And the manager rushed out of the room.
"Brother!" the girl said, softly. "How sweet the name sounds. To think that I have a brother! And a mother!"
"Don't cry—please don't!" entreated Al, with a boy's horror of feminine tears.
"They are tears of joy, brother. And now you must go and send the telegram."
CHAPTER XXII.
AN AWFUL CATASTROPHE.
A telegram, carefully worded so that Mrs. Allston's maternal alarms might not be aroused, was sent. In it Al requested her to come to Rockton by a certain train, and promised to be at the depot to meet her.
A reply came within an hour:
"Yours received. Shall be there. Hope nothing has happened."
"I should say something had happened," laughed Al, when he and his new-found sister had read the message.