he look she gave me
when she bade me good-bye. Yes, I felt sure she loved me, and that she
had refused to wed my enemy! I still fretted and fumed at my
imprisonment; I longed with a longing beyond words to be free, but this
thought was like a beacon light to a shipwrecked sailor. It gave me
strength, too. In spite of everything health surged back into my being.

But my release did not come.

The days began to grow very cold, and I asked for a fire, but none was
given me, and my captivity was hard to bear. I think I should have gone
mad but for a Bible that had been given me. I read again and again the
Book of Job; especially did my mind rest upon his latter days when the
sun shone upon him again.

One day the little man, who had told me to call him Jonathan, came into
my cell weeping.

"What ails you, Jonathan?" I said.

"Alas!" was his reply.

"What?" I cried eagerly.

"My little Naomi is dead!" he said.

"Your little Naomi--dead!" I repeated, like one dazed. "What do you
mean?"

He started as though he had told me too much.

But I was not to be trifled with. I caught him and held him fast.

"You have made me desperate," I said; "I must know all now. Who told you
that she was dead? What do you mean by calling her your Naomi? I must
know everything."

"I dare not!" he cried, distractedly--"I dare not, I am afraid."

"Afraid of whom?"

"Richard Tresidder. He will be master of--" He stopped, and then he wept
bitterly.

My hands dropped from him, for my strength had gone.

"Tell me," I said--"tell me, Jonathan, all you know."

He kept sobbing, and this made me pity him, but no tears came to my own
eyes. My heart became cold and seemed as hard as a stone.

"She did not wed Master Nicholas Tresidder," he said; "and--and, oh,
God forgive me, but since then she has died."

For a time I could not collect my thoughts, the news seemed to have
unhinged my mind, but presently I remembered. I thought of what I had
heard Richard Tresidder say, and many wild thoughts came into my mind.

"If she is dead," I said at length, "you can set me free."

"No, no, I--" He got up from the stool on which he had been sitting and
left the room. I heard him lock the door behind him, and I had no
strength to hinder him. At that moment I cared for nothing.

CHAPTER XVI

I HEAR A STRANGE NOISE IN MY PRISON--THE SECRET PASSAGE WHICH I FOUND--A
WILD STRUGGLE, AND A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE

I have said many times that I