before," said Bars, scratching his head.

"Hark ye, Sam, that same canon-ball of thine which thou seemest to
take so great delight in digging with thy fingers, would have been a
bloody coxcomb had I followed the advice of our friend, Master
Spikeman."

"How!" exclaimed the jailer, did he counsel injury to me?"

"Thou hast said. At any rate, to my thinking, there was not much
difference from that."

"The accursed Judas!" burst out the excited jailer; "the blood-thirsty
Joab, who would have had me smitten under the fifth rib. Profane
Korah, Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up for their
bitterness against Moses, were children of light compared with this
horrid Philistine."

"I suppose she was sick at the stomach, and so gulped them down for
bitters, just as my good mother used to give me wormwood when I was
weakly in the spring," said Philip, laughing. At any other time this
speech would have drawn down a serious remonstrance for its impiety,
but at the present moment Sam was too much engaged with the treachery
of Spikeman to bestow upon it any attention.

"Philip," he said, "I accept thy offer to be sworn friends. This
Satan, this Pharaoh, this platter with the inside unwashed, shall not
have another chance to set on honest men to murder one another.
Hearken, and thou shalt have another secret. It was this hell
incarnate who commanded me to load thee with irons, and to starve thee
besides, but that I could not do."

One revelation led to another, until the whole wickedness of the
Assistant was laid bare. Philip also learned in addition that it was
Bars himself who had communicated a knowledge of his condition to the
knight, by whom directions had been left to have him come to the Mount
of Promise as soon as he should be liberated. Prudence, too, he was
told, had been at the prison to inquire after him, but the
instructions to the jailer forbade the carrying or delivering of
messages, for which reason Philip had hitherto remained ignorant of
the interest betrayed by her.

With the discovery of the villainy of Spikeman there was mixed up some
comfort for the soldier in reflecting on the affection of Prudence and
the friendship of the knight; but for the jailer there was no such
solace. He dwelt resentfully on the exposure of his person and the
loss of office which would probably have been the consequence had
Philip escaped, and meditated schemes of revenge.

When the jailer took leave, the soldier st