y. While we were
not in the track of the tornado, the storm had been severe over a wide
territory. Fallen trees lay across our rocky trail and at times we had
to make wide detours, forcing our way through thick underbrush and
scaling slippery rocks.

Miss Harding proved a good woodswoman.

"If I did not know that papa is worried I would enjoy every moment of
this," she declared, as we paused to rest after a climb of fully five
hundred feet out of the valley.

The lightning was again flickering in the west and we pressed on. There
were intervals of cleared spaces now and then. We climbed fences, jumped
ditches and seemingly walked scores of miles, but still the flickering
yellow light of that lantern led us remorselessly on. At last when it
appeared as if our quest were interminable we surmounted a rail fence
and found ourselves in a road.

"Pine Top half a mile," was the cheering announcement made by Peterson
as he held the lantern so that Miss Harding could examine the extent of
a rent just made in her gown.

Ten minutes later we stood on the platform of the little red station in
Pine Top, and the spasmodic clatter of a telegraph instrument was music
in our ears.

Down came the rain, but what cared we! The steel rails which gleamed and
glistened in the signal lights led to Woodvale. We entered the room and
waited patiently until the operator looked up from the jabbering
receiver.

"When is the next train to Woodvale?" was my ungrammatical query.

"I wish I could tell you," he answered, rather sullenly. He had been on
duty hours over time. "They've nearly cleared the track between here and
Woodvale, but the Lord only knows when a train can get through from Oak
Cliff."

"No train from Oak Cliff since the storm?" I asked.

"Well, I should guess not!" he gruffly laughed. "Oak Cliff's wiped off
the map."

Miss Harding clutched my arm. There was startled agony in her eyes, her
lips trembled but she bore the shock bravely.

"Did you get a message to that effect?" I demanded in a voice which
must have surprised him.

"No, the wires are down between here and Oak Cliff, but a man came by
here an hour ago who said it went through the village."

"Did it strike the Oak Cliff club house?" I asked.

"He didn't say," replied the operator, and then the instrument demanded
his attention.

"These reports are always exaggerated," I assured Miss Harding. "Besides
the club house is of stone, and it is protected by a hi