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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies
+       The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: September 23, 2007 [EBook #22743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE PUSHED RUTH ROUGHLY BACK INTO HER SEAT. Page 123]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+RUTH FIELDING
+AND THE GYPSIES
+
+Or
+The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+By
+ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
+"Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch," etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+New York
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+Publishers
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Books for Girls
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+  Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+  Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+  Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+  Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+  Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+  Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+  Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+  Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+Copyright, 1915, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+         I. On the Lumano River                                1
+        II. Roberto, the Gypsy                                10
+       III. Evening at the Red Mill                           19
+        IV. The Auto Tour                                     27
+         V. A Prophecy Fulfilled                              37
+        VI. A Transaction in Mutton                           43
+       VII. Fellow Travelers                                  53
+      VIII. What Was It All About?                            61
+        IX. Queen Zelaya                                      69
+         X. In the Gypsy Camp                                 80
+        XI. Tom on the Trail                                  91
+       XII. A Break for Liberty                              104
+      XIII. Ruth in the Toils                                111
+       XIV. Roberto Again                                    116
+        XV. Helen's Escape                                   124
+       XVI. Through the Night and the Storm                  133
+      XVII. Off for School Again                             140
+     XVIII. Getting Into Harness                             149
+       XIX. Can It Be Possible?                              156
+        XX. He Cannot Talk                                   164
+       XXI. Ruth Intercedes                                  169
+      XXII. A Great Temptation                               175
+     XXIII. Nettie Parsons' Feast                            182
+      XXIV. Roberto Finds His Voice                          190
+       XXV. Five Thousand Dollars                            198
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON THE LUMANO RIVER
+
+
+The steady turning of the grinding-stones set the old Red Mill a-quiver
+in every board and beam. The air within was full of dust--dust of the
+grain, and fine, fine dust from the stones themselves.
+
+Uncle Jabez Potter, the miller, came to the door and looked across the
+grassy yard that separated the mill and the farmhouse attached from the
+highroad. Under a broad-spreading tree sat two girls, busy with their
+needles.
+
+One, a sharp-faced, light-haired girl, who somehow carried a look of
+endured pain in her eyes in spite of the smile she flung at the old man,
+cried:
+
+"Hello, Dusty Miller! come out and fly about a little. It will do you
+good."
+
+The grim face of the miller lightened perceptibly. "How do you reckon a
+man like me kin fly, Mercy child?" he croaked.
+
+"I'll lend you my aeroplanes, if you like," she returned, gaily, and
+held up the two ebony canes which had been hidden by the tall grass.
+_They_ told the story of Mercy Curtis' look of pain, but once she had
+had to hobble on crutches and, as she pluckily declared, canes were
+"miles better than crutches."
+
+"I ain't got no time, gals, an' that's a fac'," said the miller, his
+face clouding suddenly. "Ain't ye seen hide nor hair of Ben an' them
+mules?"
+
+"Why, Uncle," said the second girl, quietly, "you know how many errands
+Ben had to do in town. He couldn't do them all and get back in so short
+a time."
+
+"I dunno about that, Niece Ruth--I dunno about that," said the old man,
+sharply. "Seems ter me I could ha' gone an' been back by now. An' hi
+guy! there's four sacks o' flour to take acrost the river to Tim
+Lakeby--an' I kyan't do it by meself--Ben knows that. Takes two' on us
+ter handle thet punt 'ith the river runnin' like she is right now."
+
+The girl who had last spoken folded the work in her lap and got up
+agilely. Her movements were followed--perhaps a little enviously--by the
+gaze of the lame girl.
+
+"How quick you are, Ruthie," she said. When Ruth Fielding looked down
+upon Mercy Curtis, her smile started an answering one upon the lame
+girl's thin face.
+
+"Quick on my feet, dearie," said Ruth. "But you have so much quicker a
+mind."
+
+"Flatterer!" returned the other, yet the smile lingered upon the thin
+face and made it the sweeter.
+
+The miller was turning, grumblingly, back into the shadowy interior of
+the mill, when Ruth hailed him.
+
+"Oh, Uncle!" she cried. "Let me help you."
+
+"What's that?" he demanded, wheeling again to look at her from under his
+shaggy eyebrows.
+
+Now, Ruth Fielding was worth looking at. She was plump, but not too
+plump; and she was quick in her movements, while her lithe and graceful
+figure showed that she possessed not only health, but great vitality.
+Her hair was of a beautiful bright brown color, was thick, and curled
+just a little.
+
+In her tanned cheeks the blood flowed richly--the color came and went
+with every breath she drew, it seemed, at times. That was when she was
+excited. But ordinarily she was of a placid temperament, and her brown
+eyes were as deep as wells. She possessed the power of looking
+searchingly and calmly at one without making her glance either
+impertinent or bold.
+
+In her dark skirt, middy blouse, and black stockings and low shoes, she
+made a pretty picture as she stood under the tree, although her
+features were none of them perfect. Her cheeks were perhaps a little
+too round; her nose--well, it was not a dignified nose at all! And her
+mouth was generously large, but the teeth gleaming behind her red lips
+were even and white, and her smile lit up her whole face in a most
+engaging manner.
+
+"Do let me help you, Uncle. I know I can," she repeated, as the old
+miller scowled at her.
+
+"What's that?" he said again. "Go with me in that punt to Tim Lakeby's?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"'Tain't no job for a gal, Niece Ruth," grumbled the miller.
+
+"Any job is all right for a girl--if she can do it," said Ruth, happily.
+"And I can row, Uncle--you know I can."
+
+"Ha! rowing one o' them paper-shell skiffs of Cameron's _one_ thing; the
+ash oars to my punt ain't for baby's han's," growled the miller.
+
+"Do let me try, Uncle Jabez," said Ruth again, when the lame girl broke
+in with:
+
+"You are an awfully obstinate old Dusty Miller! Why don't you own up
+that Ruthie's more good to you than a dozen boys would be?"
+
+"She ain't!" snarled the old man.
+
+At that moment there appeared upon the farmhouse porch a little, bent
+old woman who hailed them in a shrill, sweet voice:
+
+"What's the matter, gals? What's the matter, Jabez? Ain't nothin' broke
+down, hez there?"
+
+"No, Aunt Alvirah," laughed Ruth. "I just want Uncle Jabez to let me
+help him----"
+
+The old woman had started down the steps, her hand upon her back as she
+came, and intoning in a low voice: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" She
+caught up the miller's remark, as he turned away again, very sharply,
+for he muttered something about "Silly gals' foolish idees."
+
+"What d'ye mean by that, Jabez Potter?" she demanded. "If Ruth says she
+kin help ye, she _kin_. You oughter know that by this time."
+
+"Help me row that punt across the river?" snarled the old man,
+wrathfully. "What nonsense!"
+
+"I dunno," said the old woman, slowly. "I see Tim's flag a-flyin'. I
+guess he wants his flour bad."
+
+"And I can pull an oar as good as _you_ can, Uncle Jabez," added Ruth.
+
+"Oh, all right! Come on, then. I see I shell hev no peace till I let ye
+try it. Ef we don't git back fer supper, don't blame _me_, Alviry."
+
+The miller disappeared in the gathering gloom of the mill. Soon the
+jarring of the structure and the hum of the stones grew
+slower--slower--slower, and finally the machinery was altogether still.
+
+Ruth had run for her hat. Then, waving her hand to Mercy and Aunt
+Alvirah, she ran around to the landing.
+
+The Lumano River was a wide stream, but at this season of the year it
+was pretty shallow. There was little navigation from Lake Osago at any
+time, but now the channel was dotted with dangerous rocks, and there
+were even more perilous reefs just under the surface.
+
+Uncle Jabez's boat was not really a "punt." It was a heavy rowboat, so
+stained and waterlogged in appearance that it might have been taken for
+a bit of drift-stuff that had been brought in to the Red Mill landing by
+the current.
+
+And truly, that is probably the means by which the miller had originally
+obtained the boat. He was of a miserly nature, was Uncle Jabez Potter,
+and the old boat--which its first owner had never considered worth
+coming after, following some spring freshet--served the miller well
+enough to transport his goods across the river.
+
+Tim Lakeby's store, on the north shore of the river, was in sight of the
+Red Mill. There were four sacks of flour to be transported, and already
+Uncle Jabez had placed two of them in the bottom of the boat, upon a
+clean tarpaulin.
+
+"Ef we go down the river an' swamp, I shell lose this flour," grumbled
+Uncle Jabez. "Drat that Ben! I tell ye, he'd ought to be hum by now."
+
+Ben was the hired man, and if the miller had not really been kindlier
+underneath than he appeared on the surface, Ben would never have
+remained as long with him as he had!
+
+Uncle Jabez balanced the weight in the boat with judgment. Although
+there seemed to be no real danger, he knew very well the nature of the
+treacherous current. Ruth slipped into the bow seat with her oar, and
+Uncle Jabez took stroke.
+
+The girl unknotted the painter, and the boat drifted out from the
+landing.
+
+"Now, set yer feet square, an' _pull_!" ejaculated her uncle, thrusting
+the blade of his own oar beneath the rippling surface.
+
+They were heavy ash oars--one was all the girl really could manage. But
+she was not afraid of a little hard work, her muscles were supple, and
+she had rowed one season in the first eight at Briarwood Hall, and so
+considered herself something of an oarswoman.
+
+The miller, by stretching to see over his shoulder, got the boat pointed
+in the right direction. "Pull, now!" he commanded, and set a long,
+forceful stroke for the girl to match. With the water slapping against
+the high side of the craft, sometimes sprinkling them with spray, they
+drove her forward for some minutes in silence.
+
+The boat lumbered heavily, and it was true that Ruth had all she could
+do to manage the oars. In some places, where the eddies tugged at the
+blade, it seemed as though a submerged giant seized it and tried to
+twist it from her grasp!
+
+"I guess you air gittin' yer fill-up of it, Niece Ruth," growled the
+miller, with a sound in his throat that might have been a chuckle. "Look
+out, now! ye'll hev us over."
+
+Ruth knew very well she had done nothing to give the boat that sudden
+jerk. It was the current; but she had no breath with which to argue the
+matter.
+
+On and on they pulled, while the sinking sun gilded the little wavelets,
+and bathed both river and the shores in golden glory. A homing bird
+shrieked a shrill "good-night," as it passed above them, flying from
+shore to shore.
+
+Now the northern shore was nearer than the landing they had left. Only
+occasionally Ruth turned her head, for she needed her full attention
+upon the oar which she managed with such difficulty.
+
+"We gotter p'int up-stream," growled Uncle Jabez, after wringing his
+neck around again to spy out the landing near Lakeby's store. "Pesky
+current's kerried us too fur down."
+
+He gave a mighty pull to his own oar to rehead the boat. It was a
+perilous move, and in a perilous place. Here the water ran, troubled and
+white-capped, over a hidden reef.
+
+"Oh! do be careful, Uncle!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Pull!" yelled the old man, in return.
+
+By chance he sunk his own oar-blade so deeply, that it rubbed against
+the reef. It lifted Uncle Jabez from his seat, and unbalanced the boat.
+
+Like a flash the heavy oar flew out of its socket, and the old man
+sprawled on his back in the bottom of the boat. The latter whirled
+around in the current, and before Ruth could scream, even, it crashed
+broadside upon the rock!
+
+The rotting planks of the boat could not stand such a blow. Ruth saw the
+plank cave in, and the water followed. Down the boat settled upon the
+submerged part of the rock--a hopeless wreck!
+
+This was not the worst of the accident. In seeking to recover his seat,
+Uncle Jabez went overboard, as the old boat tipped. He dove into the
+shallow water, and struck his head heavily on the reef.
+
+Blood-stained bubbles rose to the surface, and the old man struggled
+only feebly to rise.
+
+"He is hurt! he will be drowned!" gasped Ruth, and seeing him so
+helpless, she sprang nimbly over the canted side of the boat and sought
+to draw her uncle's head out of the water.
+
+Although she was a good swimmer, and was not afraid of the water, the
+current was so swift, and her own footing so unstable, it was doubtful
+if Ruth Fielding could save both the miller and herself from the peril
+that menaced them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ROBERTO, THE GYPSY
+
+
+Ruth Fielding, following the death of her parents and while she was
+still a small girl, had left Darrowtown and Miss True Pettis, and all
+her other old friends and acquaintances, to live with her mother's
+uncle, at the Red Mill. Her coming to the mill and her early adventures
+in and about that charming place were related in the first volume of
+this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."
+
+Ruth made many friends in her new home, among them Helen and Tom
+Cameron, the twin, motherless children of a wealthy dry-goods merchant
+who had a beautiful home, called "the Outlook," near the mill, and Mercy
+Curtis, the daughter of the railroad station agent at Cheslow, the
+nearest important town to Ruth's new home. Ruth, Helen, and Mercy all
+went to Briarwood Hall, a girls' school some distance from Cheslow,
+while Master Tom attended a military academy at Seven Oaks, near the
+girls' institution of learning. The incidents of their first term at
+school are related in the second volume of the series, while in the
+mid-winter vacation Ruth and her friends go to Snow Camp in the
+Adirondacks.
+
+Later, our friends spent part of a summer vacation at Lighthouse Point
+on the Atlantic Coast, after which they visited Silver Ranch in Montana.
+The sixth volume tells of another mid-winter camping adventure on Cliff
+Island, while the volume previous to our present story--number seven, in
+fact--was entitled "Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm."
+
+This story narrated Ruth's particular interest in Sadie Raby, a strange,
+wild girl who ran away from cruel people who had taken her "to raise."
+Her reunion with her twin brothers, Willie and Dickie, and how they all
+three became the special care of Mr. Steele, the wealthy owner of
+Sunrise Farm, is told. It is through Ruth's efforts that the Rabys are
+settled in life and win friends.
+
+Now Ruth and her schoolmates had returned to the Red Mill and Cheslow,
+and but a brief space would elapse before the girls would begin their
+third year at Briarwood Hall; they were all looking toward the beginning
+of the fall term with great eagerness.
+
+Had Ruth Fielding been able to think at this moment of the boat's
+overturn, or of anything but her uncle's peril, she might have
+considered that the possibility of her ever seeing Briarwood Hall again
+was somewhat doubtful!
+
+The hurrying water tugged at her as though a hundred hands had laid hold
+of her person. She was nearly arm-pit deep in the flood, and her uncle's
+body was so heavy that she had all she could do to hold his head above
+the surface.
+
+She could not get him back into the boat, even, and perhaps that would
+not have been a wise move. For the old skiff, shaking and rocking, was
+likely to be torn free by the battling current. If it should swing into
+deep water, it must sink almost at once, for the water was pouring in
+through the hole that had been battered in its side.
+
+The flour was fast becoming saturated with the river-water, and its
+increased weight would bear the boat to the bottom, if it slipped from
+the reef.
+
+Unable to see any good of boarding the boat again, Ruth tried to work
+her way along the reef until she stood upon a higher part of it. Uncle
+Jabez was unconscious, blood flowed from a deep cut on his head, and he
+lay a dead weight in her arms.
+
+Never had Ruth Fielding been in greater peril. She was frightened, but
+mostly for the old man who seemed so seriously hurt.
+
+Tossing her loosened hair out of her eyes, she stared longingly at the
+landing near Lakeby's store. It was some distance up-stream, and not a
+person was in sight. She feared, too, that it was too far away for her
+voice to carry.
+
+Yet she must scream for help. She shouted again and again, endeavoring
+to put all the strength of her voice into the cries. Was that an answer?
+The girl held her uncle high in her arms and looked all about.
+
+Nobody was at the store landing. Nobody was behind on the other shore of
+the river--and she was glad that Aunt Alvirah and Mercy had not seen the
+accident, for neither of them could have helped in this predicament.
+
+Yes! there was the repeated shout--and nearer. Ruth's eyes turned to the
+north shore of the Lumano again. There was somebody running down the
+bank--not near the store kept by Timothy Lakeby, but directly opposite
+the rock on which the old boat had stranded.
+
+"Oh! oh! Help! help!" shrieked the girl of the Red Mill.
+
+"Hold on! I'm coming!"
+
+The voice came to her more strongly than before. She could not see who
+the person was, but she knew he was alone. She could not imagine how he
+was to aid them.
+
+Why did he not run to the store and bring other men to help? There! he
+seemed to have leaped right into the river!
+
+"Oh, dear me! the strongest swimmer could not reach us, let alone help
+Uncle Jabez ashore," was Ruth's thought.
+
+But up came the figure into sight again. Dripping, of course, now he
+stood firmly on a peak of rock that was thrust above the tide, and shook
+back the long black hair from his eyes.
+
+He was a wild looking person. His feet were bare and his ragged trousers
+were rolled to his knees. He wore neither vest nor coat, and his shirt
+was open at his throat. To Ruth he seemed very bronzed and rough
+looking.
+
+But whoever, or whatever, he might be, the girl prayed that he would
+prove able to rescue Uncle Jabez. She felt that she could save herself,
+but she was having all she could do to bear up the unconscious miller.
+
+"Hold on!" shouted the rescuer again.
+
+Once more he plunged forward. He disappeared off the rock. Was he
+swimming again? The half-overturned boat hid him from Ruth's gaze.
+
+Suddenly he shouted close at hand. Up he bobbed on the higher point of
+rock just beyond the boat.
+
+"What's the matter, Missy?" he demanded. "Is the old man hurt?"
+
+"He hit his head. See! he is unconscious," explained Ruth.
+
+"I'll get him! Look out, now; I've got to push off this old boat, Missy.
+She ain't no good, anyway."
+
+Ruth saw that he was a big, black-haired, strong looking boy. His
+complexion was very dark and his eyes sparkling--like cut jet beads. He
+might have been seventeen or eighteen years old, but he was fully as
+tall, and apparently as strong, as an ordinary man.
