“Do you mind telling me,” I asked, “why you have kidnapped me in this fashion?” “It ain’t kidnapping, young lady, an’ it ain’t anything else irregular. You see, I had a warrant. I’m a court officer, an’ I does what the court orders an’ nothin’ else.” “Then a court ordered you to seize me?” I asked. “Ya’as ’m,” he answered. “But on what ground?” “‘Tain’t my business to know that, Miss, an’ as a matter of fac’ I don’t know it. All I know is, I was give a warrant an’ tole to serve it, an’ bring you to the court. Don’t you worry about a-payin’ of the cabman. I’ll ten’ to all that.” “But what do they want with me in court?” I asked insistently. “Dunno, Miss.” “But who is it that wants me?” “Dunno, Miss, only the warrant head said, ‘Campbell vee ess Byrd and Dennison.’” “But what right have they to bother me in this way? Am I not a free person? Haven’t I a right—” “Dunno, Miss, ’tain’t my business to know. But I suppose you’re a gal under age, and I suppose gals under age ain’t got no rights in pertic’lar, leastways in opposition to their gardeens.” By this time, we had arrived at the courthouse, and I was taken before the judge. I remember thinking that if I should displease him in any way, he could order me hanged. I know better now, but I thought so then; so I made up my mind to be very nice to the judge. Campbell was there, and he had a lawyer with him. The lawyer told the judge that Campbell was—something in Latin—_loco parentis_, I think it was. Anyhow, it meant stepfather, or something like that. He said the courts in his State had made him my guardian; that I possessed valuable property; that I had been abducted by my father, who was a dissolute person, now serving out a sentence in the State’s prison for some crime. He gave the judge a lot of papers to prove all this. I was so shocked and distressed to hear that my father was in prison, that for a while I couldn’t speak. At last I controlled myself and said to the judge:— “I love my father. If he has been sent to prison, it was that man”—pointing to Campbell—“who got him sent there. My father is good and kind, and I love him. Campbell is wicked and cruel, and I hate him. Look at his flat nose! That’s where I smashed it with a heavy hair-brush when he tried to whip me for telling the truth about him. I don’t want to go with him. I want to go back to Mrs. Dennison, till my father can come after me. Please, Judge, let me do that.” The judge asked Campbell’s lawyer how old I was, and he answered:— “Thirteen years old, your Honour.” Then the judge said:— “She seems older. If she were fourteen, I should be bound by the law to let her choose her own guardian for so long at least as she shall remain in Illinois. But as the papers in the case seem to show that her age is only thirteen, I am bound to recognise the guardianship established by the courts of another State. I must remand the girl to the custody of her guardian, Mr. Campbell.”