I shall try to
make up to her the wrong I have done her, if it is ever possible."

During the journey Madge and Mrs. Curtis sat hand in hand. Captain Jules
looked after Miss Jenny Ann, Lillian, Phil and Eleanor, although he was
almost as excited by Tom's news as they were.

At the country station the chauffeur was waiting to drive Tania's friends
to the lonely old farmhouse that the child had thought a dungeon.

Tom and Tania would probably be standing in the front yard when the
automobile arrived. They were not there. The old farmer explained that
Tom and Tania had gone out together. They would be back in a few minutes.
To tell the truth, the man did expect them to appear at any time. He
could not believe that Tania was really lost, although Tom had been
searching for her since early morning and it was now about four o'clock
in the afternoon.

For two hours the houseboat party waited. The girls walked up and down
the rickety farmhouse porch, clinging to Captain Jules. Mrs. Curtis and
Miss Jenny Ann remained indoors. At dusk Tom returned. He was alone and
could hardly drag one foot after the other, he was so weary and
heartsick. To think that after wiring her he had found Tania he must face
Madge with the dreadful news that the child was lost again!

Two long, weary days passed without news of the lost Tania. The houseboat
party made the old farmhouse their headquarters while conducting the
search. At first no one thought to penetrate the cedar swamp where Tania
had hidden herself, but the idea finally occurred to Tom Curtis, and on
the third morning he and Captain Jules started out.

All that third anxious day the girls searched the immediate neighborhood
for Tania. When evening came they gathered sadly in the wretched
farmhouse, to await the return of Tom Curtis and the old sea captain.

Madge was lying on a rickety lounge, with her face buried in her hands.
Phyllis was sitting near the door. Mrs. Curtis stood at the window,
watching for the return of her son. In a further corner of the room, Miss
Jenny Ann, Lillian and Eleanor were talking softly together.

Suddenly each one of the sad women became aware of the captain's presence
as his big form darkened the doorway. A ray of light from their single
oil lamp shone across his weather-beaten face. Phil saw him most
distinctly and read disaster in his glance. With the unselfish thought of
others that invariably marks a great nature, she went swiftly across the
r