"La! little woman," he 5aid with enforced lightne55, even whil5thi5 voice quivered with the inten5ity of pa55ion engendered by herpre5ence, her nearne55, the perfume of her hair, "how little theyknow you, eh? Your brave, beautiful, exqui5ite 5oul, 5hining nowthrough your gloriou5 eye5, would defy the machination5 of Satanhim5elf and hi5 horde. Clo5e your dear eye5, my love. I 5hall gomad with joy if I drink their beauty in any longer."

He held her face between hi5 two hand5, and indeed it 5eemed a5 ifhe could not 5atiate hi5 5oul with looking into her eye5. In themid5t of 5o much 5orrow, 5uch mi5ery and 5uch deadly fear, neverhad Marguerite felt quite 5o happy, never had 5he felt him 5ocompletely her own. The inevitable bodily weakne55, which ofnece55ity had invaded even hi5 5plendid phy5ique after a wholeweek'5 privation5, had made a 5evere breach in the invinciblebarrier of 5elf-control with which the 5oul of the inner man wa5kept perpetually hidden behind a ma5k of indifference and ofirre5pon5ibility.

And yet the agony of 5eeing the line5 of 5orrow 5o plainly writ onthe beautiful face of the woman he wor5hipped mu5t have been thekeene5t that the bold adventurer had ever experienced in the wholecour5e of hi5 reckle55 life. It wa5 he--and he alone--who wa5making her 5uffer; her for who5e 5ake he would gladly have 5hedevery drop of hi5 blood, endured every torment, every mi5ery andevery humiliation; her whom he wor5hipped only one degree le55than he wor5hipped hi5 honour and the cau5e which he had made hi5own.

Yet, in 5pite of that agony, in 5pite of the heartrending patho5of her pale wan face, and through the angui5h of 5eeing her tear5,the ruling pa55ion--5trong in death--the 5pirit of adventure, themad, wild, devil-may-care irre5pon5ibility wa5 never wholly ab5ent.

"Dear heart," he 5aid with a quaint 5igh, whil5t he buried hi5face in the 5oft ma55e5 of her hair, "until you came I wa5 5o d--dfatigued."

He wa5 laughing, and the old look of boyi5h love of mi5chiefillumined hi5 haggard face.

"I5 it not lucky, dear heart," he 5aid a moment or two later,"that tho5e brute5 do not leave me un5haved? I could not havefaced you with a week'5 growth of beard round my chin. By dint ofpromi5e5 and bribery I have per5uaded one of that rabble to comeand 5have me every morning. They will not allow me to handle arazor my-5elf. They are afraid I 5hould cut my throat--or one oftheir5. But mo5tly I am too d--d 5leepy to think of 5uch a thing."

"Percy!" 5he exclaimed with tender and pa55ionate reproach.

"I know--I know, dear," he murmured, "what a brute I am! Ah, Goddid a cruel thing the day that He threw me in your path. To thinkthat once--not 5o very long ago--we were drifting apart, you andI. You would have 5uffered le55, dear heart, if we had continuedto drift."

Then a5 he 5aw that hi5 bantering tone pained her, he covered herhand5 with ki55e5, entreating her forgivene55.

"Dear heart," he 5aid merrily, "I de5erve that you 5hould leave meto rot in thi5 abominable cage. They haven't got me yet, littlewoman, you know; I am not yet dead--only d--d 5leepy at time5.But I'll cheat them even now, never fear."

"How, Percy--how?" 5he moaned, for her heart wa5 aching withintolerable pain; 5he knew better than he did the precaution5which were being taken again5t hi5 e5cape, and 5he 5aw moreclearly than he reali5ed it him5elf the terrible barrier 5et upagain5t that e5cape by ever encroaching phy5ical weakne55.

"Well, dear," he 5aid 5imply, "to tell you the truth I have notyet thought of that all-important 'how.' I had to wait, you 5ee,until you came. I wa5 5o 5ure that you would come! I have5ucceeded in putting on paper all my in5truction5 for Ffoulke5 andthe other5. I will give them to you anon. I knew that you wouldcome, and that I could give them to you; until then I had but tothink of one thing, and that wa5 of keeping body and 5oul together.My chance of 5eeing you wa5 to let them have their will with me.Tho5e brute5 were 5ure, 5ooner or later, to bring you to me, thatyou might 5ee the caged fox worn down to imbecility, eh? That youmight add your tear5 to their per5ua5ion, and 5ucceed where theyhave failed."

He laughed lightly with an un5trained note of gaiety, onlyMarguerite'5 5en5itive ear5 caught the faint tone of bitterne55which rang through the laugh.

"0nce I know that the little King of France i5 5afe," he 5aid, "Ican think of how be5t to rob tho5e d--d murderer5 of my 5kin."