gratulated him upon his recovery from what had seemed so
dangerous a hurt.

"But that is nothing now," he said. "I got off better than I had
any right,--limp a little, maybe, but they say that even that is
mostly a matter of habit now. Jamieson says his fiddle string may
have slipped a little! And you?"

"Oh, perfectly well," she answered. "I even think I may be
happy--you know, I must start my French and English classes before
long."

Silent now in part as to matters present, wholly silent as to
matters past, these two went on into the night, neither loosing the
tight rein on self. Swaying and jolting its way upward and outward
into the wilder country, the coach at last had so far plunged into
the night that they were almost within touch of the valley in which
lay the Dunwody lands. Eleazar, the trapper, rode on the box with
the negro driver who had been impressed into service. It was the
old trapper who at length called for a halt.

"Listen!" said he. "What is that?"

Dunwody heard him, and as the coach pulled up, thrust his head out
of the window. The sound was repeated.

"I hear it!" cried he. "Rifle firing! I'm afraid we're going to
be too late. Drive on, there, fast!"

Finally they reached the point in the road just below the shut-in,
where the hills fell back in the approach to the little circular
valley. Dunwody's gaze was bent eagerly out and ahead. "My God!"
he exclaimed, at length. "We are too late! Look!"

At the same moment there came excited cries from the horsemen who
followed. Easily visible now against the black background of the
night, there showed a flower of light, rising and falling,
strengthening.

"Drive!" cried Dunwody; and now the sting of the lash urged on the
weary team. They swung around the turn of the shut-in, and came at
full speed into the approach across the valley. Before them lay
the great Tallwoods mansion house. It stood before them a pillar
of fire, prophetic, it might be repeated, of a vast and cleansing
catastrophe soon to come to that state and this nation; a
catastrophe which alone could lay the specter in our nation's house.

They were in time to see the last of the disaster, but too late to
offer remedy. By the time the coach had pulled up at the head of
the gravel way, before the yet more rapid horsemen had flung
themselves from their saddles, the end easily was to be guessed.
The house had been fired in a half score places. At the rear, eve