A sudden hurry and urgency had come to the struggle, and Dr. Dillon passed restlessly to the other side of the roof. The sky was lightening faintly. More because the dust had sought dust again, the earth earth, than from any increase of light; and so the broad ray of the search-light, widening as it went, lost itself in the distant darkness, and there was nothing to be seen riverwards. But close at hand two men--one in a warder's uniform--were running towards the gaol, shouting.
The doctor was back to the inner parapet in a second. "Look out! they've got the keys now--not of this door, but some of the sections--and the alley. The game's up unless Carlyon--Mrs. Smith, please--you had better go into the turret--we shall be shooting free--"
Eugene, who had been standing beside her, laid his hand on her shoulder. "Yes, dear!" he said gently; "go inside--it will be better for Gladys--and for me--"
Muriel turned white, but stood quite firm, quite calm. "Come, little girlie," she said, holding out her hand to the child. "You've had your tea--it's bedtime--I can't have you sitting up all--" she broke down a little, partly because she was passing Vincent, and he, busy loading various rifles and revolvers, kept his eyes studiously from her. But Gladys did not choose to pass her friend in this fashion. She paused, a dainty little figure in a blue dressing-gown, like her mother, and with the same fluffy golden curls about her coaxing, delicate little child's face.
"Dood-night, Derin' darlin'," she said. "I'm so glad 'oo's here, an' so's--"
Something that was not all desire to check that formula made the man pause, too, to lift her gently, and kiss her.
"Good-night, Gladys. You mustn't be frightened at anything, you know. You've got to be a brave girl--haven't you?" The coaxing face was close to the haggard, haunted-looking one.
"If 'oo's goin' to be brave, Derin' darlin', I'll be brave too. Is 'oo, dearest?"
The haggardness vanished.
"I think so, little one. Good-night." He put the child down hastily, at a crash. The moment for courage had come.