jewel! Things do look very dark for us, if we look only with
the human sense of vision. But we are trying to look at the invisible
things within. And there is only perfection there. Come, we must get
to work. The Express still lives."

"But--Carmen?"

Hitt turned and faced him. "Ned, Carmen is not in our hands. She is
now completely with her God. We must henceforth wait on Him."

* * * * *

On the following afternoon at three a little group of Avon mill hands
crept past the guards and met in Father Danny's Mission, down in the
segregated vice district. They met there because they dared not go
through the town to the Hall. Father Danny was with them. He had
slipped into town the preceding night, and remained in hiding through
the day. And Carmen was with them, too. She had gone first to the
Hall, and then to the Mission, when she arrived again in the little
town. And after she had deposited Hitt's check in the bank she had
asked Father Danny to call together some of the older and more
intelligent of the mill hands, to discuss methods of disbursing the
money.

Almost coincident with her arrival had come an order from Ames to
apprehend the girl as a disturber of the peace. The hush of death lay
over Avon, and even the soldiers now stood aghast at their own bloody
work of the day before. Carmen had avoided the main thoroughfares, and
had made her way unrecognized. At a distance she saw the town jail,
heavily guarded. Its capacity had been sorely taxed, and many of the
prisoners had been crowded into cold, cheerless store rooms, and
placed under guards who stood ready to mow them down at the slightest
threatening gesture.

"It's come, Miss Carmen!" whispered Father Danny, after he had quietly
greeted the girl. "It's come! It may be the beginning of the great
revolution we've all known wasn't far off! I just _had_ to get back
here! They can only arrest me, anyway. And, oh, God! my poor, poor
people!"

He sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands. But soon he
sprang to his feet. "No time for mollycoddling!" he exclaimed. "Come,
men, we'll give you checks, and do you get food for the babies. Only,
don't buy of the company stores!"

"We'll have to, Father," said one of them. "It's dangerous not to."

"But they've never taken cash from you there, ye know. Only your pay
scrip."

"Aye, Father, and they've discounted that ten per cent each time. But
if we bought at ot