"Towards the end, the vision took another form. Tom would bring me to the house--only I think, not to this room, but to another--and he would do something--he would do something. I saw quite clearly what it was he did, and understood it well, but, so soon as I was out of the house, the recollection of what he had done became blurred as by a mist. I could not remember at all. I'd wake in my cell in an agony to think that all that Tom had shown me should have slipped my memory. In the morning he'd come and ask:
"'Charlie, you remember what we did last night?'
"'No, Tom, I don't. I've tried to think, but I can't. It's all forgotten.'
"He'd laugh--his laugh seeming to mock me more than ever.
"'Never mind, Charlie, I'll tell you all about it. You write down what I say.'
"And I wrote it down--the last line which was on the scrap of paper. Though I never knew what it meant--never! never! I've searched my brains many times to think; and been punished for writing it again and again.
"At last I was released. At last--my God, at last!"
His whole frame quivered. He drew himself upright, as if endeavouring to bear himself as became a man.
"I was treated, when going out, according to my deserts. I had earned no favour, and I received none. The Governor reprimanded me, by way of a God-speed; told me that my conduct, while in prison, had been very bad, and warned me that it would go ill with me if I returned. I went out in the rags in which I had entered, without a penny in my pocket--hungry at the moment of release, I have not tasted bite or sup from the time that I came out of gaol until tonight.
"In the afternoon I came round to Clover Cottage. The first thing I saw was him." He pointed to Graham. "He was afraid of me, and I was afraid of him--that is the truth. Otherwise I should have gone up to him and asked him for at least a shilling, because directly I caught sight of him I knew what he was after, and that I was going to be tricked and robbed again. While I was trying to summon up courage enough to beg of the man whom I knew had played me false, I saw some one else, and I ran away.