th! And the boy'll
eat all he wants, and his little hand'll smooth my face when my head
aches!"

Muttering fond words, she opened the door and slid out into the night.
She paused on the rustic bridge, the sound of footsteps in the lane that
led to the tracks bringing her to a standstill. Several persons were
approaching her. They came steadily nearer, passed the footpath that led
to her hut, and she crept out. Two men and a woman were near enough for
Screech Owl to touch them, if she had put out her hand. She remained
perfectly quiet, and Lon Cronk's voice, muttering words she did not
understand, came to her through the underbrush. Then, in her joy,
Scraggy speedily forgot them, and, as she hurried down the hill sent out
cry after cry into the clear night.

* * * * *

For a long time Miss Shellington stood staring at Everett, and the man
as fixedly at her. The movements were still going on in the loft.

"How came you here?" cried Ann sharply, when she had at last gathered
her senses.

"I might ask you the same thing," replied Everett suavely. "This is
scarcely a place for a girl like you."

"I came after Fledra," she said slowly. "I didn't know--"

Everett came forward and crowded back her words with:

"And I came for the same person!"

Brimbecomb reasoned quickly that he dared not tell Ann the truth, and
that so long as she thought his actions were for Fledra's welfare she
would stand by him.

"I found out that these ruffians had taken her, and I came after her. I
thought a good school would be better than this." He swept his hand over
the hut, and did not notice the expression that flitted across Ann's
face.

Lem uttered an unintelligible grunt, and growled:

"He's a damned liar, Miss! He wanted to buy the gal from me and Lon."

Everett laughed sneeringly.

"Miss Shellington would not believe such a tale as that," said he; "she
knows me too well."

"I do believe him," said Ann. "I saw the letter you lost, which Fledra
wrote you. You dropped it in our drawing-room. Horace found it."

Everett saw his fall coming. He would not be worsted by this woman, who
had believed once that he was the soul of truth. To lose her and the
prestige of her family, and to lose also Fledra, was more than he would
endure. He bounded forward and grasped her arm fiercely.

"Where is that squatter girl? I'll stand nothing from you or that
brother of yours! Where is he, and where is she?"