The master obeyed, soon lighted a dip on Lovey Lee's altar, then hurried where his girl lay fast bound. Malherb released her and she fainted. He chafed her blue, swollen wrists and, for the first time, thought of the dead miser without a pang. Grace slowly regained her senses, but not her courage. She clung to her father and wept and prayed him for the love of God not to loose her hand from between his own. "Save me--save me from her," she said. "Let me die anywhere but here--not smothered and starved here. Never let me see her and hear her voice again, or I shall go mad." "You are safe, my little child. Cry no more; tremble no more; 'tis your own father has found you." "My own dear father! My own dear father has saved me. I called and called and counted the falling drops of water. Sometimes I screamed when the ropes bit sharpest. But I called after every hundred drops had fallen. Then I heard a step----" She fainted again, and, seeking for the dropping water that she mentioned, Malherb found bread and meat where John Lee had placed it. He restored his daughter's consciousness, then made her eat and drink. After she had done so he finished the remainder of the food, and marvelled at himself that his appetite was keen. "Come," he said, "now, with my hand to help, your strength will lift you out of this den for ever." Anon they reached the air. "A century has gone over my head since dawn," he said. The girl took deep inhalations and looked at the sky. "To see the dear stars again! Speak to me, father--speak and hold my hand. I have come to fear silence. Have you forgiven--can you forgive me for all the suffering I have brought?" He held her hand and pressed it, but did not answer. Slowly they moved away; then Grace stopped. "Return, father--you must return and cover the mouth of the place, and make it fast against her. Else, when she comes again herself, thinking to find me dead, and finds me vanished, she will fly and take the amphora too." "It is there, then?" "Yes indeed! I have seen it with my own eyes. She kissed it--her hideous lips kissed it! Then she hid it again." "She will kiss it no more. She will not come back. The amphora and you--both in one moment! And I had determined to---- The irony of God! A banquet He spreads--but my teeth are gone. Yesterday this would have turned me into a good man; to-day it is too late. Lean on my arm, little heart. I'm strong enough to hold you up still." They spoke again of the past, and Grace told her father what he had already learned: that John Lee was his brother's son. He heard the fact with indifference now. So they passed painfully and slowly to their home, and in an hour Grace was upon her mother's bosom.