turned over in bed with a sob. But
the tapping went on. She got up and went to her window. Quick as a flash
Tania made up her mind to run away. Why had she never thought of it
before? It was true, her bedroom door was always locked, but here were
the branches of the cedar tree reaching close up to her window. Really,
this morning they seemed to speak quite distinctly to Tania:

"Why in the world don't you come to me? I shall hold you quite safe! You
can climb down through all my arms to the warm earth and then run away to
your friends."

It was just after dawn. The pink sky was showing against the earlier
grayness when Tania slipped into her coarse clothes and, like a small
elf, crept out of her window into the friendly branches of the old tree.
She was silent and swift as a squirrel as she clambered down. But she
need not have feared. No one in the lonely country place was awake but
the child.

Once on the ground, Tania ran on and on, without thinking where she was
going. She only wished to get far away from the dreary house where Philip
Holt had hidden her. There was a thick woods about a mile or so from
Tania's starting place. No one would find her there. Once she was through
it Tania hoped to find a town, or at least a farm, where she could ask
for help. In spite of her queer, unchildlike ways, Tania knew enough to
understand that if she could only find some one to telegraph to her
friends they would soon come to her.

But the forest through which Tania hoped to pass was a dreadful cedar
swamp, and in trying to cross it Tania wandered far into it and found
herself hopelessly lost.

CHAPTER XX

A BOW OF SCARLET RIBBON

In the three days that had passed since the disappearance of Tania from
the houseboat everything that was possible had been done to discover her
whereabouts.

It never occurred to Tom or to Mrs. Curtis to connect Philip Holt's odd
behavior with the lost Tania or the vanished treasure box. True, he had
not been seen for the past three days, but Mrs. Curtis had received a
note from him the day after his disappearance from her house, saying that
he had been unexpectedly called away on very important business so early
in the morning that he had not wished to awaken her, but he had left word
with the servants and he hoped that they had explained matters to her.

Mrs. Curtis's maids and butler insisted that Mr. Holt had given them no
message. They had not seen or heard him go. So, as Mrs.