is awake and keen?

Do not two thoughts, two consciousnesses, call and answer to each other,
mutely, in twin dreams of night?

Roger Armstrong came in, late, that evening, from a visit to a distant
sick parishioner. Then he sat, writing, for an hour or two longer.

By and by, he threw down his pen--pushed back his armchair before his
window--stretched his feet, wearily, into the deep, old-fashioned window
seat--leaned his head back, and let the cool breeze stir his hair.

So it soothed him into sleep.

He dreamed of Faith. He dreamed he saw her stand, afar off, in some
solitary place, and beckon, as it were, visibly, from a wide, invisible
distance. He dreamed he struggled to obey her summons. He battled with
the strange inertia of sleep. He strove--he gasped--he broke the spell
and hastened on. He plunged--he climbed--he stood in a great din that
bewildered and threatened; there was a lurid light that glowed intense
about him as he went; in the midst of all--beyond--she beckoned still.

"Faith! Faith! What danger is about you, child?"

These words broke forth from him aloud, as he started to his feet, and
stretched his hands, impulsively, out before him, toward the open
window.

His eyes flashed wide upon that crimson glare that flooded sky and field
and river.

There was fire at the mills!

Not a sound, yet, from the sleeping village.

* * * * *

The heavy, close-fitting double doors between the countingroom and the
great mill chamber were shut. Only by opening these and venturing forth,
could Faith gain certain knowledge of her situation.

Once more she pulled them open and passed through.

A blinding smoke rushed thick about her, and made her gasp for breath.
Up through the belt holes in the floor, toward the farther end of the
long room, sprang little tongues of flame that leaped higher and higher,
even while she strove for sight, that single, horrified, suffocating
instant, and gleamed, mockingly, upon the burnished shafts of silent
looms.

In at the windows on the left, came the vengeful shine of those other
windows, at right angles, in the adjacent building. The carding rooms,
and the whole front of the mill, below, were all in flames!

In frantic affright, in choking agony, Faith dashed herself back through
the heavy doors, that swung on springs, and closed tightly once more
after her.

Here, at the open window, she took breath. Must she wait here, helpless,