r minds filled with desperate scenes of cataclysm and ruin,
the Tanners raced the complaining _Rosan_ around Flag Point six hours
later, only to fall upon one another and dance for joy at the sight of
the village nestling as of yore against the green mountains and
gleaming white in the descending sun.

An acrid smell and a smudge of smoke told of what had really been, and
a black heap of ruins where the familiar house had stood for so long
confirmed their fears for their own property; but to see the village
content and smiling, except for a poor building or two, was joy enough
to overbalance the personal loss.

So those who expected a tearful and emotional home-coming were
disappointed.

Code met the dory that rowed ashore after Bijonah had made fast to his
mooring in the little cove that was the roadstead for the fishing
fleet. He had half expected to share the duty with Nat Burns since the
recent change in his relations to the Tanners, but Burns did not put
in an appearance, although it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

Bijonah shook hands with him, and Ma Tanner kissed him, the latter
ceremony being a baptism of happy tears that all were safe and alive.
Bijonah cleared his voice and pulled hard at his beard.

"Understand you're quite a hero, Code," he ventured bluffly, careful
to conceal any emotion, but resolved to give the occasion its due.

"Oh, rot, captain!" said Code equally bluffly, and the ceremony was
over.

But not so with Ma Tanner. She wept and laughed over the preserver of
her offspring, and called him so many exalting names that he was glad
to turn her over to Nellie and his mother at the Schofield gate.

Hot and flushed with the notoriety she had given him along the main
road, he retired to the corner shop and drank wonderful cold
ginger-beer out of a white stone jug until his temperature had
returned to normal.

But later he returned to the house, and found the Tanners about to
depart. The widow Sprague, near the Odd Fellows' Hall, who lived, as
she expressed it, "all deserted and alone," had agreed to take the
family into her rambling cottage. Luke Fraser had brought his
truck-cart up alongside the rescued Tanner belongings, and they were
already half loaded.

"Can you come down to the widdy's to-night, Code?" asked Bijonah. "I've
got somethin' to tell ye that ought to int'rest ye consid'able."

"Yes, I'll be there about eight," was the reply as Schofield joined in
loading the truck.