uns like that for me, I'm all in. I thought sure I was
cured myself--I hadn't coughed for--"

"Never mind about that now," said Madison rapidly. "I want the crowd
kept away from the doors of the bank vault if they show any tendency to
get too close, though I don't think that'll happen--they're too numbed
and scared yet. But you know the game. Keep the awe going and the 'holy
ground' signs up. Anybody that steps across that stretch between the
trees and the cottage on and after the present date of writing does it
with bowed head and his shoes off--get the idea?"

Pale Face Harry grinned.

"That's easy," he said. "Anything'd steer 'em now--they're like sheep.
Leave it to me to keep the soft pedal on."

With a nod, Madison turned away, the tense expression on his face
assumed again--and presently he was talking to Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, and
patting the boy's head in a clumsy, overwrought way.

"I--I don't dar'st to go," said Mrs. Holmes, clutching wildly at the
boy, still sobbing, still beyond control of herself.

"But Mrs. Thornton is going," said Madison gently, "and I know your
gratitude is no less than hers--it couldn't be less with this little lad
restored to you. I am sure you want to show it--don't you?"

"I think we'd orter go, ma," said Mr. Holmes uneasily.

The boy put his hand in Madison's.

"I want to go, mister," he choked. "Take me, mister, won't you?"

"Yes, I think we'd orter go," repeated Mr. Holmes. "Come along, ma," he
said, taking his wife's arm.

It was a strange group--the Thorntons, rich, refined, to whom luxury was
necessity; the Holmes, poor, uncultured, coarsely dressed; and Madison,
who walked with set face, head lowered a little, his pace slowing
perceptibly, humbly it seemed, the nearer he came to the cottage door.
Neither Thornton, nor Holmes, nor Holmes' wife spoke. Mrs. Thornton's
arm was flung around the boy's shoulder, and he kept looking up into her
tearful face--there was a bond between them that, young as he was, held
him in its thrall. Out across the lawn, dotted here and there, in knots
and groups and little crowds, men and women stopped where they stood and
watched, making no effort to follow--and some, at the renewed evidence
of the miraculous, once more so vividly before their eyes, dropped again
to their knees.

They reached the door, and Madison drew back a little and with the
others waited silently after he had knocked. Then the door opened
slowly, and Helena, slim a