believe Gordon has been kidnaped at
all. It's a false alarm, I tell you. Who could have done such a thing?"

"Who?" The question broke Dorothy's patience. "Who's done everything
that's abominable and contemptible lately here in Crawling Water? That
Moran did it, of course, with Senator Rexhill behind him. Oh!"

"Nonsense!" said her mother, indignantly.

"Lem Trowbridge thinks so. Nearly everybody does."

"Then he hasn't as good sense as I thought he had." Mrs. Purnell arose
and moved toward the kitchen. "You come on and help me make some waffles
for supper. Perhaps that will take such foolishness out of your head.
The idea of a Senator of the United States going about kidnaping
people."

Dorothy obeyed her mother's wish, but not very ably. Her face was
flushed and her eyes hot; ordinarily she was a splendid housekeeper and
a dutiful daughter, but there are limits to human endurance. She mixed
the batter so clumsily and with such prodigal waste that her mother had
to stop her, and she was about to put salt into the sugar bowl when
Mrs. Purnell snatched it out of her hands. "Go into the dining-room and
sit down, Dorothy," she exclaimed. "You're beside yourself." It is
frequently the way with people, who are getting on in years and are
sick, to charge their own shortcomings on any one who may be near. Mrs.
Purnell was greatly worried.

"What's the matter now?" she demanded, when Dorothy left her supper
untasted on her plate.

"I was thinking."

"Well, can't you tell a body what you're thinking about? What are you
sitting there that way for?"

"I was wondering," said Dorothy in despair, "if Helen Rexhill knows
where Gordon is."

Mrs. Purnell snorted in disdain.

"Land's sakes, child, what put that into your head? Drink your tea.
It'll do you good."

"Why shouldn't she know, if her father does?" The girl pushed her
tea-cup farther away from her. "She wouldn't have come all the way out
here with him--he wouldn't have brought her with him--if they weren't
working together. She must know. But I don't see why...."

"Dorothy Purnell, I declare to goodness, I believe you're going crazy."
Mrs. Purnell dropped her fork. "All this about Gordon is bad enough
without my being worried so...."

"I'd even give him up to her, if she'd tell me that." Dorothy's voice
was unsteady, and she seemed to be talking to herself rather than to her
mother. "I know she thinks I've come between her and Gordon, but I
haven't meant to.