After breakfast he lay down again, and again began to smoke. For hours he waited to hear his fate, sometimes stretched on his bed, sometimes seated in the chair and occasionally walking up and down the confined space of his cell. He could not disguise from himself that things were desperate. His sole hope of escape lay with Mrs. Jarsell, and that was but a slight one. Even though her remorse might wish to aid him, her terror of Queen Beelzebub might be too strong to let her move in the matter. Halliday was uncommonly brave and extraordinarily hopeful, yet the perspiration beaded his forehead, and he shivered at the prospect of torture. Without doubt he was in hell, and the devils presided over by the infernal queen were waiting to inflict pains and penalties on him. It terrified him to think that----
"But this won't do," said Dan to himself, as he heard the key grate in the lock, late in the afternoon. "I must pull myself together and smile. Whatever these beasts do to me, I must die game. But--but--Lillian."
With a quiet smile he turned to greet Mrs. Jarsell, who did not look him in the face, nor did she even speak. With a gesture, he was invited to come out, and for the moment had a wild idea of escape as soon as he reached the upper portion of that wicked house. But the sight of the lancet in her hand prevented him from making a dash for liberty. He knew that the merest scratch would make him a corpse, so it was not worth while to risk the attempt. Only when he was at the door of the barbaric sitting-room he whispered to Mrs. Jarsell, "You will help me to escape. I know you will. Even now you are thinking of ways and means."
"Perhaps," she gasped in a low whisper; then hastily flung open the door and pushed him into the room.
With that word of hope ringing in his ears, Halliday faced his judges with a smile on his lips. The room was filled with people, who greeted his entrance with a roar of anger. He was spat upon, struck at, kicked and shaken by those despairing creatures, whom he had brought to book. Queen Beelzebub, seated in her big chair, at the end of the apartment, smiled viciously when she saw his reception, but did not interfere for some moments. Then she waved her hand.