+
+His long hair curled and was tangled like a wild man's. His beard had
+begun to grow on his lip and chin. In his ears Ruth saw small gold rings
+and his wrists and forearms--which were bared--were covered with an
+intricate pattern of tattooing in red and blue ink.
+
+Altogether, she had never seen so strange a boy in all her life--and
+certainly none so strong. He leaped into the broken boat, seized Ruth's
+oar that had not been lost in the overset, and bracing it against the
+rock, pushed the trembling boat free in a moment.
+
+Ruth could not repress a scream. It looked as though he, too, must be
+thrown into the river, as the boat was caught by the current and jerked
+free.
+
+But the wild boy laughed and leaped upon the higher part of the rock. As
+the miller's old boat drifted down stream, he sprang into the water
+again and reached the girl and her burden.
+
+"Give him to me!" commanded the boy. "I can bear him up better than you,
+Missy. We'll get him ashore--and you can't be any wetter than you are
+now."
+
+"Oh, never mind me!" cried Ruth. "I am not afraid of a ducking. And I
+can swim."
+
+"You don't want to try swimming in _this_ place, Missy," he returned.
+"You follow right behind me--so."
+
+He turned, carrying the heavy figure of the miller in his arms as though
+he weighed but a hundred pounds instead of nearer two, and set off
+toward the shore along the ledge of rock by which he had come.
+
+Ruth saw, now, that beyond where the boat had been wrecked, the rock
+joined the shore, with only here and there a place where it was deep
+under water.
+
+She saw, too, that the boat was now sinking. It had not sailed ten yards
+in the fierce current before its gunwales disappeared. It sank in a
+deeper channel below--flour and all! Ruth realized that Uncle Jabez
+would be sorely troubled over the loss of those bags of flour.
+
+Ruth paddled to the shore behind the strong boy, but before they really
+reached terra firma, she knew that Uncle Jabez was struggling back to
+consciousness. The boy lowered the miller easily to the ground.
+
+"He's coming 'round, Missy," he said. His smile was broad, and the
+little gold rings twinkled in his ears.
+
+Ruth, wet and bedrabbled as she was, did not think of her own
+discomfort. She knelt beside Uncle Jabez and spoke to him. For some
+seconds he was so dazed that he did not seem to recognize her. Then he
+stammered:
+
+"Ha--ha----I knowed we couldn't do it. No--no gal kin do a man's work.
+Ha!"
+
+This seemed rather hard on Ruth, after she had done her best, and it had
+not been her fault that the boat was wrecked, but she was too excited
+just then to trouble about the miller's grumbling.
+
+"Oh, Uncle! you're not badly hurt, are you?"
+
+"Ha--hum! I dunno," stuttered the miller, and sat up. He rubbed his
+forehead and brought his hand, with a little blood upon it, back to the
+level of his eyes. "I vum!" he ejaculated, with more interest than
+before. "I must ha' cracked my head some. Why was it I didn't drown?"
+
+"This little missy, here," said the black-eyed youth, quickly. "_She_
+saved you, Mister. She held your head above water till I come."
+
+"Why--why----Niece Ruth! you did _that_?"
+
+"Oh, it was nothing, Uncle Jabez! I am so glad you are not hurt worse.
+This boy really saved you. He brought you ashore."
+
+"Who be ye, young man?" asked the miller. "I'm obleeged to ye--if what
+my niece says is true."
+
+"Oh, I am named Roberto. You need not to thank--no!" exclaimed the
+stranger, suddenly getting up and looking all about.
+
+"But it was very brave of him," declared Ruth, and she seized the boy's
+hand. "I--I am so glad you were near."
+
+"Here's Tim and Joe Bascom coming," said Uncle Jabez, who was facing the
+store.
+
+Instantly Roberto, as he called himself, jerked his hand from Ruth's
+grasp. He had seen the men coming, too, and without a word he turned and
+fled back into the woods.
+
+"Why--why----" began Ruth, in utter surprise.
+
+"What's the matter with that feller?" demanded Uncle Jabez, just as the
+storekeeper and Farmer Bascom arrived.
+
+"I seen the feller, Jabe," said the latter, eagerly. "He's one o' them
+blamed Gypsies. I run him out o' my orchard only yisterday."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+EVENING AT THE RED MILL
+
+
+About this time Uncle Jabez began to wake up to the fact that his boat
+and the flour were gone.
+
+"It's a dumbed shame, Jabez! an' I needed that flour like tunket," said
+Timothy Lakeby, the storekeeper.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the miller. "'Tain't nothin' out o' your pocket, Tim."
+
+"But my customers air wantin' it."
+
+"You lemme hev your boat, an' a boy to bring it back, an' we'll go right
+hum an' load ye up some more flour," groaned the miller. "That dratted
+Ben will be back by thet time, I fancy. Ef he'd been ter the mill I
+wouldn't hev been dependent upon my niece ter help row that old boat."
+
+"Too heavy for her--too heavy for her, Jabe," declared Joe Bascom.
+
+"Huh! is thet so?" snapped the miller. He could grumble to Ruth himself,
+but he would not stand for any other person's criticism of her. "Lemme
+tell ye, she worked her passage all right. An' I vum! I b'lieve thet
+'twas me, myself, thet run the old tub on the rock."
+
+"Aside from the flour, Jabez," said the storekeeper, "'tain't much of a
+loss. But you an' Ruthie might ha' both been drowned."
+
+"I would, if it hadn't been for her," declared the miller, with more
+enthusiasm than he usually showed. "She held my head up when I was
+knocked out--kinder. Ye see this cut in my head?"
+
+"Ye got out of it lucky arter all, then," said Bascom.
+
+"Ya-as," drawled the miller. "But I ain't feelin' so pert erbout losin'
+thet boat an' the flour."
+
+"But see how much worse it might have been, Uncle," suggested Ruth,
+timidly. "If it hadn't been for that boy----"
+
+"What did he say his name was?" interrupted Timothy.
+
+"Roberto."
+
+"Yah!" said Bascom. "Thet's a Gypsy name, all right! I'd like ter got
+holt on him."
+
+"I wish I could have thanked him," sighed Ruth.
+
+"If you see him ag'in, Joe," said the miller, "don't you bother about a
+peck o' summer apples. I'll pay for them," he added, with a sudden
+burst of generosity. "Of course--in trade," he added.
+
+He could move about now, and the gash in his head had ceased bleeding.
+It was a warm evening, and neither Ruth nor her uncle were likely to
+take cold from their ducking. But her clothing clung to her in an
+uncomfortable manner, and the girl was anxious to get back to the mill.
+
+Timothy Lakeby routed out a clerk and sent him with them in the lighter
+boat that was moored at the store landing. Ruth begged to pull an oar
+again, and her uncle did not forbid her. Perhaps he still felt a little
+weak and dazed.
+
+He kept speaking of Roberto, the Gypsy boy. "Strong as an ox, that
+feller," he said. "Wisht I had a man like him at the mill. Ben ain't
+wuth his salt."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure, Uncle Jabez, Ben is very faithful and good," urged Ruth.
+
+"Wal, a feller that could carry me like that young man done--he's jest
+another Sandow, _he_ is," said Uncle Jabez.
+
+They easily got across the river in the storekeeper's lighter boat, and
+Ruth displayed her oarsmanship to better advantage, for the oars were
+lighter. The miller noted her work and grunted his approval.
+
+"I vum! they _did_ teach ye suthin' at thet school 'sides folderrols,
+didn't they?" he said.
+
+Ruth asked the store clerk if he knew anything about the Gypsies.
+
+"Why, yes, Miss. I hear they are camping 'way up the river--up near the
+lakes, beyond Minturn's Dam. You know that's a wild country up there."
+
+Ruth remembered. She had been a little way in that direction with her
+friends, Tom and Helen Cameron, in their auto. Minturn Dam had burst two
+years before, and done much damage, but was now repaired.
+
+"That is a long way from here," she suggested to the clerk.
+
+"Yes'm. But Romany folks is gret roamers--thet's why they're called
+'Romany,' mebbe," was the reply. "And I guess that black-eyed rascal is
+a wild one."
+
+"Never mind. He got me out o' the river," mumbled Uncle Jabez.
+
+They brought the boat to the mill landing in safety, and Ben appeared,
+having returned from town and put up the mules. He gazed in blank
+amazement at the condition of his employer and Ruth.
+
+"For the good land!" exclaimed Ben; but he got no farther. He was not a
+talkative young man, and it took considerable to wake him up to as
+exciting an expression as the above.
+
+"You kin talk!" snarled Uncle Jabez. "If you'd been here to help me, I
+wouldn't ha' lost our boat and the flour."
+
+The miller fairly _ached_ when he thought of his losses, and he had to
+lay the blame on somebody.
+
+"Now you help me git four more sacks over to Tim Lakeby's----"
+
+Ruth would not hear of his going back before he changed his clothing and
+had something put upon the cut in his head. After a little arguing, it
+was agreed that Ben and the clerk should ferry the flour across to the
+store, and then the clerk would bring Ben back.
+
+"Goodness sakes alive!" shrieked Aunt Alvirah, when she saw them come
+onto the porch, still dripping. "What you been doing to my pretty, Jabez
+Potter?"
+
+"Huh!" sniffed the miller. "Mebbe it's what she's been doing to _me_?"
+and he wreathed his thin lips into a wry grin.
+
+Aunt Alvirah and Mercy must hear it all. The lame girl was delighted.
+She pointed her finger at the old man, who had now gotten into his
+Sunday suit and had a bandage on his head.
+
+"Now, tell me, Dusty Miller, what do you think about girls being of some
+use? Isn't Ruth as good as any boy?"
+
+"She sartainly kep' me from drownin' as good as any boy goin'," admitted
+the old man. "But that was only chancey, as ye might say. When it comes
+to bein' of main use in the world----Wal, it ain't gals thet makes the
+wheels go 'round!'
+
+"And don't you really think, Uncle, that girls are any use in the
+world?" asked Ruth, quietly. She had come out upon the dimly lit porch
+(this was after their supper) in season to hear the miller's final
+observation.
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Jabez. Perhaps he had not intended Ruth to hear just
+that. "They're like flowers, I reckon--mighty purty an' ornamental; but
+they ain't no manner o' re'l use!"
+
+Mercy fairly snorted, but she was too wise to say anything farther.
+Ruth, however, continued:
+
+"That seems very unfair, Uncle. Many girls are 'worth their salt,' as
+you call it, to their families. Why can't _I_ be of use to you--in time,
+of course?"
+
+"Ha! everyone to his job," said Uncle Jabez, brusquely. "You kin be of
+gre't help to your Aunt Alviry, no doubt. But ye can't take a sack of
+flour on your shoulders an' throw it inter a waggin--like Ben there. Or
+like that Roberto thet lugged me ashore to-night. An' I'm some weight, I
+be."
+
+"And is that all the kind of help you think you'll ever need, Uncle?"
+demanded Ruth, with rising emotion.
+
+"I ain't expectin' ter be helpless an' want nussin' by no gal--not yet
+awhile," said Uncle Jabez, with a chuckle. "Gals is a gre't expense--a
+gre't expense."
+
+"Now, Jabez! ye don't mean thet air," exclaimed the little old woman,
+coming from the kitchen. She lowered herself into the little rocker
+nearby, with her usual moan of, "Oh, my back! an' oh, my bones! Ye don't
+mean ter hurt my pretty's feelin's, I know."
+
+"She axed me!" exclaimed the miller, angrily. "I vum! ain't I spendin' a
+fortun' on her schoolin' at that Briarwood Hall?"
+
+"And didn't she save ye a tidy fortun' when she straightened out that
+Tintacker Mine trouble for ye, Jabez Potter?" demanded the old woman,
+vigorously. "An' the good Lord knows she's been a comfort an' help to
+ye, right an' left, in season an' out, ever since she fust stepped foot
+inter this Red Mill----What's she done for ye this very day, Jabez, as
+ye said yourself?"
+
+Aunt Alvirah was one of the very few people who dared to talk plainly to
+the miller, when he was in one of his tempers. Now he growled out some
+rough reply, and strode into the house.
+
+"You've driven him away, Auntie!" cried Ruth, under her breath.
+
+"He'd oughter be driv' away," said the old woman, "when he's in thet
+mind."
+
+"But what he says is true. I _am_ a great expense to him. I--I wish I
+could earn my own way through school."
+
+"Don't ye worry, my pretty. Jabez Potter's bark is wuss than his bite."
+
+"But the bark hurts, just the same."
+
+"He ought to be whipped!" hissed Mercy, in her most unmerciful tone.
+"I'd like to whip him, till all the dust flew out of his Dusty Miller
+clothes--so I would!"
+
+"Sh!" commanded Ruth, recovering her self-command again and fighting
+back the tears. "Just as Aunt Alvirah observes, he doesn't mean half of
+what he says."
+
+"It hurts just the same--you said it yourself," declared the lame girl,
+with a snap.
+
+"I want to be independent, anyway," said Ruth, with some excitement. "I
+want an education so I can _do_ something. I'd like to cultivate my
+voice--the teacher says it has possibilities. Mr. Cameron is going to
+let Helen go as far as she likes with the violin, and she doesn't _have_
+to think about making her way in the world."
+
+"Gals ain't content now to sit down after gittin' some schoolin'--I kin
+see thet," sighed Aunt Alvirah. "It warn't so in my day. I never see the
+beat of 'em for wantin' ter go out inter the worl' an' make a
+livin'--jes' like men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE AUTO TOUR
+
+
+"Hi, Ruth!"
+
+"Hey, Ruth!"
+
+"Straw, Ruth!--why don't you say?" cried the owner of the name, running
+to the porch and smiling out upon the Cameron twins, who had stopped
+their automobile at the Red Mill gate on a morning soon following that
+day on which Uncle Jabez and Ruth had undergone their involuntary
+ducking in the Lumano.
+
+"Aren't you ready, Ruthie?" cried Helen from the back seat of the car.
+
+"Do hurry up, Ruth--the horses don't want to stand," laughed Tom, who
+was slim and black haired and black eyed, like his twin. Indeed, the two
+were so much alike that, dressed in each other's clothing, it is
+doubtful if they could have been suspected in such disguise.
+
+"But my bag isn't packed yet," cried Ruth. "I didn't know you'd be here
+so soon."
+
+"Take your toothbrush and powder puff--that's all you girls really
+need," declared the irrepressible Tom.
+
+"I like that! And on a two days' trip into the hills," said his sister,
+beating him soundly with an energetic fist.
+
+"Give him one or two good ones for me, Helen," said Ruth, and ran in to
+finish her preparations for the journey she was to take with her
+friends.
+
+"Pshaw!" grumbled the impatient Tom, "going to Uncle Ike's isn't like
+going to a fancy hotel. And we'll stop over to-night with Fred Larkin's
+folks--the girls there would lend you and Ruth all you need."
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed his sister. "Just what have you in _your_ bag? I
+know it's heavy. You have all you want----"
+
+"Sure. Pair of socks, two collars, fishing tackle, some books I borrowed
+of Fred last year, my bicycle wrench--you never know when you are going
+to need it,--a string of wampum I promised to take to Nealy
+Larkin--she's a Campfire girl, you know--and an Indian tomahawk for
+Fred----"
+
+"But, clothes! clothes!" gasped Helen. "Where are your shirts?"
+
+"Oh, I'll borrow a shirt, if I need one," declared Master Tom, grinning.
+"Uncle Ike's Benjy is about my size, you know. What's the use of carting
+around so much stuff?"
+
+"I notice you have your bag full of trash," sniffed Helen. "It can
+plainly be seen that Mrs. Murchiston was called away so suddenly that
+she could not oversee our packing."
+
+"Come on, Ruth!" shouted Tom again, turning toward the farmhouse.
+
+"Now, don't get her in a flurry," admonished Helen. "She hasn't had but
+two hours' notice to get ready for this two days' trip. It's a wonder
+Uncle Jabez would let her go with us at all."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Jabe isn't such a bad old fellow after all," said Tom.
+
+"He's been just as cross and cranky as he can be, ever since he lost his
+boat in the river the other evening--you know that. And they say he
+would have been drowned, too, if it hadn't been for Ruthie. What a brave
+girl she is, Tom!"
+
+"Bravest in seven states!" acknowledged Master Tom, promptly. He had
+always thought there was nobody just like Ruth, and his sister smiled
+upon him approvingly.
+
+"I guess she is!" she agreed. "There isn't a girl at Briarwood Hall that
+will be her match in anything--now that Madge Steele has gotten through.
+Ruth is going to be head of the senior class before we graduate--you
+see."
+
+"She'll have to hustle some to beat little Mercy Curtis," grinned Tom.
+"_There's_ a sharp suffragette for you!"
+
+Helen laughed. "That's right. But, unfortunately for Mercy, Mrs.
+Tellingham considers other work beside our books in grading us. Oh,
+Tommy! we're going to have a dandy time this coming year at school."
+
+"You have my best wishes," returned her brother, with a slightly clouded
+face. "Bobbins and Busy Izzy and I expect to be drilled like everything,
+when we get back to Seven Oaks. Professor Darly is a terror."
+
+Ruth came out with her bag then, and in the doorway behind her appeared
+the little, stooped figure of Aunt Alvirah. The Camerons waved their
+hands and shouted greetings to her.
+
+"Take good keer of my pretty, Master Tom," shrilled the old lady,
+hobbling out into the yard. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"We'll handle her as if she were made of glass," declared Tom, laughing.
+"Hop in, Ruthie!"
