“Oh, Judge! When can I see you? I’m in an awful hole and I need your advice.”

“Can’t get back before eleven o’clock, Monday. Case is holding over. Would three o’clock, Monday, suit you all right? I expect I have a lot of business to clean up when I get back to the courthouse.”

“Oh—” began Alan despairingly.

“What’s the trouble, kid, anything you can tell me now? What is it, personal or business?”

“Business!” said Alan choking over the word and wondering what he could tell, what he ought to tell over the phone.

“Business? What’s the nature of it?” asked the judge.

“Somebody’s trying to skin Dad out of everything, Judge!”

“You don’t say!” said the judge in a startled tone. “We can’t have that, of course. What can I do? Who is it? What is it?”

“It’s quite a story!”

“I see. Too long to tell over the phone?”

“Only a mortgage, and a man who wants his money right away and tells to sell Dad out. I’ve tried everything that Dad told me but can’t make any of them work, and Dad’s too sick to ask about it.”

“What did your dad suggest?”

“Said to sell some property in the city, if I could, but the only price I can get in a rush sale is a crime, and wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket.”

“I see! What about a new mortgage?”

“That’s what Dad thought was a last resort if it could be done, but two companies I went to in town won’t handle it, and I don’t know where else to try.”

“H’mmm!” the judge said in a reflective voice. “Well, now, that oughn’t to be a hard proposition. How much time have we?”

“Only till Monday,” the boy’s tired voice said, “and some tough egg is coming around here at five to make sort of a proposition. I don’t know what.”

“Well, you must absent yourself, see?” the kindly voice said. “Clear out and don’t have a thing to say. Now you let me handle this. I’ll phone Charlie Ambler right away tonight and arrange things. You take Charlie the papers—have you got the papers?”

“Oh sure! Somebody broke into the store last night and blew open the safe, but I’d taken the papers all home to check.”

“You don’t say!” said the judge in a startled tone. “Well, don’t worry. You take the papers around to Charlie at the bank, first thing in the morning, and we’ll have it all fixed up. Do you know how much it is?”

“Twelve thousand,” said Alan in a worried tone.

“All right, son,” said the judge. “That’s only a pint cup of trouble. Don’t you worry a minute more. Just get those papers over to Charlie as soon as the bank opens, and we’ll have that tough egg right where he’ll be helpless before he has a chance.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Alan in a choking voice. “I’m all kinds of grateful. I—”

“There, there, son! That’s nothing!” the judge said in a cheery voice. “Of course I’d look after things. Your father and I were always the best of pals. And by the way, better just put Bill Atley wise to that tough egg that’s coming. It might save trouble, and you can always trust Bill. All right, son! See you Monday. Call me here if you need me before.”

Alan hung up the receiver in a daze of astonishment. God had answered. The telephone had rung while he was praying.