she gave a sudden start. He did not answer. He was afraid to.

"Robert!" she cried. "His heart is beating as though it would burst! The
memory of that beast must frighten him terribly."

"He can never hurt you again, Gary," Whiteface assured him. "You will
always be with us from now on and we won't let him ever come near you
again. Did he ever hurt you?"

Jerry, remembering now vividly what the man had done to him, became more
frightened than ever and, instead of answering, began to cry.

"We must not hurry him into confidence," said Whiteface.

"Oh, my boy!" wailed the elephant lady. "How terribly you must have
suffered when my heart was aching so to know you were safe and to
comfort and love you!"

She kissed him passionately and squeezed him so hard that his breath
went entirely out of his body for a moment.

"Has Gary ever told you anything about the man who stole him?" asked
Whiteface of Danny.

"No," he replied, "but Jerry ran away from him."

"How do you know that?"

"He said he had when he was going to run away from us."

"Why was he going to run away from you?"

Danny swallowed rapidly but didn't answer.

"Because Danny wouldn't let him be el'funt in our play circus," Chris
explained for his brother.

Mr. Bowe took Chris' words up so quickly that Jerry thought his father
was angry with Chris.

"Wouldn't let him be the elephant!" he exclaimed. "Why did Gary want
especially to be the elephant?"

"I don't know," Chris answered.

"Remember, if you can," urged Whiteface. "It will help me to prove to
every one that Gary is our boy."

"I guess it was because he knew something about el'funts," Danny
ventured. "He knew that el'funts' tails are small and round like a rope,
but he didn't know how he knew."

"I see," said the clown. "That is an important fact. I'm glad you told
me."

"An' he said 'O Queen' when he saw the picture of the el'funt jumping
the fence!" cried Danny excitedly. "Just the same as he did at the
circus when the band stopped playin' an' before the el'funt picked him
up."

"He didn't know he said it," Chris added, "an' he couldn't tell Danny
what he meant by it, could he, Danny?"

"No," Danny replied.

"That clinches it!" exclaimed Whiteface, and took Jerry from his
mother's arms. "Don't you cry any more, Gary-boy. Nobody shall hurt you
again. O'Queen was what you used to call Sultana, the elephant--'Sult
Anna O'Queen,' as though that were her name. It was the way you sa