"Floyd, they have been taken for something besides money. Tell me, Dearest! Don't you know?"
Faithfully he told her that he could think of no human being who would deal him a blow like this; that he had thought his life over from beginning to end, but no new truth came out of his mental search.
"Then they want money! Oh, you will pay anything they demand! Floyd, will they torture my baby boy and girl? Will they?"
"Fledra, beloved heart," groaned Vandecar, "please don't struggle like that! You'll be very ill. I promised you that you should have them back some day soon, very soon. Fledra, sweet wife, you still have the baby and me--and Katherine."
"I want my little children! I want my boy and girl!" gasped Mrs. Vandecar. "I will have them, I will! No, I sha'n't lie down till I have them! I'm going to find them if you won't! I will not listen to you, Floyd, I won't ... I won't--"
Each time the words came forth they were followed by a moan which tore the man's heart as it had never been torn before. For a single instant he drew himself together, forced down the terrible emotion in his breast, and leaned over his wife.
"Fledra, Fledra, I command you to obey me! Lie down! I am going to bring you back your babies."
He had never spoken to her in such a tone of authority. She sank under it with parted lips and swift-coming breath.
"But I want my babies, Floyd!" she whispered. "How can I think of them out in the cold and the storm, perhaps being tortured--"
"Fledra, sweet love, precious little mother, am I not their father, and don't you trust me? Wait--wait a moment!"
He moved the babe from her mother's side, called the nurse, and in a low tone told her to keep the child until he should send for her. Then he slipped his arms about the wailing mother, lay down beside her, and drew her to his breast.
During the next few hours of darkness he watched her--watched her until the night gave way to a shadowy dawn. And as she slept he still held her, praying tensely that he might be given power to keep his promise to her. When she started up he gathered her closer and hushed her to sleep as a mother does a suffering child. How gladly he would have borne her larger share, yet more gladly would he have convinced himself that by morning the children would be again under his roof!