On the following morning, having landed on the soil of Central America, they started across the Isthmus. Dora rode on a little mule, and the Professor walked by her side, holding the bridle. Toney and Tom, with Clarence and Harry, proceeded on foot, Hercules bringing up the rear with a huge club in his hand. It was wonderful to witness the tender solicitude of the Professor for Dora. Along the road were a number of small houses, where the natives sold fruit and coffee to travelers, who came in crowds after a steamer had arrived at Panama. At these houses Dora's mule would halt, and the Professor would go in, and come forth with a nice cup of coffee; and as the young maiden put it to her lips her beautiful blue eyes would be peeping over the top of the cup at the smiling face of her escort with a most tender expression. He would then select the most delicious fruit and hand it to Dora, who would receive it with a sweet smile, which made some of the rough miners, passing, imagine that an angel sat on the back of the little mule.

Toney and his companions frequently halted to rest; and Dora's mule was far in advance of them on the road. When within a short distance of Cruces, they came to the spot where the anchor lay, near the side of the road. Here they beheld Dora and the Professor seated on the anchor and the mule quietly cropping the grass.

"Look yonder!" said Tom. And he started towards the pair seated on the anchor.

"Come on!" said Toney, with a peculiar look. Tom took the hint, and, with his companions, continued to walk on in the direction of Cruces.

"All's right!" said Toney, in a whisper, to Tom. "The anchor is the emblem of hope."

"Do you think he will now get out of Doubting Castle?" asked Tom.

"I know it," said Toney. "Let us move on. Yonder is Cruces."

They stopped at the public house, where Wiggins and his companions found the unfortunate M. T. Pate washing a bottle. In about an hour the Professor arrived, leading Dora's little mule by the bridle. The Professor's face was radiant with happiness; and Dora's cheeks were covered with a multitude of the most beautiful blushes. Toney and Tom exchanged looks of peculiar significance.

The young lady rested at the public house; while the Professor walked with Toney and his companions to the river, where they hired canoes to convey them to Chagres. While they were bargaining with the negroes who were to row them down the river, the Professor uttered a number of jokes, which satisfied Tom that he was going to be an agreeable fellow again. As they were returning to the public house, the Professor took Toney aside, and informed him that, while seated on the anchor in the wood, he had again earnestly entreated Dora to assist him in his search for domestic bliss and connubial felicity.

"Well," said Toney; "and what was the result?"

"The proposition was decided in the affirmative," said the Professor.

Toney grasped the Professor's hand, and shook it violently.

"Shall I tell Tom?" asked Toney.

"You may, but with the injunction of secrecy," said the Professor.

Tom was informed of the event which had occurred on Pizarro's anchor in the wood, and he laid hold on the Professor and hugged him.

"Confound it, Tom!" said the Professor. "You hug like a cinnamon bear."

"I can't help it!" said Tom. "I am so glad! And Toney has a hundred thousand dollars. Hurrah! hurrah!"

"When we get home, let no one know that I have a hundred thousand dollars," said Toney.

"Why not?" asked Tom.

"I wish the Widow Wild to suppose that I have come home as poor as I was when I left," said Toney. "I will explain my reasons hereafter, and may need your assistance."

"Can't I tell Ida?" asked Tom.

"Rosabel and Ida must be informed; but with the injunction of secrecy. Do you promise to conceal my good fortune?"

"I do; I will say nothing, except by your permission."

On the following day they arrived at Chagres, and took passage for New York, which city they reached after a pleasant voyage, and on the next day were in Baltimore. Here the Professor left them, and accompanied Dora to her home in Virginia. Toney and his friends arrived in Mapleton at night. They urged Clarence and Harry to remain here until morning; but the two young men were impatient to reach Bella Vista, and, taking leave of Toney and Tom, were wafted away in the direction of the homes from which they had been absent during five long years.

When Clarence Hastings and Harry Vincent approached Bella Vista it was midnight. In their impatience, each young man had put his head out the window of a car.

"Good heavens! what means that light?" cried Clarence.

"The town's on fire!" exclaimed Harry.

On rushed the iron horse, and as they entered the town the street was illuminated by a conflagration.

Around the mansion of Colonel Hazlewood are collected excited crowds of people. Flames are bursting from the roof, and nearly the whole interior is in a blaze. The inmates had been aroused by the cry of fire, in the middle of the night, and all have escaped. No; not all! Where are Imogen and Claribel? Their shrieks are heard; they are in the burning house, and surrounded by the crackling flames.

"My child! my child!" cries the gray-haired Colonel Hazlewood in an agony. He rushes into the building, and attempts to ascend the stairway, which is on fire. Suffocated by the dense smoke, he falls back insensible, and is dragged from the door.

"Bring ladders! bring ladders!" is shouted by a number of voices; but no ladders are at hand.

"Oh, God! oh, God! must they perish? Can nobody save them?" are the exclamations heard on every side. Several men rush into the house and are driven back by the smoke and the intense heat. While all stand still, with horror depicted in their countenances, two men come running with frantic speed to the spot. In an instant they seem to comprehend the danger of the young females, whose shrieks are heard from an upper chamber. Into the midst of the smoke and flames they rush, ascend the stairway, regardless of the scorching heat, and in a moment are seen leaping through a window upon the roof of a portico, each holding in his arms the form of a woman who has fainted. A loud shout goes up from the crowd. A ladder has been brought, and the two men descend, and rush to the opposite side of the street with their lovely burdens in their arms, as, with a terrific crash, the burning roof falls in. Colonel Hazlewood, recovering from his swoon, staggers across the street to utter his thanks.

"Harry Vincent!" he exclaimed. And Imogen opens her eyes and beholds her long-lost lover, while Claribel is still unconscious in the arms of Clarence Hastings.