Without a word the mother brought Tom, showed it to him, and then fell into his arms and burst into a flood of tears.
“Don’t, don’t cry so Annie! It might have been worse. Let us thank God she was saved from them brutes.”
Hose’s friends crowded round Tom now with tear-stained faces.
“Tom, you don’t know how broke up we all are over this. Poor child, we did the best we could.”
“It’s all right, boys. You’ve been my friends to-night. You’ve saved my little gal. I want to shake hands with you and thank you. If you hadn’t been here—My God, I can’t think of what would ’a happened! Now it’s all right. She’s safe in God’s hands.”
The next morning when Tom Camp called at the parsonage to see the Preacher and arrange for the funeral of his daughter he found him in bed.
“Dr. Durham is quite sick, Mr. Camp, but he’ll see you,” said Mrs. Durham.
“Thank you, M’am.”
She took the old soldier by the hand and her voice choked as she said, “You have my heart’s deepest sympathy in your awful sorrow.”
“It’ll be all for the best, M’am. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. I will still say, Blessed is the name of the Lord!”