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"I scooped up the gold plate with its little forest of wax candles, and, taking oute and looked out Yes, the e point, but the swa, once I tunneled into that blackness, the ood

"Of course, I didn't have a flashlight or a lantern I hadn't planned on this! In fact, if anybody had said, 'Will you spend the night on Sugar Devil Island?' I would have answered, 'That's insane ¡¯

" 'Wait till I get finished with this place,' I said aloud 'I'll have electricity everywhere And these ill have properly fitted glass Maybe they'll have screens as well And these plank floors will be covered with marble tiles that the swamp can't consume with its infernal dampness No, this shall be a small Roman palace, ith even et a new stove And then if I'm trapped out here, I'll have delicious pillows on a couch on which to sleep, and plenty of books to read by fine lights ' It seemed I saw the vision of the place, and Rebecca's fate had no part in what I saw It was as if her grisly death had been erased

"But for now? For noas in the dale in a tree house!

"Okay, what if I stayed here and didn't try to find my way home in this abominable situation? What if I just read soht, and kept ht send my way?

"Well, the worst consequence ofthat would be that everyone at Blackwood Manor would think soht be looking for ht be out there in a pirogue with flashlights and lanterns

"Didn't that argue forwhere I was?

"I set the plate of light down on the desk, and I went out the front door, down the steps, and crossed the clearing before the Here so that I stood near to the bank

"It was quite a how the few candles illu close in a pirogue could have ht

"But if so, why did it seeet back to reassure those who loved ht?

"I checked in the pirogue No, I did not have a flashlight or lantern Big surprise

"Then I peered into the swamp I tried to see what lay before me I tried to make out the small channel by which I had co in the blackness

"I walked around the island as best I could Why precisely I wasn't sure Maybe I wanted to feel that I was doing so, and I listened, listened very carefully in case anyone out there was calling my name

"Of course I heard the countless night birds and low gurgling noises co from the water, but there was no human voice

"I caue and there stood Goblin, ure apparently illuht that came from the house