+
+"Good-bye, Aunt Alvirah!" cried the girl of the Red Mill, clasping the
+little old lady around the neck and kissing her. Then she waved her hand
+to Uncle Jabez, who appeared in the mill doorway, and he nodded grimly,
+as the car started.
+
+Ben appeared at a window and bashfully nodded to the departing pleasure
+party. The car quickly passed the end of the Cheslow road and sped up
+the riverside. These lowlands beyond the Red Mill had once been covered
+by a great flood, and the three friends would never forget their race
+with the freshet from Culm Falls, at the time the Minturn Dam burst.
+
+"But we're bound far, far above the dam this time," said Tom. "Fred
+Larkin lives farther than that--beyond the gorge between the hills, and
+at the foot of the first pond. We'll get there long before dark unless
+something happens to this old mill I'm driving."
+
+"There! Tommy's harping on his pet trouble," laughed Helen. "Father
+won't let us use the new car to go scooting about the country alone in,
+and Tommy thinks he is abused."
+
+"Well! that 'six' is just eating its head off in the garage," grumbled
+the boy.
+
+"Just as though it were a horse!" chuckled Ruth.
+
+"You wait! I bet something happens on this trip, because of this old
+heap of scrap iron that pa calls a car."
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with some exasperation. "Don't you dare
+have a breakdown in the hills, Tom! I should be frightened. It's so wild
+up there beyond Loon Lake."
+
+"You needn't blame me," returned her twin. "I shall do my best."
+
+"And so will the auto--I have no doubt," added Ruth, laughingly. "Cheer
+up, Helen, dear----"
+
+"I know the rest of it!" interrupted her chum. "'The worst is yet to
+come!' I--hope--not!"
+
+Ruth Fielding would allow no worrying or criticism in this event. They
+were out for a good time, and she at once proceeded to cheer up the
+twins, and laugh at their fears, and interest them in other things.
+
+They crossed the river at Culm Falls--a beautiful spot--and it was
+beyond the bridge, as the car was mounting the first long rise, that the
+party of adventurers found their first incident of moment.
+
+Here and there were clearings in the forest upon the right side of the
+road (on the other side the hill fell abruptly to the river), and little
+farms. As the party came in sight of one of these farms, a great cry
+arose from the dooryard. The poultry was soundly disturbed--squawking,
+cackling, shrieking their protests noisily--while the deep baying of a
+dog rose savagely above the general turmoil.
+
+"Something doing there!" quoth Tom Cameron, slowing down.
+
+"A chicken hawk, perhaps?" suggested Ruth.
+
+A woman was screaming admonition or advice; occasionally the gruffer
+voice of a man added to the turmoil. But the dog's barking was the
+loudest sound.
+
+Suddenly, from around the corner of the barn, appeared a figure wildly
+running. It was neither the farmer, nor his wife--that was sure.
+
+"Tramp!" exclaimed Tom, reaching for the starting lever again.
+
+At that moment Helen shrieked. After the running man appeared a hound.
+He had broken his leash, and a more savage brute it would be difficult
+to imagine. He was following the runner with great leaps, and when the
+fugitive vaulted the roadside fence, the dog crashed through the rails,
+tearing down a length of them, and scrambling in the dusty road in an
+endeavor to get on the trail of the man again.
+
+Only, it was not a man; it was a boy! He was big and strong looking, but
+his face was boyish. Ruth Fielding stood up suddenly in the car and
+shrieked to him:
+
+"Come here! This way! Roberto!"
+
+"My goodness! is he a friend of yours, Ruthie?" gasped Tom Cameron.
+
+"He's the Gypsy boy that saved Uncle Jabez," returned Ruth, in a breath.
+
+"Take him aboard--_do_!" urged Helen. "That awful dog----"
+
+Roberto had heard and leaped for the running-board of the car. Tom
+switched on the power. Just as the huge hound leaped, and his fore-paws
+touched the step, the car darted away and the brute was left sprawling.
+
+The car was a left-hand drive, and Tom motioned the panting youth to get
+in beside him. The dark-faced fellow did so. At first he was too
+breathless to speak, but his black eyes snapped like beads, and his lips
+smiled. He seemed to have enjoyed the race with the savage dog, instead
+of having been frightened by it.
+
+"You save me, Missy, like I save your old man--eh?" he panted, at last,
+turning his brilliant smile upon Ruth. "Me! that dog mos' have me, eh?"
+
+"What was the matter? How came you to start all that riot?" demanded
+Tom, looking at the Gypsy youth askance.
+
+Roberto's grin became expansive. The little gold rings in his ears
+twinkled as well as his eyes.
+
+"I did them no wrong. I slept in the man's haymow. He found me a little
+while ago. He say I haf to _pay_ for my sleep--eh? How poor Gypsy pay?"
+and he opened his hands and shrugged his shoulders to show that his
+pockets were empty.
+
+"Me, no money have got. Can I work? Of course I work--only the farmers
+do not trust me. They call all Gypsies thieves. Isn't it so, Missy?" and
+he flashed a glance at Ruth.
+
+"I know, Mr. Joe Bascom drove you out of his orchard," agreed the girl
+of the Red Mill. "But you should have come across the river to _us_.
+Uncle Jabez is really grateful to you."
+
+"Oh, _that_?" and the boy shrugged his shoulders again. "I do not want
+pay for what I do--no. I want no money. I would not work a day for all
+my grandmother's wealth--and she is a miser," and Roberto laughed again,
+showing all his white, strong teeth.
+
+"But these people back here--this man and his woman--they want me to
+churn. It is a dog's work--no? I see where the dog haf to churn, but
+that dog die and they get this new, savage one--and it will not. Me, I
+think this dog very wise!" and Roberto's merriment broke out again, and
+he shook with it.
+
+"So I tell them I will not do dog's work, and then he, the man, chases
+me with his pitchfork, and the woman unloose the dog. Oh, yes! I make a
+great noise in the henyard. That dog chase me hard. So--I got away as
+you see," he concluded.
+
+"Say! you're a cool one," declared Tom, with growing admiration.
+
+"But you ought not to be loafing about, sleeping anywhere, and without
+employment," said Helen, primly.
+
+Roberto's black eyes sparkled. "Why does the little missy say I should
+work?" he demanded. "There is no need. I return to my people, perhaps.
+There I curry horses and fill the water pails for the women, and go with
+my uncle to the horse-fairs where he trades, or be under my
+grandmother's beck and call--the grandmother whom I tell you is a miser.
+But I never have money with them, and why should I work for it
+elsewhere?"
+
+"To get good clothes, and good food, and pay your way everywhere,"
+suggested Tom.
+
+Roberto laughed again. He spread out his strong hands. "These keep me
+from day to day," he said. "But money burns a hole in my pocket. Or,
+would you have me like my grandmother? She hoards every penny-piece, and
+then gloats over her money-box, by the firelight, when the rest of the
+camp is asleep. Oh, I see her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PROPHECY FULFILLED
+
+
+This queer youth interested Ruth Fielding and her friends, the Cameron
+twins, very much. Roberto was not naturally talkative, it seemed, for he
+soon dropped into silence and it was hard to get aught out of him but
+"Yes" and "No." At first, however, he had been excited, and he told them
+a great deal of his life with the tribe and along the pleasant country
+roads.
+
+The cities Roberto could not bear. "There is no breath left in them--it
+is used up by so many," he explained. He did not eschew work because he
+was lazy, it seemed; but he saw no use in it.
+
+Clothing? Money? Rich food? Other things that people strive for in the
+main? They were nothing to Roberto. He could sleep under a haystack,
+crunch a crust of bread, and wear his garments until they fell off him
+in rags.
+
+But he knew the woods and fields as nobody but a wild boy could. Every
+whistle and note of every bird was as familiar to him as his own
+Tzigane speech; and he could imitate them with exactness.
+
+He delighted his new friends, as the car rumbled along. He soon stopped
+talking much, as I have said, but he answered their multitude of
+questions, and did not seem to mind being cross-questioned about the
+life of the Gypsies.
+
+The auto party stopped soon after noon to lunch. It was Roberto who
+pointed out the spring of clear, cold water for which they searched. He
+had been over this road before and, it seemed, once along a trail was
+enough for the young Gypsy. He never forgot.
+
+He went away down the little stream, and made himself very clean before
+appearing for his share of the food. To the surprise of Ruth and Helen
+he ate daintily and showed breeding of a kind. Nor was he enamored of
+the cakes and other dainties that Babette, the Camerons' cook, had put
+into the lunch hamper, but enjoyed, instead, the more simple viands.
+
+Roberto grew restless of riding in the car soon after luncheon. He
+thanked them for giving him the lift, but explained that there were
+paths through the woods leading to the present camp of his tribe that he
+preferred to follow.
+
+"It is a mark of kindness for you to have brought me this way," he said,
+softly, bending over Ruth's hand, for he insisted upon considering her
+his hostess. He realized that, had it not been for her, the Camerons
+would have been chary of taking him aboard.
+
+"If you are ever near the Red Mill again," Ruth told him, "be sure to
+come and speak with Uncle Jabez. He will not forget you, I am sure."
+
+"Of that--pooh!" exclaimed the Gypsy. "I do not want pay for such an
+act. Do you?"
+
+And that set Ruth Fielding to thinking a bit. Perhaps she _had_ expected
+payment--of a kind--for her action in helping Uncle Jabez in the river.
+She had hoped he would more freely respond to her affection than he did.
+Ah! it is hard to do a good act and not secretly hope for some small
+return. "Virtue is its own reward" is a moral hard to understand!
+
+After Roberto had left them, the trio of friends were occupied in
+exchanging views regarding the Gypsy boy, and in discussing their
+several opinions as to what kind of people his folk really were.
+
+"It must be loads of fun to jog along the roads in those caravans, and
+camp where you please, and all that," said Helen, reflectively. "I
+believe I'd like it."
+
+"About twenty miles on a fast day, eh?" chuckled Tom, with scorn. "Not
+for me! When Gypsies get to riding in autos--and six-cylinder,
+up-to-date ones, too--I'll join the first tribe that comes along."
+
+"I declare, Tommy!" laughed his sister, "you are getting to be a 'speed
+fiend.' Ruth and I will be scared to drive with you."
+
+"It's great to go fast," exclaimed Master Tom. "Here's a straight piece
+of road ahead, girls. Hold on!"
+
+As he spoke, he manipulated the levers and the car leaped ahead. Ruth's
+startled "Oh!" was left a quarter of a mile behind. The girls clung to
+the hand-holds, and Tom crouched behind the windshield and "let her
+out."
+
+It was a straight piece of road, as he had said. But before they reached
+the first turn there was another house beside the road--a small
+farmhouse. Beyond it was a field, with a stone wall, and it chanced that
+just as the Camerons' car roared down the road, clearing at least thirty
+miles an hour, the leader of a flock of sheep in that pasture, butted
+through a place in the stone-fence and started to cross the highway.
+
+One sheep would not have made much trouble; it would have been easy to
+dodge just one object. But here came a string of the woolly
+creatures--and greater fools than sheep have not been discovered in the
+animal world!
+
+The old black-faced ram trotted across the road and through a gap in a
+fence on the river side. After him crowded the ewes and youngsters.
+
+The roaring auto frightened the creatures, but they would not give way
+before it. They knew no better than to follow that old ram through the
+gap, one after the other.
+
+Tom had shut off the engine and applied the brakes, as the girls
+shrieked. But he had been going too fast to stop short of the place
+where the sheep were passing. At the end of the flock came a lamb,
+bleating and trying to keep up with its mother.
+
+"Oh, the lamb!" shrieked Helen.
+
+"Look out, Tom!" added Ruth.
+
+The lamb did not get across the road. The car struck it, and with a
+pitiful "baa-a-a!" it was knocked a dozen feet.
+
+In a moment the car stopped. It had scarcely run its entire length past
+the spot where the lamb was struck. The poor creature lay panting,
+"baa-aing" feebly, beside the road.
+
+Ruth was out of the tonneau and kneeling beside the creature almost
+before the wheels ceased to roll. The mother ewe had crowded through the
+fence. Now she put her foolish face out, and called to the lamb to
+follow.
+
+"He can't!" almost sobbed Ruth. "He has a broken leg. Oh! what a foolish
+mother you were to lead him right into danger."
+
+Tom was silent and looked pretty solemn, while Helen was scolding him
+nervously--although she knew that he was not really at fault.
+
+"If you hadn't been speeding, this wouldn't have happened, Tom Cameron!"
+she said. "I told you so."
+
+"Oh, all right. You're a fine prophetess," grunted her brother. "Keep on
+rubbing it in."
+
+The lamb had tried to scramble up, but one of its forelegs certainly was
+broken. It tumbled over on its side again, and Ruth held it down
+tenderly and tried to soothe its fear.
+
+"Oh, dear! whatever shall we do?" she murmured. "The poor, poor little
+thing."
+
+"Guess we'll know pretty soon what we'll do," quoth Master Tom, standing
+beside the machine and looking back along the road. "Here comes the man
+that owns him."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" whispered Helen. "Doesn't he look savage?"
+
+"Worse than the old ram there," agreed her brother, for the black-faced
+leader of the flock was eyeing them through the fence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A TRANSACTION IN MUTTON
+
+
+The man who approached was a fierce, red-faced individual, with long
+legs encased to the knees in cowhide boots, overalls, a checked shirt,
+and a whisp of yellow whisker under his chin that parted and waved, as
+he strode toward the auto party.
+
+His pale blue eyes were ablaze, and he had worked himself up into a
+towering rage. Like many farmers (and sometimes for cause), he had
+evidently sworn eternal feud against all automobilists!
+
+"What d'ye mean, runnin' inter my sheep?" he bawled. "I'll have the law
+on ye! I'll make ye pay for ev'ry sheep ye killed! I'll attach yer
+machine, by glory! I'll put ye all in jail! I'll----"
+
+"You're going to have your hands full with all _that_, Mister,"
+interrupted Tom Cameron. "And you're excited more than is necessary.
+I'll pay for all the damage I've done--although there would have been
+none at all, had your sheep remained in their pasture. This is a county
+road, I take it."
+
+"By glory!" exclaimed the farmer, arriving at the spot at last. "This
+road was built for folks ter drive over decent. Nobody reckoned on
+locomotives, an' sich comin' this way, when 'twas built--no, sir-ree!"
+
+"I'm sorry," began Tom, but the man broke in:
+
+"Thet don't pay me none for havin' all my sheep made into mutton b'fore
+their time. By glory! I got an attic home full o' 'sorries.' Ye can't
+git out o' it thet way."
+
+"I am not trying to. I'll pay for any sheep I have hurt or killed," Tom
+said, unable to keep from grinning at the excited farmer.
+
+"And don't ye git sassy none, neither!" commanded the man. "I'm one o'
+the school trustees in this deestrict, an' the church clerk. I got some
+influence. I guess if I arrested ye right naow--an' these gals, too--the
+jestice of the peace would consider I done jest right."
+
+"Oh!" murmured Helen, clinging to Ruth's hand.
+
+"He can't do it," whispered the latter.
+
+"I feel sure, sir," said Tom, politely, "that it will be unnecessary for
+you to go to such lengths. I will pay satisfactory damages. There is the
+lamb we struck--and the only beast that is hurt."
+
+The man had given but one glance to the lamb that lay on the grass
+beside the girls. He did not look to be any too tender-hearted, and the
+little creature's accident did not touch him at all--save in the region
+of his pocketbook.
+
+He stepped to the gap in the fence, kicked the bleating ewe out of the
+way in a most brutal manner, and proceeded to count his flock. He had to
+do this twice before he was assured that none but the lamb was missing.
+
+"You see," Tom said, quietly, "I have turned only one of your sheep into
+mutton--for I suppose this lamb must be killed."
+
+"Oh, no, Tom!" cried Ruth, who was bending over the little creature
+again. "I am sure its leg will mend."
+
+The farmer snorted. "Don't want no crippled critters erbout. Ye'll
+hafter pay me full price for that lamb, boy--then I'll give it to the
+dogs. 'Tain't no good the way it is."
+
+Ruth had tied the leg firmly with her own handkerchief--which was of
+practical size. "If we could put it in splints, and keep the lamb still,
+it would mend," she declared to Helen.
+
+"What do you consider the thing worth, sir?" asked Tom.
+
+"Four dollars," declared the farmer, promptly. It was not worth two,
+even at the present price of lamb, for the creature was neither big nor
+fat.
+
+"Here you are," said Tom, and thrust four one-dollar notes into his
+hand.
+
+The man stared at them, and from them to Tom. He really seemed
+disappointed. Perhaps he wished he had said more, when Tom did not
+haggle over the price.
+
+"Wal, I'll take it along to the house then," said the farmer. "An' when
+ye come this road ag'in, young man, ye better go a leetle slow--yaas, a
+leetle slow!"
+
+"I certainly shall--as long as you have gaps in your sheep pasture
+fence," returned Tom, promptly.
+
+"Git out'n the way, leetle gal," said the man, brushing Ruth aside.
+"I'll take him----"
+
+The lamb struggled to get on its feet. The sudden appearance of the man
+frightened the animal.
+
+"Stop that!" cried Ruth. "You'll hurt the poor thing."
+
+"I'll knock him in the head, when I git to the chopping block," said the
+farmer, roughly. "Shucks! it's only a lamb."
+
+"Don't you dare!" Ruth cried, standing in front of the quivering
+creature. "You are cruel."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" cried the farmer. "I guess I kin do as I please with my
+own."
+
+Helen clung to Ruth's hand and tried to draw her away from the rough
+man. Even Tom hesitated to arouse the farmer's wrath further. But the
+girl from the Red Mill stamped her foot and refused to move.
+
+"Don't you dare touch it!" she exclaimed. "It isn't your lamb."
