“Good thing to know; but you’re a hero, do you understand that?” The child continued to edge away, and David reached out and drew him to his side. Holding him by his two sharp little elbows, he gave him a playful shake. “I say, do you know what a hero is?”

The startled boy stopped grinning and looked wildly to his sister, but receiving only a smile of reassurance from her, he lifted his great eyes to Thryng’s face, then slowly the little form relaxed, and he was drawn within the doctor’s encircling arm.

“I don’t reckon,” was all his reply, which ambiguous remark caused David, in his turn, to look to the sister for elucidation. She held a long, lighted candle in her hand, and paused to look back as she was leaving the room.