on't you? She's ill. Please, let me put water on her
face!"

"Nope," replied Lon; "she won't git away from me ag'in. She's Midge, my
little Midge, my little woman, and she's mine!"

"Yes, yes," answered Ann, "I know she's yours; but do you want her to
die?"

With his great hands still locked about Katherine, Cronk looked down on
her lovely face, crushed against his breast. She was a counterpart of
the woman who had lived in another hut with him, and his dazed mind had
lost the intervening years. Midge had come out of the prison shadows,
and the big squatter had turned back two decades to meet her.

"She's only asleep," he said simply; "she allers slep' on my breast,
Missus. She'd never let me put her off'n my arm a minute. And I didn't
want to, nuther. She were allers afeared of ghosts--allers, allers! And
I kep' her close like this. She ain't dead, Ma'm."

His voice was free from anger and passion. By dint of persuasion, at
length Ann forced him to release Katherine and to aid her while she
bathed the girl's white face with water.

Katherine was still limp and bewildered when, ten minutes later, Fledra
opened her eyes and looked up into her father's face. The past hour had
not returned to her memory, and she drew quickly away. Of late she had
become timid, always on the defensive; and when Ann spoke to her she
held out her arms.

"I'm afraid!" she whimpered. "I want to go to Sister Ann."

But Vandecar held her fast as Miss Shellington knelt on the hut floor at
his side.

"Fledra, listen to me! This is your own father, Dear. Don't draw away
from him. He came with me for you. We're going to take you back to your
mother and little Floyd."

It seemed an eternity to the waiting man before Fledra received him.
There were many things she had to reason away. It was necessary first to
dispense entirely with Lon Cronk, to feel absolutely free from Lem.
Until then, how could she feel secure? The eyes bent upon hers affected
her strangely. They were spotted like Flukey's, and had the same trick
of not moving when they received another's glance. Then Ann's
exclamation seemed to awaken her lethargic soul, and she seized upon the
word "mother."

"Mother, Mother!" she stumbled, "oh, I want her, Sister Ann! I want her!
Will you take me to her? She's sweet and--and mine!" She made the last
statement in a low voice directly to Vandecar.

"Yes, and I'm your father, Fledra," he whispered. He longed for her to
be glad in him