for David was almost a grown boy and able to look after himself, while
Tania was little more than a baby. When no news came of either Philip
Holt or Tania, Madge began to believe that Philip Holt had accomplished
his design. He had managed to shut Tania up in some kind of dreadful
institution. The little captain did not believe that they would ever find
the child, and was so unhappy over the loss of her Fairy Godmother that
she lost her usual power to act.

Phyllis Alden, however, was wide awake and on the alert. She knew that it
was not possible for Philip Holt to leave Cape May without some one's
assistance. Some one must know how and when he had disappeared. The whole
point was to find that person.

Phil thought over the matter for some time. Then she quietly telephoned
to Ethel Swann and asked her to arrange something for her. She made an
appointment to call on Ethel the same afternoon, and she and Lillian
walked over to the Swann cottage together. It seemed strange to Madge
that her two friends could have the heart for making calls, but, as there
was absolutely nothing for them to do save to wait for news of Tania that
did not come, she said nothing save that she did not feel well enough to
accompany them.

As Lillian and Phyllis Alden approached the Swann summer cottage they saw
that Ethel had with her on the veranda the two young people who had been
most unfriendly to them during their stay at Cape May, Roy Dennis and
Mabel Farrar.

Roy Dennis got up hurriedly. His face flushed a dull red, and he began
backing down the veranda steps, explaining to Ethel that he must be off
at once.

Phyllis Alden was always direct. Before Roy Dennis could get away from
her she walked directly up to him, and looking him squarely in the eyes
said quietly: "Mr. Dennis, please don't go away before I have a chance to
speak to you. It seems absurd to me for us to be such enemies, simply
because something happened between us in the beginning of the summer that
wasn't very agreeable. I wished to ask you a question, so I asked Ethel
to arrange this meeting between us this afternoon."

"What do you wish to ask me?" he returned awkwardly.

Phil plunged directly into her subject. "Weren't you and Philip Holt
great friends while he was Mrs. Curtis's guest?" she asked.

Roy Dennis looked uncomfortable. "We were fairly good friends, but not
pals," he assured Phil.

"But you, perhaps, know him well enough to have him tell you where h