ed Sam.

"Why, a girl has 'scaped from the hospital. 'Tain't very safe fer a
strange girl to be around here now. It might be her," and she shot an
unmistakable threat at Tavia. "Ain't never heard you speak, before, of
Betsy, Sam. Where's she bin?"

"Say, Sarah. Is there any money up fer findin' the girl?" he asked,
and there was no mistaking _his_ meaning. "'Cause it ain't no use fer
you to--speculate on Betsy. She's no house-pital breakaway."

But Sarah looked at Tavia with unveiled suspicion. Tavia felt it--and
the thought that she was a stranger, and might be mistaken for the
escaped girl, made her most uncomfortable.

It was a relief when Sam returned from up-stairs, his articles that
needed mending done up in a clumsy bundle, and his hat cocked on his
head with the army badge over the back of his neck.

CHAPTER XVI

A HARROWING EXPERIENCE

When Dorothy awoke, to find herself still in that attic room, to know
that it was not all an awful dream, but a terrible reality, the full
meaning her position flooded into her strained mind, like some awful
deluge of horror!

That the people who held her captive did so for some undefinable
reason was perfectly clear; but why they did so, was just as
mysterious as was their reason for plying her with coddling words, as
if she were a baby.

Realizing that they would not let her go her way, Dorothy determined,
as she lay there, with the moonlight making queer shadows on the slant
wall, that she would escape that day!

How little did Tavia know of the danger into which she had thrown her
best friend!

"And I wonder," thought Dorothy, "if Tavia is safely back at camp? And
what do the folks think of me?"

A sigh, as deep as it was sincere, escaped from her lips, and she
crawled out of bed to see if daylight was near.

"Such a long night!" she sobbed, "and to think that I am a prisoner!"

The low windows were shut, and the air of the room was stifling.
Dorothy groped around to see if she might find the candle that she had
noticed on the stand, but it was gone.

"They haven't even left me a match," she told herself. "Did they think
I would eat matches?"

Then she decided she would raise a window if she had to break it open.
A curtain roller lay on the floor. With this she tried to pry up the
uncertain sash, and in doing so she fell over a low stool.

The noise disturbed the folks in the lower rooms, for directly Dorothy
heard a shuffle of feet on the stair