At that instant, before the door opened, while but a moment intervened between Lily and a horrible death, a loud and hurried knocking was distinctly heard down-stairs. It was so startling, coming upon the previous utter stillness, that old Haidee darted back to her own room in a fright, and directly she and her husband were heard making a shuffling descent of the stairs. Lily arose upon her feet in a tumult of hope.
"Who can it be?" she murmured. "Can it be possible that rescue is at hand?"
The revulsion from despair and terror to instant hope was too great to be borne.
Her slight form wavered an instant, then unconsciousness stole upon her and she fell prostrate on the floor.
In the meantime the old couple down-stairs, after removing bolts and bars, admitted, to their astonishment and dismay, the two conspirators, Pratt and Colville.
"You were not expecting me, eh?" said Doctor Pratt, with a laugh at Haidee's astonished look as she blinked at him beneath the flaring candle she held aloft. "Well, that cursed hound of yours was not expecting me either. He had nearly taken a piece out of my throat before he recognized my voice and became pacific. I had thought he must have known me at once. Look you, I shall put a bullet in his head some day, the blood-thirsty brute!"
"If you do, you will destroy the best safeguard you have against the escape of your prisoner," said Haidee, shortly.
"Ah! well, let him live a little longer then, but you must teach him not to forget his old friends," was the careless reply.
"You come late, doctor. We did not expect you, and were about retiring," said old Peter.
"Yes, we thought it better to come by stealth," said Pratt, shortly. "The fact is, Colville has taken it in his head that we are watched by some fellow, and it suits us to be wary just now. We wish to see Miss Lawrence at once. Is she safe and well?"