At the country station the chauffeur was waiting to drive Tania’s friends to the lonely old farmhouse that the child had thought a dungeon.
Tom and Tania would probably be standing in the front yard when the automobile arrived. They were not there. The old farmer explained that Tom and Tania had gone out together. They would be back in a few minutes. To tell the truth, the man did expect them to appear at any time. He could not believe that Tania was really lost, although Tom had been searching for her since early morning and it was now about four o’clock in the afternoon.
For two hours the houseboat party waited. The girls walked up and down the rickety farmhouse porch, clinging to Captain Jules. Mrs. Curtis and Miss Jenny Ann remained indoors. At dusk Tom returned. He was alone and could hardly drag one foot after the other, he was so weary and heartsick. To think that after wiring her he had found Tania he must face Madge with the dreadful news that the child was lost again!
Two long, weary days passed without news of the lost Tania. The houseboat party made the old farmhouse their headquarters while conducting the search. At first no one thought to penetrate the cedar swamp where Tania had hidden herself, but the idea finally occurred to Tom Curtis, and on the third morning he and Captain Jules started out.
All that third anxious day the girls searched the immediate neighborhood for Tania. When evening came they gathered sadly in the wretched farmhouse, to await the return of Tom Curtis and the old sea captain.
Madge was lying on a rickety lounge, with her face buried in her hands. Phyllis was sitting near the door. Mrs. Curtis stood at the window, watching for the return of her son. In a further corner of the room, Miss Jenny Ann, Lillian and Eleanor were talking softly together.
Suddenly each one of the sad women became aware of the captain’s presence as his big form darkened the doorway. A ray of light from their single oil lamp shone across his weather-beaten face. Phil saw him most distinctly and read disaster in his glance. With the unselfish thought of others that invariably marks a great nature, she went swiftly across the room and dropped on her knees beside Madge.
Madge sprang from her lounge and stumbled across the room toward the old sailor. Phil kept close beside her.
“Tania!” whispered Madge faintly, for she too had seen the captain’s face. “Where is my little Fairy Godmother?”
“We have found Tania, Madge,” said Captain Jules gently, “but she is very ill. We found her lying under a tree in the swamp, delirious with fever. She is almost starved, and she is so frail—that——” The old man’s voice broke.