Sunlocks, content to breathe the air
he breathed, to have the same sky above her, to share the same
sunshine and the same rain, only repining when she remembered that
while she was looking for love into the eyes of their child, he was
slaving like a beast of burden; but waiting, waiting, waiting, withal
for the chance--she knew not what--that must release him yet, she
knew not when.

Her great hour came at length, but an awful blow came with it. One
day the prisoner-priest hurried up to the farm where she lived, and
said, "I have sad news for you; forgive me; prisoner A25 has met with
an accident."

She did not stay to hear more, but with her child in her arms she
hurried away to the Mines, and there in the tempest of her trouble
the secret of months went to the winds in an instant.

"Where is he?" she cried. "Let me see him. He is my husband."

"Your husband!" said the warders, and without more ado they laid
hands upon her and carried her off to their Captain.

"This woman," they said, "turns out to be the wife of A25."

"As I suspected," the Captain answered.

"Where is my husband?" Greeba cried. "What accident has befallen him?
Take me to him."

"First tell me why you came to this place," said the Captain.

"To be near my husband," said Greeba.

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing."

"Who is this other man?" asked the Captain.

"What man?" said Greeba.

Then they told her that her husband was gone, having been carried off
by a fellow-prisoner who had effected the escape of both of them.

"Escaped!" cried Greeba, with a look of bewilderment, glancing from
face to face of the men about her. "Then it is not true that he has
met with an accident. Thank God, oh! thank God!" And she clutched her
child closer to her breast, and kissed it.

"We know nothing of that either way," said the Captain. "But tell us
who and what is this other man? His number here was B25. His name is
Jason."

At that, Greeba gazed up again with a terrified look of inquiry.

"Jason?" she cried.

"Yes, who is he?" the Captain asked.

And Greeba answered, after a pause, "His own brother."

"We might have thought as much," said the Captain.

There was another pause, and then Greeba said, "Yes, his own brother,
who has followed him all his life to kill him."

The Captain smiled upon his warders and said, "It didn't look like
it, madam."

"But it is true," said Greeba.

"He has been your husband's best friend," said the Captain.