isheartening. With wealth added to the grace
which he adored in her, she was lifted far beyond his reach.

"Don't let her go on the bond," he said at last; "it's splendid of her,
but if she does that she will be kept here, and I know she is crazy to
get away, and we must not let her any deeper into this muss of mine."

Rawlins rose. "Well, I'll go see her, anyway. I'm for letting her help
out if she's able and feels like it."

Throop followed him out and down the walk. "That girl's getting terribly
interested in Hans--and she has a right to be. No man could have put in
better work for a woman than he did for her. She says it's all her
fault--and so it is, in a way." He chuckled. "Rather dashes him to find
out she's a moneyed person, don't it? But what's the odds? He needn't
complain, if she don't."

Helen's deepening interest in the forester expressed itself in the
pleasure she took in discussing with Rawlins the means of setting him
free.

"All you have to do," the supervisor explained, "is to appear before the
judge, deposit a certified check, and sign the paper which the law
demands."

"Let us go at once," she said. "My father is sleeping now and the
housekeeper will sit with him. I can slip away for an hour."

"The sooner the quicker," agreed Rawlins.

While she was gone on a cautious inspection of the sick-room a
messenger-boy came to the door with a telegram. "Gee! but the company is
doing business to-day!" he remarked to Rawlins, with a grin. "Here's
another fat one."

Rawlins gently pushed him into the hall. "That'll do for you, son," he
said. "Fat or thin, you deliver your goods and keep still."

The message was indeed a "fat one," and came, Helen said, from a sister
in Chicago, and expressed great anxiety to know exactly what conditions
were. "Do you need me?" the writer demanded. "If you do, I will start at
once. Let us hear from you. We are all very anxious."

Though visibly affected by this appeal, Helen's reply was brief. "No
need of you. I am well and returning East soon. Have all I need."

This she handed in to the operator herself as she and Rawlins were on
the way to Judge Brinkley's office; and then with the thought of
possibly getting away in a day or two she asked of Rawlins: "When will
Mr. Hanscom's trial come off?"

"Not for several weeks, I fear, unless we can do something to have it
put forward. You see, they've all conspired to make it a case for the
County Court, but the judge