but I resist them, and they are powerless, though they hate me tenfold more for it, and I know that they are reckoning on their revenge when I shall be a helpless victim in their power.  Art thou about to try to rescue the boy?  That were, in truth, a deed worth doing, though the world will never praise it; though it might laugh to scorn a peril encountered for one so humble as a woodman’s son.  But it would be a soul snatched from the peril of everlasting death, and a body saved from the torments of a living hell!”

And then John spoke of the thoughts which had of late possessed them both of that chivalry that was not like to win glory or renown, that would not gain the praise of men, but would strive to do in the world a work of love for the oppressed, the helpless, the lowly.  And Joan’s eyes shone with the light of a great sympathy, as she turned her bright gaze from one face to the other, till Raymond felt himself falling beneath a spell the like of which he had never known before, and which suddenly gave a new impulse to all his vague yearnings and imaginings, and a zest to this adventure which was greater than any that had gone before.

Joan’s ready woman’s wit was soon at work planning and devising how the deed might best be done.

“I can do this much to aid,” she said.  “A day will come ere long when the two Sanghursts will come at nightfall to Woodcrych, to try, as they have done before, some strange experiments in the laboratory my father has had made for himself.  We always know the day that this visit is to be made, and I can make shift to let you know.  They stay far into the night, and only return to Basildene as the dawn breaks.  That would be the night to strive to find and rescue the boy.  He will be almost alone in yon big house, bound hand and foot, I doubt not, or thrown into some strange trance that shall keep him as fast a prisoner.  There be but few servants that can be found to live there.  Mostly they flee away in affright ere they have passed a week beneath that roof.  Those that stay are bound rather by fear than aught beside; and scarce a human being will approach that house, even in broadest daylight.  There are many doors and windows, and the walls in places are mouldering away, and would give easy foothold to the climber.  It is beneath the west wing, hard by the great fish ponds, that the rooms lie which are ever closed from light of day, and in which the evil men practise their foul arts.  I have heard of a secret way from the level of the water into the cellars or dungeons of the house; but whether this be true I do not rightly know.  Yet methinks you could surely find entrance within the house, for so great is the terror in which Basildene is held that Master Sanghurst freely boasts that he needs neither bolt nor bar.  He professes to have drawn around the house a line which no human foot may cross.  He knows well that no man wishes to try.”

Raymond shivered slightly, but he was not daunted, Yet there was still the question to be faced, what should be done with the boy when rescued to hold him back from the magician’s unholy spell.  But Joan had an answer ready for this objection.  Her hands folded themselves lightly together, her dark eyes shone with the earnestness of her devotion.