“It is!” Joe assured her. “Blake, come over here and let me introduce you to Sister Jessie.” “Say, this is no time for introductions!” cried C. C. Piper, breaking in on the happy little party. “This is a fierce fire. We’ve got to rescue those missionaries and skip. This whole place will go!” “Oh, yes, dear Mr. and Mrs. Brown!” cried Jessie. “We must save them.” “It’s all right. I got them out,” said Sergeant Hotchkiss. “They were tied to the centre pole of their hut, but here they are all safe. Not harmed a bit,” and he stood to one side to disclose those whom he had rescued. “Oh, Jessie! can it be true that we are saved?” cried a lady, as she rushed up and clasped the girl in her arms. “I had almost given up hope.” “The Lord is very good to us,” said a man’s voice behind her, and then Mr. Brown went on: “Dear friends, we cannot thank you enough. It is all a mystery to me. I do not even know you, but can it be possible that our dear little missionary helper has found the relatives she suspected she had, but about whom she was never sure--can she have found them in this strange fashion?” “No, we found her!” cried Joe, laughing. “But it’s all the same!” “Come, hurry away from here!” cried C. C. Piper. “It’s getting too hot. We can talk later.” “That’s right,” agreed Mr. Brown. “What about the native prisoners?” asked Mr. Duncan. “We should save them, too.” “They are not confined in any huts,” said Mr. Brown. “They were treated as slaves, but not tied up. I fancy they escaped when you drove the others off by your shots. Oh, it seems too good to be true!” A hasty investigation showed no captives in the huts that were not yet afire, and had there been any in the blazing ones they would have made the fact known by their yells. The rescuing party now withdrew to a safe place, and took possession of some huts that were in no danger of catching fire, as the wind blew away from them. It was light enough to see to make a camp now, the first flush of dawn coming in the east. The porters, with shouts of joy, took possession of the property of the scattered kidnappers. There was plenty of food, without going back to the camp of our friends in the jungle, and soon everyone was fairly comfortable. As daylight grew there came straggling back some of the Christianized natives who were captured at the time the missionary workers were, and they were made welcome. But none of the kidnappers came back. The story of the raid on the mission station was well enough known not to need repeating, and then Jessie told how she had come to take up with missionary work. She had always wondered about herself since a small child, and had made some effort to trace her parentage, without result. Finally she had been, in a sense, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Brown and had traveled with them extensively, acting as a helper in their missionary work and eventually coming to Africa.