ed to worry. We can get the money easily."

Suddenly Beth jumped up.

"Where's that girl?" she demanded, sharply.

"What girl?"

"Tato."

"Tato, my dear coz, is a boy," answered Kenneth; "and he disappeared
ages ago."

"You must be blind," said Beth, scornfully, "not to recognize a girl
when you see one. A boy, indeed!"

"Why, he dressed like a boy," replied Kenneth, hesitatingly.

"So much the more disgraceful," sniffed Beth. "She belongs to those
brigands, I suppose."

"Looks something like Victor Valdi," said Patsy, thoughtfully.

"Il Duca? Of course! I see it myself, now. Patricia, it is that wicked
duke who has captured Uncle John."

"I had guessed that," declared Patsy, smiling.

"He must be a handsome rascal," observed Kenneth, "for the child is
pretty as a picture."

"He isn't handsome at all," replied Beth; "but there is a look about the
child's eyes that reminds me of him."

"That's it, exactly," agreed Patsy.

Louise now approached them with a white, frightened face.

"Isn't it dreadful!" she moaned. "They are going to kill Ferralti unless
he gives them thirty thousand dollars."

"And I don't believe he can raise thirty cents," said Patsy, calmly.

"Oh, yes, he can," answered Louise, beginning to cry. "Hi--his--father
is d--dead, and has left him--a--fortune."

"Don't blubber, Lou," said the boy, chidingly; "in that case your dago
friend is as well off as need be. But I suppose you're afraid the
no-account Count won't figure his life is worth thirty thousand dollars.
It does seem like an awful price to pay for a foreigner."

"It isn't that," said Louise, striving to control her emotion. "He says
he hates to be robbed. He wouldn't pay a penny if he could help it."

"Good for the Count! I don't blame him a bit," exclaimed Beth. "It is a
beastly shame that free born Americans should be enslaved by a crew of
thieving Sicilians, and obliged to purchase their freedom!"

"True for you," said Kenneth, nodding. "But what are we going to do
about it?"

"Pay, of course," decided Patsy, promptly. "Our Uncle John is too
precious to be sacrificed for all the money in the world. Come; let's go
and find Mr. Watson. We ought not to lose a moment's time."

The lawyer read Uncle John's letter carefully, as well as the one from
Count Ferralti, which Louise confided to him with the request that he
keep the young man's identity a secret for a time, until he could reveal
it to her cousins in person.