r no!" exclaimed Triggs in surprise. "Then take my
word they's heerd that Jerrem's to be hanged, and Joan's comin' up to be
all ready to hand for 't."

"No, not that," groaned Eve, for at the mere mention of the word the
vague dread seemed to shape itself into a certainty. "Oh, Captain
Triggs, don't say that if Adam gets off you don't think Jerrem's life
will be spared."

"Wa-al, my poor maid, us must hope so," said the compassionate captain;
"but 'tis the warst o' they doin's that sooner or later th' endin, of
'em must come. 'Twould never do to let 'em prosper allays," he added
with impressive certainty, "or where 'ud be the use o' parsons praichin'
up 'bout heaven and hell? Why, now, us likes good liquor cheap to Fowey;
and wance 'pon a time us had it too, but that ha'n't bin for twenty
year. Our day's gone by, and so 'ull theirs be now; and th' excise 'ull
come, and revenoos 'ull settle down, and folks be foaced to take to
lousterin' for the bit o' bread they ates, and live quiet and paceable,
as good neighbors should. So try and take heart; and if so be that Adam
can give they Bailey chaps the go-by, tell un to come 'longs here, and
us 'ull be odds with any o' they that happens to be follerin' to his
heels."

Charmed with this friendly promise, Eve said "Good-bye," leaving the
captain puzzled with speculations on women and the many curious
contradictions which seem to influence their actions; while, the hour
being now too late to return to the prison, she took her way to her own
room, thinking it best to begin the preparations which in case of Adam's
escape and any sudden departure it would be necessary to have completed.

Perhaps it was her interview with Captain Triggs, the sight of the wharf
and the ships, which took her thoughts back and made them bridge the
gulf which divided her past life from her present self. Could the girl
she saw in that shadowy past--headstrong, confident, impatient of
suffering and unsympathetic with sorrow--be this same Eve who walked
along with all hope and thought of self merged in another's happiness
and welfare? Where was the vanity, where were the tricks and coquetries,
passports to that ideal existence after which in the old days she had so
thirsted? Trampled out of sight and choked beneath the fair blossoms of
a higher life, which, as in many a human nature, had needed sorrow,
humiliation and a great watering of tears before there could spring
forth the flowers for a fruit wh