ere safely taken off. A crowd waited to welcome them and they received
every possible attention. Both were taken to the nearest farmhouse, where
a kind-hearted mother took Dolly in charge, for the little one needed it
sadly enough.

They were within half a mile of a village which was connected with
Damietta by telegraph, and before Ben would do anything more than swallow
a cup of hot coffee, and change his clothing, he was driven to the
office, where he sent the message which was the first word we received in
Damietta to tell us that he was alive.

I lost no time in hurrying to the humble dwelling of Mrs. Mayberry, where
I made known the joyful tidings. I shall never forget the holy light
which illumined the thin face as she clasped her hands in thankfulness
and said:

"I had not given up all hope, but I was very near doing so."

Ben was driven into Damietta late that afternoon, where a royal welcome
awaited him. He was cheered, shaken by the hand, and congratulated over
and over again, and for a time it looked as though he would be pulled
asunder. When he finally tore himself loose and rushed into our office,
the operators and messenger boys were equally demonstrative, but he did
not mind them.

I stood at my desk with a swelling heart, waiting for him. Suddenly he
turned and caught my hand.

"He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned----"

He was laughing when he spoke the jest, but his voice trembled, and all
at once he broke down. Quickly withdrawing both hands, he put them over
his face and cried like a heartbroken child. He had stood it like a hero
to this point, but now, with the crowd outside peering into the windows,
he sobbed with uncontrollable emotion, while my own heart was too full to
speak.

As soon as he could master himself he said:

"I must not wait any longer; mother expects me."

He was out of the door in a twinkling, and in a few minutes the mother
and son were in each other's arms.

The reader may think that the most remarkable part of Ben Mayberry's
adventure on the night of the flood has already been told, but it proved
to be the beginning of a train of incidents of such an extraordinary
nature that I hasten to make them known. There was a direct connection
between his experience on that terrible night in February and the
wonderful mystery in which he became involved, and which exercised such a
marked influence on his after-life.

Fortunately, little Dolly Willard suffered