“And they overturned the organ man and his dancing-monkey, and carried off his crowd with them. I ran after them calling for little Lenny, who was swept out of my sight by the rushing stream of people. I ran with all my speed and I called with all my voice, but I got knocked from one side of the walk to the other, and thrown down and run over, and trampled on, and swore at, and—and that was the way I lost little Lenny. I was hunting up and down for him when the policeman found me and fetched me home. Oh, dear! oh, me, that ever I should live to see the day! Oh, missus! oh, Miss Anna! oh——” “Now stop. Let us talk calmly for a moment,” said Anna, reflectively. “Let me see. Lenny could not have been hurried off by those thief-hunters; because, if he had been, a tender little creature like himself would have been thrown down, run over, and left behind, and you would have found him on the ground more or less injured.” “That was what I was a dreading of every minute, Miss Anna. Oh, little Lenny! dear little Lenny!” “Therefore,” continued Anna, “as he was not so run over and left, he must have been snatched up by some one and carried off under cover of the confusion. The kidnapper probably darted up one of the side streets or alleys, and disappeared with his prey in that way.” “That was what I thought, too, Miss Anna, when I remembered seeing them bad-looking men and hearing what they said. They was a watching of their opportunity to seize little Lenny and run away with him; and in course they must have been set on by his father, who wanted him; else what call would they have to take the child?—they who don’t look as if they had overmuch love for children, or for any other creatures, to tell the holy truth; no, nor likewise did they look as if they was able to keep themselves from starving, much less a child; so it stands to reason as they was hired to seize little Lenny by some un who _did_ love him, and _was_ able to keep him; and who could that have been but his own father?” “Pina, I think you are probably right in your conjecture, for I cannot even imagine what motive two such men as you describe could possibly have for stealing a child like Lenny. They must have been employed by his father, and if so, they must have been engaged some days ago, and have been on the lookout for the boy ever since.” “Oh, Anna, Anna, do you really think he is with his father? If I thought so, one-half this terrible anxiety would be quieted. Oh, Anna, do you truly think Lenny is with Alick?” cried Drusilla, clasping her hands. “I have little doubt that Alexander employed these men to get little Lenny. I have little doubt but that, for the sake of gain, they will faithfully perform their part of the compact. My only wonder is that Alick should have employed such very disreputable instruments.” “Pina, is that all? Do you know no more?” anxiously inquired Drusilla.