of
his watch, a hope which he had striven to repress for very fear lest it
might prove false, sprang to life.

"Not yet,--then you _have_ a plan for our escape," and the anxiety
returned to Feversham's face.

"I said nothing of it," he pleaded, "tell me that! When I was delirious
in the prison there, I said nothing of it, I breathed no word of it? I
told you of the four feathers, I told you of Ethne, but of the plan for
your escape I said nothing."

"Not a single word. So that I myself was in doubt, and did not dare to
believe," and Feversham's anxiety died away. He had spoken with his hand
trembling upon Trench's arm, and his voice itself had trembled with
alarm.

"You see if I spoke of that in the House of Stone," he exclaimed, "I
might have spoken of it in Dongola. For in Dongola as well as in
Omdurman I was delirious. But I didn't, you say--not here, at all
events. So perhaps not there either. I was afraid that I should--how I
was afraid! There was a woman in Dongola who spoke some English--very
little, but enough. She had been in the 'Kauneesa' of Khartum when
Gordon ruled there. She was sent to question me. I had unhappy times in
Dongola."

Trench interrupted him in a low voice. "I know. You told me things which
made me shiver," and he caught hold of Feversham's arm and thrust the
loose sleeve back. Feversham's scarred wrists confirmed the tale.

"Well, I felt myself getting light-headed there," he went on. "I made up
my mind that of your escape I must let no hint slip. So I tried to think
of something else with all my might, when I was going off my head." And
he laughed a little to himself.

"That was why you heard me talk of Ethne," he explained.

Trench sat nursing his knees and looking straight in front of him. He
had paid no heed to Feversham's last words. He had dared now to give his
hopes their way.

"So it's true," he said in a quiet wondering voice. "There will be a
morning when we shall not drag ourselves out of the House of Stone.
There will be nights when we shall sleep in beds, actually in beds.
There will be--" He stopped with a sort of shy air like a man upon the
brink of a confession. "There will be--something more," he said lamely,
and then he got up on to his feet.

"We have sat here too long. Let us go forward."

They moved a hundred yards nearer to the river and sat down again.

"You have more than a hope. You have a plan of escape?" Trench asked
eagerly.

"More than a plan,"