t move--I'm afraid she's dead. Oh, please do
come, Miss, just a minute, and--"

"Where do you live?" Helen interrupted, indicating by her tone of
sympathy that she would do as requested.

"Right there," the little girl replied, pointing with her hand toward
one of the houses a short distance ahead. "Come on, please. Just a
minute--help me get ma on the bed. I'll find one of the neighbors to
help after that."

"All right, go ahead," Helen directed.

"It seems that I am fated to do at least a little of the work that we
set out to do, but were prevented from doing by some unfriendly
interests. It's a pity some of these people are so prejudiced, for we
could really do a lot for them."

Helen's small conductress led the way to the entrance of a miner's
cottage that, to all outward appearance from the front, was dark
within.

"Haven't you any light?" she asked a little apprehensively, drawing
back as if hesitating to enter.

"Oh, yes," the other replied almost eagerly, it seemed. "There's a
lamp burning in the kitchen, and I'll light the gas in the front room.
Come on, please."

"Where is your mother?"

"She's layin' down on the floor in the kitchen. Come on, I've got a
match. I'll light the gas in the front room."

If Helen had obeyed a strong impulse that was tugging within her to
hold her back, she would have refused to enter. Perhaps the reason she
did not obey that impulse was the fact that a desperate effort to
think of another reasonable method of procedure was fruitless and she
must either go ahead as she had started or turn away in confusion and
leave the little girl in her distress and without an explanation. The
latter opened the door and Helen followed her inside.

It was difficult for the visiting Camp Fire girl to figure out any
reason why she should be fearful of anything this slip of a child
might do, and yet the first act of the latter after they were inside
sent through her a chill of terror. Slipping around her like an eel,
the little emissary of trouble pushed the door to and turned the key
in the lock. Helen was certain also that she heard the key withdrawn
from the lock.

Still her conductress, clever little confidence girl that she was,
spoke words of reassurance that dispelled some of her victim's fears.

"Wait," she said; "I dropped my match. I'll have to go in the kitchen
for another."

Helen's eyes followed the dim form of the child, as the latter moved
across the room, and obser