arate cell, also
during the first forty-eight hours he had been able to have his meals
sent in from outside. Since then, however, his money had given out, and
he was obliged to content himself with the ordinary prison dietary. But
Gurn was not fastidious; this man whom Lady Beltham had singled out, or
accepted, as her lover had often given proofs of an education and an
intelligence above the average, yet now he appeared quite at ease in the
atmosphere of a prison.

* * * * *

Gurn was walking quickly and alone round the exercise yard, when a
breathless voice sounded in his ear.

"'Gad, Gurn, you know how to march! I was going to join you for a bit,
but I could not keep up with you."

Gurn turned and saw old Siegenthal, the warder in charge of his
division, in whose custody he was particularly placed.

"My word!" the old fellow panted, "anybody could tell you had been in
the infantry. Well, so have I; though that wasn't yesterday, nor yet the
day before; but we never marched as fast as you do. We made a fine march
once though--at Saint-Privat."

Out of pity for the decent old fellow Gurn slackened his pace. He had
heard the story of the battle of Saint-Privat a dozen times already, but
he was quite willing to let Siegenthal tell it again. The warder,
however, wandered to another point.

"By the way, I heard you were promoted sergeant out in the Transvaal: is
that so?" and as Gurn nodded assent, he went on: "I never rose above the
rank of corporal, but at any rate I have always led an honest life." A
sudden compassion for his prisoner seized the old man, and he laid a
kindly hand on Gurn's shoulder. "Is it really possible that an old
soldier like you, who seem to be such a steady, serious, kind of man,
can have committed such a crime?"

Gurn dropped his eyes and did not reply.

"I suppose there was a woman at the bottom of it?" Siegenthal said
tentatively. "You acted on impulse, in a fit of jealousy, eh?"

"No," Gurn answered with sudden bluntness, "I may as well own up that I
did it in anger, because I wanted money--for the sake of robbery."

"I'm sorry," said the old warder simply. "You must have been desperately
hard up."

"No I wasn't."

Siegenthal stared at his prisoner. The man must be utterly callous to
talk like that, he thought. Then a clock struck and the warder gave a
curt order.

"Time, Gurn! We must go back," and he conducted the unresisting prisoner
up the th