The can, in falling, dislodged a narrow strip of thin board that seemed to have lodged in the earth just at the edge of the bog. A splinter from the board entered Mollie's toe. She stooped to remove the splinter and paused, wide-eyed and frozen with horror at what she beheld. For dangling from the board and still partially wound about it, were the strips of bandage she had last seen wrapped about Buddy's broken arm. Now, they were stained with blood. What did it mean? What had happened? Something terrible must have hurt Buddy or even eaten the baby alive! Again Mollie's thoughts flew to the ogre. Her first theory had been right, after all. Splutters must be wrong. Ogres were not make-believe. They were real and Peter Grimes was real. Nothing else could account for his bringing so many little children to the farm. If he didn't actually eat little children, he liked to hurt them and that was just as bad. He had hurt Buddy and then he had thrown him into the bog. And he had managed to do it at night just when God was busy looking after His sparrows. And here she had been telling Cynthy that maybe God had taken the baby away to save him! The frightened, perplexed little girl stood there in the gloom of those tall trees and held her breath while she gazed, awe-stricken, at the tell-tale, crimson stains at her feet. Something must be done. Something must be done quick, she realized, or more of the children would disappear the same way. Oh, if she were only bigger and older! Hark! What was that? It sounded like something moving in the bushes just beyond. And she was alone there. The other children were in the garden. She realized now that she no longer heard their voices. She had come to fix a resting place for the little sick boy. Perhaps something had happened. It seemed a long time since she had started off by herself. If the ogre or Maria had come and not found her with the others---- Thoughts tumbled through her brain so fast that the seconds seemed hours. The awful sensation that someone--or something--threatening and ominous was near, unseen, watching her, waiting, waiting to seize her, and crush her as little Buddy had been crushed, became so overwhelming that a very convulsion of terror caused Mollie to tremble and her teeth to chatter. She wanted to turn and run, but found herself powerless. She wanted to scream but could not make a sound. And then, surmounting all other sensations, came the vision of her father, the strong, dark-faced, almost unknown young man standing, with some kind of a spear in his hand, facing a lion. She had heard him tell someone the story. Had seen him illustrate just how steady he stood. And now, as clear as when she stood by his side, she seemed to hear him say: "It doesn't do to be afraid. The man who gets nervous and frightened is sure to be killed. The only thing to do is keep steady and watch your chance."