"Floyd, you'd die if you should try to go out now. Why, Dear, you can scarcely stand. Now, listen! I'll send a telegram to my brother, and he'll be right back. Then, if you are determined to go, and can, he'll take you. Why, child, you haven't been out in weeks!" * * * * * Three days crawled slowly along, and yet Horace made no response to the many frantic telegrams that Ann had sent. Never had the hours seemed so leaden-winged as those passed waiting for him to come. Ann had received one note from him, and three letters for Fledra lay unopened in the girl's room. His note to Ann was from Boston, and she immediately sent a despatch to him there. On the fourth day after Fledra's disappearance, when Ann met her brother, one glance told her that he was unaware of their trouble. "Oh, Horace, I thought you'd never get here! Didn't you receive any of my telegrams?" "No! What's the matter? Has something happened to Floyd? Where's Fledra?" "Gone!" gasped Ann. "Gone! Gone where?" His voice was filled with imperious questioning, and Ann stifled her sobs. "I know only what Everett has told me. When we got up the morning after you left, she was gone. I called Everett over, and he told me she went with her father of her own free will. The squatter told him so." "He's a liar! And if he's inveigled that girl--" Ann's loyalty to Everett forced her to say: "Hush, Horace! You've no right to say anything against him until you are sure." Shellington took several rapid strides around the room. "If I'd only known it before!" "I've tried to reach you," Ann broke in; "but my messages could not have been delivered." "Oh, I'm not blaming you, Ann," he said in a lower tone. "But those men in some way have forced her to go. I'm sure of it! Fledra would never have gone with them willingly. Did she leave no message, no word? Have you searched my room? Have you looked every where?" "No, I didn't look in your room--it didn't enter my mind. Why didn't I think of that before? Come, we'll look now." Under the large blotter on his desk Horace found the two tear-stained letters Fledra had left. With a groan the frantic lover tore open the one directed to him and read it. "She's gone with them!" he said slowly in a hollow voice, and sank into a chair. Miss Shellington took the note from his outstretched hand, and read: "_Mr. Shellington_.-- "I'm going away because I don't like your house any more. Let Floyd stay and let your sister take care of him like when I was here. Give him this letter and tell him I'll love him every day. I took Snatchet because I thought I'd be lonely. Goodby." The last words were almost illegible. With twitching face, Ann handed the letter back to Horace.