"No more of this paltering, woman! Tell us where to find Liane's body!"
To his joy and amazement, the half-crazed woman answered:
"Roma told me to throw her in the river or the sewer, but she was so sweet I could not do it! I hid her in an old cellar, very dark and cold, and when I begged her to speak to me, she opened her sweet eyes again! Come with me, and I will show you!"
Almost afraid to hope that she spoke the truth, they followed the half-crazed woman to an old unoccupied house several blocks away, and there, indeed, they found Liane, faintly breathing and half frozen, lying on the floor of a cold, dark cellar, half covered with some scraps of carpet that granny had laid over her in her late repentance.
Again Sophie's passionate sobs broke out, echoed dismally by granny, who muttered pleadingly:
"Don't take her from me if she lives; don't give me Roma to live with! I hate her now, the wicked wretch, and I'd rather have my little angel, Liane! I'll never beat her again; no, never! Do you hear me promise, Liane?"
But there was no recognition in the half-open eyes of the poor girl, as they searched their faces, and, pushing granny sharply aside, Edmund Clarke took up his daughter in his arms and bore her back to Mrs. Brinkley's, while Carlos Cisneros was sent in haste for a physician.
Granny, seeming to have no fear of arrest for her dreadful crimes, hovered anxiously about, eager as any to aid in undoing her evil work.
Liane was laid in Sophie's soft white bed, and the girl said tenderly:
"I will nurse her myself, and no one knows better than I how to care for her, for I used to be a nurse in a hospital."