The days began to grow very cold, and I asked for a fire, but none was given me, and my captivity was hard to bear. I think I should have gone mad but for a Bible that had been given me. I read again and again the Book of Job; especially did my mind rest upon his latter days when the sun shone upon him again. One day the little man, who had told me to call him Jonathan, came into my cell weeping. "What ails you, Jonathan?" I said. "Alas!" was his reply. "What?" I cried eagerly. "My little Naomi is dead!" he said. "Your little Naomi--dead!" I repeated, like one dazed. "What do you mean?" He started as though he had told me too much. But I was not to be trifled with. I caught him and held him fast. "You have made me desperate," I said; "I must know all now. Who told you that she was dead? What do you mean by calling her your Naomi? I must know everything." "I dare not!" he cried, distractedly--"I dare not, I am afraid." "Afraid of whom?" "Richard Tresidder. He will be master of--" He stopped, and then he wept bitterly. My hands dropped from him, for my strength had gone. "Tell me," I said--"tell me, Jonathan, all you know." He kept sobbing, and this made me pity him, but no tears came to my own eyes. My heart became cold and seemed as hard as a stone. "She did not wed Master Nicholas Tresidder," he said; "and--and, oh, God forgive me, but since then she has died." For a time I could not collect my thoughts, the news seemed to have unhinged my mind, but presently I remembered. I thought of what I had heard Richard Tresidder say, and many wild thoughts came into my mind. "If she is dead," I said at length, "you can set me free." "No, no, I--" He got up from the stool on which he had been sitting and left the room. I heard him lock the door behind him, and I had no strength to hinder him. At that moment I cared for nothing. CHAPTER XVI I HEAR A STRANGE NOISE IN MY PRISON--THE SECRET PASSAGE WHICH I FOUND--A WILD STRUGGLE, AND A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE