"That's what I am here for," answered Lucy, withdrawing her mistress into the darkest corner of the room, after having drawn her rope up and dropped the curtains over the coil as it lay upon the floor. "Lucy, how did you ever find me?" exclaimed Bonnibel, gladly, as they sat down together on a low divan, mutually forgetting the difference in their position as mistress and maid in the joy of their re-union. "I've never lost track of you, Miss Bonnibel, since the night your husband turned me into the cold, dark street." "Cruel!" muttered Bonnibel, with a shudder. "Yes, it was cruel," said Lucy, "but I didn't spend the night in the streets! Pierre, the hall-servant, let me in again unbeknownst to Colonel Carlyle, and I slept in my old room that night, though I couldn't get to speak to you because he had locked you into your room and kept the key. At daylight I went away and secured a lodging near you--you know I had plenty of money, Miss Bonnibel, because you were always very generous! That evening when Colonel Carlyle took you away, along with that hateful furrin maid, I followed after, you may be sure, and I've been in Naples ever since trying to get speech of you; but though I've tried bribery, and corruption, and cunning, too, I've always failed until to-night." She paused to take breath, and Bonnibel silently pressed her hand. "So there's the whole story in a nutshell," continued Lucy, after a minute; "I ain't got time to spin it out, for you and me, Miss Bonnibel, has to get away from here as quick as ever we can! Do you think you can climb down my ladder of rope?" Bonnibel smiled at the anxious tone of the girl's question. "Of course I can, Lucy," she said, confidently, "I wish there were nothing harder in life than that." "Miss Bonnibel," said the girl, in a low voice, "we must be going in a minute or two, now. Can you get a dark suit to put on? And have you any money you can take with you? For it will take more money than I have in my purse, perhaps, to carry us home to New York." "To New York--are we going back there?" faltered the listener. "As fast as wind and water can carry us!" answered the girl. "You and me are needed there in a hurry, my darling mistress. At least _you_ are, for I feel almost sure that a man's life is hanging on your evidence." "Lucy, what can you mean?" exclaimed Bonnibel, in amazement. "Ah! I see they have told you nothing!" answered Lucy. Bonnibel caught her arm and looked anxiously into her face. "No one has told me anything," she said. "What should they have told me?" "Much that you never knew, perhaps," said the girl, shaking her head gravely. "Then tell it me yourself," said Bonnibel. "Do not keep me in suspense, my good girl." "May I ask you a question first, Miss Bonnibel?" "As many as you please, Lucy!" "You remember the night poor old master was murdered?" said the girl, as if reluctant to recall that painful subject. "As if I could ever forget it," shuddered the listener.