He held her hand. Was it for fear lest she should turn back, or was it for some other reason? They walked in silence towards the Wrights’ house, two dark shadows stealing through the blackness. “Mr. Cotterell,” whispered Olive with chattering teeth. “If anyone should come out of the house on account of the noise, don’t fire. We are all non-resistants, you know, here, and he won’t have a pistol.” Olive had no knowledge of the plenary indulgence which Brother Wright had seen fit to bestow upon himself in this matter. “Dear heart! don’t fear,” said Cotterell tenderly. “I am a desperate man flying for his life, it is true, but I am not a dastard. No human being at Perfection City shall ever be hurt by my hand. They are all sacred to me for your sweet sake. Ah yes, how truly it is Perfection City, none but I really know.” They walked on again in silence. “Is there a dog?” “Yes, but he knows me well. We are coming to the back of the stable now.” “Then go and speak to the dog through the chinks of the logs, else he will bark at me.” Olive crept up quietly, and putting her lips to a crevice in the rough log-stable said softly, “Pluto, good dog!” Pluto answered with a whine of satisfaction, and a soft, purring trumpet from Queen Katharine announced that she too was within, and that she recognised her mistress’s voice. “The horses are here,” whispered Olive. “I will go round and bring out Queen Katharine; there is only a wooden bolt on the outside to fasten the door. You had better not go near them for fear of exciting them, which might make the dog bark.” “It is dangerous for you in the dark. I fear the horses may hurt you,” said Cotterell, slow in bringing himself to give up the little hand he had held all during that strange night walk. “I am not afraid of the horses: they know me and I know them,” said Olive. Cotterell heard her talking softly to Queen Katharine as she quietly undid her halter and brought her out of the stable. Not a creature seemed awake in the house, and not a word was spoken by the two as they stole past down to the bars. Once out of earshot, Cotterell sprang upon Queen Katharine and stooping down lifted Olive up before him. She never could quite remember the wild things he said as he rode back to their house, holding her in his arms on the horse. She was dizzy, frightened, and confused, so perhaps he did not say all those wild words, and perhaps she dreamed them. He got Ezra’s saddle and put it on Queen Katharine, Olive did not forget to give him the parcel of food and a flask of milk and water, and then he said good-bye. Such a strange good-bye. He knelt before her, clasped her two hands in his own, and said: “Now I know why men have worshipped the image of pure womanhood. It made them better. I shall be made a better man by my worship.” And then he was gone without another word, and Olive crept into the house just as the first grey streaks of dawn appeared.