The turnkey loudly announced:
"The sister of the prisoner, Ned Vaughan!"
She met him face to face in the large cell in which the condemned were allowed to pass their last night on earth. The keen eyes of a guard from the Inspector's office watched her every act and every movement of her body.
Ned stared at her. His heart beat with mad joy. She was going to play his sister's part! He would take her in his arms for the first time and feel the beat of her heart against his and their lips would meet. He laughed at death as he looked into her eyes with the hunger of eternity gleaming in his own.
There could be no hesitation on her part.
She threw both arms around his neck crying:
"Brave, foolish boy!"
He held her close, crushed her with one mad impulse, and slowly relaxed his arms. She would forgive him for this moment of delirium on the brink of the grave, but he must be reasonable.
"I am ready to die, now, dearest," he murmured.
She slowly lifted her lips to his in a long kiss—a kiss that thrilled body and soul—and pressed into his mouth a tiny piece of tissue paper.