"Answer me this instant," she said, "and speak the truth. You boiled those clothes with a red silk handkerchief?" Alberdina broke down and wept copiously. "I knew not about dos red," she exclaimed. "But when you saw the clothes were turning red, why didn't you take them off the fire?" asked Billie. "I did nod see." "Not see? And why not, pray?" demanded Miss Campbell. "I was asleeb and when I wog, I was wit rope tied." "Who cut the rope?" asked Dr. Hume, beginning to doubt the whole story. "A gentlemans who mag to play music on the zither." "Phoebe's father!" exclaimed the girls. They glanced at each other with a wild surmise. "It couldn't have been----" "No, no, I'm sure he never would----" "Hush," said Ben, "here comes Phoebe." The mountain girl, looking pale and distraught, her hair flying, her face and hands scratched from contact with brambles, rushed into their midst. "My father," she cried. "He has been lost all night. I have looked and looked and I cannot find him. Oh, if he should be in the marshes----" She fell on her knees at Billie's feet and broke into sobbing. CHAPTER XIII. BILLIE AND THE DOCTOR. Several things had to be done before any steps could be taken to find Phoebe's father. First Alberdina must be roundly scolded for her carelessness about the clothes and then placated with a ten dollar bill to compensate her for her loss. There must be lunch prepared for hungry travelers, and Phoebe, herself, must be given food and made to rest. In the meantime they questioned her concerning her father's movements. He had left the cabin with his zither the morning of the day before and had not been seen since, except when he had appeared at the camp and cut Alberdina's bonds. "Has he ever stayed away before at night?" asked Dr. Hume. "No, never. When he is not weaving baskets or carving, he is very restless and often is away for hours, but he always comes back before bed time. He never forgets me. That is why I am so uneasy now," she went on, clasping and unclasping her hands in the agony of her uncertainty. "Phoebe," said the doctor, "what is it that gives you strength to do your day's work, even if it means walking across a mountain in the hot sun carrying a heavy basket?" Phoebe lowered her eyes and a flush spread over her sunburned face. "I forgot," she said. "I was so unhappy that I forgot. It has helped me, oh, so many times when we have had no money. Many times we have been snowed in on the mountain without food and it has always come. It saved us from the Lupos. I was lonesome and it brought me friends." She glanced at the girls busily preparing lunch and at Ben and Percy talking in low voices on the porch. "Don't you think it will help you now?" "It has left me. I can't find it," replied poor Phoebe. "It is because I am so frightened. It never comes if you are frightened."