t time afraid. He went back into
the house, to his wife, on whom he turned a gray, sad face.

"I'm afraid," said he slowly, "I'm afraid we'll have to send him away.
He's awfully bad--he might do anything. I'd rather see him dead."

The nod of the sad-faced woman was full assent. She gazed out of the
window blankly, barrenly. Ephraim Adamson went out again into the yard.
He passed the boy, unseen, went out into the stable yard, and caught up
his team, which soon he had harnessed to his light wagon. By this time
Johnnie had gone to the woodpile and taken up the ax. He was
endeavoring to split some cordwood, but he rarely could hit twice in the
same place, all his correlations being bad. His father now threw open
the gate and drove into the yard.

"Want a ride, Johnnie?" he asked; and the boy docilely came and climbed
into the front seat beside him. Not even looking at his wife, Adamson
started out at good speed for the eight-mile drive into Spring Valley.
For the most part the boy was quiet now, but once in a while the return
of a paroxysm would lead him to shout and fling up his hands, to grin or
make faces at any who passed.

In town, at the corner of the public square, Johnnie became unruly. Some
vague memory was in his mind. He pointed down the head of Mulberry
Street.

"I want to go--I want to go there!" said he.

Before his father could stop him he had sprung out of the wagon and run
on ahead. Adamson as quickly as possible hitched his team at the nearest
rack and followed at full speed, sudden terror now renewed in his own
soul. The boy had turned in at the gate of the little house of Aurora
Lane--that little house now scarce longer to be called a home!

Aurora Lane was alive, within. She moved about dully, slowly, her mind
numb at the horror of all she had gone through. The feeling possessed
her that she was without help or hope in all the world, that her God
himself had forsaken her. She heard the sound of running footsteps, and,
gazing through the window, saw the idiot son of Ephraim Adamson standing
just inside the gate. She heard him come up the steps, heard him begin
to pound on the door.

"Quick! Miss Lane," called Adamson as he came following up on the
run--he hoped that Aurora would hear him. "Don't let him in.
Telephone--get the sher'f as soon as you can."

He walked up the steps now and took the boy by the arm as he hammered at
the door with the head of the club.

"Come on, Johnnie," said he.