+
+"What's that?" he demanded, and then broke into a hoarse laugh. "Thet
+thar's a good one! I raised thet lamb----"
+
+"And we have just bought it--paid you your own price for it," cried
+Ruth.
+
+"Crickey! that's so, Ruthie," Tom Cameron interposed. "Of course he
+doesn't own it. If you want the poor thing, we'll take it along to Fred
+Larkin's place."
+
+"Say!" exclaimed the farmer. "What does this mean? I didn't sell ye the
+carcass of thet thar lamb; I only got damages----"
+
+"You sold it. You know you did," Ruth declared, firmly. "I dare you to
+touch the poor little thing. It is ours--and I know its life can be
+saved."
+
+"Pick it right up, girls, and come on," advised Tom, starting his
+engine. "We have the rights of it, and if he interferes, we'll just run
+on to the next town and bring a constable back with us. I guess we can
+call upon the authorities, too. What's sauce for the goose, ought to be
+sauce for the gander."
+
+The man was stammering some very impolite words, and Tom was anxious to
+get his sister and Ruth away. The girls lifted the lamb in upon the back
+seat and laid it tenderly upon some wraps. Then the boy leaped into the
+front seat and prepared to start.
+
+"I tell ye what it is!" exclaimed the farmer, coming close to the car.
+"This ain't no better than highway robbery. I never expected ter have ye
+take the carcass away, when I told ye sich a low price----"
+
+"I have paid its full value, and you don't own a thread of its wool,
+Mister," said Tom, feeling the engine throb under him now. "I'm going to
+start----"
+
+"You wait! I ain't got through with you----"
+
+Just then the car started. The man had been holding to the end of the
+seat. He foolishly tried to continue his hold.
+
+The car sprang ahead suddenly, the farmer was swung around like a top,
+and the last they saw of him he was sitting in the middle of the dusty
+road, shaking both fists after the car, and yelling at the top of his
+voice. Just what he said, it was perhaps better that they did not hear!
+
+"Wasn't he a mean old thing?" cried Tom, when the car was purring along
+steadily.
+
+"And wasn't Ruth smart to see that he had no right to this poor little
+sheep?" said Helen, admiringly.
+
+"What you going to do with it, Ruthie?" demanded Tom, glancing back at
+the lamb. "Going to sell it to a butcher in Littletop? That's where
+Fred Larkin's folk live, you know."
+
+"Sell it to a butcher!" exclaimed Ruth, in scorn. "That's what the
+farmer would have done--butchered it."
+
+"It is the fate of most sheep to be turned into mutton," returned Tom,
+his eyes twinkling.
+
+"And then the mutton is turned into boys and girls," laughed Ruth. "But
+if I have my way, this little fellow will never become either a Cameron,
+or a Fielding."
+
+"Oh! I wouldn't want to eat him--after seeing him hurt," cried Helen.
+"Isn't he cunning? See! he knows we are going to be good to him."
+
+"I hope he knows it," her chum replied. "After all, it doesn't take much
+to assure domestic animals of our good intentions toward them."
+
+"Well," said Tom, grinning, "I promise not to eat this lamb, if you make
+a point of it, but if I don't get something to eat pretty soon, I assure
+you he'll be in grave danger!"
+
+They made Littletop and the Larkins' residence before Tom became too
+ravenous, however; and the younger members of the Larkin family welcomed
+the adventurers--including the lamb--with enthusiasm.
+
+Fred Larkin had some little aptitude for medicine and surgery--so they
+all said, at least--and he set the broken leg and put splints upon it.
+Then they put the little creature in one of the calf pens, fed it
+liberally, and Fred declared that in ten days it would be well enough to
+hop around.
+
+The little Larkin folk were delighted with the lamb for a pet, so Ruth
+knew that she could safely trust her protégé to them.
+
+There was great fun that night, for the neighboring young folk were
+invited to meet the trio from Cheslow and the Red Mill, and it was
+midnight before the girls and boys were still. Therefore, there was no
+early start made for the second day's run.
+
+Breakfast was late, and it was half-past nine before Tom started the
+car, and they left Littletop amid the cheers and good wishes of their
+friends.
+
+"We must hustle, if we want to get to Uncle Ike's before dark," Tom
+declared. "So you will have to stand for some scorching, girls."
+
+"See that you don't kill anything--or even maim it," advised his sister.
+"You are out four dollars for damages already."
+
+"Never you mind. I reckon you girls won't care to be marooned along some
+of these wild roads all night."
+
+"Nor to travel over them by night, either," advised Ruth. "My! we
+haven't seen a house for ten miles."
+
+"It's somewhere up this way that those Gypsy friends of Roberto are
+encamped--as near as I could make out," Tom remarked.
+
+"My! I wouldn't like to meet them," his sister said.
+
+"They wouldn't hurt us--at least, Roberto didn't," laughed Ruth.
+
+"That's all right. But Gypsies _do_ carry off people----"
+
+"And eat them?" scoffed Tom. "How silly, Nell!"
+
+"Well, Mr. Smartie! they might hold us for ransom."
+
+"Like regular brigands, eh?" returned Tom, lightly. "That _would_ be an
+adventure worth chronicling."
+
+"You can laugh----Oh!"
+
+As she was speaking, Helen saw a head thrust out of the bushes not far
+along the road they traveled.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Ruth, seizing her arm.
+
+"Look there!" But the car was past the spot in a moment. "Somebody was
+watching us, and dodged back," declared Helen, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" laughed her brother.
+
+But before they took the next turn they looked back and saw two men
+standing in the road, talking. They were rough-looking fellows.
+
+"Gypsies!" cried Helen.
+
+However, they saw nobody else for a few miles. Now they were skirting
+one of the lakes in the upper chain, some miles above the gorge where
+the dam was built, and the scenery was both beautiful and rugged. There
+were few farms.
+
+On a rising stretch of road, the engine began to miss, and something
+rattled painfully in the "internal arrangements" of the car. Tom looked
+serious, stopped several times, and just coaxed her slowly to the summit
+of the hill.
+
+"Now don't tell us that we're going to have a breakdown!" cried Helen.
+
+"Do you think those are thunder-heads hanging over the mountain?" asked
+Ruth, seriously.
+
+"Sure of it!" responded Helen.
+
+"You are a regular 'calamity howler'!" exclaimed Tom. "By Jove! this old
+mill _is_ going to kick up rusty."
+
+"There's a house!" cried Ruth, gaily, standing up in the back to look
+ahead. "Now we're all right if the machine has to be repaired, or a
+storm bursts upon us."
+
+But when the car limped up and stopped in the sandy road before the
+sagging gate, the trio saw that their refuge was a windowless and
+abandoned structure that looked as gaunt and ghostly as a
+lightning-riven tree!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FELLOW TRAVELERS
+
+
+"Well! this is a pretty pickle!" groaned Tom, at last as much disturbed
+as Helen had been. "It's no use, girls. We'll have to stop here till the
+storm is over. It is coming."
+
+"Well, that will be fun!" cried Ruth, cheerfully. "Of course we ought to
+be storm-bound in a deserted house. That is according to all romantic
+precedent."
+
+"Humph! you and your precedent!" grumbled her chum. "I'd rather it was a
+nice roadside hotel, or tearoom. That would be something like."
+
+"Come on! we'll take in the hamper, and make tea on the deserted
+hearthstone," said Ruth. "Tom can stay out here and repair his old
+auto."
+
+"Tom will find a shelter for the machine first, I reckon. There! hear
+the thunder? We are going to get it, and I must raise the hood of the
+tonneau, too," proclaimed the lad. "Go on with your hamper and wraps. I
+see sheds back there, and I'll try to coax the old Juggernaut into that
+lane and so to the sheds."
+
+He did as he proposed during the next few minutes, while the girls
+approached the deserted dwelling, with the hamper. The lower front
+windows were boarded, and the door closed. But the door giving entrance
+from the side porch was ajar.
+
+"'Leave all hope behind, ye who enter here,'" quoted Helen, peering into
+the dusky interior. "It looks powerful ghostly, Ruthie."
+
+"There are plenty of windows out, so we'll have light enough," returned
+the girl of the Red Mill. "Don't be a 'fraid cat,' Helen."
+
+"That's all right," grumbled her chum. "You're only making a bluff
+yourself."
+
+Ruth laughed. She was not bothered by fears of the supernatural, no
+matter what the old house was, or had been. Now, a good-sized rat might
+have made her shriek and run!
+
+Into the house stepped Ruth Fielding, in her very bravest manner. The
+hall was dark, but the door into a room at the left--toward the back of
+the house--was open and through this doorway she ventured, the old,
+rough boards of the floor creaking beneath her feet.
+
+This apartment must have been the dining-room. There was a high, ornate,
+altogether ugly mantle and open fireplace at one end of the room. At the
+other, there stood, fastened to the wall, or built into it, a china
+closet, the doors of which had been removed. These ugly, shallow
+caverns gaped at them and promised refuge to spiders and mice. On the
+hearth was a heap of crusted gray ashes.
+
+"What a lonesome, eerie sort of a place," shivered Helen. "Wish the old
+car had kept running----"
+
+"Through the rain?" suggested Ruth, pointing outside, where the air was
+already gray with approaching moisture.
+
+Down from the higher hills the storm was sweeping. They could smell it,
+for the wind leaped in at the broken windows and rustled the shreds of
+paper still clinging to the walls of the dining-room.
+
+"This isn't a fit place to eat in," grumbled Helen.
+
+"Let's go above stairs. Carry that alcohol stove carefully, dear. We'll
+have a nice cup of tea, even if it does----"
+
+"Oh!" shrieked Helen, as a long streak of lightning flew across their
+line of vision.
+
+"Yes. Even in spite of _that_," repeated Ruth, smiling, and raising her
+voice that she might be heard above the cannonade of thunder.
+
+"I don't like it, I tell you!" declared her chum.
+
+"I can't say that I do myself, but I do not see how we are to help it."
+
+"I wish Tom was inside here, too."
+
+Ruth had glanced through the window and seen that Master Tom had managed
+to get the auto under a shed at the back. He was industriously putting
+up the curtains to the car, and making all snug against the rain, before
+he began to tinker with the machinery.
+
+There was a faint drumming in the air--the sound of rain coming down the
+mountain side, beating its "charge" upon the leaves as it came. There
+were no other sounds, for the birds and insects had sought shelter
+before the wrathful face of the storm.
+
+Yes! there was one other. The girls had not heard it until they began
+climbing the stairs out of the side entry. Helen clutched Ruth suddenly
+by the skirt.
+
+"Hear that!" she whispered.
+
+"Say it out loud, dear, do!" exclaimed the girl of the Red Mill. "There
+is never anything so nerve-shaking as a stage whisper."
+
+"There! you heard it?"
+
+"The wind rustling something," said Ruth, attempting to go on.
+
+"No."
+
+"Something squeaks--mice, I do believe."
+
+"Mice would starve to death here," declared Helen.
+
+"How smart of you! That is right," agreed Ruth. "Come on. Let us see
+what it is--if it's upstairs."
+
+Helen clung close to her and trembled. There was the rustling, squeaking
+sound again. Ruth pushed on (secretly feeling rather staggered by the
+strange noise), and they entered one of the larger upper chambers.
+
+Immediately she saw an open stovepipe hole in the chimney. "The noise
+comes from that," she declared, setting down the basket and pointing.
+
+"But what is it?" wailed her frightened chum.
+
+"The wind?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+The lightning flashed again, and the thunder rolled nearer. Helen
+screamed, crouched down upon the floor, and covered her ears, squeezing
+her eyelids tight shut too.
+
+"Dreadful! dreadful!" she gasped.
+
+Still the silence outside between the reports of thunder; but the
+rustling in the chimney continued. Ruth looked around, found a piece of
+broken window-sash on the floor, and approached the open pipe-hole.
+
+"Here's for stirring up Mr. Ghost," she said, in a much braver tone than
+she secretly felt.
+
+She always felt her responsibility with Helen. The latter was of a
+nervous, imaginary temperament, and it was never well for her to get
+herself worked up in this way.
+
+"Oh, Ruth! Don't! Suppose it bites you!" gasped Helen.
+
+At that Ruth _did_ laugh. "Whoever heard of a ghost with teeth?" she
+demanded, and instantly thrust the stick into the gaping hole.
+
+There was a stir--a flutter--a squeaking--and out flopped a brown object
+about the size of a mouse. Helen shrieked again, and even Ruth darted
+back.
+
+"A mouse!" cried Helen.
+
+"Right--_a flittermouse_!" agreed Ruth, suddenly bursting into a laugh.
+"The chimney's full of them."
+
+"Oh, let's get out!"
+
+"In this rain?" and Ruth pointed to the window, where now the drops were
+falling, big and fast--the vanguard of the storm.
+
+"But if a bat gets into your hair!" moaned Helen, rocking herself on her
+knees.
+
+Ruth opened the big hamper, seized a newspaper, and swooped down upon
+the blind, fluttering brown bat. Seizing it as she would a spider, she
+ran to the window and flung it out, just as the water burst into the
+room in a flood.
+
+Then she ran to the pipe-hole and thrust the paper into it, making a
+"stopper" which would not easily fall out. She dragged Helen to the
+other side of the room, where the floor was dry and they were out of the
+draught.
+
+There the two girls cowered for some moments, hugged close together,
+Helen hiding her eyes from the intermittent lightning against Ruth's
+jacket. The thunder roared overhead, and the rain dashed down in
+torrents. For ten minutes it was as hard a storm as the girl of the Red
+Mill ever remembered seeing. Such tempests in the hills are not
+infrequent.
+
+When the thunder began to roll away into the distance, and the lightning
+was less brilliant, the girls could take some notice of what else went
+on. The fierce drumming of the rain continued, but there seemed to be a
+noise in the lower part of the building.
+
+"Tom has come in," said Helen, with satisfaction.
+
+"He must have gotten awfully wet, then, getting here from that shed,"
+Ruth returned. "Hush!"
+
+Somebody sneezed heavily. Helen opened her mouth to cry out, but Ruth
+put her palm upon her lips, effectually smothing the cry.
+
+"Sh!" the girl of the Red Mill admonished. "Let him find us."
+
+"Oh! that will be fun," agreed Helen.
+
+Ruth did not look at her. She listened intently. There was a heavy,
+scraping foot upon the floor below. To _her_ mind, it did not sound like
+Tom at all.
+
+She held Helen warningly by the wrist and they continued to strain their
+ears for some minutes. Then an odor reached them which Ruth was sure did
+not denote Tom's presence in the room below. It was the smell of strong
+tobacco smoked in an ancient pipe!
+
+"What's that?" sniffed Helen, whisperingly.
+
+Uncle Jabez smoked a strong pipe and Ruth could not be mistaken as to
+the nature of this one. She remembered the two men who had hidden in the
+bushes as the car rolled by, not many miles back on this road.
+
+"Let's shout for Tom and bring him in here," Helen suggested.
+
+"Perhaps get him into trouble? Let's try and find out, first, what sort
+of people they are," objected Ruth, for they now heard talking and knew
+that there were at least two visitors below.
+
+Rising quietly, Ruth crept on tiptoe to the head of the stair. The
+drumming rain helped smother any sound she might have made.
+
+Slowly, stair by stair, Ruth Fielding let herself down until she could
+see into the open doorway of the dining room. Two men were squatting on
+the hearth, both smoking assiduously.
+
+They were rough looking, unlovely fellows, and the growl of their voices
+did not impress Ruth as being of a quality to inspire confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?
+
+
+The two men were mumbling together--Ruth could not catch the words at
+first. When she did, they meant nothing to her, and she was puzzled.
+
+But suddenly one said in clear, if peculiar, English:
+
+"The old hag bags the best of the loot--always, my Carlo."
+
+The other replied, still gruffly, yet in a musical language that Ruth
+could not identify; yet somehow she was reminded of Roberto. He, the
+Gypsy lad, had formed his English sentences much as this ruffian had
+formed his phrase. Were these two of Roberto's tribesmen?
+
+"I like it not--I like it not!" the other burst out again, in anger.
+"Why should she govern? It is an iron rod in a trembling hand."
+
+"Psst!" snapped the other. "You respect neither age nor wisdom." He now
+spoke in English, but later he relapsed into the Tzigane tongue. Helen
+crept down to Ruth's side and listened, too; but it was little the girls
+understood.
+
+The angry ruffian--the complaining one--dropped more words in English
+now and then, like: "We risk all--she nothing." "There were the pearls,
+my Carlo--ah! beautiful! beautiful! Does she not seize them as her own?"
+"I put my neck in a noose no longer for any man but myself--surely not
+for a woman!"
+
+Then it was that the man Carlo burst into a tirade in his native speech,
+and under cover of his loud talk Ruth motioned her chum to creep back up
+the stairway, and she followed.
+
+A sudden disquieting thought came to her. The rain was growing less.
+Suppose Tom should come abruptly into the house? He might get into
+trouble with these ruffians.
+
+She whispered this thought to Helen, and her friend was panic-stricken
+again. "We must warn Tom--oh, we _must_ warn him somehow!" she gasped.
+
+"Surely we will," declared the girl from the Red Mill. "Now, careful how
+you step. A creaking board might give us away."
+
+They crept across the upper chamber to the rear of the house. Through
+another room they went, until they could look out of a broken window
+upon the sheds. There was Master Tom standing before the shed (the
+machine was hidden), wiping his hands upon a piece of waste, and looking
+out upon the falling rain.
+
+He saw the girls almost instantly, and opened his mouth to shout to
+them, but Ruth clapped her own hand to her lips and motioned with the
+other for him to be silent. Tom understood.
+
+He looked more than surprised--not a little startled, in fact.
+
+"What will he think?" murmured Helen. "He's so reckless!"
+
+"Leave it to me," declared Ruth, leaning out of the window into the
+still falling rain.
+
+She caught the boy's eye. He watched her motions. There was built at
+this end of the house an outside stairway, and although it was in bad
+repair, she saw that an agile fellow like Tom could mount the steps
+without any difficulty.
+
+Pointing to this flight, she motioned him to come by that means to their
+level, still warning him by gesture to make no sound. The boy understood
+and immediately darted across the intervening space to the house.
+
+Ruth knew there was no dining-room window from which the ruffians
+downstairs could see him. And they had made no move as far as she had
+heard.
+
+She left Helen to meet Tom when he came in through the sagging door at
+the top of the outside flight of stairs, and tiptoed back into that room
+where they had been frightened by the bat.
+
+It was directly over the dining-room. The same chimney was built into
+each room. This thought gave Ruth's active mind food for further
+reflection.
+
+The rumble of the men's voices continued from below. Tom and Helen
+followed her so softly into the room that Ruth did not hear them until
+they stood beside her. Tom touched her arm and pointed downward:
+
+"Tramps?" he asked.
+
+"Those Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth, in return.
+
+Helen was just as scared as she could be, and clung tightly to Tom's
+hand. "Wish we could scare them away," suggested the boy, with knitted
+brow.
+
+"Perhaps we can!" uttered Ruth, suddenly eager, and her brown eyes
+dancing. "Sh! Wait! Let me try."
+
+She went to the paper-stuffed stovepipe hole, out of which the bat had
+fallen. Helen would have exclaimed aloud, had not Tom seen her lips open
+and squeezed her hand warningly.
+
+"What is it?" he hissed.
+
+"Don't! don't!" begged Helen. "You'll let those bats all out here----"
+
+"Bats?" queried Tom, in wonder.
+
+"In the chimney," whispered Ruth. "Listen!"
+
+The stir and squeaking of the bats were audible. Enough rain had come in
+at the top of the broken chimney to disturb the nocturnal creatures.
+
+"Just the thing!" giggled Tom, seeing what Ruth would do. "Frighten them
+to pieces!"
+
+The girl of the Red Mill had secured the stick she used before. She
+pulled aside the "stopper" of newspaper and thrust in the stick. At once
+the rustling and squeaking increased.
+
+She worked the stick up and down insistently. Scale from the inside of
+the chimney began to rattle down to the hearth below. The voices ceased.
+Then the men were heard to scramble up.
+
+The bats were dislodged--perhaps many of them! There was a scuffling and
+scratching inside the flue.
+
+Below, the men broke out into loud cries. They shouted their alarm in
+the strange language the girls had heard before. Then their feet stamped
+over the floor.
+
+Tom ran lightly to the window. He saw a bat wheel out of the window
+below, and disappear. The rain had almost stopped.
+
+It was evident that many of the creatures were flapping about that
+deserted dining-room. The two ruffians scrambled to the door, through
+the entry, and out upon the porch.
+
+The sound of their feet did not hold upon the porch. They leaped down
+the steps, and Tom beckoned the girls eagerly to join him at the window.
+The two men were racing down the lane toward the muddy highroad, paying
+little attention to their steps or to the last of the rainstorm.
+
+"Panic-stricken, sure enough! Smart girl, Ruthie," was Master Tom's
+comment. "Now tell a fellow all about it."
+
+The girls did so, while Ruth lit the alcohol lamp and made the tea. Tom
+was ravenous--nothing could spoil that boy's appetite.
+
+"Gyps., sure enough," was his comment. "But what you heard them say
+wasn't much."
+
+"They'd been robbing somebody--or were going to rob," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "What frightful men they are!"
+
+"Pooh! they've gone now, and the old machine is fixed. We'll plow on
+through the mud as soon as you like."
+
+"I shall be glad, when we get to civilization again," said his sister.
+
+"And I'd like very much to understand what those men were talking
+about," Ruth observed. "Do you suppose Roberto knows about it?
+Pearls--beautiful pearls, that fellow spoke of."
+
+"I tell you they are thieves!" declared Helen.
+
+"We'll probably never know," Tom said, confidently. "So let's not
+worry!"
+
+Master Tom did not prove a good prophet on this point, although he had
+foreseen the breaking down of the automobile before they started from
+the Red Mill. They went back to the car and started from the old house
+in a much more cheerful mood, neither of the girls supposing that they
+were likely to run across the Gypsy men again.
+
+"We must hustle to make Uncle Ike's to-night, sure enough," Tom said, as
+the car rolled out into the muddy highway.
+
+"Is it very far yet?" asked Ruth.
+
+"More than sixty miles, and a bad road, and it is now half-past five,"
+replied the boy.
+
+"Oh, my! I hope we'll not be delayed after dark," said his sister.
+
+"I never knew you to be such a 'fraid-cat before, Helen," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Everything's gone wrong to-day. And those awful men scared me. Let's
+stop at the hotel at Boisé Landing, if it grows dark. Uncle Ike's is a
+long way beyond the town, Tom."
+
+"Sure--if you say so," agreed her brother, cheerfully. "I can send word
+up to the folks that we are all right. Of course, they will be expecting
+us this evening. I telegraphed them this morning that we were on the
+way."
+
+The car plowed on through the mud. These roads were in very bad shape,
+and even while it had been dry, the traveling was bad enough. Now the
+wheels skidded and slipped, and the engine panted as though it were
+tired.
+
+It missed explosions frequently, too, and Tom sat under the wheel with
+a very serious face indeed. It was not far to a small settlement called,
+on the map, Severn Corners. Tom knew he could get gas there, if he
+needed it, but he was not sure that there was a repair shop at the
+place. If the old machine played a trick on them again----
+
+And it did! Right at the foot of a hill, and not far from the shore of
+Long Lake, the engine "died."
+
+"Whatever shall we do?" cried Helen.
+
+"No use wrangling about it," said Ruth, with a laugh. "Will we have to
+walk?"
+
+"Walk! and carry the ropes and everything else of value?" demanded
+Helen.
+
+"We can't leave the machine unprotected," said Tom, seriously. "No
+knowing what would happen to it. But it's not far to Severn Corners.
+Only two miles, or so."
+
+"Now, I tell you," said Ruth, briskly. "You walk on, Tom, and get help.
+Bring back a team to drag the auto into town. Perhaps you'll find a farm
+before you go far. We'll remain here till you come back."
+
+"That's what you'll have to do, Tommy," agreed his sister, as the boy
+hesitated. "Of course, I'm only fooling. I won't be afraid."
+
+"I'll do my best, girls," Tom assured them. "I am sure you'll be
+perfectly safe," and Master Tom started off along the road at a quick
+trot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+QUEEN ZELAYA
+
+
+Ruth and her chum were both a little troubled by Tom Cameron's
+departure, but even Helen had braced up and was determined not to show
+her fear. The situation of the girls in the auto on this lonely road was
+enough to trouble the mind of any person unfamiliar with the wilderness.
+
+The shore of Long Lake (which they could see from their seats in the
+car) was as wild as any stretch of country through which they had
+traveled during the two days of the tour.
+
+The stalled auto was on the main-traveled road, however, and there was a
+chance of somebody coming along. Ruth and Helen hoped that if this
+happened, it would be somebody who would remain with them until Tom's
+return.
+
+Both kept this wish a secret, for each tried to cheer the other.
+Perhaps, had it not been for that adventure at the old house shortly
+before, neither girl would have felt so nervous.
+
+The outlook from the stalled auto was very attractive, if wild. They
+could overlook a considerable part of Long Lake, a stretch of its
+distant southern shore, and several islands.
+
+The edge of the water was perhaps half a mile away, and the ground
+sloped abruptly from this road toward the lake. Following the very edge
+of the water was another road, but one which the girls knew nothing
+about and could scarcely see from the auto.
+
+It was merely a brown ribbon of cart-path through the second-growth
+timber, and it wound along the hillside, sometimes approaching very
+close to the main highway. Before the county had built the better road,
+this path had been the trail to Boisé Landing.
+
+Had the girls been looking that way, they might have seen, through a
+small break in the trees, some minutes after Tom left them, a string of
+odd-looking wagons moving slowly along this lower trail.
+
+First two men walked ahead, smoking their pipes and plowing through the
+mud and water without regard to where they stepped. Then followed three
+freshly painted green wagons--vehicles something like old-fashioned
+omnibuses, but with windows in the sides and front, and a door and steps
+behind. Through the roof of one a stovepipe was thrust.
+
+Behind followed a troop of horses, with two bare-legged, wild-looking
+youngsters astride each a barebacked steed, and holding the others with
+leading-reins. These horses, as well as those drawing the wagons, were
+sleek and well curried.
+
+A multitude of dogs ran in the mud and water, too, but there were no
+women and children about, save upon the front seats of each van with the
+drivers. Sounds from within the green vehicles, however, proclaimed the
+presence of a number of others.
+
+They were a strange-looking people--all swarthy, dark-haired,
+red-lipped, men and women alike having their ears pierced. The rings in
+the lobes of the women's ears were much larger than the ornaments in
+those of the men.
+
+At a certain opening in the shrubbery, the men ahead, looking upward,
+beheld the stalled auto and the two girls in it. One man held up his
+hand and the first wagon stopped. So did the remainder of the caravan.
+
+The two spoke together, and then strode back to the first green van. The
+window behind the driver's seat was already open and a strange face
+appeared at it.
+
+The man driving this van was young and rather handsome--in the same wild
+way that Roberto was handsome. Beside him sat a comely young woman,
+buxom of figure, with a child in her lap. Her head was encircled with a
+yellow silk kerchief, she wore a green, tight-fitting bodice, and her
+short skirt was of a peculiar purple. She wore black stockings and neat
+black pumps on her feet.
+
+Between these two on the seat, from the open window, was thrust the
+wicked, haggard head of a woman who might have been a hundred from the
+network of wrinkles in her face, and her generally aged appearance. But
+her eyes--black as sloes--were as sharp as a bird's. Her lips were gray,
+thin, and drew back when she spoke, displaying several strong, yellow
+fangs rather than teeth!
+
+When she spoke, it was with a hissing sound. She used the speech of the
+Gypsy folk, and the others--even the rough men in the road--were very
+respectful to her. They explained the stoppage of the caravan, and
+pointed out the auto and the girls above.
+
+It was evident that one of the men had suggested something which pleased
+the hag, in regard to the strangers in the motor-car. She grinned
+suddenly, displaying gums and fangs in a most horrible grimace.
+
+Nodding vigorously, she gave them some commands, and then spoke to the
+comely woman beside the driver. The latter passed the sleeping infant
+back to the old woman, who disappeared into the interior of the van. The
+younger woman leaped down into the road, and waiting beside the two
+rough men, allowed the entire caravan to pass on, leaving them behind.
+
+It was fast growing dark. The sun had disappeared behind the hills in
+the west, and long shadows were stretching their gaunt hands out for the
+girls in the auto. The chill wind which came after the tempest made them
+shiver, although they were somewhat sheltered by the curtains which Tom
+had arranged.
+
+"I suppose we _could_ snuggle down here with the robes, in the tonneau,
+and spend the night in some comfort," suggested Ruth Fielding.
+
+"Oh! don't mention it!" exclaimed her friend. "If Tom doesn't come back
+with a team, or with another auto, I'll never forgive him."
+
+"Of course he will return. But he may be delayed, Helen."
+
+"This auto-touring isn't as much fun as I thought it would be," groaned
+Helen Cameron. "Oh! what's that?"
+
+She peered out of the automobile. There was a handsome, smiling, dark
+young woman standing in the road beside the car.
+
+"Young ladies," said the stranger, in a pleasant voice, "are you in
+trouble? Can I help you at all?"
+
+"My goodness me! do you live near here? Can we go home with you?" cried
+Helen, in excitement.
+
+"Wait!" breathed Ruth, seizing her chum's arm, but Helen was too anxious
+to escape from her present situation to listen to Ruth.
+
+"For if you'll take us in till my brother gets back from Severn
+Corners----"
+
+"We are going to Severn Corners--my husband and I," said the woman,
+smiling.
+
+"Oh! then you do not live near here?" cried Helen, in disappointment.
+
+"Nobody lives near here, little lady," explained the stranger. "Nobody
+lives nearer than Severn Corners. But it is lonesome here. We will take
+you both on in our wagon--nobody shall hurt you. There is only my
+husband and baby and the old grandmother."
+
+"Where is your wagon?" demanded Ruth, suddenly hopping out into the road
+and looking all about.
+
+"Down yonder," said the woman, pointing below. "We follow the lower
+road. Just there. You can see the top of it."
+
+"Oh! A bus! It's like Uncle Noah's," declared Helen, referring to the
+ancient vehicle much patronized by the girls at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Ruth, again, with keen suspicion.
+
+"We are pedlars. We are good folks," laughed the woman. She did, indeed,
+seem very pleasant, and even Ruth's suspicions were allayed. Besides,
+it was fast growing dark, and there was no sign of Tom on the hilltop
+ahead.
+
+"Let's go on with them," begged Helen, seizing her chum's hand. "I am
+afraid to stay here any longer."
+
+"But Tom will not know where we have gone," objected Ruth, feebly.
+
+"I'll write him a note and leave it pinned to the seat."
+
+She proceeded to do this, while Ruth lit the auto lamps so that neither
+Tom, on his return, or anybody else, would run into the car in the dark.
+Then they were ready to go with the woman, removing only their personal
+wraps and bags. They would have to risk having the touring car stripped
+by thieves before Tom Cameron came back.
+
+"I don't believe there are any thieves around here," whispered Helen.
+"They would be scared to death in such a lonesome place!" she added,
+with a giggle.
+
+Ruth felt some doubt about going with the woman. She was so dark and
+foreign looking. Yet she seemed desirous of doing the girls a service.
+And even she, Ruth, did not wish to stay longer on the lonely road.
+Something surely had happened to detain Tom.
+
+In the south, too, "heat lightning" played sharply--and almost
+continuously. Ruth knew that this meant the tempest was raging at a
+distance and that it might return to this side of the lake.
+
+The thought of being marooned on this mountain road, at night, in such a
+storm as that which they had experienced two or three hours before, was
+more than Ruth Fielding could endure with calmness.
+
+So she agreed to go with the woman. Tom would know where they had gone
+when he returned, for he could not miss the note his sister had left.
+
+At least, that is what both girls believed. Only, they were scarcely out
+of sight of the car with the woman, when one of the rough-looking men,
+who had walked ahead of the Gypsy caravan, appeared from the bushes,
+stepped into the auto, tore the note from where it had been pinned, and
+at once slipped back into the shadows, with the crumpled paper in his
+pocket!
+
+Now the girls and their guide were down on the lower road. There was a
+twinkling light that showed the green van, horses, and the handsome
+driver--and the man looked like Roberto.
+
+"They are Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth.
+
+"Oh! you have Gypsies on the brain," flung back her chum. "At least, we
+shall be dry in that bus, if it rains. And we can find somebody at
+Severn Corners to put us up, even if there is no hotel."
+
+Ruth sighed, and agreed. The woman had been speaking to the man on the
+seat. Now she took the lantern and went around to the back of the van.
+
+"This way, little ladies," she said, in her most winning tone. "You may
+rest in comfort inside here. Nobody but the good old grandmother and my
+bébé."
+
+"Come on!" said Helen to Ruth, leading the way.
+
+There was a light in the interior and it dazzled the girls' eyes, as
+they climbed in. The door snapped to behind them, and the horses started
+along the road before either Ruth or Helen were able to see much of
+their surroundings.
+
+And strange enough their surroundings were; berths on either side of the
+strange cart, made up for sleeping and covered with gay quilts. There
+were chests and boxes, some of them padlocked, and all with cushions on
+them for seats.
+
+There was a table, and a hanging lamp, and a stove. A child was asleep
+in one of the bunks; a white-haired poodle lay crouched at the child's
+feet, and showed its teeth and snarled at the two visitors.
+
+But the appearance that amazed--and really startled--the girls most was
+the figure that sat facing them, as they entered the van. It was that
+of an old, old crone, sitting on a stool, bent forward with her sharp
+chin resting on her clenched fists, and her elbows on her knees, while
+iron-gray elf-locks hung about her wrinkled, nut-brown face, half
+screening it.
+
+Her bead-like eyes held the girls entranced from the first. Ruth and
+Helen looked at each other, startled and amazed, but they could not
+speak. Nor could they keep their gaze for long off the strange old
+woman.
+
+"Who are you, little ladies?" croaked the hag at last.
+
+Ruth became the spokesman. "We are two girls who have been motoring over
+the hills. Our motor-car broke down, and we were left alone while my
+friend's brother went for help. We grew fearful when it became dark----"
+
+The gray lips opened again: "You own the motor-car, little ladies?"
+
+"My friend's father owns it," said Ruth.
+
+"Then your parents are wealthy," and the fangs suddenly displayed
+themselves in a dreadful smile. "It is fine to be rich. The poor Gypsy
+scarcely knows where to lay her head, but you little ladies have great
+houses and much money--eh?"
+
+"Gypsy!" gasped Helen, seizing Ruth's hand.
+
+Ruth felt a sinking at her own heart. All the stories she had ever
+heard of these strange, wandering tribes rushed in upon her mind again.
+She had not been afraid of Roberto, and the woman who had brought them
+to the van seemed kind enough. But this old hag----!
+
+"Do not shrink from the old Romany woman," advised the hag, her eyes
+sparkling again. "She would not hurt the little ladies. She is a queen
+among her people--what she says is law to them. Do not fear."
+
+"Oh, I see no reason why we should be afraid of you," Ruth said, trying
+to speak in an unshaken voice. "I think you all mean us kindly, and we
+are thankful for this lift to Severn Corners."
+
+Something like a cackle broke from the hag's throat. "Queen Zelaya will
+let nothing befall you, little ladies," she declared. "Fear not. Her
+word is law among the Romany folk, poor as she may be. And now tell me,
+my little birds,--tell me of your riches, and your great houses, and all
+the wealth your parents have. I love to hear of such things--even I,
+poor Zelaya, who have nothing after a long, long life of toil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+IN THE GYPSY CAMP
+
+
+Ruth remembered what Roberto had said about his miserly grandmother. She
+believed these people who had offered her and Helen a ride were of the
+same tribe as Roberto, and the way Queen Zelaya spoke, caused the girl
+to believe that this old woman and Roberto's grandmother were one and
+the same person.
+
+She could say nothing to Helen at the moment. Personally she felt more
+afraid of this Gypsy Queen than she had of the two rough men in the
+abandoned house that afternoon!
+
+"Come!" repeated Zelaya. "Tell me of all the riches and jewels--the gold
+and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich
+silks--all of it! I love to hear of such things," exclaimed the woman,
+grinning again in her terrible way.
+
+Helen opened her lips to speak, but Ruth pinched her. "Tell her
+nothing," the girl of the Red Mill whispered. "I am afraid we have said
+too much already."
+
+"Why?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
+
+"Pshaw! this old woman can't hurt us. Isn't she funny?"
+
+"Speak up, my little ladies!" commanded Queen Zelaya. "My will is law
+here. Do not forget that."
+
+"I guess your will isn't much law to _us_," replied Helen, laughing and
+tossing her head. "You see, we do not know you----"
+
+"You shall!" hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forth
+one of her claw-like hands. "Come here!"
+
+Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly she
+stopped. The queen's terrible eyes seemed to hold the girl in a spell.
+Involuntarily Helen's limbs bore her toward the far end of the van.
+
+The girl's face became pale; her own eyes protruded from their sockets;
+the Gypsy Queen charmed her, just as a snake is said to charm a young
+bird in its nest.
+
+But Ruth sprang after her, seized Helen's arm again, and shook her.
+
+"You stop that!" she cried, to the old woman. "Don't you mind her,
+Helen. She has some wicked power in her eyes, my dear!"
+
+Her cry broke the hypnotic spell the woman had cast over Helen Cameron.
+The latter sank down, trembling and sobbing, with her hands over her
+face.
+
+"Oh, dear, Ruthie! I wish we hadn't gotten into this wagon," she moaned.
+
+"I am sure I wish so, too," returned her chum, in a low voice, while the
+old woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horrid
+laughter.
+
+"Aren't we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only two
+miles or a little over."
+
+"I wish we could speak to that other woman," muttered Ruth.
+
+"Do you suppose this old thing is crazy?" whispered Helen.
+
+"Worse than that," returned Ruth. "I am afraid of them all. I don't
+believe they mean us well. Let's get out, Helen."
+
+"Oh! where shall we go?" returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft as
+Ruth's own.
+
+"We must be somewhere near the town."
+
+"It is pitch dark outside the windows," complained Helen.
+
+"Let's try it. Pitch dark is not as bad as this wicked old creature----"
+
+The hag laughed again, although she was not looking at them. Surely she
+could not hear the girls' whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a shiver
+over both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she called
+herself, could read what was in their minds.
+
+"Yes, yes!" whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. "You
+are right. We will go."
+
+"We'll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us----Then
+we'll run!"
+
+Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.
+She turned the knob and tried to open it. _The door was fastened upon
+the outside!_
+
+Again the old woman broke into her cackling laugh. "Oh, no! oh, no!" she
+cried. "The pretty, rich little ladies cannot go yet. They must be the
+guests of the poor old Gypsy a little longer--they must eat of her salt.
+Then they will be her friends--and maybe they will help to make her
+rich."
+
+The girls stood close together, panting, afraid. Helen put her lips to
+Ruth's ear, and whispered:
+
+"Does _that_ mean she is going to hold us for ransom? Oh, dear! what did
+I say this very day? I _knew_ Gypsies were like this."
+
+"Hush!" warned Ruth. "Try and not let her see you are so afraid. Perhaps
+she means only to frighten us."
+
+"But--but when she looks at me, I seem to lose everything--speech, power
+to move, even power to think," gasped Helen.
+
+Just then the van turned suddenly from the road and came to a halt. They
+had been traveling much faster than Ruth and Helen had supposed.
+
+Lights flashed outside, and dogs barked, while the voices of men, women
+and children rose in a chorus of shouts and cries.
+
+"Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "They have gotten into town at
+last."
+
+Ruth feared this was not so. She tried to peer out of one of the
+windows. There was a bonfire at one side, and she thought she saw a
+tent. There were other wagons like the one in which they seemed to be
+imprisoned.
+
+"Now they'll _have_ to let us out," repeated Helen.
+
+"I am afraid not," returned the girl of the Red Mill. "This is the Gypsy
+camp, I am sure, dear. Do try to be brave! I think they never meant to
+take us after Tom, at all. We are prisoners, dear."
+
+At once Helen's spirits sank, but she grew angry.
+
+"You'd better not keep us here," she cried, looking again at the old
+woman. "My father has plenty of money and he will spend it all to get me
+back--and to punish you."
+
+"We will not take all his money from him, my pretty little lady,"
+returned Zelaya. "Only a part of it. And the poor Gypsy has nothing,"
+and once more she cackled.
+
+The door of the van was unlocked and opened. In the lamplight appeared a
+rough-looking man, with an evil face and a squint in one eye. He said
+something to the queen in their own tongue, but he spoke with great
+respect, and removed his hat and bowed to her, when she replied.
+
+Ruth and Helen started for the door, but the man motioned them back and
+scowled at them in an evil manner. They could see a crowd of curious
+faces without, and behind this man were children, women both old and
+young, and a few men.
+
+Zelaya lifted the child from its bed, and passed her into the arms of
+the woman who had guided Ruth and Helen to the van. She smiled upon the
+girls just as pleasantly as before, but now they knew that she was false
+and cruel.
+
+Then the queen waved her hand and the door was closed. "You remain with
+me to-night, little ladies. Oh! Zelaya would let nothing trouble
+you--no, no!"
+
+Helen burst into wild sobs at this, and threw herself upon the floor of
+the van. Ruth faced the old woman with wrathful sparks in her brown
+eyes.
+
+"You are acting very foolishly, indeed, whoever you are. You Gypsies
+cannot carry things with such a high hand in this State of New York.
+You'll find out----"
+
+"I am Zelaya, the Queen," interrupted the old hag, hoarsely. "Have a
+care! I will put a spell upon you, little lady----"
+
+"Pooh! you can't frighten me that way," declared Ruth Fielding. "I am
+not afraid of your spells, or your fortune telling, or any of your
+foolish magic. If you believe in any of it yourself, you have not gained
+much wisdom all the years you have lived."
+
+"You do not fear the arts of my people?" repeated Zelaya, trying to hold
+Ruth with her eye as she had Helen.
+
+"No, I do not. I fear your wickedness. And I know you must be very
+dishonest and cruel. But you have no more supernatural power than I have
+myself!"
+
+Zelaya's wrinkled face suddenly reddened with passion. She raised her
+claw-like hand and struck the bold girl sharply upon the cheek.
+
+"Impudence!" she muttered.
+
+"And _that_ is nothing supernatural," said Ruth, with continued
+boldness, although the blow had hurt her--leaving its mark. "You are
+breaking the laws of the land, which are far more powerful than any
+Gypsy law----"
+
+"Wait!" commanded the woman, threateningly. "You will learn yet, bold
+girl, how strong our laws are."
+
+She went back to her stool, mumbling to herself. Ruth lifted Helen into
+one of the berths, and sat down beside her. By and by the door of the
+van opened again and a bold-looking young woman--not the one that had
+brought them to the van--came in with three wooden bowls of a savory
+stew. She offered the tray to the visitors at a motion from old Zelaya,
+so that they had their choice before the queen received her own supper.
+
+"Let's eat it," whispered Ruth to Helen, when she saw that Zelaya
+plunged her own tin spoon into the stew. "It surely isn't drugged, or
+_she_ wouldn't touch it."
+
+They ate greedily, for both were hungry. It takes more than fear to
+spoil the healthy appetite of youth!
+
+"Do you suppose," whispered Helen, "that we could climb out of one of
+these windows after she falls asleep?"
+
+"I am sure I couldn't get through one," returned Ruth. "And I doubt if
+you could. Besides, there will be guards, and the dogs are awake. We've
+got to wait for help from outside, my dear."
+
+"Do you suppose Tom will find us?"
+
+"I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not while he is alone. But he certainly
+will give the alarm, and the whole countryside will be aroused."
+
+"Oh, dear, me! this old woman seems so sure that she can hold us
+captive."
+
+"I think she is crazy," Ruth declared. "And the other Gypsies must lack
+good sense, too, or they would not be governed by her."
+
+The queen gobbled down her supper and then prepared to retire to her own
+bunk. She told the girls to do the same, and they removed their shoes
+and outer garments and lay down--one on one side of the wagon, and one
+on the other.
+
+Ruth's head was toward the door. She could watch the movements of the
+old Gypsy woman. Zelaya did not go to sleep at all, but seemed to be
+waiting for the camp to get quiet and for her two visitors to fall into
+slumber.
+
+She kept raising her head and looking first at Helen, then at Ruth. The
+latter knew by her chum's breathing that, despite her fears, Helen had
+fallen asleep almost instantly.
+
+So Ruth began to breathe deeply and regularly, too. She closed her
+eyes--almost entirely. This was what Zelaya had been waiting for.
+
+Silently the old woman arose and turned up the lampwick a little. She
+knelt down before one of the padlocked boxes and unlocked it softly.
+Then she rummaged in the box--seemingly beneath a lot of rubbish that
+filled it, and drew forth a japanned box--like a cashbox. This was
+locked, too, and Zelaya wore the key of it on a string about her neck.
+
+Silently, with a glance at the two girls now and then, she unlocked
+this box and opened it on the top of the chest, before which she knelt.
+
+Ruth could see the old woman's face. It changed very much as she gazed
+upon what was in the japanned box. Her black eyes glowed, and her gray,
+thin lips were wreathed in a smile of delight.
+
+Again Ruth remembered Roberto's account of his grandmother. She was a
+miser, and he had mentioned that he had seen her at night gloating over
+her hoarded wealth.
+
+Surely Zelaya had all the signs of a miser. The next moment Ruth saw
+that the old woman verily possessed something worth gloating over.
+
+She lifted from the interior of the box a string of flashing gems--a
+broad band, or necklace, of them, in fact--and let them flow through her
+fingers in a stream of sparkling light. They were beautiful, beautiful
+pearls--a really wonderful necklace of them!
+
+Ruth held her breath for a moment. The queen turned suddenly and shot a
+keen, suspicious glance at her. The girl knew enough to cough, turn
+slightly, and recommence her steady breathing.
+
+The old woman had dropped the pearls in haste. Now she picked them up
+again, and went on with her silent worship of the gems.
+
+Ruth did not startle her again; but she saw something that made her own
+heart beat faster and brought the perspiration out upon her limbs.
+
+Above the old woman's head, and behind her, was a window. Pressed close
+to the pane of the window Ruth saw a face--dark, evil, be-mustached. It
+was one of the Gypsy men.
+
+She remembered now what she had overheard between the two supposed
+tramps who had taken shelter in the deserted house during the tempest.
+Was _this_ one of those two ruffians? And was he the one who had railed
+at the division of some stolen treasure, and had spoken with
+covetousness of the beautiful pearls?
+
+The thought made Ruth tremble. His wicked face withdrew, but all the
+time the Gypsy queen was admiring the necklace, Ruth felt that the evil
+eyes of the man were also gloating over the pearls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TOM ON THE TRAIL
+
+
+In spite of the fact that his sister thought it hard that Tom Cameron
+had not returned to the stalled auto by dark, the lad was having no easy
+time.
+
+In the first place, he had not run a mile on the road to Severn Corners
+when he stepped on a pebble, turned his ankle sharply, and had to hobble
+the rest of the way at a much slower pace than he had expected.
+
+All the time, too, Tom was troubled about the uncertainty of there being
+at the Corners any repair shop. He knew it was a small settlement. At
+most, the repair garage would be very small, and perhaps the mechanic a
+mere country "jack-of-all-trades," who would fumble the job.
+
+To obtain a car to drag his own into the town was beyond the boy's
+hopes, and when he came at last to a comfortable looking farmhouse some
+half a mile that side of the settlement, he determined to see if he
+could not obtain a pair of horses from the farmer, to get the car to
+the hamlet.
+
+He approached the back door of the house without seeing anybody about.
+It was already growing dark, he had hobbled so slowly on the road. As he
+stepped upon the porch, Tom heard a sudden furious barking inside the
+house.
+
+"Welcome to our city!" he muttered. "If nobody's at home but _that_
+savage beast, I'm likely to fare about as Roberto did at that farmhouse
+'way back on the road by Culm Falls."
+
+But he ventured to rap upon the door. It was one of those old-fashioned
+doors which opens in two parts. The upper half swung outward, but the
+lower remained bolted.
+
+Lucky for Tom Cameron this was so. A great, shaggy beast, with gleaming
+fangs and slobbering jaws, appeared over the ledge, scratching with his
+strong claws to get out at the intruder.
+
+"What do you want?" demanded a shrill voice from somewhere behind the
+excited brute. "We ain't got nothin' for tramps."
+
+"I should say you most certainly _had_ something for tramps, Madam,"
+said Tom, when he could make himself heard. "Any tramp would run from
+that fellow."
+
+"I don't see _you_ running. But you better," advised the woman, who was
+thin-faced, scant of hair, and had a voice about as pleasant as a
+whip-saw going through a knot.
+
+"But _I_ am not a tramp, I assure you, Madam," said Tom, politely.
+
+"Huh! ye look it," declared the woman, without any politeness at all.
+
+And the boy _did_ look rather dilapidated. He had gotten more than a
+little wet in the first of the shower, and he had pawed around among the
+"internal arrangements" of the balky auto to such purpose, that he was
+disheveled and oil-streaked from head to foot.
+
+"I'm in disguise just now, Ma'am," laughed Tom, cheerfully. "But really,
+I have not come begging either food or lodging. Is your husband at
+home?"
+
+"Yes, he is. And he'll be here in a minute and chase ye off the
+place--ef ye don't scat at once," said the woman, sourly. "_He_ wouldn't
+hold back this dog, now, I tell ye."
+
+"Please believe me, Madam," urged Tom, "that I am better than I appear.
+Our car broke down on the road yonder, and I have come to see if I can
+hire a team of horses to drag it into the Corners."
+
+"Car? What kind of a car? Ain't no railroad here," she said,
+suspiciously.
+
+The dog had barked himself breathless by now and they could talk a
+little easier. Tom smiled, as he replied:
+
+"Our motor car--automobile."
+
+"Huh! why didn't ye say so?" she demanded. "Tryin' to fool me. It's bad
+enough ter drive one o' them abominations over people's roads, but
+tryin' to make out ye air on a train--though, land o' Goshen! some of ye
+make 'em go as fast as airy express I ever see. Wal! what about your
+ortermobile?"
+
+"It's broken down," said Tom, feeling that he had struck the wrong
+house, after all, if he expected help.
+
+"I'm 'tarnal glad of it!" snapped the farmer's wife. "Nuthin' could
+please me better. Las' time I went to town one o' them plagued nuisances
+come hootin' erlong an' made the old mare back us clean inter the
+ditch--an' I broke a dozen an' a ha'f of aigs right in the lap of my new
+bombazeen dress. Drat 'em all, I say!"
+
+"I am very sorry, Ma'am, that the accident occurred. But I can assure
+you I was not the cause of it," Tom said, quietly, and stifling a great
+desire to laugh. "I wish only to get your husband to help me with his
+team--and I will pay him well."
+
+"Huh! what d'ye call well?" she demanded. "A boy like you ain't likely
+to have much money."
+
+Thus brought to a "show down," Tom promptly pulled out his billcase and
+opened it in the light that streamed out of the doorway. The woman could
+see that he carried quite a bundle of notes--and that they were not all
+single dollar bills!
+
+"Land o' Goshen!" she ejaculated. "Where'd you steal all that money, ye
+young ruffian? I thought there was suthin' mighty bad about you when I
+fust set eyes on ye."
+
+This was a compliment that Tom Cameron had not been looking for! He was
+certainly taken aback at the woman's words, and before he could make any
+response, she raised her voice and began to shout for "Sam!"
+
+"Crickey!" thought the boy, "I hope Sam will have a better opinion of me
+than she does, or I'm likely to get into trouble."
+
+He began to back off the porch, and had his ankle not pained him so, he
+certainly would have set off on a run. Perhaps it is well he did not try
+this, however, for the woman cried:
+
+"You move a step off'n thet platform before Sam Blodgett comes an' I'll
+open the lower ha'f of this door and let the dawg loose on ye!"
+
+Then she bawled for her husband again, and pretty soon a shouted
+response came from the direction of the barns. Then a lantern flickered
+and swung, and Tom knew the man was coming toward the house.
+
+He appeared--a short, heavy-set man, barefooted, and with a pail of milk
+in one hand and the lantern in the other.
+
+"What's the matter, Sairy?" he demanded.
+
+"Who's this?"
+
+"Thet's what _I_ wanter know," snapped the woman. "It 'pears like he's
+one o' these runaway boys ye read about in the papers--an' he's stole
+some money."
