"Oh, no! he's all alone, unless he's in the hospital. I don't know quite where he is, only they promised he should go to the hospital."
Again Elsie was silent; she could find no answer to that question. The gentleman did not seem angry, but asked another.
"Which one do you mean, please, sir?" Elsie asked, in a moment of utter bewilderment.
"Then the lady who was with you yesterday is not really your mother?"
"No," Elsie faintly admitted. She could hold out no longer against the questioning, but was feeling very much like you all do when you are playing at "old soldier," and, try as you will, at last the "Yes" or "No" pops out unawares. She, too, was very frightened and confused, which you would not be.
"Come, we are getting on now," the old gentleman said, kindly. "Do not be frightened. Did this lady tell you to call her mamma?"
"Yes, sir, but--I must not tell you anything."
[Illustration: "SHE WAS PLACED IN A CAB" (_p. 259_).]
"And she is not your mamma, then, after all?"
"Yes," Elsie exclaimed, with a quick, fearful glance round.
"Now, I promise you that she shall do you no harm, if you tell me the truth. How did you come to be with her? Just tell me how it was."
The old gentleman spoke with great assurance and kindliness, but still Elsie could not cast off the spell of fear Mrs. Donaldson still held over her. She had an almost superstitious belief that the "fairy mother" would find a way to work out her threats. For all she knew, she might even now have sent that message to Edinburgh which was to seal Duncan's fate.
After the very mysterious incident that had happened in the train, for her to know that Elsie had disobeyed without hearing the words she had spoken seemed not only quite possible, but very likely indeed.
The gentleman saw Elsie's hesitation, and spoke sharply again. "If you are obstinate, we shall have to use other methods to make you speak. Have you ever been in prison?"
Elsie's eyes dilated with horror. "Oh, no!" she replied.
"But you are very likely to find yourself there, unless you answer my questions better. Tell me at once where you met this lady?"
"She was in a carriage; we were on the road to Killochrie."
"We ran away from Sandy Ferguson's cottage."
"He was very bad to us, and robbed us of our money and our clothes. Duncan thought he wanted to kill us, so we ran away."