There was silence for some time after that save for the rumble of the carriage wheels. Then Gell said he was sorry he had told Bessie about the loss of the income. She would always be thinking he would regret the sacrifice he had made for her. If he could only find some way of showing her it didn't matter, because he could always get plenty of money.... "And why can't you?" said Stowell. "How?" "It's two pounds a week you draw on me for Miss Brown, isn't it?" "Yes." "Then I'll make it ten on condition that you don't pay me back a penny until I ask for it." "What a good chap...." But Gell could get no farther--his eyes were full and his throat was hurting him. On arriving at Douglas he saw Stowell across the platform to the northern train, and just as it was about to start, he said: "By the way, old man, you don't mind my saying something?" "Not a bit! What is it?" "You've hanged that poor devil of a Peel fisherman, and I suppose he deserved it. But I caught a glimpse of him as he was going down to the cells, and I thought he looked a fine fellow." "He _is_ a fine fellow." "Do _you_ say that? He made a big mistake in killing the wife, though, didn't he? If I had been in his place do you know what _I_ should have done?" "What?" "_Killed the other man._" Stowell drew back in his seat and at the next moment the train started. As it ran into the country a black thought, a vague shadow of something, was swirling like a bat in the darkness of Stowell's brain. That was not the first time it had come to him. It had come to him in Court, while he was speaking, startling him, stifling him, almost compelling him to sit down. "But Bessie's case was different," he thought. "She was not deserted. She sent Alick to me herself. Therefore it's impossible, quite impossible." Nevertheless, he slept badly that night, and as often as he awoke he had the sense of a red glow in his bedroom and of being blinded by the fierce glare from a burning boat. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN THE GREAT WINTER "Come in, my boy. Sit down. Take a cigarette. I have important news for you." The Governor had returned from London and was calling Stowell into his smoking-room. "First, about that recommendation to mercy. It has gone through. The death sentence has been commuted to ten years' imprisonment." "I am glad, Sir--very glad." "Next, your speech, deputizing for the Attorney, was reported--part of it--in the London newspapers and made a good impression." "I'm very proud, Sir."