"A thousand thanks. You are indeed kind. I shall look to see you this evening without fail--B. B."
Then he read Miss Roylance's communication again, and at his leisure. Then, in accordance with the writer's express request, but not without a certain amount of regret on his part, he set light to the paper and watched it slowly consume to ashes.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
A DOOR BETWEEN.
Dacia's first words to Burgo were: "Have you burnt my scrawl?"
"I have."
"That is well. Seeing that one can't foretell what may happen from day to day, and that what I wrote was intended for your eyes alone, it was better it should be burnt. And now tell me, have you devised any plan of escape?"
"After turning over in my mind some half-dozen more or less impracticable schemes, I can only think of one which seems to hold out a tolerable prospect of success."
"And that is----?"
"To file through the two bars which guard the window of my prison, force out the glass-work, and then by means of a rope lower myself to the ground outside."