“At ten!” echoed Wilton; “you have not named the place,” he added.
“It must be here, if there is to be a meeting anywhere,” thought Hal.
Colonel Mires produced a card-case, and handed a card to Wilton, who held it close to his eyes.
“So far,” he muttered, and then exclaimed aloud—“I will be there, Colonel, punctually, and without fail.”
“It will not put you to any inconvenience, I hope?” said Colonel Mires, with a mystified air.
“No, no, oh no!” returned old Wilton, with a smile.
“To be sure not,” reflected Hal, “how should it? there is only two thousand pounds to prevent him leaving the prison, and what is that to a man who has not two crowns to jingle together?”
Colonel Mires gave a dry cough.
“I was not aware,” he said, “that it was an easy thing to effect a liberation from this place. I have an old friend in durance here, whom I came to see; he has been here a length of time, and is in tribulation at the remote possibility of his deliverance.”
“The thing is not difficult when you know the way. I have a way,” returned Wilton, rather curtly.