I took a turn up and down the room to reassure myself that I was indeed master of my faculties; and then would have opened the door and gone downstairs. But Jenny stopped me, saying, "You can't go yet, Tommy." She gripped my arm and pulled me back. "Why not?" I asked. "Not yet," was all she answered. "But why?" I pressed in growing surprise. She watched me silently for a moment or two, then said, "Well, I'll tell you, Tommy. You see.... But are you hungry?" she broke off. The sudden question seemed to create as sudden an appetite. I said I was, very hungry. She told me to stay there, and cautiously left the room, and after a while came tripping lightly back with half a meat pie and a bottle of wine under her arm. "There," she said, laying down the spoils, "I'll tell you while you eat." So I set to with a relish, while Jenny told me the story of the day's happenings. Firstly, it seems, Worthing had arrived the day before and had told the Captain, who had been fretting at my sudden disappearance, the cause of it; and he had gone to Rancey Bridge to enquire into the matter. That had given the authorities the information they had been wanting; but in spite of the Captain's appeals they wouldn't release me. However, he had made a fresh attempt that morning, and there had been a splendid battle; but again he had failed to recover me. Then shortly after he had left the school my flight must have been discovered, as it would have been earlier had not Staggers been imprisoned and so unable to report my escape. What had happened to Worthing I could only surmise, for Jenny said nothing of the matter, and listening to her story I had little leisure to think deeply of his case. I suffered a passing pang on his account, and forgot him. Jenny had been alarmed to see her father returning in a terrified state; and rushing up the stairs he had vanished into his room where he had locked himself in muttering, "The officers! the officers!" It must have been almost immediately after his visit that my escape was discovered, and the officers had followed straight away on his track expecting to find me at his house. I didn't trouble to question exactly why he had been terrified; I was anxious to know what had happened to the officers. Evidently they had been met at the door by the impassive Abou, and quietly hushed away. Meanwhile Jenny had kept my presence in her room a profound secret. That had been her little romance, and she had wanted it all to herself. So I must wait, she told me, till the night came, and then I could escape in safety. I think her story and my meal ended simultaneously, for as I pushed away my plate, licking in the clinging fragments from my lips, she sat down beside me with a plump of her little body, and said, "There, Tommy; and I watched you sleep, oh, so long. But I like to see your eyes."