ss,
resentfully.

"My liberty! And here I am a captive among you."

"Only for a time; only until we can place you in perfect safety on a
foreign shore. And that we are sworn to do. And is not this
comparatively honorable captivity; better than the degrading one of the
county jail?"

Sybil paled and shuddered through all her frame as she answered:

"I should be grateful for all this--but--but--my husband!"

"Oh, bother, there it is again! Always the same _mew_! If there's
anything in the world makes me feel ill, it is a love-sick woman!"
exclaimed the strange girl. But her short-lived anger quickly
disappeared, and holding out her tiny brown hand to her guest, she said:

"Come, get up and wash! There is some fresh water and clean towels. And
there is a change of clothing, if you wish to have it. And here am I, to
serve as your lady's maid. And when you are dressed, there will be a
dinner ready for you, of which I may say that the Governor of the State
will not sit down to a better one to-day."

Sybil gave her hand in token of reconciliation, and then arose from her
couch of leaves. Very glad was she of the opportunity of washing and
changing her dress; for of all the petty privations that were mixed up
with her great troubles, she felt most the want of fresh water and clean
clothes.

The girl waited on her kindly and skilfully. And Sybil would have been
well pleased had she not, in taking up one of the fresh damask towels,
saw on it the initials of her friend Beatrix Pendleton. She held it up
to the view of her hostess, and looked inquiringly.

"Yes, to be sure! we wanted face towels, and they brought away a dozen
or so of them from a house they recently visited. But you cannot help
it. I advise you to make the best of everything," said the girl,
answering the look.

Sybil said not a word in reply; but she thought within herself, "I am
forced to consort with thieves, and to use their stolen goods; but I
will profit by nothing which I shall not make good to the owner; and so
as soon as I shall be freed, I will privately send Miss Pendleton a
fourfold compensation."

And thus, having satisfied her conscience, Sybil took her hostess'
advice, and made "the best of everything."

When she was thoroughly renovated by a complete change of clothing,
every article of which she recognized as the property of Miss Pendleton,
her strange hostess conducted her into the spacious and beautiful cavern
that has been already