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Curtis until they had better proof of the young man's guilt. Madge had never told even Tom that she had once overheard Philip Holt reveal his real identity, nor how much she had guessed of the young man's true character from Tania's unconscious and frightened reports of him.
For a second Madge tried to fight Tania's hands away. Then her strength gave out utterly. She realized that the end had come for them both. It may be that Madge had another second of consciousness. Afterward she thought she could recall being caught up by a giant, who unloosed Tania's hands from about her throat.
Curtis coldly. But Madge could see that she was dreadfully vexed at Tania's latest naughtiness. The little captain gave Mrs. Curtis a penitent hug. "It is all my fault, dear. I should never have brought the little witch here," she murmured. "I'll go and make it all right with Norah and see that Tania does no more mischief for a while, at least." Mrs.
Philip Holt had no idea how he could safely dispose of Tania. Quite by accident, as he hurried through the country, he had espied the old house. If Tania could be kept hidden there for a few days he would then be able to decide what he could do with her. Tom would have liked to bound up the old stairs three steps at a time to Tania's bedroom door.
She was not far from the very place where Captain Jules had rescued Tania and her a short while before. She thought of the strange-looking beam sticking up out of the sandy bottom of the bay on which Tania's dress had caught. It had certainly looked like the broken mast of an old ship.
They had not seen or heard him go. So, as Mrs. Curtis did not regard Philip Holt's withdrawal as of any importance, she gave very little thought to it. Madge Morton, however, had a different idea. She laid Tania's disappearance at Philip Holt's door. She, therefore, determined to take Tom Curtis into her confidence, but to ask him not to betray their suspicions of Philip Holt to Mrs.
She knew that she must, for the minute, appear like a beggar to the crowd of Cape May people. For just that instant she would have liked to repulse Tania, to have thrust the child and her money away from her before every one. But a glance at Tania's eager, happy face restrained her. She put her arm protectingly about the little girl, hiding her in the shelter of her body.
Just outside Tania's window there was a tall old cedar tree. Its long arms reached quite up to her window sill, and when the wind blew it used to wave her its greetings. Inside the comfortable branches of the tree there was a regular apartment house of birds, the nests rising one above the other to the topmost limbs.
She even hoped that a stranger might walk along close enough to the house for her to call for aid. But a dreary rain set in and all the countryside near Tania's prison house looked desolate. More than anything Tania feared the return of Philip Holt. Once he got hold of her again, she knew he would fulfill his threats.
When the girls finally wakened Madge was the only one of them who was alarmed at first. She recalled Tania's strange cry in the night. She wondered if it could have been possible that she had heard a sound before the little girl cried out. But she could not decide. She would not believe, however, that Tania had forgotten her promise and gone away again without permission.
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