+
+"I haven't either!" cried Tom, in some exasperation. "I don't have to
+steal money--or anything else, I hope. I showed her that I had some
+money, so that she would believe I could pay you for some work I wanted
+done----"
+
+"What work?" interposed the farmer.
+
+Tom told him about the stalled auto and what he wanted.
+
+"How much'll ye give?" shot in the farmer, right to the point.
+
+"What do you ask to drag the machine to town--to the Corners, I mean?"
+
+"If it's where ye say it is, ten dollars!"
+
+"All right," agreed the boy. "Your wife knows I have the money. I'll pay
+you when we get to the Corners."
+
+"I know ye got the money," said the woman. "But I don't know _how_ ye
+got it. And if you've got an ortermobile, too, I bet ye stole _that_!"
+
+"You hesh up, Sairy," advised Mr. Blodgett. "No need of your sp'ilin' a
+trade. Gimme my supper. I'll hafter eat b'fore I go with ye, young
+man."
+
+"Oh, all right," sighed Tom, remembering how the girls must be very much
+frightened by this time.
+
+The man tramped into the house with the milk and the lantern. Neither he
+nor his wife asked Tom inside--or mentioned supper to him. The woman put
+it steaming on the table and Tom--like the dog--might stand and look on.
+
+At last the farmer was finished. "Guess the team's eat by now," he
+remarked, and came out with the lantern hung on his arm. All this time
+the dog had had "fits and starts" of wanting to get at Tom and eat him
+up. Now he slipped past his master and ran at the visitor with a savage
+growl.
+
+The boy had no idea of being made the supper of the brute, no matter how
+hungry Fido might be. So he kicked out and barely touched him. Instantly
+the brute set up a terrible "ki-yi-ing!" and shot off the porch and
+disappeared into the darkness. Evidently the Blodgetts kept the animal
+for its bark, for it did not have the pluck of a woodchuck!
+
+"Come on," advised Sam, as the woman began to rail again. "She's wound
+up an' ain't likely to run down again for a week. You sure you wanter
+pay ten dollars for this job?"
+
+"I'm sure I _will_ pay that for it, whether I want to or not," declared
+Tom, with confidence.
+
+"Aw right. We'll be movin'. Maybe another shower by'm'by, an' I sha'n't
+wanter be out in it."
+
+"We'll go just as fast as you want to," said Tom, hobbling along to the
+stables. "I won't keep you back, Mr. Blodgett."
+
+"You're lame, I see," said the man, not unkindly. "You kin straddle one
+of the hosses if you like."
+
+Tom was glad enough to do this, and in a few minutes they were going
+back over the dark track Tom had come, the harness jingling from the
+horses' hames, and Mr. Blodgett trudging sturdily along by the animals'
+heads.
+
+They came to the top of the ridge from which the stalled car had last
+been seen by Tom. "There are the lights!" he cried.
+
+He was glad to see them. They shone cheerfully in the dark, and he had
+no idea that the girls were in any trouble.
+
+But when they got down to the bottom of the hill there was neither sign
+nor sound of the two girls. Tom shouted at the top of his voice. He
+searched the car all over for some written word. He saw that the girls
+had carried off only their own personal belongings and nothing else.
+
+What could it mean? Surely no thieves had come this way, or the car
+would have been stripped of everything portable, and of value. At
+least, so it seemed to Master Tom. He was not wise enough to suspect
+that the goods in the car had been left alone to mislead him. The
+Gypsies had been after bigger game than a few dollars' worth of auto
+furnishings.
+
+"Come now!" exclaimed Sam Blodgett. "I can't wait here all night. I only
+agreed to drag the car ter town."
+
+"But where could those girls have gone? My sister and Ruth Fielding?"
+
+"Ye ain't payin' me ter be no detectif," drawled the man. "Come! Shell I
+hitch on?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I don't know what else to do," groaned the boy. "I've got to
+get the car fixed first of all. Then I will find help and follow the
+girls."
+
+The farmer was as unsympathetic as a man possibly could be. He started
+the car and let Tom ride in it. But he had no word of advice to give
+about the absent girls.
+
+Perhaps, like his wife, he believed that Tom was not honest, that the
+car was stolen, and that Tom's companions were mythical!
+
+They rolled into Severn Corners at ten o'clock. Of course, in a hamlet
+of that kind, there was scarcely a light burning. Tom had learned from
+Blodgett that the local blacksmith sometimes "monkeyed with ortermobiles
+that come erlong busted."
+
+So he had the farmer draw the car to the door of the blacksmith shop.
+
+"Sim lives right next door, there," said Blodgett, preparing to depart.
+"Mebbe ye kin wake him up an' convince him he'd oughter mend yer
+contraption in the middle of the night. But Sim Peck is constable, too,
+so mebbe ye won't keer ter trouble him," and the farmer drove away with
+a chuckle.
+
+This news was, however, important to Tom. A constable was just about the
+man he most wanted to see. It had dawned on the boy's mind that his
+sister and Ruth had gotten into trouble, and he must find help for them.
+
+The street of the village was dark. This was one of the nights when the
+moon was booked to shine, but forgot to! The town fathers evidently lit
+the street lights only when the almanac said there was to be no moon.
+
+Tom removed one of the headlights and found his way to the door of the
+cottage next to the smithy. There was neither bell nor knocker, but he
+thundered at the panel with right good will, until he heard a stir in a
+chamber above. Finally a blind opened a little way and a sleepy voice
+inquired what he wanted.
+
+"Are you the blacksmith, sir?" asked Tom.
+
+"Huh? Wal! I should say I was. But I ain't no doctor," snarled the man
+above, "and I ain't in the habit of answering night calls. Don't ye see
+I ain't got no night bell? Go away! you're actin' foolish. I don't shoe
+hosses this time o' night."
+
+"It's not a horse," explained Tom, near laughter despite his serious
+feelings. "It's a motor-car."
+
+"Naw, I don't shoe no ortermobile, neither!" declared the man, and
+prepared to close the blind.
+
+"Say, Mister!" shouted Tom. "Do come down. I need you----"
+
+"If I come down thar, I won't come as no blacksmith, nor no mechanic.
+I'll come as the constable and run ye in--ye plaguey whipper-snapper!"
+
+"All right," cried Tom, fearing he would shut the blind. "Come down as
+constable. I reckon I need you in that character more than any other."
+
+"I believe ye do!" exclaimed the man, angrily. "If you air there when I
+git on my pants, you'll take a walk to the callaboose. None o' you young
+city sports air goin' to disturb the neighborhood like this--not if I
+know it!"
+
+Meanwhile, Tom could hear him stirring around, tumbling over the chairs
+in the dark, and growling at his boots, and otherwise showing his anger.
+But the boy was desperate, and he stood still until the man
+appeared--tin star pinned to his vest.
+
+"Wal, by gravey!" exclaimed the blacksmith-constable. "Ain't you a
+reckless youngster ter face up the majesty of the law in this here way?"
+
+Tom saw that, after all, the constable was grinning, and was not such an
+ill-natured fellow, now that he was really awake. The boy plunged into
+his story and told it with brevity, but in detail.
+
+"Why, I see how it is, youngster," said the man. "You're some scart
+about your sister and that other girl. But mebbe nothing's happened 'em
+at all."
+
+"But where have they gone?"
+
+"I couldn't tell you. We'll make search. But we've got to have something
+to travel in, and if it don't take too long to fix your auto, we'll
+travel in _that_."
+
+Of course, this was good sense, and Tom saw it, impatient as he was. The
+constable laid aside the vest with the badge of office upon it, and the
+blacksmith proceeded to open his forge and light a fire and a lantern.
+Then he listened to Tom's explanation of what had happened to the car,
+and went to work.
+
+Fortunately the damage was not serious, and the blacksmith was not a bad
+mechanic. Therefore, in an hour and a half he closed the smithy again,
+removing his apron, and the constable donned his vest and got into the
+car beside the troubled Tom.
+
+"Now let her out, son!" advised the official. "You've got all the law
+with ye that there is in this section, and ye kin go as fast as ye
+please."
+
+Tom needed no urging. He shot the repaired car over the road at a pace
+that would have made his sister and her chum scream indeed!
+
+Once at the bottom of the hill where the car had been stalled, they
+stopped and got out, each taking a lantern by the constable's advice.
+Blodgett and his horses had done their best to trample out the girls'
+footsteps, but there had been no other vehicle along the road, and the
+searchers managed to find footprints of the girls at one side.
+
+"Sure them's them?" asked Mr. Peck.
+
+"You can see they are not the prints of men's shoes," said Tom,
+confidently.
+
+"Right ye air! And here's another woman's shoe--only larger. They went
+away with some woman, that's sure."
+
+"A woman?" muttered Tom, greatly amazed. "Whoever could she be--and
+where have they gone with her?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A BREAK FOR LIBERTY
+
+
+Ruth finally slept in the Gypsy van as sweetly as though she were in her
+own little bed in the gable room at the Red Mill. She was bodily
+wearied, and she had lost herself while yet she was watching the Gypsy
+Queen worshipping the pearl necklace, and fearing that the man with the
+evil eyes was peering into the interior of the van.
+
+A hundred noises of the Gypsy camp awakened her when the sun was
+scarcely showing his face. Dogs barked and scampered about; horses
+neighed and stamped; roosters crowed and hens cackled. The children were
+crying, or laughing, and the women chattering as they went about the
+getting of breakfast at the fires.
+
+The fires crackled; the men sat upon the van tongues cleaning harness
+after the rain and mud of the afternoon before. The boys were polishing
+the coats of the beautiful horses, till they shone again.
+
+All these activities Ruth Fielding could see through the tiny windows of
+the queen's van, in which she and Helen Cameron were imprisoned. Her
+chum roused, too, but was half tempted to cry, when she remembered their
+circumstances. Queen Zelaya had gone out.
+
+"Come on!" exclaimed Ruth. "We've got to make the best of it. Get on
+your dress and shoes, and perhaps they will let us out, too."
+
+"Let's run away, Ruthie," whispered Helen.
+
+"The very first chance we get--sure we will!" agreed her chum.
+
+They found the door unlocked, and, as nobody stayed them, the two girls
+descended the steps to the ground. A cross-looking dog came and smelled
+of them, but the bold-looking girl who had brought the supper the night
+before drove him away.
+
+Ruth essayed to speak to her, but she shook her head and laughed.
+Perhaps she did not understand much English.
+
+Ruth was looking around eagerly for Roberto. Had she seen the Gypsy boy,
+she would certainly have thrown herself--and Helen--upon him for
+protection. But although not many of the Gypsies looked unkindly toward
+the girls, none appeared really friendly.
+
+The woman who had aided in their capture the night before took them down
+to the water, where they might wash their faces and hands and comb their
+hair, using the toilet requisites from their bags. Nobody had offered
+to interfere with them in any manner, or touch their belongings. The
+woman waited patiently until they were ready, and took them back to the
+camping ground for breakfast.
+
+But Ruth had seen something. At first she dared not whisper it to her
+chum. After they had eaten (and a very good breakfast it was that the
+Gypsies gave them), she managed to get Helen out of earshot of the
+watchers.
+
+Everybody in the camp watched the prisoners. The girls were not driven
+back into the van again at once, but Ruth saw that even the children
+circled about her and Helen, at a little distance, so that the girls
+were continuously guarded.
+
+They sat down upon an old stump, in an open space, where nobody could
+creep near enough to hear what Ruth said to Helen without one or the
+other of the captives seeing the eavesdropper.
+
+"What is it?" asked Helen, anxiously. "Oh, Ruth! where do you suppose
+Tom is? What can he think of us?"
+
+"I only hope Tom won't come along here alone and fall into trouble,
+too," said the girl of the Red Mill, in return. "But I believe there is
+a chance for us to get away without his help, dear."
+
+"Oh, how?" demanded her chum.
+
+"Did you look along the shore when we were down there to the lake just
+now?"
+
+"Yes. In both directions. There wasn't a soul in sight but you and
+myself and that woman," returned Helen, showing that she had been
+observant to a degree, at least.
+
+"You are right. It is a lonely spot. I saw nobody. But I saw a fishing
+punt."
+
+"A fishing punt?"
+
+"Yes. Pulled up on the shore a little way. There is a pole in it, too.
+It can be pushed off into the water easily, and I did not see another
+boat of any kind in either direction."
+
+"Oh, Ruth! Neither did I. I didn't even see the boat you speak of."
+
+"It is there just the same. We can reach it in one minute from here--by
+running."
+
+"Let's run, then!" whispered Helen, energetically.
+
+"We'll wait our chance. They are watching too closely now. By and by
+they must get more careless. Then we'll try it."
+
+"But I don't just see what we can do in that boat," queried Helen, after
+a moment's thought.
+
+"Push out into the lake, so that they can't reach us. Then risk being
+seen by Tom or somebody else who will help us escape the Gypsies."
+
+"But these men will follow us," said Helen, with a shudder. "They can
+swim--some of them--surely."
+
+"And if they try it, we'll beat them off with the push-pole," declared
+Ruth. "Keep up your pluck, Helen. They will not really dare hurt
+us--especially if they expect to get money for our release. And I'd like
+to know," added Ruth, with rather a bitter little laugh, "who will pay
+_my_ ransom?"
+
+"I'll make father pay whatever they ask," whispered Helen. "Oh, dear!
+won't he be just _mad_ when he hears about it?"
+
+Soon the activities of the camp changed. It was plain to the two girls
+that their captors had no intention of spending the day in this dell by
+the lake side.
+
+A number of the men and boys had gone off with some of the horses early.
+Now they returned, and it was evident that the men were angry, if not a
+little frightened. They talked loudly with Zelaya, and the Queen of the
+Gypsies seemed to be scolding them soundly.
+
+It was surprising to the visitors at the camp that the old woman should
+have such influence over these black-browed ruffians. But she _did_
+possess a power; it was self-evident!
+
+Soon preparations were begun for shifting camp. The tents were struck
+and all the paraphernalia of the camp was returned to the three vans.
+
+"Something has happened," whispered Ruth to Helen. "Perhaps Tom has
+raised the hue and cry for us, and they are afraid of being caught here
+with us in their possession."
+
+"Mean old things!" snapped Helen. "I wish they would all be caught and
+put into jail."
+
+"The little children, too?"
+
+"The little ones will grow up to be big ones--and they are all bad,"
+declared Helen, with confidence.
+
+"I can't believe that Roberto is bad," said Ruth, thoughtfully. "I wish
+he was with them now. I believe he would help us get away."
+
+"Maybe these are not his people."
+
+"I think they are," returned Ruth. But she did not say anything then to
+Helen about the pearl necklace, and the cashbox of Queen Zelaya.
+
+The necklace was never out of Ruth's thought, however, for she was sure
+it had been stolen. The girl of the Red Mill would know the necklace
+again; wherever she might see it.
+
+In the first place it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen.
+But there was a peculiar pendant attached to it--in the shape of a
+fleur-de-lis--of larger pearls, that would distinguish it among any
+number of such articles of adornment.
+
+Ruth kept in mind the chance she hoped would arise for their escape.
+Helen was hopeless; but she had agreed to make the attempt, if Ruth
+did.
+
+The whole camp was busy in preparing for departure. There were not so
+many eyes now upon the girls. And--therefore--there being no regular
+guard set over them, the opportunity Ruth hoped for arose.
+
+In harnessing one of the horses to a van, something happened to call
+most of the excited crowd together. The horse kicked, and one of the men
+was hurt.
+
+The moment the shouting over this incident arose, Ruth pinched Helen and
+they both got up and slipped into the wood. They were out of sight in a
+moment, and having chosen the side toward the lake, they set off at top
+speed through the underbrush for the spot where Ruth had seen the
+fishing punt.
+
+"Suppose it leaks?" gasped Helen, running hard beside her friend.
+
+"Well! we'll know it when we're in deep water," grimly returned Ruth.
+
+At that moment they heard a great hullabaloo at the camp behind them.
+
+"They've discovered we're missing," gasped Helen.
+
+"Come on, then!" cried Ruth. "Let's see if we can outwit them. We've got
+a chance for liberty, my dear. Don't lose heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+RUTH IN THE TOILS
+
+
+The lake shore was just ahead of the fugitives. Ruth had been but a few
+yards out of the way in her calculations. She and Helen came out upon
+the beach almost at the spot where the fishing punt lay.
+
+The boat appeared to be sound, and the pole lying in it was a straight,
+peeled ash sapling, not too heavy for either of the girls to handle.
+
+"Jump in, Helen!" commanded Ruth. "Take the pole and push off. I'll push
+here at the bow."
+
+"But you'll get all wet!" quavered her chum.
+
+"As though _that_ mattered," returned the other, with a chuckle, as she
+leaned against the bow of the punt and braced her feet for the grand
+effort. "Now!"
+
+Helen had scrambled in and seized the pole. She thrust it against the
+shore, her own weight bearing down the stern, which was in the water,
+and thus raising the bow a trifle.
+
+"All-to-geth-er!" gasped Ruth, as though they were at "tug-of-war" in
+the Briarwood gymnasium.
+
+The boat moved. Ruth's feet slipped and she scrambled to get a fresh
+brace for them.
+
+"Now, again!" she cried.
+
+At that moment a great hound came rushing out of the wood upon their
+trail, raised his red eyes, saw them, and uttered a mournful bay.
+
+"We're caught!" wailed Helen.
+
+"We're nothing of the kind!" returned her friend. "Push again, Helen!"
+
+One more effort and Ruth was ankle deep in the water. The boat floated
+free!
+
+But before the brave girl could scramble aboard, the hound leaped for
+her. Helen screamed. That shriek was enough, without the baying of the
+hound, to bring their enemies to the water's edge.
+
+Ruth Fielding was terrified--of course! But she gave a final push to the
+boat as the hound grabbed her. Fortunately the beast seized only her
+skirt. Perhaps he had been taught not to actually worry his prey.
