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NANCE RETURNS IN TIME TO RESCUE SMILING JIM
"Yes, indeed. I'll come tomorrow — and maybe I'll stop by every day. Good-by."
The man did not move. Of a sudden he raised his head to her face, and she saw two lonely tears in his eyes; his lips moved a little, brokenly. "Sometimes I dream," he said strangely, "that some one with your face sits on my knee and plays with my hair and — and kisses me. I love to dream that dream. Would you — kiss me, little girl?"
The child leaned near and kist him softly on the lips, and the two tears dropped and rolled down the stormbeaten cheeks. Then he went into the shack, and Nance urged "Wonder" on.
Overhead, the sky had become inky, and now and again brilliant gold patterned it erratically. The atmosphere quivered with the thunderous vibra
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tions. Nance rode furiously; then halted. A tremendous crash reverberated thruout the woods. "Wonder" reared, and Nance turned white. "I'm going back," she whispered; "I'll wait with Jim till the storm is over. I'm — I'm afraid."
The friendly smoke had ceased curling over the shack, and the "ghost of Smiling Jim ' ' lay prone beneath the wreckage of his shack. This, no doubt, had caused the fearsome reverberation. Nance leaped from "Wonder" and rushed to the prostrate form. She found that one of the beams had struck his head in falling, but that he was practically free of the wreckage. Cold water dashed in his face opened the closed eyes, and they held Nance 's with a growing, incredulous, stupendous belief. The child was cognizant at once that this was not the Jim who had begged for a kiss with piteous