“She is a little heroine and will be missed by our friends,” he said, when I echoed his praises warmly. “I hope they can prove nothing against her. How long have you known her?” “I saw her for the first time here.” “She is heart and soul in our cause and one of the staunchest workers and the bravest.” “What cause is yours, my friend?” “You are right to be cautious; but my cause is yours, and yours mine.” At this moment Pia touched me on the arm. “Will you come and look at this poor soul here?” she asked; and as I turned and we bent over a woman who had fainted, she whispered hurriedly: “That man is a spy. Be careful what you say to him.” I was astounded. It seemed incredible that any money, any reward however lavish, could induce a man to face the horrors of such an inferno as that gaol. “Can you lift her to the window?” asked Pia, seeing my look of incredulity; and she whispered: “It is true. I know. Be very careful.” The man helped me hold the unconscious woman to the air; and when we set her down somewhat revived, he was at me again, seeking to draw some compromising admissions from me in response to his own violent abuse of the Government. “You are mistaken about me and should not speak so unguardedly to a stranger even in this place,” I answered. “I should not had I not seen how you sympathize with our friends here. It is true we have not met before, and in that sense we are strangers; but a fellowship of suffering in our common cause makes us all friends--aye, and more than friends.” “What I have done has been done for motives of mere humanity.” “But they recognize a leader in you--and I proclaim myself as devoted a follower as any of them.” “I am no leader of any cause, man. I am an Englishman; my name is Donnington; and I have been brought here through the blundering of the police.” “They are devils,” he exclaimed vehemently, and then tried to lead me into joining in his abuse of them. But little Pia had put me on my guard, and after a time he abandoned his efforts and fastened on to another man, with results I was delighted to see. The man listened for a while and presently, taking offence at something which the spy said, answered hotly; the spy lost his temper and let fall a remark which others beside the man he was pumping resented. They closed round him and first thrashed him soundly and then knocked him across to the other group. The latter glad to get hold of one of us grabbed hold of him, and venting on his cowardly body all the rage they dared not vent on us, they beat and kicked and mauled him unmercifully, until his screams for help attracted the attention of the warders and they entered and dragged him away. Knowing that he would seek revenge by lying about us, I got from Pia all the names of the men who had stood by me during the night, so that when I was out of my own troubles, I might tell Volheno what had really occurred.