ent momently
anticipated, and momently postponed, I found myself, without reason and
simply in response to the force of her expression, unconsciously sharing
her expectation, and with a momentary forgetfulness of all the
probabilities, was about to turn toward the spot upon which her glances
were fixed, when a touch on my arm recalled me to myself.

"Come!" whispered my trembling companion. "She may look down and see us
here."

I yielded to her persuasion and turned away into the cluster of trees
that lay between us and that opening in the hedge through which our
course lay. Had I been alone I should not have budged till I had seen
some change--any change--in the face whose appearance had so deeply
affected me.

"Mrs. Ocumpaugh certainly believes that the body of her child lies in
the water," I remarked, as we took our way onward as rapidly as
possible. "Do you know her reasons for this?"

"She says, and I think she is right so far, that the child has been bent
for a long time on fishing; that she has heard her father talk
repeatedly of his great luck in Canada last year and wished to try the
sport for herself; that she has been forbidden to go to the river, but
must have taken the first opportunity when no eye was on her to do so;
and--and--Mrs. Ocumpaugh shows a bit of string which she found last
night in the bushes alongside the tracks when she ran down, as I have
said, at some imaginary shout from the boats--a string which she
declares she saw rolled up in Gwendolen's hand when she went into the
bungalow to look at her. Of course, it may not be the same, but Mrs.
Ocumpaugh thinks it is, and--"

"Do you think it possible, after all, that the child did stray down to
the water?"

"No," was the vehement disclaimer. "Gwendolen's feet were excessively
tender. She could not have taken three steps in only one shoe. I should
have heard her cry out."

"What if she went in some one's arms?"

"A stranger's? She had a decided instinct against strangers. Never could
any one she did not know and like have carried her so far as that
without her waking. Then those men on the track,--they would have seen
her. No, Mr. Trevitt, it was not in _that_ direction she went."

The force of her emphasis convinced me that she had an opinion of her
own in regard to this matter. Was it one she was ready to impart?

"In what direction, then?" I asked, with a gentleness I hoped would
prove effective.

Her impulse was toward a frank r