The girl looked at him curiously.

"Just now you only thought of getting away."

"I don't care to be detained by lock and key, certainly," said Max. "But
if you will unlock the door, I am quite ready to wait here until you
have unburdened your mind, if you want to do that."

She looked at him doubtfully.

"That's a promise, mind," said she at last. "And it's a promise you
wouldn't mind giving, I think, if you believed in half I've gone
through."

She took a key from her pocket, unlocked the outer door and set it ajar.

"Will that do for you?" asked she.

"Yes, that's all right."

She took up the candle, which she had put on a shelf while she knelt to
find out whether he was hurt, and crossing the brick floor with rapid,
rather stealthy steps, she put her fingers on the latch of the inner
door.

"Keep close!" whispered she.

Max obeyed. He kept so close that the girl's soft hair, which was of the
ash-fair color so common in English blondes who have been flaxen-headed