Can one wonder that his thoughts slipped brakes at times and ran wild and free? The wonder would have been if they had not, for after all he was but human. Suppose no word ever came from Palma? He had done all he could for his friend. But, at best, his chances were about even. Some indeed escaped. Thousands got away every spring, and blindly prowled the steppes and forests till the winter drove them in again. But the percentage who got clear away to freedom was not large. Still, there was always the chance, and Serge Palma had staked on that chance, and he was a man of intelligence and resource, and would strain every nerve to win through. And if no word came? Then--well, it would either mean that he had failed and been recaptured, or that he was dead, which was much the same thing; or--there was the trouble--that the word he had sent had never got through. He might even then be vainly striving after news of his wife, while she sat here waiting in vain for news of him. And so it might go on, month after month, till Hope grew desperate. Then she would desperately set out to find him, an utterly hopeless task, to search the whole wide world to find one man, and that man as like as not dead. If no word came, their position would remain just as it was until Hope left him, and was lost to him for ever. While she remained, he felt as a man may feel with whom a priceless gem is left in trust, and lies for safety in his banker's care. He gets no actual good of it. He dare not wear it. He may look at it at times, that is all. But still the knowledge that it is there, and in his charge, gives him a certain glow of satisfaction. Just so Paul Pavlof carried in his inmost heart the priceless jewel of his love for Hope Palma. She belonged to another, and that other his friend, and so to him she was sacred. But no power on earth could keep him from worshipping her with all the might that was in him. But, dimly behind all this, lurked two possibilities, either of which might solve the situation. The one--that Palma, if recaptured, might be sent to the Kara mines--a more than likely possibility. For though the officials, for the benefit of their own pockets, might wink at escapes, recapture entailed severest punishment. The other--that definite news might reach them, from Serge himself of his escape, or through some of the constantly arriving prisoners that he was dead.