Not daring to glance at the scene of her fright, Zoie pushed
Aggie before her into the room and demanded that she look in the
bed.
Seeing the bed quite empty and noticing nothing unusual in the
fact that the pink comforter, along with other covers, had
slipped down behind it, Aggie hastened to reassure her terrified
friend.
"You imagined it, Zoie," she declared, "look for yourself."
Zoie's small face peeped cautiously around the edge of the
doorway.
"Well, perhaps I did," she admitted; then she slipped gingerly
into the room, "my nerves are jumping like fizzy water."
They were soon to "jump" more, for at this instant, Alfred,
burning with anger at the indignity of having been locked in the
bathroom, entered the room, demanding to know the whereabouts of
the lunatic mother, who had dared to make him a captive in his
own house.
"Where is she?" he called to Zoie and Aggie, and his eye roved
wildly about the room. Then his mind reverted with anxiety to
his newly acquired offspring. "My boys!" he cried, and he rushed
toward the crib. "They're gone!" he declared tragically.
"Gone?" echoed Aggie.
"Not ALL of them," said Zoie.
"All," insisted Alfred, and his hands went distractedly toward
his head. "She's taken them all."
Zoie and Aggie looked at each other in a dazed way. They had a
hazy recollection of having seen one babe disappear with the
Italian woman, but what had become of the other two?
"Where did they go?" asked Aggie.
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