Sumner fell sick, and
Clarke had them both to care for.

"To the very last he tended them. Though well nigh in as evil a
case, he yet would rise and crawl to them, and give them food and
water, or moisten their lips when they could no longer eat the
coarse prison fare. His patience and sweetness were not quite
without effect even on the jailer, and from time to time he would
bring them better food and a larger measure of water.

"But even so, there was none to help or succour them in their hour
of extremest need. May God look down and judge the things which
pass upon this earth, and are done by those who take His name
freely upon their lips! He whose eyes see all things have seen
those three men in their prison house. May He be the judge of all
things!"

"Thank God you came in time!" spoke Magdalen, with streaming eyes.
"Thank God they did not die in that foul hole!"

"I do thank Him for that. I fear me poor Radley did not know that
release for him had come; his greater release followed so hard
afterwards. But Sumner lived long enough to know us, and to rejoice
in the hope that Clarke's life would be spared. We did not tell him
how little chance there was of that. 'He is one of God's saints
upon earth,' were amongst his last words; 'surely He has a great
work for him to do here. Afterwards he will walk with Him in white,
for he is worthy.' And then in broken words he told us the story of
those weeks in prison; and with a happy smile upon his lips he
passed away. He did not desire aught else for himself. He left
Clarke in the hands of his friends. He folded his hands together
and whispered, 'Say the Nunc dimittis for me, and the last prayer;'
and as we did so his soul took flight. The smile of holy triumph
and joy was sealed by death upon his face."

"Faithful unto death," whispered Freda softly to herself, "he has
won for himself a crown of life."

Anthony came to her presently, looking strangely white and shaken.
They passed together out into the moonlight night. He was deeply
moved, and she saw it; and her silence was the silence of sympathy.

"If only I had shared their faith, their steadfastness, their
sufferings!" he spoke at last.

But she laid her hand upon his arm and whispered tenderly:

"Think not now of that. The past is not ours; and I know that God
has forgiven all that was weak or sinful in it. No sin repented of
but is washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Let us rejoice in that
there are eve