I read in the superb eyes above me that she was not. "Forward!" she said, as if giving a word of command. Somehow, I felt as if I must go. Her Ladyship was right: it was too late to draw back. So Ephraim and I set forth on our dangerous errand. I cannot undertake to say how we went, or where. It all comes back to me as if I had walked it in a dream: and I felt as if I were dreaming all the while. At last, as we went along, carrying the basket, Ephraim suddenly set it down with, "Hallo! what's that?" I knew then that we must be close to the prison, and that he was about to leave me. "I say, I must see after that. You go on, Bet!" cried Ephraim; and he was off in a minute--in what direction I could not even see. "Gemini!" cried I, catching up the word I had heard from Mrs Cropland's Betty. "Joel! I say, Joel! You bad fellow, can't you come back? How am I to lift this great thing, I should like to know?" A dark shadow close to the wall moved a little. "Come now, can't one of you lads help a poor maid?" said I. "It's a shame of Joel to leave me in the lurch like this. Come, give us a hand!" I was trembling like an aspen leaf. Suppose the wrong man offered to help me! What could I do then? "Want a hand, my pretty maid?" said a voice which certainly was not Colonel Keith's. "I'm your man! Give us hold!" Oh, what was I to do! This horrid man would carry the basket, and how could I explain to the warder? How could I know which warder was the right one? "Now then, hold hard, mate!" said a second voice, which I greeted with delight. "Just you let this here young woman be. How do, Betty? Why, wherever's Joel? He's no call to let the likes o' you carry things o' thisn's." What had the Colonel done with his Scots accent? I did not hear a trace of it. "Oh, Will Clowes, is that you?" said I, giving a little toss of my head, which I thought would be in character. "Well, I don't know whether I shall let you carry it." The next minute I felt how wrong I was to say so. "Yes, you will," said Colonel Keith, and took the basket out of my hands. I should never have known him, dressed in corduroy, and with a rake over his shoulder. He shouted something, and the great prison door opened slowly, and a warder put his head out. "Who goes there?" "Washing for Cartwright's ward." "Ay, all right. Come within. Cartwright!" shouted the porter. We went in, and stood waiting a moment just inside the door, till a warder appeared, who desired Colonel Keith to "bring that 'ere basket up, now." "You can wait a bit, Betty," said the Colonel, turning to me. "Don't be afraid, my girl. Nobody 'll touch you, and Will 'll soon be back." They say it is unlucky to watch people out of sight. I hope it is not true. True or untrue, I watched him. Yes, Will Clowes might be back soon; but would Duncan Keith ever return any more?