I forgot my pain for the instant, in the relief that his words conveyed. Surely he would not have put that question to me if she was already a prisoner. Loris must have got away with her, and, for the present, at least, she was safe.
CHAPTER XXII
THE PRISON HOUSE
“
There was a woman,” I confessed. “And that’s how I came to be chipped about. They were going to murder her.”
“To murder her!” he exclaimed. “Why, she’s one of them; the cleverest and most dangerous of the lot! Said to be a wonderfully pretty girl, too. Did you see her?”
“Only for a moment; there wasn’t much light. From what I could make out they accused her of treachery, and led her in; she stood with her back against the wall,—she looked quite a girl, with reddish hair. Then the row began. There were only two or three took her part, and I joined in; one can’t stand by and see a helpless girl shot or stabbed by a lot of cowardly brutes.”
I had found an air of apparent candor serve me before, and guessed it might do so again.