"How'd you get on that boat? Who is with you?" the man called, as his own boat was being maneuvered to get along side of Mollie's erratic craft. "Hide, chil'un, hide," whispered Mollie, now suddenly fearful that this troublesome person might turn her and the children back to the ogre from whom they had just escaped. There was a patter of little bare-feet, a momentary flurry, then all was deserted. That little bevy of sea-going sparrows was experienced in darting to cover. When the captain of the police boat and his assistants managed to get aboard Mollie's careening vessel she confronted them bravely. "Nobody brung me hyar," she told them. "I brung m'self. I wanted ter ride in a boat. I war on hit when them two men come a-runnin' in an' set hit a-goin'. No sir. I dunno who they war. I never seed 'em afore. Leastways I doan think I did, but I mought ha' seed thet thar feller with the mustache--" Mollie paused abruptly, with her mouth open. Enlightenment came suddenly upon her. "Shore, I hev," she exclaimed, her eyes dilated with excitement and her slight frame almost trembling at the recollection. "Hit war thet man th' lady give me to when my Daddy tol' me ter go with her. But she didn't let me stay with her. She tol' me to go with him. An' he giv' me ter Pete." The river police captain and his companions looked at Mollie and then at each other. They were completely mystified. "Crazy in the head, ain't she?" said one. Mollie flared up. This was an insult. "I hain't no crazier then what yo' be," she retorted. "Ef yo' doan know whut I'm a-talkin' erbout yo'-all kin jist go ast Splutters. He's up yan, some'ers I reckon, with thet man what fotched away one o' Pete's hawgs." This time there was a flicker of intelligence in the river captain's eyes. "D'y suppose she means that fellow Pete Grimes?" he said. "That's the one the Chief's got his eye on in connection with the Wayne kidnapping." Mollie caught the words. It was out, now. In her excitement she had been foolish enough to mention Grimes. They would know, now, that she had run away and would, without doubt, send her and the children back again. But that must never be. She would tell them about Pete and how he treated the children. They looked like kind men. They'd certainly believe her. "Shore, hit's Pete Grimes," she explained. The police sought to question her further but the sudden recollection that she did not know who these men were nor whether they were friends of Pete's or not, caused her to shut her lips tight together and refuse to say another word. "Well, I reckon we'd best get her down to the Chief as soon as possible," said the captain. He was staring directly at the swaying curtains under a berth. Surely that was a child's hand that he saw, palm downward on the floor. "What's that?" he exclaimed, turning to the man beside him. He, too, looked.