ing the look of fear in
Madge's eyes. "I promise to find the children for you."

Madge went into the house with slow, dragging steps. She tried to hide
her fright, but her face betrayed her. She was utterly wretched. She had
come, uninvited, to visit her best friend, and Phil's father and mother
had treated her as though she were another grown-up daughter. Now, as a
reward, she had lost their beloved babies. For, if Madge had not been
talking with David, Dot and Daisy would never have run away from her and
disappeared.

Phyllis sprang to her feet when she caught sight of Madge. She had been
wondering why her chum had not come in. One look at Madge's white face
was enough to convince her that something serious had happened.

"Don't worry so, Madge," comforted Phil, when the girl had stammered out
her story, "I'll find those children. Nobody has run off with them.
Don't you know that getting themselves lost and frightening people
nearly out of their wits is the thing that Dot and Daisy love best in
the world?"

Phyllis and Madge ran out of the parlor together, followed more slowly
by Miss Betsey, who was not at all sure that she relished so much
excitement. Phyllis Alden did not realize how thoroughly Madge and David
had looked for the lost babies before her friend had brought the news to
her. If she had, Phil would have been more alarmed.

David determined to discover the missing children before Madge returned
to the yard. But where else should he seek for them? With a swift
feeling of horror, the boy thought of one more possible place. If his
surmise should prove true! Poor Madge! David thought of her with a
sudden flood of sympathy. Instinctively he realized, after his short
acquaintance with her, that she was the type of person who would never
recover from such a sorrow as the loss of these children would be.

While David thought he ran. He hoped to make his investigation before
Madge and Phil could come into the yard.

Several rods back of the barn in Miss Taylor's back garden there was a
disused well which had been closed for several years. A few days before
Miss Betsey had sent for a man to have this well reopened. The man had
not finished his work. He had gone away, leaving the well open with only
a plank across it.

But David was not allowed to inspect the place undiscovered. Madge and
Phyllis were not long in finding him. "Look in the barn, won't you?"
David called back to the girls. "The children may b