distressing
circumstances. He was displaying symptoms of collapse. Squire Hexter
noted and acted.

"Wincott, this boy must not stay here in this town any longer. If that
prison guard runs afoul of him before I get matters under way at the
shire, Frank will be galloped back to his cell in order to make a
grandstand play. I've got to be going. Take Frank under your wing. Get
him over the border."

"Surest thing in the world!" declared the hearty colonel. "Got a hitch?"

"My horse and double-seater. Come along to the stable--you, too, Frank.
Xoa, bring him one of my coats and a hat!"

Vona leaped away from her lover and faced the Squire. "I shall go with
him, wherever he may go!" she said, with the fire of one who expected to
meet opposition.

But the Squire grinned. "Why, girl, of course you'll go! I wouldn't grab
life-saving medicine away from a sick man. Take your mother along, and
God bless the whole of you on the way."

That way was toward the north, on the heels of the wains and the flocks
and the herds and the men and women and children of the migrating
population of Egypt.

Colonel Wincott occupied the front seat with Mrs. Harnden. By the
time he had teamed the Squire's fat little nag along for a mile he had
succeeded in calming Mrs. Harnden's hysterical spirits. He induced
her to quit looking over her shoulder at the great torch that lighted
luridly the heavens above the deserted town. "It's a pillar of fire
by night, madam, as you say! But that's as far as it fits in with the
Exodus sentiment. It's behind us--and behind us let it stay."

At the end of another mile Mrs. Harnden was extolling the capability of
her husband.

"I've heard about him," said the colonel. "Optimist? So am I. Get in
touch with him and tell him to come to my new town. He'll have something
that he can really optimize over."

Colonel Wincott sedulously kept his attention off the two who rode on
the back seat; he obliged Mrs. Harnden to do the same.

After a time the trotting nag overtook the trailers of the procession.
The colonel hailed and passed one wain after another, steadily calling,
"Gangway!" They recognized his authority; they obeyed; they gave him
half the road.

He had an especially hearty greeting for the hand tub, Hecla, trundling
on its little wheels, men guarding its flanks, men pulling on the rope
by which it was propelled. Ike Jones was one of the guards. He gave the
colonel's party a return greeting by a flo