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"Mother, Mother!" she stumbled, "oh, I want her, Sister Ann! I want her! Will you take me to her? She's sweet and and mine!" She made the last statement in a low voice directly to Vandecar. "Yes, and I'm your father, Fledra," he whispered. He longed for her to be glad in him longed now as never before. Fledra's eyes sought Cronk's. He had forgotten her; Katherine alone held his attention.
"With fondest love to you, my darling, and to my baby and Katherine, I am, "Your own loving wife, "FLEDRA." The governor read and reread the letter, especially the part in which his wife implored him to aid Horace Shellington. He laid it down with a sigh. He well knew that Fledra's heart was tender toward all little ones since the disappearance of her own.
She told him gently that they were going away together, going back to the country where many of the evil persons of the world congregated. The girl took the collar from the dog's neck and, picking him up quickly, retraced her steps. "We're going back to the hut, Snatchet," she told him again, "and Fledra's going to take you because Floyd won't care when he's got Sister Ann and Brother Horace."
"I fear he doesn't love me, Fledra, or he couldn't have done as he has. Sometimes it seems as if I must send for him; for he isn't bad at heart." She rested her eyes on Fledra's face imploringly. "You think, don't you, Dear, that when a woman loves a man as I love him her love in the end will help him?"
She bit her lips to stifle the sobs; but still clung beseechingly to his coat. Lon stepped backward from the chair, and whirled about so quickly that his coat was jerked from Fledra's grasp. "Then I'll take Fluke, and what I won't do to him ain't worth speakin' 'bout." He glanced at her face and stopped. Never had he seen such an expression.
"I've always said as how I were a goin' to make money out of ye, and I've found a chance where, if Lem ain't a fool, he'll jine in, too. Will I tell ye?" Lon's question brought the dark head closer to him. "Ye needn't speak if ye don't want to," sneered he; "but I'll tell ye jest the same! Do ye know who's goin' to own ye afore long?" Fledra's widening eyes questioned him, while her lips trembled.
Like burning rivers, his blood was driven through his veins. He flung out his arms and crushed her to him. Just then his lips found hers. "Dear God! How I how I love you!" he breathed. Fledra's arms relaxed and slipped from his shoulders. "Then forget about what happened!" she panted. All the bitter apprehensions of the last week swept over him at her words.
Instead of falling into her arms, as Ann had imagined she would, the girl only sank lower to the floor, her face ghastly in a new horror. Miss Shellington's patience gave way as she stared at Vandecar his delay was imperiling Fledra's life; for, if ever a wicked face expressed hate and murder, the squatter's did now.
The vision disappeared, and Lem's presence and even Fledra's faded; for Lon again felt the agonizing cracking of his bones under the prison strait-jacket, and could hear himself shrieking. He started up and wiped drops of water from his face. He glared at Fledra, his decision remaining steadfast within him.
Fledra's past experiences with her squatter father were still so vivid in her mind that she made no further appeal to him; for she feared to suffer again the humiliation of a blow before Lem. She stood near the table, shivering, her teeth chattering, and her body swaying with fright and cold. To whom did she dare turn? Not to Ann or to Horace; for Lon had forbidden it.
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