Mrs. Richardson returned, just about the time that the surgeon arrived,
to find that her only son had been one of the victims of the horrible
tragedy, a rumor of which had reached her while she was out, and that a
strange but lovely girl had also been brought, through mistake, to her
home.

The surgeon turned his attention at once to this beautiful stranger,
who, to all appearance, seemed beyond all human aid; but during his
examination his face suddenly lighted.

"She is not dead," he said; "the shock has only caused suspension of
animation. Her heart beats, her pulse is faint, but regular, and I
cannot find a bruise or a scratch anywhere about her."

He gave her into the hands of some women, who had come in to offer their
services, with directions how to apply the restoratives he prescribed,
and then turned his attention to the son of the house, who by this time
had recovered consciousness and was suffering intense pain from his
injuries.

His mother was bending over him in an agony of anxiety and suspense,
while she strove, in various ways, to relieve his sufferings.

"Wallace--Wallace!" she cried; "how did it happen that you were going up
in that car at this time of the day?"

"I cannot tell you now--some other time," he returned.

Then turning to the surgeon, who entered at that moment, while he strove
to stifle his groans in his anxiety to learn how it fared with the girl
whom he had so bravely tried to save, he asked, eagerly.

"How is she?"

"She is not injured; there is not a bone broken that I can discover, and
she will do well enough unless the shock to her nerves should throw her
into a fever or bring on prostration," the doctor replied.

"Thank Heaven!" murmured the carpenter, and then fainted away again.

A thorough examination of his condition revealed the fact that two ribs
had been fractured and his left arm broken in two places, while it was
feared that there might be other internal injuries.

All that could be done for him was done at once, and, though weak and
exhausted, he was otherwise comparatively comfortable when the surgeon
got through with him.

He then turned his attention once more to the fair girl in the other
room.

"You will have your hands more than full, Mrs. Richardson, with your son
and daughter ill at once," he remarked. "You must have an experienced
nurse to assist you."

"The poor girl is not my daughter; I do not even know who she is," the
woman replied, as