Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/162

136 she must continually deny herself for the children’s sake.

Little by little the history of all the past weeks of suffering was revealed to the watching girl, and she realized that what she had  supposed to be a sufficient supply of provisions for all, had only been rendered enough  for herself and Gysbert by the cruel deprivation of this faithful woman. But other chance ejaculations were more mystifying,  and served to arouse in Jacqueline an intense, terrified curiosity as to what might be  this long kept secret that so troubled the  soul of Vrouw Voorhaas. Once she was electrified by hearing the sick woman hiss:

“How didst thou get in the city, Dirk Willumhoog?—No, go away! Thou canst draw nothing from me!—I will not tell thee, I say!—Thou dare not touch one hair of their  heads I—Nay, I will not tell thee!—Keep thy  gold!—What do I care for all the wealth of  the Indies!—Their father—”

Jacqueline puzzled over it in trembling