of the flames, he went in and brought out one man and returned for the other and never came back.
Days later, when the fire had burnt out, and men were able at last to go through the black, smoldering region, they found his remains beside those of the man for whom he had returned. Identification was not easy; but soon the wires carried to Chicago the information that the old man had been, beyond doubt, Lucas Cullen.
Bennet brought the message to his father at the office.
"He went with his boots on," said Luke, winking wet eyes. "That's how he'd like to go. And—well, boy, it couldn't be better than that."
"No," said Bennet. "No," and he was not ashamed to cry a little; for he knew that his father was not thinking only of his father dead with his boots on, but of the man he had saved from the fire and of the other for whom he had died.
"I'll go right home," said Luke, "to mother."
"She knows; she was home when the telegram came; it was to you, but she'd opened it," Bennet related.
Luke jerked a little. "How did she—how is she, boy?"
"She's all right," said Bennet, and then he broke down. "Oh, damn it, father, she—she took the telegram and read it and looked right up at me. 'Bennet,' she said, 'he—he whom they thought might be your grandfather, was he. Let us give thanks and be glad. Greater love than this no man hath, Bennet, than he lay down his life—he lay down his life for—'"
Ethel and Barney received the news together.
"I knew grandfather wouldn't go without doing
