It was an awful moment.

Suddenly a voice came to his ear: "Father! father!" It was the voice of his child--of Kate.

How its tones thrilled through him! How his heart leaped with the hope of deliverance! "Father! dear father!"-- The call was renewed, but he could make no answer, for his tongue was powerless.

Again and again the call was repeated, yet he could utter no sound--could make no sign.

Farther off, then, he heard his name called.