eat iron gate. We entered together the gloomy vestibule, and a
moment later were let out through the wicket into the courtyard; and as
the lock clicked behind us, we gave a simultaneous sigh of relief to
find ourselves outside the precincts of the prison, beyond the domain of
bolts and bars.

I had settled Miss Gibson in the cab and given her address to the
driver, when I noticed her looking at me, as I thought, somewhat
wistfully.

"Can't I put you down somewhere?" she said, in response to a
half-questioning glance from me.

I seized the opportunity with thankfulness and replied--

"You might set me down at King's Cross if it is not delaying you;" and
giving the word to the cabman, I took my place by her side as the cab
started and a black-painted prison van turned into the courtyard with
its freight of squalid misery.

"I don't think Reuben was very pleased to see me," Miss Gibson remarked
presently, "but I shall come again all the same. It is a duty I owe both
to him and to myself."

I felt that I ought to endeavour to dissuade her, but the reflection
that her visits must almost of necessity involve my companionship,
enfeebled my will. I was fast approaching a state of infatuation.

"I was so thankful," she continued, "that you prepared me. It was a
horrible experience to see the poor fellow caged like a wild beast, with
that dreadful label hanging from his coat; but it would have been
overwhelming if I had not known what to expect."

As we proceeded, her spirits revived somewhat, a circumstance that she
graciously ascribed to the enlivening influence of my society; and I
then told her of the mishap that had befallen my colleague.

"What a terrible thing!" she exclaimed, with evidently unaffected
concern. "It is the merest chance that he was not killed on the spot. Is
he much hurt? And would he mind, do you think, if I called to inquire
after him?"

I said that I was sure he would be delighted (being, as a matter of
fact, entirely indifferent as to his sentiments on the subject in my
delight at the proposal), and when I stepped down from the cab at King's
Cross to pursue my way homewards, there already opened out before me the
prospect of the renewal of this bitter-sweet and all too dangerous
companionship on the morrow.

CHAPTER X

POLTON IS MYSTIFIED

A couple of days sufficed to prove that Thorndyke's mishap was not to be
productive of any permanent ill consequences; his wounds progressed