Two long, weary days passed without news of the lost Tania. The houseboat party made the old farmhouse their headquarters while conducting the search. At first no one thought to penetrate the cedar swamp where Tania had hidden herself, but the idea finally occurred to Tom Curtis, and on the third morning he and Captain Jules started out. All that third anxious day the girls searched the immediate neighborhood for Tania. When evening came they gathered sadly in the wretched farmhouse, to await the return of Tom Curtis and the old sea captain. Madge was lying on a rickety lounge, with her face buried in her hands. Phyllis was sitting near the door. Mrs. Curtis stood at the window, watching for the return of her son. In a further corner of the room, Miss Jenny Ann, Lillian and Eleanor were talking softly together. Suddenly each one of the sad women became aware of the captain's presence as his big form darkened the doorway. A ray of light from their single oil lamp shone across his weather-beaten face. Phil saw him most distinctly and read disaster in his glance. With the unselfish thought of others that invariably marks a great nature, she went swiftly across the room and dropped on her knees beside Madge. Madge sprang from her lounge and stumbled across the room toward the old sailor. Phil kept close beside her. "Tania!" whispered Madge faintly, for she too had seen the captain's face. "Where is my little Fairy Godmother?" "We have found Tania, Madge," said Captain Jules gently, "but she is very ill. We found her lying under a tree in the swamp, delirious with fever. She is almost starved, and she is so frail--that----" The old man's voice broke. "Don't say she is going to die, Captain Jules," implored Mrs. Curtis. "If she does, I shall feel that I am responsible. Surely, something can be done for her." The proud woman buried her face in her hands. At that moment Tom entered, bearing in his arms a frail little figure, whose thin hands moved incessantly and whose black eyes were bright with fever. With a cry of "Tania, dear little Fairy Godmother, you mustn't, you shan't die!" Madge sprang to Tom's side and caught the little, restless hands in hers. For an instant the black eyes looked recognition. "Madge," Tania said clearly, "he took me away--the Wicked Genii." Her voice trailed off into indistinct muttering. "She must be rushed to a hospital at once." Captain Jules's calm voice roused the sorrowing friends of little Tania to action. "I'll have my car at the door in ten minutes," declared Tom huskily. "Make her as comfortable as you can for the journey."