Savage had reasons of his own for desiring that Reuben Roy should not be stationed at the gatehouse, but he had to reconcile himself to the disagreeable fact; the will of the master prevailed. [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. REUBEN HAS THRILLING EXPERIENCES. REUBEN was well pleased with his change of quarters. He liked old Samuel, and had no doubt that he should get on with him. The gatehouse, though small, was clean and bright, for Samuel's married daughter either came herself or sent some one each day to attend to the house and cook the old man's dinner. Reuben liked his room, which looked into the yard, and thought it a great improvement on his attic in the noisy, crowded house, where the lodgers were continually quarrelling. He wrote his mother a cheerful letter, telling her how much better off he was, for he knew that the news would gladden her heart. Reuben began to feel glad himself once more. Things were altogether brighter in his life. Mr. Akenside spoke kindly to him whenever they met, and even Savage, though many a sign showed that in his heart he liked Reuben no better than before, treated him with less severity. Reuben hoped that his worst troubles were over. Reuben's only regret in leaving his lodging was that he would in future see less of Kate, who, in her rough way, still showed herself friendly to him, and whom he was anxious to befriend in any way that he could. He believed that the girl had better thoughts and feelings than she would suffer to appear. She was regarded at the factory as an incorrigibly bad girl, always in mischief, and it was wondered that she did not get her dismissal, for she was often insolent to Mr. Savage, and made no secret of the fact that she hated him and loved to give him trouble. But, away from the factory, Reuben sometimes saw Kate under another aspect. She liked to talk to him, and would often ask questions about his home life, in which she seemed much interested. Now and then Reuben would read her bits out of his mother's letters,—hurriedly written letters they were, and very queerly spelt, but full of a mother's love, a mother's tender anxiety about her son's welfare. Kate evidently liked to hear these. But she would sigh when Reuben had finished, and a look of sadness would flit across the face which was usually aglow with mischievous mirth. Reuben had not been long at the gatehouse, when one day—it was a day he never forgot—as he was passing along a passage between the workshops, he heard proceeding from one of them, shrill, awful cries for help. He recognised the voices as those of women, and flew to the rescue. Dashing into the midst of a group of terrified girls, he perceived that one of them had become entangled by her clothes in the machinery, and was being drawn to certain death.