at once wrote to Mr. Baxter calling for his co-operation
in setting your father straight with the world again, and it is in order
to see how this can best be done that Mr. Baxter has travelled from
Sydney with me."

"What a wonderful story! Why, it sounds like a fairy tale. But does not
Mr. Baxter hate my father for having been the means of making him poor?"
asked Sylvia wistfully.

"No indeed! Mr. Baxter realizes that it was being thrust out upon the
world which really gave him his chance, and so he is in a way as
grateful to your father as Mr. Melrose; and between the two of them they
will clear the way to a greater prosperity, I hope," replied Mr. Wallis
kindly.

"Here comes Dr. Plumstead, but Nealie is not with him!" yelled
Billykins, rushing up from a short journey to the next house, where he
had been to see if the woman who did for the doctor would undertake to
provide luncheon for the two gentlemen.

Dr. Plumstead was riding a horse that was certainly not Rockefeller, for
it was a miserable wry-necked screw, with nothing but pace to recommend
it, and a temper so vicious that it just stood and kicked, from sheer
delight at being disagreeable, when the doctor hastily dismounted and
came forward to explain his solitary return.

"Your father is a hero; but, like other brave men, he has to pay the
price of his heroism in suffering," said the doctor to Rupert, and then
he told them all how the other Dr. Plumstead had risked his life to pull
the sick man from the burning shed, and that Nealie was staying to nurse
him back to health again, she, in her turn, being taken care of by
Mother Twiney, who was really a good soul at the bottom, although a
little lacking in matters of personal cleanliness.

"Your sister was in great trouble about you all; but I said that Rupert
and I could manage to take care of you for a few days or even weeks
until she is able to come back and look after you," said the doctor,
linking Rupert with himself in the matter of responsibility in a way
that made the boy flush with pleasure, although Sylvia wrinkled her nose
with a fine disdain.

"I am quite equal to taking care of myself, and of Ducky too," she said
loftily. "But of course it will be convenient to have someone to keep
the boys in order."

CHAPTER XX

How It All Ended

In reality it was the prospector whose life Dr. Plumstead had saved at
the risk of his own, who did most towards setting the father of the
seven on h