w his
eyes, his good dark eyes, clear as a brook, and the lines his brown face
took when he thought intently, the tears began running down my cheeks.

"Oh, Jack--Jack, come and help me!" I called.

That comes of _thinking_ people's Christian names. They will pop out of
your mouth when you least expect it. But it mattered little enough now,
except that the sound of the name and the echo of it fluttering back to
me made my tears feel boiling hot--hotter than the punch which the
Turnours must have finished by this time.

"Jack! Jack!" I called again.

Then I heard a stone rattle up above, somewhere, and a sick horror
rushed over me, because of the gipsy men coming back with their wicked
old mother.

It was only a very dark gray in the cellar, to my unaccustomed eyes, but
suddenly it turned black, with purple edges. I knew then I was going to
faint, because I've done it once or twice before, and things always
began by being black with purple edges.

CHAPTER XV

"For heaven's sake, wake up--tell me you're not hurt!" a familiar voice
was saying in my ear, or I was dreaming it. And because it was such a
good dream I was afraid to break it by waking to some horror, so I kept
my eyes shut, hoping and hoping for it to come again.

In an instant, it did come. "Child--little girl--wake up! Can't you
speak to me?"

His hand, holding mine, was warm and extraordinarily comforting.
Suddenly I felt so happy and so perfectly safe that I was paid for
everything. My head was on somebody's arm, and I knew very well now who
the somebody was. He was real, and not a dream. I sighed cozily and
opened my eyes. His face was quite close to mine.

"Thank God!" he said. "Are you all right?"

"Now you're here," I answered. "I thought they were coming to kill me."

"Who?" he asked, quite fiercely.

"An old gipsy woman and her sons."

"Those people!" he exclaimed. "Why, it was they who told me you were in
this place. If it hadn't been for them I shouldn't have found you so
soon--though I _would_ have found you. The wretches! What made you
think--"

"The old woman was in the room above," I said, "waiting for her sons;
and she begged me to look down here for a rosary she dropped. She must
have known the bottom steps were gone. She _wanted_ me to fall; and
though I called, she didn't answer, because she'd probably hobbled off
to find her sons and bring them back to rob me. I haven't hurt myself
much, but when I found I couldn't