"Air she dead, too?" he whimpered.

"Bring me some water," commanded Young.

Andy went to the pail, dipped a portion of water into a small basin, and
waddled back with it.

"Her daddy air dead," he offered. "Ye can see he air dead."

"Yes!" nodded Young, taking the dish.

He did not speak again until Tess groaned, and opened her eyes. She made
a half struggle to sit up, and Young lifted her to her feet.

"Lean on me," he said gently.

Tess stared at him, incredulously. He had come after all! Relief
crumpled her up in his arms.

"Daddy air dead," she whispered.

"Yes, dear," soothed Young. "There, lean your head on my shoulder, poor
little broken baby."

His tones were so tender, so soft! They went to the heart of the
stricken dwarf, and like a hurt child he burst into tears. Professor
Young turned and looked at him.

"Don't do that," he said huskily. "Sit down--don't cry!"

Without moving from her position, Tess said, "Andy, Andy, dear, git on
up in the garret a few minutes, will ye?"

The dwarf crept to the ladder, and Deforrest let him go. A dozen
questions leapt to the lawyer's lips at the same time, but the girl
against his breast looked so desperately ill he had no heart to ply
them. Tess lifted her lids heavily.

"Ye won't tell nobody he air here?" she gulped.

"How long has he been here?" asked Young, instead of answering her
question.

"Ever since spring," sighed Tessibel.

"Was he here that day when Mr. Waldstricker and my sister--"

"Yep." The girl's whisper was very low.

"And when Burnett came too, I suppose?"

"Yep, I hid 'im ... Daddy loved 'im, Daddy did."

She began to cry softly. Her confession had taken her mind back to the
huge figure on the bed.

"I wanted to go with Daddy," she sobbed. "I didn't know--I thought I
couldn't live without 'im."

Stooping, Deforrest gathered the mourning little one into his arms, and
seating himself in the big rocker, pressed his cheek against her hair in
sympathy. Patiently he waited, holding her thus while the mercy of her
flowing tears dulled the first sharp edge of her grief.

Bye and bye the sobs ceased, and a faint, catchy little voice struggled
up through the red curls to the man's ears.

"Ye air awful good to me, you air. Oh, I needed ye so, and I feared--I
feared mebbe ye wasn't never comin' again!"

"My dear, my dear," Young soothed, much moved. Then he rose and placed
her in the chair. "You sit here and tell me about it."