was, and then turned her note into a gurgle of astonishment.

"Are you alone?" I asked. She nodded. "Just a minute then, and I'll be
back again, with a visitor. Keep quiet!"

I returned to the boat, and as I was obliged to move as stealthily as a
cat, I could not help, as I approached, hearing Joe say emphatically, "I
wunna." I cursed him silent, without troubling to ask what he was
objecting to, and handed Mistress Waynflete out.

"Now, Joe," I whispered, "off you go back! The moon will be up in a few
minutes, and you ought to do it in an hour. You can sit in the kitchen all
to-morrow to make up for this."

"Jin said 'er'd sit up for me," he said, and I was glad he had such a
good motive to keep him up to his hard task.

"Good-bye, Joe," said Mistress Waynflete, shaking the good fellow warmly
by the hand. "Give my loving remembrances to your mistresses and to Jane.
Say how grateful I am."

"Good-bye, my lady," he said simply, "and God bless you." So that only I
could hear him, he added, "Tak' good keer on 'er, Master Noll. Jin's awful
sot on 'er, and wunna luk at me if any 'arm 'appens 'er."

I gripped his hard hand, gave him my parting message home, and then
crouched and pushed the boat into and down the stream. As I lifted my hand
from her and she glided into the blackness, I felt in my heart that the
last link with the old life was broken. Then, as I rose to my feet, a hand
was placed on my arm, and I tingled in every fibre at this sweet link with