my beautiful boy, come back to me! You are mine!"

Her tears fell like rain; and utterly careless of the eyes gazing in
wonder upon her, she covered his cold, white face with kisses.

Those warm tears, those thrilling kisses, falling on his lifeless, face,
might have called back the boy's spirit, had it been waiting at the
gates of heaven!

To Claudia's unutterable joy his sensitive features quivered, his pale
cheeks flushed, his large, blue eyes opened, and with a smile of
ineffable satisfaction he recognized the face that was bending over him.
Then the pallid lips trembled and unclosed with the faintly uttered
inquiry:

"You are safe, Miss Merlin?"

"Quite safe, my own dear boy! but oh! at what a cost to you!" she
answered impulsively and fervently.

He closed his eyes, and while that look of ineffable bliss deepened on
his face, he murmured some faint words that she stooped to catch:

"I am so happy--so happy--I could wish to die now!" he breathed.

"But you shall not die, dear Ishmael! God heard my cry and sent you back
to me! You shall live!"

Then turning to the gaping men, she said:

"Raise him gently, and lay him in the barouche. Stop a moment!--I will
get in first and arrange the cushions for him."

And with that she tenderly laid the boy's head back upon the ground, and
entered the carriage, and with her own hands took all the cushions from
the tops of the seats, and arranged them so as to make a level bed for
the hurt boy. Then she placed herself in the back seat, and, as they
lifted him into the carriage, she took his head and shoulders and
supported them upon her lap.

But Ishmael had fainted from the pain of being moved. And oh! what a
mangled form he seemed, as she held him in her arms upon her bosom,
while his broken limbs lay out upon the pile of cushions.

"One of you two now take the horses by the head, and lead them slowly,
by the river road, towards Tanglewood House. It is the longest road, but
the smoothest," said Miss Merlin.

Two of the men started to obey this order, saying that it might take
more than one to manage the horses if they should grow restive again.

"That is very true; besides, you can relieve each other in leading the
horses. And now one of the others must run directly to the house of the
Overseer Gray, and tell him what has happened, and direct him to ride
off immediately to Shelton and fetch Dr. Jarvis to Tanglewood."

All three of the remaining men started off