Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-15


EStRA and oneest town in England. In the
tf1(S#[A first class compartment a solitary
NISEJ1 passenger, young woman, dressed in
EhSSt4G black and yelled. who carried nothing
S3G1NS but small black satche
EHLA The woman opened her satchel and
E11 took from it document, which she
lE9NSES knew by rote, but which she mourn
(A[<GSeA fully scanned again. The blue paper
@2G9g gave her authority, by signature of
the governor of DartmOOr prison, to
visit and have speech with convict No. She
folded 1t and replaced it in the bag.
Finally the brakes rasped and the train stopped
with jerk.
"Princetownl" cried porter
The woman got out, gave up her ticket and fol-
lowed the thin stream of travellers toward group of
houses Chance directed her footsteps, and soon she
arrived at the outer granite archway OF the prison.
the state entrance, the visible break in granite
ring twenty feet high and mile in circumference
In front of the archway there tramped to and
fro a warder armed to the teeth.
The woman stopped timdly, saw within the
archway another wall and archway, and within that
still another, each guarded; and then, having spoken
to the sentinel she entered the precincts. AS she
was handed onward from official official, and gates
and doors were unlocked before her and locked be-
hind her and she traversed corridors and courtyards
to the continual accompaniment of Jangllng keys,
not all the sympathetic courtesy of warders, sub
Jugated by her beauty and her could reassure
At length her way was barred by an iron grille
and beyond that grille was another grille, and be-
tween the two stood man with gun who stared
vacantly at the stone floor at the lime washed
walls And then she perceived a tall figure, in the
yellow knlCkeTDOCkeTS and Jacket OF the convict,
behind the second grille like tiger in a cage The
man with the gun was in her line of sight, and she
moved
well, Norah?" said the convict in firm voice.
Father, how your? She put her face against
the bars, and kept back the tears.
To-day the attitude of her father baffled Norah.
He seemed as he always seemed, unbroken in spirit.
He seemed even more defiant than usual in the
yielding supremacy of his soul, than a
being who, instead of demanding pity, gave it. Yet
he could not would not talk easily. 1t if
he had nothing to say and was regarding the cere-
mony impatiently as a sort of useless rite
90 You quite free from your lumbago?" she
inquired, after strange pause.
jar he answered in low tone and with
peculiar glance with the of the South African
Dutch. He had taught her Dutch when she
child Then he said very quickly still in Dutch,
Escape next week"
Norah started she could not help it. The man
with the gun also started. The latter scowed at
of the animals behind the bars, and then looked
at the other and did not scOwl.
English, please" he muttered dryly; cor you'll
60! You both know the rule"
A silence.
Norah could not speak Her fathers tone was so
positive assured, that she had alternative but
to believe what from any other lips would have been
incredible Escape! The idea was fantastic
Perfectly easy" said he He smiled with an
lndulgent cynlclsm, gancing disdainfuly down
from his superior height at the with the gun.
Just ask them to ndorse the check, and YOU can
cash either the Pccadilly branch or in the CITY"
merely to reassure the with the gun. Il see
she replied, her heart violently beating.
You will hear he said.
1t all she could learn When the limit of the
interview reached, and the machinery of the
prison was put into motion to separate them, the
wet turned away with gesture and mien whose
grandeur neither his costume his situation could
impair. After all he Crampiron.
The train to Plymouth did not leave till six
O'Clock NOrah could not walk up and down the
whispering street, nor could she wait at the station.
II ~, -