father's hut. So secretive was she that no one had been taken into her
confidence; neither had she interfered with her child in any way. Never
once, hitherto, had her senses left her on those long country marches
toward the east; but often when she turned backward she would utter
forlorn cries, characteristic of her malady.

* * * * *

At eight o'clock, four hours before Lon Cronk opened his heart to his
companions, Scraggy, footsore and weary, entered Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
and seated herself on the damp earth to gather strength. By begging and
stealing she had managed to reach her destination; but now for the first
time on this journey the bats were in her head, sounding the walls of
her poor brain with the ceaseless clatter of their wings. Still the
mother heart called for its own, through the madness--called for one
sight of Lem's child and hers. At length after a long rest she turned
into a broad path which she knew well, and did not halt until she was
staring eager-eyed into the window of Harold Brimbecomb's house which
stood close to the cemetery.

[Illustration: FOR MIDGE'S SAKE.]

To the left of the Brimbecomb's was the mansion, belonging to the
orphans of Horace Shellington. The young Horace and his sister Ann were
the favorite companions of Everett Brimbecomb, now six years old. He was
a strong, proud, handsome lad. Many conjectures had been made concerning
him by the Tarrytown people, because one day five years before the
delicate, light-haired wife of Mr. Brimbecomb had appeared with a
dark-haired baby boy, announcing that from that day on he would take the
place of her own child who had died a few months before. No person had