Brent stopped, torn between conflicting emotions, and looked helplessly at François.
Antoinette ran to Gale and took the trembling girl in her arms.
“Gale, ma chérie, you must go back to those who love you. They are lonely without you.”
But Gale shook her head determinedly. She didn’t want to go off with this strange young man, nice as he seemed, and nothing they said could change her mind. For an hour Brent, François and Antoinette urged, coaxed, and pleaded with her. But Gale held Toto in her arms and refused to budge from her corner. Finally they gave up in despair and she watched with frightened eyes while Brent conversed with François. Every time they glanced at her her heart almost stopped. She was so afraid she would have to leave these people who had been kind to her, who understood her, to go to strangers.
At last Brent moved to the door. On the threshold he turned to look at her and the picture he carried away was of a frightened girl clutching her beloved dog in her arms as her sole means of comfort.
Chapter XIV
ANOTHER ATTEMPT
All the way back to Quebec Brent thought of Gale, trying to devise some way to bring back her memory. He thought of her parents and wondered how he would ever break the news to them. How, too, he would tell the other Adventure Girls.
That night he and his pilot flew back to Marchton. Early the next morning he went to Gale’s parents and told them. The decision made was that they should fly back to Canada with him the same night.
When school was out and the Adventure Girls and three boys wended their way to the Kopper Kettle they found Brent already there awaiting them. Eagerly they crowded round him, welcoming him back and asking the now almost hopeless questions about Gale.
He was silent, answering not one question until they were all seated about a table in the corner. Then he began slowly: