for good!"

"Took?" Noreen was not now overcome by grief.

"No, just gone. He gave me a dollar."

"A dollar, Jan-an? A whole dollar?" This was almost unbelievable.
Jan-an produced the evidence from her loose and soiled blouse.

"He left his place terribly tidy, too," she ran on, "and when a man
does that Peneluna says it's awful suspicious."

"Jan-an, you wait here--I'm going up to the cabin!"

Noreen stood up defiantly. She was possessed by one of her sudden
flashes of inspiration.

"Yer ain't been called," warned Jan-an.

"I know, but I _must_ go. I'll only peep in. Maybe Motherly took a
back way to the inn."

To this Jan-an had nothing to say and she sat down upon a wet rock to
wait, while Noreen darted up the trail like a small, distracted animal
of the woods.

It was growing dark and heavy with storm; the thunder was more
distinct--there was a hush and a breathless suggestion of wind held in
check by a mighty force.

Noreen reached the shack and peeped in at the vine-covered window.
What she saw marked a turning-point in the child's life.

Mary-Clare was still stretched upon the floor. Several things had
happened to her since Larry fled; she was never clearly to account for
them.

She had been conscious and had drifted into unconsciousness several
times. She had tried, she recalled that later, to get to the couch,
but her aching head had driven the impulse into oblivion. She had
fallen back on the floor. Then, again, she roused and there was
blood--near her. Not much, but she had not noticed it before, and she
must have fainted. Again, she could remember thinking of Noreen, of
the others; and the necessity of keeping forever hidden the thing that
had happened.

But again Mary-Clare, from exhaustion or faintness, slipped into
silence, and so Noreen found her!

The child went swiftly into the still cabin and knelt beside her
mother. She was quite calm, at first, and unafraid. She took the dear
head on her lap and patted the white cheek where the little cut had
let out the blood--there was dry blood on it now and that caused
Noreen to gasp and cry out.

Back and forth the child swayed, mumbling comforting words; and then
she spoke louder, faster--her words became wild, disconnected. She
laughed and cried and called for every one of her little world in
turn.

Uncle Peter!

Aunt Polly!

Peneluna! And then Jan-an! Jan-an!

As she sobbed and screamed Mary-Clare's eyes opened and she smiled. At