-the doctors couldn't stop the flow of blood. You
can't imagine how I felt. I fell on my knees and prayed with all my soul
to God to save my father and the man he had shot. At two o'clock--oh, I
don't know how to express it!--at two o'clock I seemed to be lifted up
into something like light, but it wasn't that. It was something finer
and holier, but I knew, I knew that all was well. My mother came at
sunup. She said they had stopped the flowing blood at two
o'clock--exactly at two o'clock. My father was released the next day and
the man finally recovered."

"Things like that happen once in a thousand times," John said, with an
indulgent smile, "and people say it is in answer to prayer."

"But I know, for I _felt_ it," Tilly responded, simply, and she said no
more, for the three older persons had turned and were waiting for them
on the street corner.

CHAPTER XVII

One morning a week later Cavanaugh mounted the scaffold on which John
was working. He held some letters in his hand.

"That car of brick has been delayed," he announced. "It will be three
days before it can be delivered. The men won't like it, but we'll have
to shut down for that long, anyway."

John frowned and swore, as he stood scraping his trowel on the edge of a
brick which he had just tapped into line.

"Never mind; we needn't be idle--you and me, anyway," Cavanaugh said,
gently. "You heard about Mason & Trubel's storehouse being burned down
last week, didn't you? Well, the agents for the insurance company have
written me to come home and help adjust the loss. Some of the walls may
be usable in rebuilding, and they want me to be one of the arbitrators.
Now, there will be a lot of close figuring to do, and I want you to be
there. How about both of us going? There will be a fee for us that will
more than cover expenses, and the trip will do us good."

"I'll go with you," John said. "When will you start?"

"First train in the morning," was the reply, and the contractor went
about among the men, explaining the situation.

The two friends arrived at Ridgeville the following morning at ten
o'clock and at once started for their homes. To John's surprise, at the
end of the first street Cavanaugh did not turn toward his home, as would
have been natural, but kept on in the direction John was to go.

"You are out of your beat, aren't you?" John asked.

"I am and I ain't," Cavanaugh smiled. "I want to show you something--a
little house and lot