"Been dreamin’," he explained. "Just as well if he has." Teddy looked about him in bewilderment. "No, I haven’t been. I wasn’t asleep. I was wide awake. I guess you’ll think I’m dippy, Bob; but I did see ma. ’Pon my soul I did! She was right there." He pointed to the spot. "She looked lovely, too—young, like—and yet it was ma all right. She wanted me to come. That’s why I jumped. Oh, well! Perhaps I _am_ dippy. But it’s funny, isn’t it?" He was so preoccupied with this happening as not to notice sounds in the outer passage and beyond the yellow door. Even when he did, it was with no more than a partial cognizance. "Listen!" he said once. "There they are. It’ll be only a few minutes now. I’m not going to let you go in there, Bob. Funny about ma, isn’t it?" The sounds grew louder. The guards were moving about. Behind the yellow door people seemed to enter. There was the scraping of chairs as they sat down. The Italian woke and howled dismally. The negro shouted his hymn. Teddy was far away on the wings of speculation; but he came back to say: "If ma had gone ahead of me, I know she’d like nothing better than to come and give me a lift over. But she hasn’t gone ahead of me. She’s over there in Indiana Avenue. That’s the funny part of it. What do you suppose it means?" Bob didn’t know. Neither had he time to offer an opinion, because the main door opened and the warden appeared, accompanied by the chaplain, the doctor, the principal keeper, and three other men whom Teddy didn’t know. "Here they are!" Teddy whispered, as if their coming was a relief. The warden advanced to the central cell. The door was unlocked. Teddy stood on the threshold. "Thank you, warden. I suppose I can say good-by to my friend?" Permission was given. Teddy stepped out into the corridor. "You’d better go now, Bob. No use in your staying any longer." He nodded toward the men standing round him. "They’ll handle me gently. I’m not afraid." Their hands clasped; but the boy was only a boy, loving and in need of love. Before Bob knew what was happening, Teddy’s arms were about his neck, in a long, desperate embrace. A gulp that was almost a sob from each—and it was over. "All right, boys. I’m ready. Go to it." The words were spoken steadily. Bob limped toward the door. A guard unlocked it. "Say, Bob!" It was Teddy’s voice again. Bob turned. The lad had taken off his collar, no more conscious of the act than if he was going to bed. One of the strange men was kneeling on one knee, making a significant slit in a leg of Teddy’s trousers. "Say, Bob! I wonder—if it doesn’t take you too far out of your way-if you’d mind driving round by the house? You see, if anything has happened to ma, why, the girls’ll be all up in the air, poor things!" Bob nodded because he couldn’t trust himself to words—and so it was the end. ————