e! Wyn's own nursery,' but he did not want to get up; 'Wyn so
tired,' he said, speaking of himself in the baby form that he had for
several months discarded, but he said his pretty 'thank you,' and took
delight in breakfasting in his cot, though still in a subdued way, and
showing great reluctance to move or be touched.

Nuttie was sent for to report of him to his father, who would not hear
for a moment of anxiety, declaring that the boy would be quite well if
they let him alone, he only wanted rest, and insisting on following out
his intention of seeing a police superintendent to demand whether the
kidnapping rascals could not be prosecuted.

Neither by Nuttie nor nurse could much be extracted from the poor
little fellow himself about his adventures. He could not bear to think
of them, and there was a mist of confusion over his mind, partly from
weakness, partly, they also thought, from the drugged spirits with
which he had been more than once dosed. He dimly remembered missing
Gregorio in the park, and that he had tried to find his way home alone,
but some one, a big boy, he thought, had said he would show him the
way, took hold of his hand, dragged him, he knew not where, into
dreadful dirt and stench, and apparently had silenced him with a blow
before stripping him. But it was all very indistinct, he could not
tell how Mother Bet got hold of him, and the being dressed in the rags
of a girl had somehow loosed his hold of his own identity. He did not
seem at all certain that the poor little dirty petticoated thing who
had wakened in a horrible cellar, or in a dark jolting van who had been
dubbed Fan, who had been forced by the stick to dance and twist and
compelled to drink burning, choking stuff, was the same with Alwyn in
his sailor suit or in his white cot.

It was Dr. Brownlow who at once detected that there had been much of
this dosing, and drew forth the fact. It had probably been done
whenever it was expedient that he should be hidden, or unable to make
any appeal to outsiders. Alwyn was quite himself by day, and showed no
unreasonable fear or shyness, but he begged not to be touched, and
though he tried to be good and manly, could not keep from cries and
screams when the doctor examined him.

Then it came out. 'It's where he kicked me.'

'Who?'

'That man--master, she said I must call him. He kicked poor little Fan
with his great heavy big boots--'cause Fan would say Wyn's prayers.'

'Who was