I must," he spoke, and
his voice had a smothered sound. "I am going out to look for her. And
now you know why I have been walking all day, gazing at the faces in the
crowd." He had turned from the glimmering lights and was looking at Tom.
"I traced that letter she wrote, and in my mind I settled that it must
have come from this place. But I didn't tell your mother what I
suspected; I kept it to myself."

"If you go out again I'll go with you, Jim."

"No, I insist upon going alone."

He went out; and when he returned, just before the dawn, he found the
boy asleep on a chair. He took him up, put him upon a bed and sat
himself down at a window; and when Tom awoke, along toward ten o'clock,
the giant was still sitting there.

"Jim."

"Well."

"How long have you been in?"

"Don't know."

"You didn't--didn't find her?"

"No. I went to the place where you had the fight--wish to the Lord I had
been with you--but of course couldn't learn anything. I was--was afraid
to ask about her. But I tramped around all night, and I went into all
sorts of places, looking for her, and all the time afraid that I might
find her. God, what am I talking about! Afraid of finding her! Why, she
couldn't be in a place where--where she oughtn't to be."

"But she was!" the boy cried, bounding out upon the floor. "She was
and--Great God, I can hardly believe it, I don't realize it! I have been
so swallowed up that I haven't thought about her much lately--she's
crazy, Jim. Oh, she must be. She was the purest-minded girl----"

The giant stopped him with an uplifting of his ponderous hand. "Don't
say any more. Don't say she _was_ pure-minded. She _is_ pure-minded. I
will find her and she shall tell me----"

"She can't tell you anything to clear herself, Jim. She's lost--she's
crazy."

"She's an angel," said the giant.

"My dear Jim, she's my sister and I loved her, but angels can't go----"

"Don't say it."

"I won't, but don't you be foolish. Truth is truth, and we have to look
at it whether we want to or not." He walked up and down the room. "Who
would have thought that such a thing could happen?" he went on. "It's a
dream. But why did she leave home when she knew how much we all loved
her? What made her run away from you when she knew how you loved her?
Jim, I'm going home to-day. Are you coming with me?"

"No, I'm going to stay here and look for her."

"And when you have found her she'll treat you as she did me. She'll say
she