ng one hand between the bars
he caught the end of the blind, and, pulling it gently down, let the
spring draw it upward. Through an opening of six inches the room lay
open before him. He saw a door leading to another room, at one side an
iron cot, and in front of the coal fire, facing him, a girl seated in a
deep arm-chair. A book lay on her knees, and she was intently reading.

The girl was young, and her face, in spite of an unnatural pallor and an
expression of deep melancholy, was one of extreme beauty. She wore over
a night-dress a long loose wrapper corded at the waist, and, as though
in readiness for the night, her black hair had been drawn back into
smooth, heavy braids. She made so sweet and sad a picture that Ford
forgot his errand, forgot his damp and chilled body, and for a moment
in sheer delight knelt, with his face pressed close to the bars, and
gazed at her.

A movement on the part of the girl brought him to his senses. She closed
the book, and, leaning forward, rested her chin upon the hollow of her
hand and stared into the fire. Her look was one of complete and hopeless
misery. Ford did not hesitate. The girl was alone, but that at any
moment an attendant might join her was probable, and the rare chance
that now offered would be lost. He did not dare to speak, or by any
sound attract her attention, but from his breast-pocket he took the
glove thrown to him from the window, and, with a jerk, tossed it through
the narrow opening. It fell directly at her feet. She had not seen the
glove approach, but the slight sound it made in falling caused her to
start and turn her eyes toward it. Through the window, breathless, and
with every nerve drawn taut, Ford watched her.

For a moment, partly in alarm, partly in bewilderment, she sat
motionless, regarding the glove with eyes fixed and staring. Then she
lifted them to the ceiling, in quick succession to each of the closed
doors, and then to the window. In his race across the roofs Ford had
lacked the protection of a hat, and his hair was plastered across his
forehead; his face was streaked with soot and snow, his eyes shone with
excitement. But at sight of this strange apparition the girl made no
sign. Her alert mind had in an instant taken in the significance of the
glove, and for her what followed could have but one meaning. She knew
that no matter in what guise he came the man whose face was now pressed
against the bars was a friend.

With a swift, gracef