he beasts ran;
and some of 'em ran a long way, I guess, and climbed trees.

I stuck the torch point-end in the ground, stepped into the trap, and
lifted my family out. All the time I prayed aloud, saying: "Lord on
high, keep Right Bower from touching his blamed foot against any of
these triggers and dropping the forest on top of all he holds in his
arms!" Ivy, she rubbed her cheek against mine to show confidence--and
then we were safe out and I picked up the torch and carried the whole
kit and boodle, family, torch, happiness--much too big to tote--and
belief in God's goodness, watchfulness, and mercy, home to our cave.

Right Bower added some uneventful details of the few days following--the
ship's boat that put into the island for water and took them off, and
so on. Then he asked me if I'd like to meet Mrs. Bower, and I went
forward with him and was presented.

She was deep in a steamer-chair, half covered with a somewhat gay
assortment of steamer-rugs. I had noticed her before, in passing, and
had mistaken her for a child.

Bower beamed over us for a while and then left us and we talked for
hours--about Bower, the children, and the home in East Orange to which
they were returning after a holiday at Aix; but she wouldn't talk much
about the island. "Right," she said, "was all the time so venturesome
that from morning till night I died of worry and anxiety. Right says the
Lord does just the right thing for the right people at the right
time--always. That's his creed.... Sometimes," she said, "I wonder
what's become of big Bahut. He was such a--white elephant!"

Mrs. Gordon-Colfax took me to task for spending so much of the afternoon
with Mrs. Bower.

"Who," said she, "was that common little person you were flirting
with?--and why?"

"She's a Mrs. Bower," I said. "She has a mission."

"I could tell that," said Mrs. Gordon-Colfax, "from the way she turned
up her eyes at you."

"As long as she doesn't turn up her nose at me--" I began; but Mrs.
Gordon-Colfax put in:

"The Lord did that for her."

"And," I said, "so she was saying. She said the Lord does just the right
thing for the right person at the right time.... Now, your nose is
beautifully Greek; but, to be honest, it turns up ever so much more than
hers does."

"Oh, well," said Mrs. Gordon-Colfax, "I hate common people--and I can't
help it. Let's have a bite in the grill."

"Sorry," I said; "I'm dining with the Bowers."

"You have a strong stom