dreaming, but
again he heard the agonized appeal:

"Massa Harvey, for God's sake, save Missy Beth."

Harvey sprang to the window. "What's the matter, Gustus?"

"I think de debbil am after Missy Beth," moaned Gustus, who had decided
that it was the Evil One instead of a real fire.

His words gave Harvey no lucid idea of the situation. He feared Beth
was in danger, but he little realized the urgency of the case.
However, he did not stop to question, but slipped into his clothes as
fast as he could, and went below to join Gustus. His parents had gone
to the party, and he did not waken any of the servants.

The minute he opened the front door, one look to the right revealed the
awful truth to him.

"Is Beth there?" he gasped to Gustus who had run around to the door to
join him.

"I reckon so. Yo' won't let de debbil get her."

"The devil? It's worse. It's fire. She'll burn," cried Harvey in
agony, tearing across the fields as fast as he could. Gustus followed
trembling in every limb. He realized now that he had been a coward,
that if his beloved little "missy" burned, he would be greatly to blame.

"I didn't know," he moaned to himself, and then his cry changed to a
prayer, "Dear God, don't let her burn. Don't let her burn," he pleaded
as he ran, pitifully penitent.

As Harvey flew towards the burning house, his thought dwelt on the
other fire from which he and Beth had been saved.

"God won't let her burn. He won't do it," he cried to himself, and yet
half fearful that the fire demon which seemed to pursue Beth might
conquer this time.

"De Good Book says dat if we ask anything, an' believe, dat it will be
granted us," gasped Gustus as if reading Harvey's doubts. "Let's both
pray as hard as ever we kin dat God'll save Missy Beth, an' He'll do
it."

The faith expressed by the superstitious colored boy heartened Harvey
somewhat. He ran on as fast as ever, but both in his heart and in that
of Gustus was the prayer that Beth might be saved.

That prayer was answered. After the colored boy was found wanting, an
animal was used as God's messenger. The fire awakened Duke. The air
all around him was full of smoke that almost choked him. He realized
there was danger, but he thought more of another that he loved than of
his own safety. With a bound, he sprang through the open doorway
barking wildly. He leaped up on the bed where the children slept. He
had no words in which to warn them of dange