"I can't!" lamented Jinnie. "I've told you, Bobbie, the door's locked."
She could lovingly deceive him no longer.
How the little body trembled! How the fluttering hands sought her aid in vain!
"My stars're all gone, Jinnie," sobbed Bobbie. "My beautiful stars! I can't see any of 'em if I try. I'm awful 'fraid, honey dear. It's so dark."
Jinnie tightened her arms about him, racking her brain for soothing words.
"But Lafe's God is above the dark, Bobbie," she whispered reverently. "We've got to believe it, dearie! God is back up there ... just up there."
She took his slender forefinger and pointed upward.
"How does God look, Jinnie? Just how does he look?"
"I've never seen him," admitted the girl, "but I think, Bobbie, I think he looks like Lafe. I know he smiles like him anyway."
"I'm glad," sighed the boy. "Then He'll help us, won't He? Lafe would if he could. If you say He will, He will, Jinnie!"
Five tense minutes passed in silence. Then: "Sure we couldn't get out of the window, dearie?" asked Bobbie.
"They're locked, too," answered the girl, low-toned.
"I'd bust 'em out," volunteered the boy, with sudden enthusiasm.
"But there's a deep gorge in front of every one, honey," replied Jinnie sadly.
Yet Bobbie's words--"bust 'em out"--took hold of her grippingly, and the thought of leaving that unbearable place was like a tonic to the frantic girl. She crossed the room rapidly and examined the window panes. But even if she could break them, as Bobbie suggested, the water below would receive their bodies, and death would follow. If it were a street, she might manage. Yet the sight of the flowing water, the dark depths between the ragged rocks, did not send Bobbie's words, "bust 'em out," from her mind. If they fell together, the boy would never be tortured any more. To-morrow Jordan Morse would be in the courtroom all day. To-morrow----God, dear God! She seemed to hear Lafe's monotone, "There's always to-morrow, Jinnie."
She was called upon to think, to act alone in a tragic way. Of course she would be killed if she jumped into the deep gorge with the child and Happy Pete. She tried to think, to plan, but after the manner of all believing sufferers, could only pray.
Bobbie need fear no evil! "Angels have been given charge over him, and Bobbie shall not want," Jinnie whispered, her mind spinning around like a child's top. A sudden faith boomed at the portals of her soul. What was the use of asking help for Bobbie if she didn't have faith in an answer?