secure in the little garret under the protection of his friends, and now
he would have to go back after all.

"Burnett?" he repeated almost inaudibly. "Burnett's comin' after me?"

Tess reached out and touched him.

"But he ain't knowing ye air here," she asserted hastily. "An' he ain't
a goin' to know it uther. An' I tell ye, Andy, if ye'll learn yerself
that verse 'bout the mustard seed, it'll keep ye here."

"I'll learn it, brat," promised Andy, but he seemed as if turned to
stone.

"But what be we goin' to do, kid?" asked Skinner, a look of helplessness
wrinkling his face.

"I dunno," replied Tess, with her hand still on the dwarf's arm.

And that was true, too! Tessibel didn't know just at that moment what
she could do to save Andy from the officers, but of one thing she was
certain; that beyond where the birds flew, and above the fast-moving
clouds, and over all and under all, was an arm and a love upon which she
had leaned and trusted, and they had never failed her. With this thought
deepening the red-brown eyes, she turned and looked first at her
Bible-backed father and then at the little dwarf.

"There air one thing ye both got to do," she instructed them. "Ye got to
stop yer worryin' an' ye got to stop bein' 'fraid."

Andy's jaw dropped.

"Stop bein' 'fraid!" he muttered. "Stop bein' 'fraid! God, Tessibel, ye
don't know what it means to allers be in the shadow of the prison, you
don't."

"Oh, yep I do," interposed Tess, blandly, "'course I do. Weren't Daddy
Skinner there? An' Daddy never'd got out in this world if it hadn't been
for a helpin' hand; the same'll help you, Andy."

"She's talkin' of Professor Young," grunted Orn, glancing at the dwarf.

Tess turned to her parent impatiently.

"I ain't nuther talkin' about Professor Young, Daddy. I ain't goin' to
tell him Andy's here 't all! I'll tell you both who I mean right now."

The men leaned forward, the dwarf's head shooting out like a turtle's.

"Who d'ye mean?" he entreated brokenly.

The color mantled Tessibel's brow and swept in rich waves over the
lovely, earnest face.

"Jesus," she breathed radiantly, flashing her eyes from one to the
other. "Jesus jest air a dotin' on ye, Andy, ye poor little dub ye! He
allers dotes on folks in trouble."

"Shucks!" grunted Andy, and "Holy thunderin' Moses!" fell from Daddy
Skinner.

Tessibel stood up, an angry glint in her eyes.

"Ye can say, 'Shucks!' if ye want to, Andy, 'cause you don't