She would have uttered a cry of joy, but he put his hand to his lips, and shook his head earnestly. She understood the sign, and instantly checked herself.{178}
CHAPTER XXIV.
FOUND.
Mr. Taylor and Julius had reached home about twenty minutes after Mrs. Taylor’s discovery of the disappearance of her little girl. The former was not a little startled, when his wife, pale and with disheveled hair, ran out to meet them.
“What is the matter, Emma?” he asked hastily.
“Oh, Ephraim, our poor child!”—and the poor mother burst into tears.
“What has happened to her? Is she sick?” he asked, anxiously.
“She’s gone.”
“Gone! What do you mean?” he asked, utterly at a loss to understand his wife’s meaning.
“An Indian has carried her off. I shall never see her again;” and Mrs. Taylor burst into a fresh flood of tears.
“Tell me how it all happened, as quickly as possible,” said the father. “I don’t understand.”