“At first the two girls tried to laugh it off. They looked sheepishly at each other, but it was no laughing matter. Despite themselves, and hardened as they undoubtedly are, something womanly arose in them, something responded to that poor little woman’s cries and groans.
“As I said before, it was terrible. It gave me a kind of exquisite pain to listen to Mrs. Tralee. She assured the girls that she was telling the truth in the sight of her Maker when she stated that the ransom demanded for her son was one she could not pay. The money left to her by her husband was not in her sole control. She would sacrifice every cent she herself owned, but she absolutely could not touch the fortune left in trust for her son.
“The two girls looked at each other. They were getting uneasy and shaky. One whispered something, the other responded, then they tried to withdraw their dresses from Mrs. Tralee’s frantic grasp. At last one of them, with a kind of desperate look, bent over and said, ‘Go to this address in New York—we can’t, and shan’t tell you a word more,’ and she rattled off something in Mrs. Tralee’s ears.
“Then, without waiting for her thanks, they pulled themselves away and ran to the door, and the jailer took them to their cells.
“Mrs. Tralee took my head between her hands. She gave me such a look, Judge—such a look from those big eyes of hers. There was no need of speech. Then she fairly flew to the railway station, and took a special train for New York; and I haven’t heard a word from her since.”
“How long ago did you say that was?”
“Three days. I thought she would telegraph me. I hope that those girls weren’t deceiving her. I spoke to them about it yesterday when I took them some things to eat, and they were utterly unresponsive.”
“I imagine from what you have told me of this affair,” said the Judge, shrewdly, “that they have not misled that bereaved woman. You will hear from her later. She is probably in communication with the child-stealers; quite likely, agreeing upon some concession—very illegal, but very easily understood. But come, these pigeons are getting to be too aggressive. Let us go out and see the rest of the live stock. I know you like horses.”
“Love them,” said Berty, intensely, “and I want to see the cow, too. Brick said you had a new one. By the way, how is the boy getting on?”
“Well, I don’t know that the phrase ‘getting on’ applies to Brick,” observed the Judge, cheerfully. “It is rather a kind of backward and forward motion that keeps him in about the same place. I know I have felt it my duty to raise Roblee’s wages in order to enable him to bear up under this new species of trial.”