"Decidedly. But I congratulate you on the rational way you are beginning to look at things."
As she moved to the door she smiled over her shoulder: "Time will work wonders, perhaps!"
"I told you so," he laughed.
She hurried to her room and wrote the order signing Wolf's name without a moment's hesitation:
"Admit the guard bearing this order for the delivery of a personal message to the prisoner, Norman Worth.
"Wolf—Regent."
She stood at the window and watched the boy enter the jail. He stayed an interminable time! Each tick of the tiny watch in her hand seemed an hour. One minute, two, three, four, five minutes slowly dragged. Merciful God, would he never return? A thousand questions began to strangle her. Had Wolf suspected and played with her? Had the jailer recognized the trick and arrested the boy? Had Wolf discovered the boy's absence from his post?
She looked at her watch again. He had been gone seven minutes! The door of the jail suddenly opened and the boy appeared.
Her hand was tingling with a curious pain. She looked, and the nails of her fingers had cut the flesh as she had stood in agony counting the seconds.
The boy walked with leisurely precision as though on an ordinary errand for the regent. Barbara waited until he resumed his position on guard at the door and quickly reached his side.