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To Madge's mystification, Tania started about among the people who had been watching her performance with her small hands clasped together like a cup. The child courtesied shyly to a fat old lady. Her gesture was unmistakable. The woman rummaged in her chain pocket-book and dropped a silver quarter into Tania's outstretched hands. The next onlooker was more generous.
You must have had wonderful experiences. We would dearly love to hear about them, wouldn't we, girls?" The girls chorused an enthusiastic "Yes," which included Miss Jenny Ann. Captain Jules laughed. "Haven't you ever heard that it is dangerous to get an old sea dog started on his adventures? You never can tell when he will leave off," he teased, stroking Tania's black hair.
Tania's mother had died in the same tenement where old Sal lived. There had been no one who wanted the little girl, so old Sal had taken her, beaten and starved her, and made her useful in any way that she could. When Philip Holt had grown to manhood his foster parents lost most of their money. A little later they died, leaving their foster son nothing.
"Remember, if you do, I am going to have you shut up in a big house with iron bars at the windows where you can never go out or see your friends any more," Philip Holt went on, keeping his voice lowered to a whisper. Slowly Tania's black eyes dropped. She tried to be brave and to pretend that she did not care, but the loss of her freedom was the one thing that Tania feared with all her soul.
She caught the little girl by her black hair, and swam out feebly with her one free arm. At this moment Tania's black eyes opened wide. She realized their awful peril. She was only a child, and the fear of the drowning swept over her. She gave a despairing clutch upward, threw both her thin arms about Madge's neck and held her in a grasp of steel.
He seemed so strong, clean, and fine after his morning's dip in the ocean that his two girl friends were immediately reassured. Tom would tell them just what had better be done to find Tania. "Mrs. Curtis's and Philip Holt's window blinds are still down, thank goodness!" whispered Madge to Phil, "so I suppose they are both asleep. Let us not tell them anything about Tania's disappearance.
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