Jerry felt the lady who was his mother holding him tighter in her arms and then she gave a sudden start. He did not answer. He was afraid to.
"Robert!" she cried. "His heart is beating as though it would burst! The memory of that beast must frighten him terribly."
"He can never hurt you again, Gary," Whiteface assured him. "You will always be with us from now on and we won't let him ever come near you again. Did he ever hurt you?"
Jerry, remembering now vividly what the man had done to him, became more frightened than ever and, instead of answering, began to cry.
"We must not hurry him into confidence," said Whiteface.
"Oh, my boy!" wailed the elephant lady. "How terribly you must have suffered when my heart was aching so to know you were safe and to comfort and love you!"
She kissed him passionately and squeezed him so hard that his breath went entirely out of his body for a moment.
"Has Gary ever told you anything about the man who stole him?" asked Whiteface of Danny.
"No," he replied, "but Jerry ran away from him."
"How do you know that?"