l mother might do with her sleeping babe, the child tiptoed about
the room, casting many an anxious glance toward the crib, as though
fearful lest she awaken the inanimate bundle reposing there--it was so
natural that Owen could not smile, even while he was feeling a sudden
yearning to know this charming little relative at closer quarters.

In that time he stood there all danger of his wanting to fly once more
from the stockade vanished forever; and he even wondered whether his
grandfather may not after all have had some such scheme in mind in
inviting him to visit him, believing that the presence of this midget,
and the fact that she was his own true cousin, would have a wonderfully
soothing effect upon the truculent spirit of the boy.

Now she approached the door, as though either drawn by some subtle
spirit, or a desire to glance out at the heavens to see what the weather
might be.

Owen dared not move for fear lest such action must attract the very
attention he was seeking to avoid; so he stood there as though he might
be a post, and awaited the outcome with mingled feelings of anxiety and
delight.

It was not long in coming, the discovery.

He felt, rather than saw, her gaze fall upon him, and she seemed to
stand there in some vague sense of terror at first, as though fearing
that the eavesdropper might mean her harm--afterwards Owen understood
why she should have this feeling better than he did just then, but it
pained him to think that his presence should bring fear to her gentle
little heart, and so he smiled.

Although he did not know it himself, when Owen smiled, his face took on
an expression that must have given confidence to a skeptic, for as is
the case with all persons naturally grave, his countenance was lighted
up with the sudden burst of radiance that sprang from his very soul.

The child saw it and immediately her fear seemed to take flight, and she
even smiled back at him.

"Come in, boy, and see my new dolly," she said, eagerly; and that was an
invitation Owen Dugdale could not have declined under any conditions.

So he who had sworn never again to set foot under the roof of the
resident factor walked into his house only too willingly.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OWEN FINDS HIMSELF A PRISONER.

The little girl, with that wonderful intuition that leads children to
know who are in full sympathy with their hearts, seemed to need no other
guide than that one look into his smiling face, and sh