hat come from?" Jasper considered.

And he waited to hear if it would be repeated.

It was repeated, and now he could make out that it came from above.

"I'll go up," he decided.

He climbed the rude staircase, and pushed open the door of the room
above the one in which he had been standing a moment before. He gazed in
wonder at the spectacle before him.

A boy, five years of age, who in spite of his frightened expression
possessed great personal beauty, was lying on a bed in one corner of the
room. He looked at Jasper in uncertainty at first, then with confidence,
and said:

"Did you come for me?"

"Do you live here?" asked Jasper, in surprise, for this boy was not at
all like the children usually to be found in such houses as this.

His complexion was of dazzling whiteness, his hair was a bright
chestnut, and his clothing was such as wealthy parents can afford to
give to their children.

"Do you live here?" repeated Jasper.

"No," said the child.

"How came you here, then?"

"Big man--big, ugly man brought me."

"When?"

"I don't know," said the child.

He was evidently too young to measure the lapse of time.

"Was it yesterday?"

"No; long ago."

"I suppose it seems long to him," thought Jasper.

"Is there nobody else in the house?" asked Jasper.

"There's a woman," said the little boy.

"Is she the wife of the man who took you away?"

But this question the little boy did not seem to comprehend.

"Have you got a mother?" asked Jasper.

"Take me to mamma," said the little fellow, stretching out his arms, and
beginning to cry. "I want to see my mamma."

Jasper advanced to the bed.

He began to understand that the boy had been kidnapped, and he felt
great compassion for him.

He tried to raise the boy from the bed and take him in his arms, when he
made an unexpected discovery.

The boy's ankles were firmly tied by a rope, which connected with the
bedpost, so that it was impossible for him to leave the bed.

"Who did this?" asked Jasper, indignantly. "Who tied you?"

"It was the man--the big, ugly man," answered the child.

"I will soon unfasten you," said Jasper, and he set to work untying the
knot.

"Will you take me home?" asked the little boy.

"Yes," said Jasper, soothingly, "I'll take you home."

But just as he had completed his task he heard steps upon the stairs.
What if it were the man of whom the child spoke!

Jasper threw one arm around the child, and with his tee