"And all this time we might have been spared the bitterest agony."
She hung her head.
"I know it, but I dared not speak sooner, for I feared to betray my friends."
"You may trust me," said Jack.
"I know it, for I have saved your boys."
They reached the prison.
"Sebastian," said Theodora, presenting Harkaway to her foster-sister and the latter"s lover, "this is Mr. Harkaway."
The Greek official bowed with an air of constraint.
"Theodora has told you all, sir?"
"Yes, you have risked much to save my boys" lives."
"Since I can count upon your forbearance," said Sebastian, "I will say no more. Follow me to the presence of the boys."
So saying, Sebastian led the way through the stone-paved pa.s.sages to the tower overhanging the sea, in which the cell of the two boys was situated.
At the base of the tower were jagged, sea-beaten rocks.
Beside the tower, at about half the height of the tower, reckoning from the level of the sea, was a gravel terrace, covered with a waterproof canopy, so as to form a sort of shed.
And looking out of the tower windows as they pa.s.sed up its steep inner staircase, Harkaway inquired what this place was.
"That is used as the prison mortuary."
"Those black, ugly outlines there are--"
"Bodies."
"Ugh!"
"They are put into those black bags in lieu of winding sheets, then placed into those rough wooden sh.e.l.ls, which are lowered to the prison cemetery below by that crane you see to the right"
"A very poor look-out."
But away with such dull thoughts.
Here he was on the threshold of new joy--new life.
"Your boys are here," said Sebastian, pausing before a huge barred door.
He undid the fastenings, and pushing open the door, made way for Harkaway to pa.s.s in.
"Enter, sir," he said.
Harkaway"s heart beat high.
He pushed open the door--entered.
"Where are they?"
"There."
A momentary pause.
"There"s no one there," said Harkaway, in a tone indicative of powerfully-suppressed emotion.
Dire apprehensions of evil stole over both Sebastian and Theodora as they followed Harkaway into the cell.
"Theodora," gasped Sebastian, staggering back, "they are gone."
"Where? How?"
"They must have escaped."
"Liar!" yelled Harkaway, suddenly springing back and drawing his six- shooter; "this is some plot. Thieves! murderers! You think to fool me; but you shall pay the penalty for your villainy. You are in an injured father"s grasp. Die, brigands!"
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
YOUNG JACK AND HIS COMRADE HARRY GIRDWOOD--DEAD OR ALIVE--THE RIDDLE UNRAVELLED--THE PLAN IN CYPHER--A RELIC OF THE PAST--EUREKA!-- THE CYPHER UNRAVELLED.
Now for young Jack.
Once more let us see the bold young Harkaway and Harry, his brave comrade.
Too long have we been absent from them.
Too long have we been forced by the exigencies of our history to leave, not only the Harkaway family and party generally, under the cruel impression that the two boys had been foully murdered, but the reader likewise.
They lived.
Aye, it was every word true that Theodora had said.
Sebastian was not a wit less truthful.
When he opened the door of the cell in the tower, he fully expected to find the two boys there.