“‘Return thanks to the Lord, my boy! You are saved!’
“‘Oh, Lil! Lil!’ cried Joe, and dropped his head in his hands and sobbed like a child.
“When at length he recovered himself he thanked the chaplain and the lawyer for all that they had done in his behalf.
“And then, as it was late, the two gentlemen shook hands with the prisoner and withdrew.
“The next morning the meeting between the young pair was a happier one than they had had since they had parted on that fatal night of the old squire’s death and the lawyer’s murder.
“Joseph Wyvil also kept their spirits up by hopefully putting the fairest view of the future before them. He reiterated that it depended on Joe himself whether his lot in Australia would be the hard lot of a convict or the ordinary lot of a hard-working emigrant. The chaplain of this prison, he said, would write a letter to the chaplain of the transport-ship and make interest with him for the young exile. And lastly, that, within a year, or two years at most, he would bring Lil out to Sydney.
“‘And by that time, Joe, you will have behaved yourself so well as to have got your ticket-of-leave and maybe your free pardon, too, and we will all, please the Lord, forget our troubles and live happily together.’
“And Lil and Joe believed all that their hopeful brother told them, and anticipated the brighter days that might be in store for them in the future years.
“The interval between this day and the sailing of the transport-ship was passed as calmly and hopefully as possible under the circumstances.
“Lil was allowed to be as much with Joe as the rules of the prison justified, and even a little more, perhaps, for governor, chaplain and physician all sympathized with them, despite the rigid discipline that would bind souls as much as bodies in such cases of officers and prisoners.