then! Oh, how I wished to break through the stone walls that held me
fast! Oh, what a weight of despair crushed my heart as I crept back to
my narrow bed! The cell seemed like a grave, and indeed it was little
better. Horrible thoughts possessed me. What if I should be wilfully
forgotten? What if no food should be given me, and I should be left to
perish by the slow pangs of hunger? At this idea I shrieked aloud, but
the walls alone returned a dull echo to my cries. I beat my hands
against the stones, till the blood flowed from them, but no answer was
returned; and at last I desisted from sheer exhaustion. Day after day,
and night after night, passed in this way. My food regularly came. But I
became maddened by solitude; and with terrible imprecations invoked aid
from the powers of darkness to set me free. One night, while thus
employed, I was startled by a mocking voice which said,

"'All this fury is needless. Thou hast only to wish for me, and I come.'

[Illustration: ALVETHAM AND JOHN PASLEW.]

"It was profoundly dark. I could see nothing but a pair of red orbs,
glowing like flaming carbuncles.

"'Thou wouldst be free,' continued the voice. 'Thou shalt be so. Arise,
and follow me.'

"At this I felt myself grasped by an iron arm, against which all
resistance would have been unavailing, even if I had dared to offer it,
and in an instant I was dragged up the narrow steps. The stone wall
opened before my unseen conductor, and in another moment we were upon
the roof of the dormitory. By the bright starbeams shooting down from
above, I discerned a tall shadowy figure standing by my side.