was safe because I am helpless!" and the girl clasped her hands in agony.
Dick drew his chair close to hers. "Now listen, little girl," he said soothingly; "You mustn't let go like this. The danger is past for the present, and we have got to keep our heads if we don't want anything to happen in the future. I really do not think that Calista actually tried to drown him. It very probably came about just as Kat said; that she took him out just for fun, and a wave washed him away from her."
"No, no!" The girl shook her head in violent protest. "No, I say! She did it on purpose."
"But listen, child," he said, pleadingly; "We must use judgment here, and not let fear magnify things out of all proportion. Can't you see that there was no reason, no purpose in anything like that, when all that McKnight wanted of the baby was to take him home to his mother? The girls would, obviously, have done nothing to circumvent that, when they were trying to help him. You must use your own judgment here, and not imagine unreasonable and baseless things."
"Did Kat say that was what they wanted him for?" asked Evalani, leaning forward tensely.
"Yes, she told us all about it, and made a very pathetic little story of it, by the way."
"And you believed it?"
"Why yes. There doesn't seem to be anything
