y
out.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Oh, Leland!"

It was Miss Robbins who uttered the words. She made her way up to the
stranger, and while the others stood dumfounded she threw herself in
the stranger's arms.

"You, Regina? Here?"

"Yes, is this the Hemlock Bend? Oh, to think that we have found you!"

"But I must go! That was her harp. That was Lillian--somewhere in
that thick woods!"

"And the voice was Cora's," interrupted Jack. "Where can she be--to
sing, and to sing like that?"

The detectives with Mr. Rand were pressing on. They soon emerged from
the thicket and saw the old mansion.

"That is the Bradly place," said Officer Brown. "Only an old woman and
a couple of girls live there. That is no place for one to be
kidnapped."

"No matter who is there," declared Bess, "I heard Cora sing, and that
is Cora's song, 'The Gypsy's Warning.'"

"And I heard Lillian play," declared Dr. Robbins' brother. "I have
promised to rescue her to-night."

"And that is why you came?" asked his sister.

"Yes, she is there, in a gypsy den!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

VICTORY

"Is SHE asleep?" asked Cora, as Lena poked her head in the door again.

"Yes, and she will not wake. You may go!"

"One more little song," begged Helka. "I may never play my lute again."

"Why, Lena could bring it," suggested Cora. "It is not much to carry;
and your box, I will take that."

Helka ran her fingers over the strings.

"Sing," she said, and Cora sang.

"His voice is calling sweet and low!
'Babbette! Pierro!'
He rows across, he takes her hand,
And then they sail away!"

"Yes," interrupted Helka, "he will come, and he will take my hand. Let
us go!"

"There! There!" screamed Bess. "That was Cora's voice!"

"And that was Lillian's lute! Did I not give it to her?" insisted the
strange young man, Leland.

"Then our lost ones are together," said Jack. "I am going!"

"Wait! Wait!" begged the detectives. "The dogs in there would tear
you to pieces!"

"They must eat my hot lead first," said Jack grimly, drawing his
revolver.

"No, wait," implored Mr. Rand. "A false move now may spoil it all."

Every man, young and old, in the party took out his revolver and had it
in readiness. Then, in a solid line, they deliberately walked up to
the old house--through the path lined with boxwood over the little
flower garden.

"Yes, there is a light. See it near the roof?"

The girls were almost