“Don’t say she is going to die, Captain Jules,” implored Mrs. Curtis. “If she does, I shall feel that I am responsible. Surely, something can be done for her.” The proud woman buried her face in her hands.
At that moment Tom entered, bearing in his arms a frail little figure, whose thin hands moved incessantly and whose black eyes were bright with fever.
With a cry of “Tania, dear little Fairy Godmother, you mustn’t, you shan’t die!” Madge sprang to Tom’s side and caught the little, restless hands in hers.
For an instant the black eyes looked recognition. “Madge,” Tania said clearly, “he took me away—the Wicked Genii.” Her voice trailed off into indistinct muttering.
“She must be rushed to a hospital at once.” Captain Jules’s calm voice roused the sorrowing friends of little Tania to action.
“I’ll have my car at the door in ten minutes,” declared Tom huskily. “Make her as comfortable as you can for the journey.”
It was in Captain Jules’s strong arms that little Tania made the journey to a private sanatorium at Cape May. Madge sat beside the captain, her eyes fixed upon the little, dark head that lay against the captain’s broad shoulder. The strong, magnetic touch of the old sailor seemed to quiet the fever-stricken child, and, for the first time since they had found her, Tania lay absolutely still in his arms.
Mrs. Curtis occupied the front seat with her son, who drove his car at a rate of speed that would have caused a traffic officer to hold up his hands in horror. It had been arranged that Tom should return to the farmhouse as soon as possible for the rest of the party.
No one of the occupants of the car ever forgot that ride. Once at the hospital, no time was lost in caring for Tania. The physician in attendance, however, would give them no satisfaction as to Tania’s condition beyond the admission that it was very serious. Mrs. Curtis engaged the most expensive room in the hospital for the child, as well as a day and night nurse, and, surrounded by every comfort and the prayers of anxious and loving friends, Tania began her fight for life.