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 take her into his arms and comfort her. While Verrell spoke, this picture remained before Hepworth's eyes. He saw Elisabeth and her grief, and began to wonder whether she then felt as he was feeling now.

"I escaped from prison," said Verrell, glancing nervously around him. "It was a marvellous escape, too. I met a man on Dartmoor whom I took into my confidence. He promised to assist me. We were hid all one day, and at night we crossed the moors. It was moonlight, and there was a search party out, and they saw us and shot at us from a distance. The man was hit. I dragged him into a sort of cave in a lonely spot. Then he died, and it seemed to me that there was a chance of escape. I took his clothes off and put them on myself, and left my clothes—the prison clothes—on him. Then I went away. They found him a long time after—and of course they thought it was the escaped convict. He—he was unrecognisable, but there were the clothes to go by."