f Lyle and Leslie, the
latter half fainting with excitement.

The men crowding about Houston congratulated him with a hearty
hand-clasp, unaccompanied by words, except for an occasional inquiry
as to his own condition.

"I am all right," he said in reply to the latter, "my arm is nothing,
the merest trifle; my only thought is for the two lives which I fear
have been sacrificed for mine."

Anxiously he bent above the prostrate forms. Jack's head was
frightfully gashed, and his heavy, labored breathing indicated that
his brain was already affected. Houston spoke a word to Morton
Rutherford, who quickly withdrew, and taking the swiftest horse in
camp, was soon speeding down the road to the Y, in a second race
against death.

Houston next knelt beside Bull-dog; a faint fluttering about the heart
was the only sign of life. The little waif was well known among the
mining camps of that vicinity, and there were few dry eyes in the
crowd as Houston told the story of his heroism.

Houston saw the end was very near, and gently slipped his right arm
under Bull-dog's head. Slowly the little fellow opened his eyes,
looking, with a happy smile, into the face bending so tenderly over
him. At that instant, the sun, bursting through the clouds, threw a
ray of golden light in shining benediction across the little white
face. His eyes brightened still more; "We're safe!" he whispered
joyously. There was a slight quiver, and the little form was still.

The sun, shining as brightly and serenely as though storms were
unknown, looked down into that beautiful canyon upon a strange scene
of ruin, desolation and death. Amid the wreck and debris of the
explosions, lay the little hero who had saved so many lives that day,
upon his face a child-like smile which it had never worn in life;
while farther on down the canyon, beside the smoking embers of the
milling plant, lay the one whose signal had wrought all this
destruction. The men, rushing into the burning mills, had found the
electrical apparatus in ruins, as though torn to pieces by giant
hands, and beside it upon the floor lay Haight, a ghastly sight, his
face blackened and distorted, his right arm and side seared and
shriveled, by the mighty servant who had suddenly burst its fetters.

Slowly and tenderly Jack was borne to the house, and laid in the room
which had been Houston's, which Lyle had made ready for him with
loving care, her tears falling fast as she recalled his farewell o