hoped to induce me to marry you. That being so, I can well imagine in what a difficult position you must have found yourself with Lacost, who wanted to kill me. But it was in your interests that I should continue to live. That is why you did your best to prevent me from going up to Lake Atitlan. That, too, is the reason why you left that note last night, warning me not to go aboard the Pigalle?
‘No! No! No!’ Manon cried, violently shaking her head. ‘It was because I loved you.’
‘Love!’ sneered Gregory. ‘You don’t know the meaning of the word. It is greed that inspires your every action. And what a shock it must have been for you when I turned up again so unexpectedly in Suva. Having just learned about the brutal murder of de Carvalho by your friends, I was in half a mind to have a showdown with you then. That you had lent your island to Lacost and his pals was beyond doubt. But I had no proof that you were aware of what they intended to do there, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt about that. Although I knew you were lying, I even had a sneaking admiration for the way you put up a very plausible story, to the effect that you had no idea that the Colons to whom you had lent your island had any connection with Lacost.
‘You have played it both ways—hoping to get your share of the treasure by helping Lacost, and also hoping to hook me so that you could get your claws on my money. Lacost is now down, out and finished; and so are you.’
‘Please!’ she began to plead desperately. ‘Please! Seeing all we’ve been to each other, you can’t turn me adrift. Now that Lacost is finished and has lost the treasure, I’m ruined. I mortgaged my house to finance him. I’ll be left penniless and starve.’
He shrugged, and his eyes were as hard as agates. ‘In recognition of the pleasure that you have given me, I might still have forgiven you, and given you enough money to keep you going for a year or two. But for one thing. You have revealed yourself tonight as not just an adventuress but true spawn of the Devil, utterly evil and unscrupulous.
‘You admitted to the Macumba priest that you had killed a man. I never asked you why, but assumed that you had been in a spot during those troubled times in Algeria, and had been justified in doing so. But the old priest told you that, in due course, you would come into contact with a White Witch and that if you failed to kill her when you had the chance you would lose everything.
‘Well! The White Witch is here. She has done you no injury, but you intended to give her poison in that wine. Presumably because you believed that if you did not kill her she would, in some way, prevent me from marrying you. But you were acting on false premises. You make an admirable mistress, but that is one thing and taking a wife is quite another. Even before I knew you to be a liar and a cheat I wouldn’t have considered it for one moment.’
The tears were now running down Manon’s cheeks. After pausing for a moment, he went on harshly, ‘And now I will answer your question why I was so concerned about the White Witch. It was not only because what the Macumba priest had said to you came back to my mind an hour or so ago and I suspected your truly evil nature. It was because when I broke into her cage tonight, as soon as I saw her face I recognised her. She is the love of my life. My beloved Erika, whom I had believed to have been long since drowned.’
As Gregory ceased speaking, Manon gave a wailing cry. ‘Then … then I’ve lost my share of the gold and I’ve lost you, too. I’ve nothing … nothing left to live for.’
Before Gregory could stop her, she had snatched up the glass of wine and tipped half its contents down her throat. The action of the cyanide was almost instantaneous. Her eyes bulged, her limbs went rigid and she fell dead at his feet.
Epilogue
Dear Readers,
So many of you wrote to me after having read The Island Where Time Stands Still, saying that I could not possibly let Erika die, and begging me to write another book in which Gregory found his great love. In this story I have acceded to those requests.
Needless to say, Pierre Lacost and his surviving companions went to the guillotine. James and Olinda married, were beloved by their people and had several beautiful, golden-skinned children. Erika had suffered in no way, apart from her long imprisonment, and after a few weeks became again her old charming self. So our hero and heroine, once more united, lived happily ever after.
A Note on the Author
DENNIS WHEATLEY
Dennis Wheatley (1897 – 1977) was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s.
Wheatley was the eldest of three children, and his parents were the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College, London. In 1919 he assumed management of the family wine business but in 1931, after a decline in business due to the depression, he began writing.
His first book, The Forbidden Territory, became a bestseller overnight, and since then his books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. During the 1960s, his publishers sold one million copies of Wheatley titles per year, and his Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories.
During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain.
Dennis Wheatley died on 11th November 1977. During his life he wrote over 70 books and sold over 50 million copies.
Discover books by Dennis Wheatley published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/DennisWheatley
Duke de Richleau
The Forbidden Territory
The Devil Rides Out
The Golden Spaniard
Strange Conflict
Codeword Golden Fleece
The Second Seal
The Prisoner in the Mask
Vendetta in Spain
Dangerous Inheritance
Gateway to Hell
Gregory Sallust
Black August
Contraband
The Scarlet Impostor
Faked Passports
The Black Baroness
V for Vengeance
Come into My Parlour
The Island Where Time Stands Still
Traitors' Gate
They Used Dark Forces
The White Witch of the South Seas
Julian Day
The Quest of Julian Day
The Sword of Fate
Bill for the Use of a Body
Roger Brook
The Launching of Roger Brook
The Shadow of Tyburn Tree
The Rising Storm
The Dark Secret of Josephine
The Rape of Venice
The Sultan's Daughter
The Wanton Princess
Evil in a Mask
The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware
The Irish Witch
Desperate Measures
Molly Fountain
To the Devil a Daughter
The Satanist
Lost World
They Found Atlantis
Uncharted Seas
The Man Who Missed the War
Espionage
Mayhem in Greece
The Eunuch of Stamboul
The Fabulous Valley
The Strange Story of Linda Lee
Such Power is Dangerous
The Secret War
Science Fiction
Sixty Days to Live
Star of Ill-Omen
Black Magic
The Haunting of Toby Jugg
Unholy Crusade
Short Stor
ies
Mediterranean Nights
Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts
This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Reader
Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square,
London WC1B 3DP
First published in 1968 by Hutchinson & Co.
Copyright © 1968 Dennis Wheatley
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make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The moral right of the author is asserted.
eISBN: 9781448212828
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