With the exception of this visitor and Lopez, the prisoner was permitted to receive no callers. Lieutenant Ridder, who had visited the arsenal shortly after his friend’s arrest and demanded to see him, was politely but firmly informed that, according to the rules and regulations, Señor Hawley, by the nature of the charge against him, was strictly denied visitors, and although the naval officer resorted to both pleading and threats, he was unable to change this decision. Although Hawley was by no means an unsociable man, he was glad that this rule was in force, for ever since his arrest he had feared that Virginia Throgmorton might be indiscreet enough to come to see him. Even as it was, knowing the girl’s loyal and impulsive nature, he was afraid that she might manage, by the use of her father’s influence, to obtain the necessary permission to visit him. Such an interview, he felt sure, would be disastrous, for he had no doubt that every word that passed between them would be eagerly listened to by Portiforo’s spies. Consequently, when late that afternoon he heard footsteps in the cement-walled courtyard upon which the door of his dungeon opened, and, peering through the bars, caught sight of the figure of a woman approaching his cell, his heart skipped a couple of beats. The woman, who was flanked on either side by a uniformed official, wore a heavy veil, but as she drew near she threw aside this covering, and an involuntary exclamation of dismay escaped from the Camera Chap’s lips as he caught sight of her features. The visitor was not Virginia. Recognizing that pathetic, haggard face at first glance, the prisoner would have been relieved at that moment to have seen the daughter of the United States minister standing there in her place; for if Virginia’s visit to the jail would have been an unwise step, the presence of this woman was a hundred times more so. He marveled at the madness which had caused Señora Felix to come to see him--for he supposed at first that it was on his account that she was there. Greatly to his surprise and relief, however, the señora and her companions passed his cell without even a glance at him. As she went by he observed that tears were streaming down her cheeks and that her frail form was trembling with emotion. They halted at a cell on the same tier, a few yards away, and the two officials withdrew a short distance, leaving the woman to talk with its occupant through the bars. The Camera Chap could not see her now, but he heard her burst suddenly into a fit of violent sobbing. Then he heard a man say soothingly: “Courage, señora! I entreat you to be calm, my dear friend. Surely you who have faced all your tribulations with such sublime bravery are not going to break down now.”