The warden then called a turnkey and ordered him to attend Miss
Black to the condemned cell.
The young turnkey took up a lamp and a great key and walked before,
leading the way down-stairs to a cell in the interior of the
basement, occupied by Black Donald.
He unlocked the door, admitted Capitola, and then walked off to the
extremity of the lobby, as he was accustomed to do when he let in
the preachers.
Capitola thanked heaven for this chance, for had he not done so she
would have to invent some excuse for getting rid of him.
She entered the cell. It was very dimly lighted from the great lamp
that hung in the lobby, nearly opposite the cell door.
By its light she saw Black Donald, not only doubly ironed but
confined by a chain and staple to the wall. He was very pale and
haggard from long imprisonment and great anxiety.
Cap's heart bled for the poor banned and blighted outlaw, who had
not a friend in the world to speak a kind word to him in his
trouble.
He also recognized her, and rising and coming to meet her as far as
the length of the chain would permit, he held out his hand and said:
"I am very glad you have come, little one; it is very kind of you to
come and see a poor fellow in his extremity! You are the first
female that has been in this cell since my imprisonment. Think of
that, child! I wanted to see you, too, I wanted to say to you
yourself again, that I was never guilty of murder, and that I only
seemed to consent to your death to save your life! Do you believe
this? On the word of a dying man it is truth!"
"I do believe you, Donald Bayne," said Capitola, in a broken voice.
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