r?"

"One question at a time," answered the girl. "'What place this is'
concerns you little; 'who I am' concerns you less; 'why you are brought
here,' ah! that concerns you very much! It concerns your liberty, and
perhaps your life."

"I do not believe it! You have had me torn away from my husband! Where
is he now?" haughtily demanded Mrs. Berners.

"He is likely in the hands of the constables, who are by this time in
possession of the Haunted Chapel. But fear nothing! Him they will
release again, for they have no right to detain him; but you they would
have kept if they had caught you. Come, lady, do not resent the rough
manner in which you were saved."

"I do not understand all this."

"It is scarcely necessary that you should."

"And my husband! When shall I see him?"

"When you can do so with safety to yourself, and to us."

"When will that be?"

"How can I tell?"

"Oh, heaven! he will be half crazed with anxiety!"

"Better that he should be half crazed with anxiety, than wholly crazed
by despair. Lady, had we not removed you when we did, you would
certainly be in the hands of the constables before this day is over,
probably before this hour."

"How do you know this?"

"From information brought in by our spies."

"We came upon the Haunted Chapel by chance, in the dead of night. No
one could have known so soon that we were there."

"No one did know it. The constables were coming there for _us_, but they
would have found _you_, had we not brought you away with us. That was my
doing. I made your removal the condition of my silence."

"Girl, who are you? I ask again; and why do you take this interest in
me?"

"Lady, I am an outlaw like yourself, hunted like yourself, in peril like
yourself, guiltless like yourself; the daughter, sister, companion of
thieves. Yet, never will I become a thief, or the wife or the mother of
one!"

"This is terrible!" said Sybil with a shudder. "But why should this be
so?"

"It is my fate."

"And why do you care for me?"

"I thought I had answered that question in telling you all that I have
told about myself, for 'a fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind;' but if
you want another reason I can give it to you. I care for you because I
know that you are guiltless of the crime for which you are hunted
through the world. And I am resolved, come what may, that you shall not
suffer for it."

"In the name of heaven, what do you say?" exclaimed Sybil, in strong
excitem