“It is really and truly you?” he asked.
“Really and truly me, and nobody else,” Alice said, with the tears in her eyes.
“And you haven’t the remotest idea how you got here?”
“Indeed, I haven’t. I blundered upon you and the—the—others by accident. I was taking a walk this way and had not the slightest idea that a gang was working here. The warder seemed to be asleep. He did not call out and order me back as I had expected. When I saw you, I would have come on, had there been a regiment of soldiers in the way—My poor, dear boy. How changed you look, and how rough and hard your hands are! I used to think they were the kindest hands in the world. Hugh, I must get you out of this; we must find some way of escape. We must expose the wicked conspiracy that brought you to this awful spot. I am beginning to find things out. I am watching and waiting. If I could only discover some real friend who would help me, I might be successful. I want a man, cool, clever, and resolute, and I am certain, that we could reach the truth in time. Raymond Draycott——”
Hugh started into something like life for the first time.
“I had forgotten him,” he said. “He is your guardian. He is kind to you, Alice?”
“He is utterly indifferent, Hugh. I am free to come and go as I like, so long as I don’t worry him. He is a bad man, Hugh, a worse man than Martin Faber.”
Hugh passed a hand nervously over his forehead.
“I am trying to piece the puzzle together,” he said. “I know a great deal, if I could only get the chance to say it. I suspect the full significance of the conspiracy. If only I could—but that is out of the question. They took good care of that. They took——”
Alice laid a hand on his arm again. She looked at him imploringly.
“Hugh, you have only kissed me once,” she whispered. “Don’t you know that I love you still, love you more than ever and know that you are as innocent as a child?”
The man in the convict garb kissed her again, holding her to his heart.
“Forgive me, darling,” he whispered. “I couldn’t help it. When I looked up and saw you standing there it seemed as if an angel from heaven had come down to help me. Our warder was taken suddenly ill, and not the first time lately, though they don’t know down yonder. He used to be one of the boys in the old garden at one time. Heart trouble, I fancy. But don’t let me waste the precious time, Alice. How I have longed to see you! I—I did not know whether you still cared for me till I saw your eyes just now——”
“For ever, Hugh!” Alice whispered. “As if I could cease to love you, Hugh! I knew from the first you were innocent. It was a great shock to me when I returned from Germany and found that you had been sentenced to penal servitude. I wondered why I got no reply to my letters, dear. But come along with me, Hugh. You cannot go back to that place now.”
Hugh Grenfell hesitated. Here was the chance of a lifetime. But he shook his head.
“It can’t be done like that, Alice,” he said. “I should be detected at once within an hour, and you have been seen here. I have thought of a plan for escape. If I could get away from here for a week and and no suspicion were aroused, I could prove my innocence. I have my case all written out and stowed away in the lining of my coat. I was planning some means of sending it to you when this glorious opportunity came along. Here it is. You will have to find some man who will——”
“I know, I know,” Alice said eagerly. “There will be no trouble about money. Mr. Draycott is my guardian, but I can borrow a thousand pounds if necessary without his knowing anything about it, Hugh. What am I to do next?”
“Write to Russell Clench—you will find his address on the paper I have given you. Ask him to come and see you secretly. Then you can discuss the plan with him. Now I must go before they miss me. Good-bye, and God bless you, darling.”
Alice caught her lover by the arm. Her eyes were blazing.
“This warder of yours,” she gasped. “He will have to leave the prison; they can’t have invalids here. Tell me his name. I have a scheme, Hugh, a splendid idea. Give me the name, at once, dear.”
III. — AT THE WARDER’S COTTAGE
“What good could that do?” Hugh asked. “My dear girl, you must realise that you are proposing something very serious.”
A sigh broke from Alice’s lips. With all her quickness, Alice had not grasped the situation yet. All the same, Hugh Grenfell was very real. He was terribly drawn and thin, and his face wore a hard, hunted look, while that horrible drab uniform brought the tears to Alice’s eyes. The mere look of it seemed to take the warmth out of the sunshine and to depress Alice, till she wept bitterly.
“My dear girl,” Grenfell murmured, “I have said nothing to hurt you!”
“It isn’t that,” Alice sobbed. “It’s—it’s everything. You are dreadfully worn and ill—and that hideous dress! And you an innocent man!”
“I can look the whole world in the face and say that,” Grenfell whispered. “I could prove it if I were free. If I could stand for a few minutes face to face with Martin Faber——”
“Who is dead, Hugh. My dear boy, you have forgotten that.”
Grenfell passed his hand across his forehead like a man who brushes the sleep from his eyes.
“True, I had forgotten that. I shall forget my own identity if I stay in this ghastly place much longer. I have to thank Faber for everything, and regarded him as my friend! Still, I could prove any innocence.”
“Do you mean without assistance from anybody,” Alice asked.
Hugh smiled at the artlessness of the question. He was master of himself now, his mind working clearly and smoothly. His first shock of surprise was over and the listlessness had vanished. There was an eager glance in his eyes that Alice was glad to see.
“I don’t quite mean that,” he said. “Until a few minutes ago I’m sure that I should not have been able to explain what I mean. You have no conception of what this life is like. At the moment of your sentence your mind is a blank—you can’t grasp it. If you are an innocent, as I am, you are too utterly stunned to understand anything. Then gradually it comes to you, and the despair of it is overwhelming. Seven years! It sounds like seven centuries. You feel that the time can never come to an end. Looking back, seven years are nothing. Looking forward, they are an eternity. After recovering from the first awful blow, I began to prepare my plan of campaign. But I could make nothing of it. In the first place, you can send nothing from here that is not read. If you say certain things, the letters do not go at all. You see how one’s hands are tied.”
“You could do nothing with the warders?”
“I never tried. I have no money or any inducement to temp them. I understand that such a thing has happened more than once. One learns many strange things in yonder prison, though we are supposed not to talk or communicate with each other in any way.”
“Do you chance to know a warder called Copping, Hugh?”
“Copping, Copping! It sounds familiar. No relation to the Coppings that lived near the old place, I suppose? Oh, you mean the warder who is ill—the one I mentioned. He married an old servant of yours.”
“The same,” Alice answered eagerly. “I know him well, and his wife better. I see them both frequently. Mary Copping is a pretty, delicate little thing, who wants to get away from here. The doctor says that unless she can leave these terrible fogs she will not live very long. I have plenty of money, Hugh.”
Grenfell smiled vaguely. It might be possible to do something