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Why, that is my name!" After a few advances the monkey became very friendly with the other girls, but she would have nothing to do with Madge. She would fly into a perfect tempest of rage whenever Madge approached her or tried to talk to her. The monkey even deserted her master to perch in Tania's arms.
For the second time she rose to the surface of the water. She hoped to see Tania's black head glistening among those of her older friends clustered about the overturned boat. She had grown very tired and was obliged to shake the water out of her eyes before she dared trust herself to look.
Madge knew she must get all the way down to the very bottom of the bay to see if by any chance Tania's body could have been entangled among the sea weed, or her clothes caught on a rock or snag. Once down, she looked in vain for the little body along the sandy bottom of the bay. She espied some rocks covered with shimmering shells and sea ferns, but there was no trace of Tania.
Poor little girl, what she must have suffered in the last three days! But Tom's thought was always for Madge. Before he followed the farmer to Tania's chamber he wrote a telegram which he made the chauffeur take over to the village to send immediately. It read: "All is well with Tania. Come at once." And it was addressed to Madge Morton.
She called the child's name softly once or twice so as not to disturb the other girls. There was no answer. She went back into the cabin dining room. Neatly folded on the chair, where Miss Jenny Ann herself had placed them the night before, were Tania's clothes. The child could hardly have run away in her little white nightgown.
First, she pulled desperately at Tania's shoe, hoping she could free her body. A suffocating weight had begun to press down on her chest. She could hear a roaring and buzzing in her ears. She knew enough of the water to realize that she had been too long underneath; she should rise to the surface again to get her breath. But she dared not wait so long to release Tania.
Tania's usually pale cheeks glowed as scarlet as her sash. Unconsciously the little girl's movements were like those of a butterfly, a-flutter with the joy of the sunshine and new life. The music stopped suddenly and with it Tania's dance ceased as abruptly. She stood poised for a single instant on one dainty foot, with her graceful arms still swaying above her flower-crowned head.
Cape May is only a strip of land between the great ocean and the bay, and the land is broken into many small islands nearly surrounded by salt water and marshes. Tom managed to get the girls safely out of the way; then, with Miss Jenny Ann's permission, he had the water near the houseboat thoroughly dredged. But Tania's little body was not found for the second time down in the bottom of the bay.
She was swimming along, not many inches from the bottom of the bay, when she caught sight of what seemed to her a large fish floating near some rocks. Madge swam toward it slowly. It was Tania's foot, swaying with the motion of the water. Caught on a spar, which might have once been part of a mast of an old ship, was Tania's dress.
Tom was trembling like a girl with sympathy and compassion when he finally reached little Tania's bedroom door. He wished Madge or his mother were with him. How could he comfort poor Tania for all she had suffered? Tania's jailer unlocked the door and knocked at it softly. The child did not answer. He knocked at it again and tried to make his voice friendly.
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