“I have seen Captain Van Dorne, and he admits the part he played, on the representation of Bainrothe; and, through the evidence of a newspaper advertisement, of the previous autumn, which had met his eye, to satisfy the puerile scruples of this really good but ignorant man—­going no deeper than the surface in his code of morals—­they were obliged to tear out the record of their names, and take refuge temporarily in the long-boat, before he would swear to Miriam, in her state-room, that Bainrothe was not on board.

“As to the habeas corpus which would have gone into effect to-day, and which the wretch managed to defeat by requiring an error to be corrected in the writ, that no guiltless man would have observed, I fear sometimes it will prove ineffectual if we wait for the morrow.  My plan was to go at midnight with a party of my friends to the house of this miscreant, and take the law in my own hands; but, in this I could not stir, for the reasons I have given you.  Besides that, it was risking too much—­her safety and reputation.

“She cannot be secretly removed, of course, for we have a detective in the house able and strong, besides the old well-paid negress, both of whom—­”

“Have played you false,” I interrupted, rising impetuously, and throwing back the loose leaf of the door, “and I am here to tell you this.  O friends, have you forgotten me?”

And, rushing forward, I threw an arm around each of those dear necks, weeping alternately on the shoulder of one and the other of the two men I loved best in the world, and who, for some moments, sat silent and amazed!

Then Wentworth rose mutely, and clasped me to his breast, and silence prevailed between us.  It comprehended all.

I think, when we meet again in heaven, after that severance which is inevitable to those who wear a mortal shape, we may feel as we did then, but never before!  The rapture—­the relief—­the spiritual ecstasy—­surmounting, as on wings of fire, pain, fatigue, suspense, anguish of mind and body—­were in themselves lessons of immortality beyond any that book or sage has issued from midnight vigil or earthly tabernacle.

Not until a new order of things is established, and we have done with tribulation, tears, and death, shall we again know such sensations; nor is it indeed quite certain that human heart and brain could twice sustain them here below!

CHAPTER XIV.

Reaction came at last!  Life is full of bathos as well as pathos.  An hour later, we four companions in the rejoicing over this redemption, if chiefly strangers before, were partaking cheerfully together of hot coffee and oysters.  The services of Mrs. Jessup had been called in—­the doctor’s excellent old Quaker house-keeper—­and, amid many “thous” and “thees,” she had served us a capital and expeditious supper.

No one enjoyed the festive occasion more than Mr. Burress, who, on the point of stealing lightly away after witnessing from the front study the scene of recognition and meeting, had been arrested on the threshold by Dr. Pemberton himself.