“It’s conceivable that he is a scamp, but I can’t see anything that points to it. Why should a perfect stranger to the Varian family cut up such a trick as to come up here and pretend to be kidnapped,—if he wasn’t? It’s too absurd.” “Everything is too absurd,” said Wise, bitterly. CHAPTER XIV A Green Stain “Tell me more about Betty,” Zizi said, “that is, if you don’t mind talking about her.” “Oh, no,” Minna returned, “I love to talk about her. It’s the only way I can keep my hope alive!” Zizi was sitting with Mrs Varian while the nurse went out for a walk. There was a mutual attraction between the two, and the sympathetic dark eyes of the girl rested kindly on the face of the bereaved and suffering mother. “Tell me about her when she was little. Was she born in New York?” “No; at the time of her birth, we chanced to be spending a summer up in Vermont,—up in the Green Mountains. I hoped to get home before Betty arrived, but I didn’t, and she was born in a tiny little hospital way up in a Vermont village. However, she was a strong, healthy baby, and has never been ill a day in her life.” “And she is so pretty and sweet,—I know not only from her picture, but from everything I hear about her. I’m going to find her, Mrs Varian!” Zizi’s strange little face glowed with determination and she smiled hopefully. “I don’t doubt your wish to do so, Zizi, dear, but I can’t think you will succeed. I’m so disappointed in Mr Wise’s failure——” “He hasn’t failed!” Zizi cried, instantly eager to defend her master. “Don’t say that,—he is baffled,—it’s a most extraordinary case, but he hasn’t failed,—and he won’t fail!” “But he’s been here a week, and what has he done so far?” “I’ll tell you what he’s done, Mrs Varian.” Zizi spoke seriously. “We were talking it over this morning, and he’s done this much. He’s discovered, at least to his own conviction, that Betty was really kidnapped. That those letters you have received are from the abductors and that through them we must hope to trace Betty’s present whereabouts. This would not be accomplished by merely following their instructions as to throwing money over the cliff. As you know, Doctor Varian advises strongly against that,—and Mr Wise does, too. But they have learned of some more letters found among your husband’s papers, signed ‘Step,’ and we hope to prove a connection between those and the kidnapper’s letters.” “What good will that do?” Minna asked, listlessly. “Oh, Zizi, you’re a dear girl, but you’ve no idea what I’m suffering. Nights, as I lie awake in the darkness, I seem to hear my baby Betty calling to me,—I seem to feel her little arms round my neck—somehow my mind goes back to her baby days, more than to her later years.” “That’s natural, dear, when you’re so anxious and worried about her. But, truly, I believe we’ll get her yet. You see, everything points to the theory that she is alive.”