out of here before I smash them."

"Yes, Mister Johnny." Tom moved about the room collecting the birds. "Don't take things so hard; you'll only become ill."

For several days Jonathan wandered about the island, avoiding the sight of the factory. But the place fascinated him and at last drew him back to its mildewed corridors. He might have been only a shadow so far as most of the workers were concerned. Jock remembered him, however, snarling softly and crouching more closely over his work when his master passed by. And the girl by the window even smiled faintly upon catching sight of him.

On one of his trips Jonathan found Jo outside the factory during lunch hours. "Would you take a walk with me?" he asked on the spur of the moment.

"Walk? Yes. Not far. Gong," she answered shyly.

He tried to take her arm but she flinched away. Nevertheless, when he turned away she wandered down the path beside him.

Using simple, childish words, he tried to get her interested in the flowers, trees and birds along the way and fancied that he was arousing her dormant mind. At any rate, she did not notice that they had left the factory far behind until the recall gong sounded.

Instantly she whirled and started running back down the path. In vain he pleaded with her not to hurry; that it didn't matter if she were late. She ran on without a word, as he had sometimes seen school-children run when they were tardy—her face puckered as though to cry; her breath short and rapid.

At the factory door he caught and tried to hold her. She beat her fists against his breast and sobbed in a wild burst of hysteria. At last she twisted herself free and rushed to her bench. There, almost magically, her face resumed its sweet serenity as she began her accustomed task.

Yet, as he returned home, defeated once more, Jonathan was certain that he had partially awakened her. And he also realized that, as Tom had hinted, he was falling under the spell of this strange, twisted being. She was almost an automaton, but not quite. No, she was more like a person obsessed by the craving for a narcotic. He clenched his fists and swore to save her, or to kill her in the attempt.

A week later, when he believed the effect of Jo's fright had worn off, Jonathan posted himself outside the mews and waited for the morning gong. He told himself that he was looking for Jock but 

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