On came the engine, the horses' feet and the wheels crashing harshly in the silent night. They came round the corner with a sharp swing. Either the driver had become careless, or he was very sleepy that night, for he dashed against an iron post that stood at the corner, and carried off two wheels. The engine went full thirty yards on the two off-wheels, before it came to the ground, which it did at last with a terrific crash, throwing the firemen violently to the ground. The sub-engineer and Fred and Willie sprang forward in great alarm; but the most of the men leaped up at once, and one or two of them laughed, as if to show that they had got no damage. But one of them lay extended on the pavement. It needed not a second glance to tell that it was Frank Willders. "Lift him gently, lads," said Dale, who was himself severely bruised. "Stop," exclaimed Frank in a low voice; "I've got no harm except to my left leg. It's broken, I think. There's no use of lifting me till you get a cab. I'll go straight home, if--" He fainted as he spoke. "Run for a cab, Willie," said Fred Auberly. Willie was off in a moment. At the same instant, a messenger was despatched for Dr Offley, and in a short time after that, Frank Willders was lying on his mother's sofa, with his left leg broken below the knee. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. MR JAMES AUBERLY. With a very stiff cravat, and a dreadfully stiff back, and a painfully stiff aspect, Mr James Auberly sat by the side of a couch and nursed his sick child. Stiff and starched and stern though he was, Mr Auberly, had a soft point in his nature, and this point had been reached at last, for through all the stiffness and starch there shone on his countenance an expression of deep anxiety as he gazed at Loo's emaciated form. Mr Auberly performed the duties of a nurse awkwardly enough, not being accustomed to such work, but he did them with care and with an evident effort to please, which made a deep impression on the child's heart. "Dear papa," she said, after he had given her a drink and arranged her coverings. "I want you to do me a favour." She said this timidly, for she knew from past experience that her father was not fond of granting favours, but since her illness he had been so kind to her that she felt emboldened to make her request. "I will do it, dear," said the stiff man, bending, morally as well as physically, as he had never bent before--for the prospect of Loo's death had been presented to him by the physicians. "I will do it, dear, if I can, and if the request be reasonable." "Oh, then, do forgive Fred, and let him be an artist!" cried Loo, eagerly stretching out one of her thin hands. "Hush, darling," said Mr Auberly, with a look of distress; "you must not excite yourself so. I have forgiven Fred long ago, and he has become an artist in spite of my objections." "Yes, but let him come home, I mean, and be happy with us again as he used to be, and go to the office with you," said Loo.