Was he still living?
she wondered.
She stretched out her hand to ring for her _ayah_.

But as she did so her eyes fell upon a table by her side and she caught sight of an envelope lying there.

She picked it up.
It was addressed to herself in her husband's handwriting, and, with a sharp sense of anxiety, she tore it open.

The note it contained was characteristically brief: I hope by the time you read this to have procured young Turner's release, if he still lives--at no very great cost, I beg you to believe.

I desire the letter that you will find on my writing-table to be sent at once to the colonel.