refuge temporarily in the
long-boat, before he would swear to Miriam, in her state-room, that
Bainrothe was not on board.

"As to the _habeas corpus_ which would have gone into effect to-day, and
which the wretch managed to defeat by requiring an error to be corrected
in the writ, that no guiltless man would have observed, I fear sometimes
it will prove ineffectual if we wait for the morrow. My plan was to go
at midnight with a party of my friends to the house of this miscreant,
and take the law in my own hands; but, in this I could not stir, for the
reasons I have given you. Besides that, it was risking too much--her
safety and reputation.

"She cannot be secretly removed, of course, for we have a detective in
the house able and strong, besides the old well-paid negress, both of
whom--"

"Have played you false," I interrupted, rising impetuously, and throwing
back the loose leaf of the door, "and I am here to tell you this. O
friends, have you forgotten me?"

And, rushing forward, I threw an arm around each of those dear necks,
weeping alternately on the shoulder of one and the other of the two men
I loved best in the world, and who, for some moments, sat silent and
amazed!

Then Wentworth rose mutely, and clasped me to his breast, and silence
prevailed between us. It comprehended all.

I think, when we meet again in heaven, after that severance which is
inevitable to those who wear a mortal shape, we may feel as we did then,
but never before! The rapture--the relief--the spiritual
ecstasy--surmounting, as on wings of fire, pain, fatigue, suspense,
anguish of mind and body--were in themselves lessons of immortality
beyond any that book or sage has issued from midnight vigil or earthly
tabernacle.

Not until a new order of things is established, and we have done with
tribulation, tears, and death, shall we again know such sensations; nor
is it indeed quite certain that human heart and brain could twice
sustain them here below!

CHAPTER XIV.

Reaction came at last! Life is full of bathos as well as pathos. An hour
later, we four companions in the rejoicing over this redemption, if
chiefly strangers before, were partaking cheerfully together of hot
coffee and oysters. The services of Mrs. Jessup had been called in--the
doctor's excellent old Quaker house-keeper--and, amid many "thous" and
"thees," she had served us a capital and expeditious supper.

No one enjoyed the festive occasion more than Mr.