unconscious, into the arms
of the astonished agent, who came to the door when he heard her stumble
weakly against it.

"Good God, child, where did you come from?" he cried.

Smiles' lips moved faintly, and he caught an echo of the words which she
had been repeating mechanically, over and over, "She haint ergoin' ter
die!"

"I reckon she ain't, if human will can save her ... whoever _she_ is,"
muttered the man, as he laid the exhausted girl on a rude waiting bench,
poured between her bruised lips a few drops of smuggled whiskey from a
pocket flask, and then unceremoniously cut her shoe lacings and removed
her sodden, icy boots.

After a moment, she sat weakly up, and--punctuated by gasps drawn by
exquisite pain--managed to pant out, "I've got to send a telegram ...
to-night ... now. Oh, _please_, Mister, don't wait for anything."

"There, there. We'll take care of your message all right. Don't worry,
little woman," he answered, reassuringly. "But I ain't a-goin' ter send a
tick till you're thawed out. My missus lives upstairs, an' she'll fix
you up."

He half-carried, half-helped the weary girl up the narrow stairs, and,
having surrendered her into the charge of a kindly and solicitous woman,
hastened to rekindle the wood fire in the stove. As its iron top began
to regain the ruddy glow which had scarcely faded from it, Rose crept
near, holding out her bent, stiffened hands.

"Now, take it easy, little girl," cautioned the agent. "Not too close at
first."

"And take off your dress and stockings, dear," said his wife. "Don't
give no thought to him,--we've got three daughters of our own, most
growed up."

The agent departed, with a heavy clamping of feet on the stairs, and
gratefully--but with hands which were so numb that she had to give up in
favor of the woman--Rose obeyed; and soon her teeth stopped their
chattering, and the red blood of youth began once more to course through
her veins, while her drenched, simple undergarments sent up vaporous
white flags which indicated that the watery legions of the storm king
were fast surrendering to their ancient enemy--Fire.

The older woman wrapped a blanket about the girl, as her husband came
upstairs again with a pad of telegram blanks, and said, "Now, I'll write
out the message you've got to send for you, if you want me to."

"Thank you, sir. I'm obliged to you and your missus. I reckon you can
put the words better than I can, for I haint ... I have never sent