es
and peering carefully, cautiously ahead of them as they advanced. The
subdued sobs continued and led the girls directly to the spot whence
they came.

Presently they found themselves standing over the form of a little boy,
his frightened, tear-stained face turned up toward them while he shrank
back into the bushes as if fearing the approach of a fellow human
being.

CHAPTER XI.

MISS PERFUME INTERFERES.

The little fellow retreated into the bushes as far as he could get and
crouched, there in manifest terror. Katherine and Hazel spoke gently,
sympathetically to him, but with no result, at first, except to frighten
him still more, if possible.

"Don't be afraid, little boy," Hazel said, reaching out her hands toward
him. "We won't hurt you."

But he only shrank back farther, putting up his hands before his face
and crying, "Don't, don't!"

"What can be the matter with him?" said Hazel. "He doesn't seem to be
demented. He's really afraid of something."

Katherine looked all around carefully through the trees and into the
neighboring bushes.

"I can't imagine what it can be," she replied. "There's nothing in sight
that could do him any harm. But, do you know, Hazel, I have an idea that
may be worth considering. Suppose this should prove to be the little boy
for whom we are looking."

"That could hardly be," Hazel answered dubiously. "Look at his
threadbare clothes, and how unkempt and neglected he appears to be. He
surely doesn't look like a boy for whose care $250 is paid every
month."

"Don't forget what it was that sent us here," Katherine reminded. "Isn't
it just possible that this little boy's fright is proof of the very
condition we came here to expose?"

"Yes, it's possible," Hazel replied thoughtfully. "At least, we ought
not neglect to find out what this means."

Then turning again to the crouching figure in the bushes, she said:

"What is your name, little boy? Is it Glen?"

At the utterance of this name, the youth shook as with ague.

"Look out, Hazel; he'll have a spasm," Katherine cautioned. "He thinks
we are not his friends and are going to do something he doesn't want us
to do. Let me talk to him:

"Listen, little boy," she continued, addressing the pitiful crouching
figure. "We're not going to hurt you. We'll do just what you want us to
do. We'll take you where you want to go. Will that be all right?"

A relaxing of the tense attitude of the boy indicated that he was
som