a lock of his hair, to bow
down over him in speechless emotion. Here, then, she knelt, her
poor hands clasping each other tremulously, her aged breast
heaving with repressed sighs, while from her weak eyes there fell
tears which dropped upon the face of the boy.

Those tears had a wonderful effect.

As Bob's half-opened eyes saw the old woman's attitude, his grisly
terror left him; his heart regained its ordinary pulsation; the
tremendous pressure that had been upon his soul was removed; warm,
and fresh, and free, his young blood sped through his veins, and
all his frame was quickened to a bounding life and vigor. By the
force of this reaction he was roused from his stony lethargy, his
paralysis of horror, and his presence of mind was restored. Then
there came those tears which fell upon his face. This completed
the recovery of his self-command. It did more. It assured him that
he was an object, not of murderous fury, but of tender love, and
that the one whom he had feared had come, not with purposes of
cruelty, but with yearnings of affection. Why this should be he
knew not; he was content to know that it was so; and in this
knowledge all fear died out. Bat even now he felt somewhat
embarrassed, for the old woman was evidently only giving way to
her emotion because she believed him to be asleep; and thus he was
an unwilling witness of feelings which she supposed to be seen by
none. In this there seemed to be something dishonorable, and he wished
the scene to end. He chose to do so therefore by making a few movements
without opening his eyes; that is, he changed his position several
times, turned himself over and back again, and thus gave signs of
waking. Upon this the old woman silently took her lamp and shears,
and left the apartment by the way she had come.

So ended the adventure.

The effect produced upon Bob was a varied one. He still felt the
consequences of that horror into which he had fallen, that spasm
and convulsion of terror which had seemed to turn him to stone,
yet the relief that had been found was inexpressibly sweet. In
spite of the pain which still lingered about his heart, there came
a calmer and happier frame of mind; the pain itself also gradually
died out, and its only result was a general languor. So commonplace
a termination to what seemed a terrible event made his whole
situation and his other prospects seem commonplace, and he even
began to think that his captors might turn out to be as