She gave a cry on seeing the two boys, and rushed up joyfully to Harry Girdwood.
"Thank Heaven you are safe," she said hysterically; "but my own brave boy, do you hear? Do you know that that bell sounds the death-knell of men who, bad and wicked as they are, have been wrongfully condemned?"
"I know."
"Yes, my girl," said Harkaway; "we know—but there is yet time to save them. Come on, to the prison."
They all left precipitately, and in a very brief space of time they were at the prison and the brigands respited.
As young Jack said, they had earned the full penalty of the law.
But they would not have it upon their consciences that these lawless ruffians should suffer for a crime which they had not committed.
"There is one strange fact about this," said the governor of the prison to Harkaway, "and that is, that one of the prisoners has taken the liberty of respiting himself."
"Which one?"
"The Englishman Hunston."