“Do you mean,” she inquired, “that a white man carried Owlet away in a carriage?”

“’Es-s-s! Oh, ’es-s-s!”

“Which way did he go?”

“Deh-h-h-h!” howled the child, pointing up the road leading to the village.

Roma would not let the poor child see how much shocked, grieved and bewildered she really was.

She turned and looked in the faces of her two good friends and supporters.

CHAPTER XVI
WHO ABDUCTED OWLET?

“The child has been abducted,” said Roma, turning very pale, and closing her lips very grimly.

Her two companions looked up in alarm.

“By whom, in the name of heaven, do you think??” inquired Parson Shaw.