s your sister,
I can give you tidings of her," Doctor Norton returned.

"Yes, yes; that is her name," Mrs. Mencke interposed.

"Then I am happy to tell you that a young lady of perhaps seventeen or
eighteen years was rescued."

"Rescued!" cried Mrs. Mencke, eagerly. "William," turning to her
husband, "do you hear? How was she rescued?"

"Perhaps I should not have spoken with quite so much confidence,"
corrected the doctor. "But the young lady to whom I refer had with her a
music-roll upon the clasp of which the letters 'V. D. H.' were
engraved."

"That must have been Violet," said Mrs. Mencke. "She went to the city
that afternoon to take her music lesson at four o'clock."

"Then she was saved by a young man--a Mr. Wallace Richardson--in the
recent accident on the inclined plane. Mr. Richardson was severely
injured, but he has been able to give an account of how he prevented the
young lady from being dashed to pieces like many of the other victims,"
Doctor Norton returned.

He then proceeded to relate what Wallace had told him had occurred
during those few horrible moments when that ill-fated car was plunging
at such a fearful rate toward its doom.

Mrs. Mencke appeared to be greatly affected by the thrilling account;
but her phlegmatic husband listened to the recital with a stolidity
which betrayed either a strange indifference or a wonderful control over
his nerves and sympathies.

"Oh! it is the most wonderful thing in the world that she was not killed
outright," Mrs. Mencke remarked, with a shiver of horror, "and we have
been very anxious. You say that she is seriously ill?" she questioned,
in conclusion.

"Yes; the shock to her system has been a serious one, madame," the
physician replied, "and, although there is not a scratch nor a bruise
upon her, she is very ill and delirious at the home of this brave young
carpenter to whom she owes so much."

"Young!" repeated Mrs. Mencke, remarking the adjective for the first
time, and looking somewhat annoyed. "How old is he?"

"About twenty-three or twenty-four, I should judge," was the reply.

A frown settled upon the woman's brow; but after a moment she asked:

"Do you consider her dangerously ill, Doctor Norton?"

"Yes, madame, she is. Your sister is delicately organized, and her
system has had a terrible shock; the horror and fright alone, of those
few dreadful moments, were sufficient to unhinge the strongest nerves,"
the physician gravely replied.