and he could not resist the lure of the
crackling flames that seemed to be defying him.

Fred, however, did not look at all puzzled. There was an eager light in
his eyes that Jack began to understand. Fred knew something that his
mother was utterly ignorant of. He had heard those words of hers about
remembering the gallant stranger in her prayers with considerable
emotion. Jack even thought the expression written on the face of the boy
might spell delight.

"But even if he had at one time been a fire-fighter in the city," Mrs.
Badger kept on saying, wonderingly, "why should he be so eager to throw
away his life in _my_ service. What could a poor woman and her
crippled child be to him?"

Then Fred, unable longer to keep his wonderful secret, burst out:

"Oh! mother, don't you know, can't you guess who he is? Why, it's only
right he should be the one to save our poor Lucy, or perish in the
attempt; because this is the great chance he's been praying would come,
so he could prove to you that he has redeemed the past. Mother, surely
now you know who he is?"

She stared at him as though bewildered. Then her eyes again sought the
burning building into which the stranger had plunged, bent on his
mission of mercy. By now the staggering truth must have forced itself
into her groping mind, for she suddenly caught hold of Fred again, and
hugged him passionately.

"It must be the mysterious ways of Heaven!" Jack heard her say. "Tell
me, boy, do you mean that it is----"

"Yes, my father!" Fred said, "and for a whole week and more I have known
about his being here. He wanted to wait until I could get up courage
enough to break the news to you. He has changed, mother, oh! so much,
and made a fortune honestly in the mines, just to show you that the past
has been wiped out. And surely this last act of his proves it."

The poor woman sank on her knees. Jack could see her lips move, though
of course he was unable to catch a single word she uttered; but he felt
positive she was sending up a prayer of gratitude, and beseeching
Providence that the precious lives of both father and daughter might be
spared through a miracle.

It was all as clear as daylight to Jack now. He could easily understand
how at some time in the past, while the Badgers lived in another town,
the husband and father had fallen into evil ways, almost breaking his
wife's heart. Finally he had possibly been forced to flee from the law,
which he may have broken w