Miriam, however, hesitated not a moment. Unarmed and unshielded, she sprang to the rescue. The mob, lacking a leader either dead or living, gave back in transient panic before her, not knowing what magic weapon might be at her command. Torpeon struggled to his feet once more. But he was no longer fully conscious of what he did. Miriam said to Jack:
“Guide him to the castle, where he will be safe; leave these poor creatures to me.”
But a new element entered into the fray.
Jim, who had not noticed Miriam’s absence from the upper window, where he and Jenny had been observing the conflict below, had been greatly startled to behold her emerge from the gateway, apparently unaccompanied. Whatever had been his original plan of campaign, the turn of affairs had seemed so well calculated to forward his main object, that he had been satisfied to let it continue; a free fight, too, is always a captivating spectacle for a boy. But Miriam’s unexpected participation in the battle threatened total disaster to all his projects; and the necessity of protecting her swept all other considerations from his mind.
Disregarding the lamentations of poor Jenny, he seized his crutch and made off incontinently for the stricken field. He had not stopped to consider what form his intervention should take; he thought of himself not at all, except as an instrument of use for persons he loved; but he had full confidence in the efficacy of Solarion’s gift.
Selfless love for others is the soul of the faith that works what we regard as miracles. Things may happen in our daily walk and pass unobserved that are in their essence more marvelous than the transformation of a blackthorn stick into a battle-charger.
Be that as it may, it was a mounted cavalier who issued forth from the castle just as Miriam helped the dazed and moribund Prince of Tor to his feet and assigned him to Jack’s care while she faced the mob. She faced them, but made no demonstration. They were intimidated, but it would not be for long. The sight of Torpeon making his escape into the castle set fire to their rage anew. They were gathering courage for an onset.
Jim, as he rode forth, marked Torpeon entering in, but he had no consciousness of his guide. He had no misgiving but that his boss was many thousands of miles distant from this debatable ground. And if he could furnish the means of getting him and the woman he loved together, the chief end of his existence, as he saw it, would be achieved. To what else might happen he was royally indifferent.
“De boss an’ de missis is de real goods,” he told himself complacently; “not’in’ else ain’t in dere class; de on’y t’ing ails dem is, dey ain’t got no caution! Any guy what makes good in de ring has to be wise to side-steppin’; foot-work is de cheese; but dese here folks o’ mine, dey rushes in head down an’ wide open. De odder guy lands his uppercut, an’ ef de time-keeper ain’t on de job wid de bell, dey’s counted out! Well, I’s de timekeeper for dis roun’, an’ I figgers ter make a reckud!”
As he rode up to Miriam he hailed her cheerfully.