wo, as strangers to him, could approach the prisoner without risk.
But they had expected to see him, if at all, in some room or cell, to
which certain members of the party might be conducted by request; while
here, in this vast garden, with its ambushes of trees and shrubs, any one
of the half-hidden gray figures which they could distinguish in the green
shadows might prove to be Dalahaide.

Roger did not know what to do. He might offer to stop behind and wait in
the carriage outside the garden gates. But if he did this it would seem
strange and even ungracious to the Commandant, who was taking so much
trouble to entertain them, and to "seem strange" was alone enough to
constitute danger. He compromised, keeping behind with George, while
Virginia walked ahead with the old Frenchman.

In the midst of the garden stood the quadrangular building of the
hospital, the steep roof forming broad verandahs. There were gray figures
sitting or lounging there also, but the Commandant said that Number 1280
would not be found among these, for he fled as much as might be from the
society of his fellow-convicts.

They turned the corner of a shaded path and came out under a green canopy
made by four large palms. A man lay underneath, his head pillowed on his
arm, his face upturned--a man in the sordid prison gray. Virginia Beverly
grew giddy, and, brave as she had been so far, for an instant she feared
that she was going to faint like an ordinary, stay-at-home girl. She
started, and caught at the arm of the Commandant, who turned to her in
concerned surprise.

"One would think you had guessed that this was our man," he said in a low
voice, for the convict, whose face was ghastly pale in the green dusk,
seemed to sleep.

"I beg your pardon," whispered Virginia. "I stepped on a stone and
twisted my foot. Is this, then, the man we have come to find?"

How well she knew that it was he! How well she knew, though the terrible
years had changed the brave young face in the portrait almost beyond the
recognition of a stranger. All the gay audacity was gone, therefore much
of the individuality which had distinguished it for Virginia. The strong,
clear features of the man looked, as he lay there asleep, as if they had
been carved from old ivory; the lines were sharpened, there were hollows
in the cheeks and under the black lines of the lashes. Even in sleep the
dark brows were drawn together in a slight frown, and the clean-cut lips
drooped i