Douglas?"

She looked up, and saw the captain, who asked her to come on board for a
moment. "I am very much troubled, Miss Douglas," he began, wiping his
red but friendly face. "The two boys--your half-brothers, I
believe--placed in my care by Pere Michaux, have run away."

Anne gazed at him in silence.

"They must have slipped off the boat at Hennepin, which is the first
point where we strike a railroad. It seems to have been a plan, too, for
they managed to have their chests put off also."

"You have no idea where they have gone?"

"No; I sent letters back to Hennepin and to Pere Michaux immediately,
making inquiries. The only clew I have is that they asked a number of
questions about the plains of one of our hands, who has been out that
way."

"The plains!"

"Yes; they said they had a sister living out there."

A pain darted through Anne's heart. Could they have deserted her for
Tita? She went home desolate and disheartened; the empty rooms, where
all her loving preparations were useless now, seemed to watch her
satirically. Even the boys did not care enough for her to think of her
pain and disappointment.

Pere Michaux had had no suspicion of the plan: but he knew of one dark
fact which might have, he wrote to Anne, a bearing upon it. Miss Lois
had mysteriously lost, in spite of all her care, a sum of money, upon
which she had depended for a part of the summer's expenses, and
concerning which she had made great lamentation; it had been made up by
the renting of the church-house; but the mystery remained. If the boys
had taken it, bad as the action was, it insured for a time at least
their safety. The priest thought they had started westward to join Rast
and Tita, having been fascinated by what they had overheard of Rast's
letters.

The surmise was correct. After what seemed to Anne very long delay, a
letter came; it was from Rast. The night before, two dirty little
tramps, tired and hungry, with clothes soiled and torn, had opened the
door and walked in, announcing that they were Louis and Gabriel, and
that they meant to stay. They had asked for food, but had fallen asleep
almost before they could eat it. With their first breath that morning
they had again declared that nothing should induce them to return
eastward, either to the island or to Anne. And Rast added that he
thought they might as well remain; he and Tita would take charge of
them. After a few days came a letter from the boys themselves, p