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It was such an account that Bijonah Tanner fed upon that morning

in the tiny cabin of the Rosan, and half an hour after he had

read it he was under way. Special mention had been made of Code

Schofield's rescue of little Bige, with a sentence added that the

Tanner place had been wiped out.

With their minds filled with desperate scenes of cataclysm and

ruin, the Tanners raced the complaining Rosan around Flag Point

six hours later, only to fall upon one another and dance for joy

at the sight of the village nestling as of yore against the green

mountains and gleaming white in the descending sun.

An acrid smell and a smudge of smoke told of what had really

been, and a black heap of ruins where the familiar house had

stood for so long confirmed their fears for their own property;

but to see the village content and smiling, except for a poor

building or two, was joy enough to overbalance the personal loss.

So those who expected a tearful and emotional home-coming were

disappointed.