+
+However, the girl was dragged to her knees, and she could not escape.
+The punt shot out into the lake, and Ruth shouted to her chum:
+
+"Keep on! keep on! Never mind me! Find Tom and bring help----Oh!"
+
+The weight of the big dog had cast her into the shallow water. She
+immediately scrambled to her feet again. The hound held onto the skirt.
+The material was too strong to easily tear, and she could not get away.
+
+There was a crashing in the brush and out upon the edge of the lake came
+half a dozen of the Gypsy men and one of the women. She was the one who
+had befooled Ruth and Helen into entering the green van the night
+before. When she saw Ruth's plight, standing in the water with the hound
+holding her, she laughed as though it were a great joke.
+
+But the men did not laugh. He with the squinting eye strode down to the
+girl and would have slapped her with his hard palm, had not the woman
+jumped in and put herself between the man and Ruth. She seemed to
+threaten him in her own language, and the ruffian desisted.
+
+One of the boys threw off his clothing--all his outer garments, at
+least--and plunged right into the lake after Helen. The boat had swung
+around, for there was considerable current in Long Lake.
+
+"Don't let him come near you, Helen!" screamed Ruth. "Use your pole!"
+
+Her friend stood very bravely in the stern of the punt and raised the
+pole threateningly. The Gypsy boy could not easily overtake the boat,
+which was drifting farther and farther out toward the middle of the
+lake.
+
+Some of the others began running along the shore as though to keep pace
+with the boat. But suddenly a long-drawn, eerie cry resounded from the
+direction of the camp. The men stopped and returned; the boy scrambled
+ashore and hastily grabbed his clothing. The woman and the squint-eyed
+man dragged Ruth into the bush.
+
+The cry was a signal of some kind, and one not to be disobeyed. The
+Gypsies hurried back to the vans, and Ruth did not see Helen again.
+
+All was confusion at the camp. The horses were ready to start, and the
+movables were packed. The children and women swarmed into two of the
+vans. Queen Zelaya stood at the door of the other, and the moment she
+saw that one of the prisoners had not been recovered, she began to
+harangue her people threateningly.
+
+The squint-eyed man pushed Ruth toward the old woman. Zelaya's claw-like
+hand seized the girl's shoulder.
+
+She was jerked forward and up the steps into the van. Almost at once the
+caravan started, and Zelaya pulled the door to, and darkened the
+windows.
+
+"Quick, now!" she commanded the girl. "Take off your hat. Gypsies have
+no use for hats."
+
+She seized it and thrust it into one of her boxes. Then she commanded
+Ruth to remove her frock, and that followed the hat into the same
+receptacle. Afterward the girl was forced to take off her shoes and
+stockings.
+
+"Sit down here!" commanded Zelaya, as the van rolled along. The queen
+had been mixing some kind of a lotion in a bowl. Now with a sponge she
+anointed Ruth's face and neck, far below the collar of any gown she
+would wear; likewise her arms and hands, and her limbs from the knees
+down. Then Zelaya threw some earth on Ruth's feet and streaked her limbs
+with the same. She gave her a torn and not over-clean frock to put on
+instead of her own clothing, and insisted that she don the ugly garment
+at once.
+
+"Now, Gentile girl," hissed the old woman, "if they come to search for
+you, speak at your peril. We say you are ours--a wicked, orphan Gypsy,
+wicked through and through."
+
+She tore down Ruth's hair and rubbed some lotion into it that darkened
+its color, too. She really looked as wild and uncouth as the bold girl
+who waited upon the queen of the Gypsies.
+
+"Now let them find you!" cackled the old woman. "You are Belle, my
+great-granddaughter, and you are touched here--eh?" and she tapped her
+own wrinkled forehead with her finger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ROBERTO AGAIN
+
+
+Ruth cried a little. But, after all, it was more because she was lonely
+than for any other reason. What would eventually happen to her in the
+Gypsy queen's toils she did not know. She had not begun to worry about
+that as yet.
+
+Helen had gotten clear away. She was confident of that, and was likewise
+sure that her chum would rouse the authorities and come in search of
+her. Tom, too, was faithful; he must already be stirring up the whole
+neighborhood to find his sister and Ruth.
+
+How far the caravan had traveled the night before, after the girls had
+joined the Gypsies, Ruth could not guess. But she realized that now they
+were making very good time up the road leading to Boisé Landing, along
+the edge of Long Lake.
+
+There might be some pursuit already. If Tom had telegraphed his father,
+Mr. Cameron would come looking for Helen "on the jump"! And had the
+searchers any idea the Gypsies had captured the two girls, Ruth was
+sure that the wanderers would get into trouble very quickly.
+
+"Why, even Uncle Jabez would 'start something,' as Tom would say, if he
+learned of this. I believe, even if I am not 'as good as a boy,' that
+Uncle Jabez loves me and would not let a parcel of tramps carry me off
+like this."
+
+She wiped away the tears, therefore, and in looking into a cloudy little
+mirror screwed to the wall of the vehicle, she found that the tears did
+not wash off the walnut stain. She had been dyed with a "fast color,"
+sure enough!
+
+"If Heavy and The Fox, or Belle and Lluella could see me now!" thought
+Ruth Fielding.
+
+Suddenly the caravan halted. There were shouts and cries, and evidently
+the other vans were being emptied of their occupants in a hurry. Some of
+the men seemed to be arguing in English at the head of the queen's van.
+
+Ruth believed that a searching party had overtaken the Gypsies. She
+feared there would be a fight, and she was anxious to show herself, so
+that her unknown rescuers might see her.
+
+But she dared not scream. Old Zelaya scowled at her so savagely and
+threatened her so angrily with her clenched fist, that Ruth dared not
+speak. Finally the old woman opened the door of the van and flung her
+down the steps.
+
+The act was so unexpected that Ruth fell into the arms of the crowd
+waiting for her. It was evidently ready for her appearance. The boys and
+girls, and some of the women, received her into their midst, and they
+made so much noise, chattering and shrieking, and dancing about her,
+that Ruth was both confused and frightened.
+
+Had she herself shrieked aloud, her voice would have been drowned in the
+general hullabaloo. This noise was all intentional on the part of the
+Gypsies, for up at the head of the caravan Ruth caught a glimpse of a
+big man standing with a stout oak club in his hand and a big shiny star
+pinned to his vest near the armhole.
+
+A constable! Whether he was there searching for her and Helen, or was
+merely making inquiries about a robbed hen-roost, the girl from the Red
+Mill could not guess. There was so much confusion about her, that she
+could not hear a word the constable said!
+
+She waved her hand to him and tried to attract his attention. The girls
+and boys laughed at her, and pulled her about, and the bold girl she had
+seen before almost tore the frock from her shoulders.
+
+Suddenly Ruth realized that, even did the constable look right at her,
+he would not discover that she was a white girl. She looked just as
+disreputable in every way as the Gypsy children themselves!
+
+The constable came toward the first van. Zelaya now sat upon the top
+step, smoking a cheroot, and nodding in the sun as though she were too
+old and too feeble to realize what was going on. Yet Ruth was sure that
+the sly old queen had planned this scene and told her tribesmen what to
+do.
+
+Ruth was whisked away from the steps of the queen's van, and borne off
+by the shouting, dancing children. She tried to cry out so that the
+constable would hear her, but the crowd drowned her cries.
+
+She saw the constable search each of the three vans. Of course, he found
+no girls answering to the descriptions of Ruth and Helen--and it was the
+girls that he was searching for. He was Sim Peck, the
+blacksmith-constable from Severn Corners. It was a pity Tom Cameron had
+not been with him!
+
+Finally Ruth saw that the man had given up the search, and the Gypsies
+were going to depart. She determined to make a desperate attempt to
+attract his attention to herself.
+
+She suddenly sprang through the group of children, knocking the bold
+girl down in her effort, and started, yelling, for the constable.
+Instantly one of the men halted her, swung her about, clapped a palm
+over her mouth, and she saw him staring balefully down into her face.
+
+"You do that ageen--I keel you!" he hissed.
+
+It was the evil-eyed man who had spied upon Queen Zelaya, as she had
+worshipped the pearl necklace in the van the evening before. Ruth was
+stricken dumb and motionless. The man looked wicked enough to do just
+what he said he would.
+
+She saw the constable depart. Then the Gypsies huddled into the wagons,
+and she was seized by Zelaya and put into the first van. The old witch
+was grinning broadly.
+
+"Ah, ha!" she chuckled. "What does the Gentile girl think now? That she
+shall escape so easily Zelaya? Ha! she is already like one of our own
+kind. Her own parents would not know her--nor shall they see her again
+until they have paid, and paid in full!"
+
+"You are holding the wrong girl, Zelaya," murmured Ruth. "_My_ parents
+are dead, and there is nobody to pay you a great ransom for me."
+
+"False!" croaked the hag, and struck her again.
+
+The caravan rolled on after that for a long way. It did not stop for
+dinner, and Ruth grew very hungry, for she and Helen had been too
+excited that morning to eat much breakfast.
+
+Through the open door and the forward window Ruth saw considerable of
+the road. They were seldom out of sight of the lake. By and by they
+turned right down to the water's edge and she heard the horses' feet
+splashing through the shallow water.
+
+She could not imagine where they were going. Out of the door she saw
+that they seemed to be leaving the land and striking right out into the
+lake. The water grew deeper slowly, rising first over one step and then
+another, while the shore of the lake receded behind them. The other vans
+and the boys driving the horses followed in their wake.
+
+Curious, Ruth arose and went to the forward end of the van. She could
+see out between the driver and his wife, and over the heads of the
+horses. The latter were almost shoulder deep now, and were advancing
+very slowly.
+
+Some rods ahead she saw that there was a wooded island. It was of good
+size and seemed to be densely covered with trees and brush. Yet, there
+was a patch of sandy shore toward which the horses were being urged.
+
+The lake was so low, that there was a fordable stretch of its bottom
+between the mainland and this island. These Gypsies seemed to know this
+bar perfectly, and the driver of the queen's van made no mistake in
+guiding his span.
+
+In half an hour the horses were trotting through the shallows again.
+They rolled out upon the white beach, and then Ruth saw that a faint
+wagon trail led into the interior of the island.
+
+The Gypsies had been there before. There, in the middle of the wooded
+isle, was a clearing. The moment the vans arrived, all the people jumped
+out, laughing and talking, and the usual preparations for an encampment
+were begun. Only, in this case, Queen Zelaya sent the squint-eyed man
+and the ruffian who had so frightened Ruth to either shore of the
+island to keep watch.
+
+Tents were set up, fires kindled, a great supper begun, and the poultry
+was set loose to roam at will. Somewhere the Gypsy children had picked
+up a kid and a little calf. Both of these were freed, and at once began
+to butt each other, to the vast delight of the little ones.
+
+All about, under-foot and growling if they were disturbed, were the ugly
+dogs. Ruth was afraid of them!
+
+Now that they were on the island, the Gypsies gave her slight attention.
+The children did not come near her, and she was glad of that. Of course,
+the adults knew she could not escape.
+
+Later she heard one of the men on the shore shout. Nobody was disturbed
+at the camp, but after a little, there was some loud conversation and
+then somebody broke through the bushes and appeared suddenly in the
+little clearing.
+
+Ruth Fielding gasped and sprang to her feet. Nobody noticed her.
+
+The newcomer was Roberto. He strode swiftly across the camp to the
+queen's van. Zelaya sat upon the steps and when he came before her, he
+bowed very respectfully.
+
+The old woman showed more emotion at his appearance than Ruth believed
+possible. She got up quickly and kissed the boy on both of his cheeks.
+Her eyes sparkled and she talked with him for some time in the Tzigane
+tongue.
+
+Once or twice Roberto glanced in Ruth's direction, as though he and the
+old woman had been speaking of the captive girl. But, to the latter's
+surprise, she saw no look of recognition in the Gypsy boy's eyes.
+
+Finally, when he parted from the queen, Roberto crossed the encampment
+directly toward Ruth. The girl, fearful, yet hoping he would see and
+know her, rose to her feet and took a single step toward him.
+
+Roberto turned upon her fiercely. He struck at her with his arm and
+pushed Ruth roughly back into her seat. But although the action was so
+cruel and his look so hateful, the girl heard him whisper:
+
+"Wait! Let the little lady have no fear!"
+
+Then he passed on to greet his friends about the nearest campfire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HELEN'S ESCAPE
+
+
+Helen Cameron was so fearful at first of the Gypsies overtaking her,
+that she had no thought of any peril which might lie ahead of the
+drifting punt, into which she had scrambled. She realized that Ruth had
+sacrificed herself in their attempt to escape, but she could render her
+chum no help now. Indeed, the current which had seized the boat was so
+strong that she could not have gotten back to the shore, had she tried.
+
+When the Gypsies disappeared into the wood, taking Ruth with them, Helen
+realized her helplessness and loneliness, and she wept. She sat in the
+stern of the punt and floated on and on, without regard to where she was
+going.
+
+She could not have changed the course of the punt, however. She was now
+in too deep water; the guiding pole was of no use to her, and there were
+no oars, of course. She was drifting toward the middle of the lake, it
+seemed, yet the general direction was eastward.
+
+There, at the lower end of the lake, a wide stream carried its waters
+toward the distant Minturn Dam. But long before the stream came to that
+place, there was much of what the local guides called "white water."
+
+These swift rapids Helen thought little about at first. She had had no
+experience to warn her of her peril. At this moment she was fearful only
+of the wild Gypsy clan that had tried to keep her prisoner and that had,
+indeed, succeeded in carrying away her dear friend, Ruth Fielding.
+
+As she floated on, she saw nothing more of the Gypsies. She began to
+believe that they had not turned back to follow her along the edge of
+the lake. They were satisfied with their single prisoner!
+
+"But father will see to that!" sobbed Helen. "He won't let them run away
+with Ruth Fielding--I know he won't! Dear, dear! what would I ever do if
+Ruth disappeared and we shouldn't meet each other again--or not until we
+were quite grown up?
+
+"Such things _have_ happened! I've read about it in books. And those
+dreadful Gypsies make the children they capture become Gypsies, too.
+Suppose, years and years hence, I should meet Ruth and she should ask to
+tell my fortune as Gypsy women do--and she shouldn't know me----"
+
+Helen began to sob again. She was working herself up into a highly
+nervous state and her imagination was "running away with her," as Ruth
+often said.
+
+Just then she almost lost the punt-pole, and this near-accident startled
+her. She might need that pole yet--especially if the boat drifted into
+shallow water.
+
+She looked all around. She stood up, so as to see farther. Not a moving
+object appeared along either shore of the lake. This was a veritable
+wilderness, and human habitations were far, far away.
+
+She raised her eyes to the chain of hills over which she and her brother
+and Ruth had ridden the day before. At one point she could see the road
+itself, and just then there flashed into view an auto, traveling
+eastward at a fast clip.
+
+"But, of course, they can't see _me_ 'way down here," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "They wouldn't notice such a speck on the lake."
+
+So she did not even try to signal to the motor-car, and it was quickly
+out of sight.
+
+The current was now stronger, it seemed. The punt drifted straight down
+the lake toward the broad stream through which Long Lake was drained.
+Helen hoped the boat would drift in near one shore, or the other, but it
+entered the stream as near the middle as though it had been aimed for
+that point!
+
+Here the water gripped the heavy boat and drew it onward, swifter and
+swifter. At first Helen was not afraid. She saw the banks slipping by on
+either hand, and was now so far from the Gypsies, that she would have
+been glad to get ashore. Yet she did not think herself in any increased
+danger.
+
+Suddenly, however, an eddy gripped the boat. To her amazement the craft
+swung around swiftly and she was floating down stream, stern foremost!
+
+"Oh, dear me! I wish I had a pair of oars. Then I could manage this
+thing," she told herself.
+
+Then the boat scraped upon a rock. The blow was a glancing one, but it
+drove the craft around again. She was glad, however, to see the bow
+aimed properly.
+
+From moment to moment the boat now moved more swiftly. It seemed that
+the foam-streaked water tore at its sides as though desiring to swamp
+it. Helen sat very quietly in the middle seat, and watched the dimpling,
+eddying stream with increasing anxiety.
+
+Suddenly the punt darted shoreward. It looked just as though it must be
+cast upon the beach. Helen raised herself stiffly, seized the pole more
+firmly, and prepared to leap ashore with its aid.
+
+And just as she was about to risk the feat, the bow of the boat whirled
+outward again, she was almost cast into the water, and once more the
+boat whirled down the middle current.
+
+She dropped back into her seat with a gasp. This was terrible! She could
+not possibly control the craft in the rapids, and she was traveling
+faster and faster.
+
+The boat came to another eddy, and was whirled around and around, so
+swiftly, that Helen's poor head swam, too! She raised her voice in a cry
+for help, but it was likewise a cry of despair. She had no idea that
+there was a soul within the sound of her voice.
+
+Crash! the boat went against an outcropping rock. It spun around again
+and darted down the current. It was leaking now; the water poured into
+it between the sprung planks.
+
+The river widened suddenly into a great pool, fringed with trees. At one
+point a rock was out-thrust into the river and Helen saw--dimly enough
+at first--a figure spring into view upon this boulder.
+
+"Help! help!" shrieked the girl, as the boat spun about.
+
+"Hi! catch that!"
+
+It was dear old Tom's voice! The shout brought hope to Helen's heart.
+
+"Oh, Tom! Tom!" she cried. "Save me!"
+
+"Bet you I will!" returned the boy. "Just grab this rope----Now!"
+
+She saw the loop come hurtling through the air. Tom had learned how to
+properly throw a lariat the summer before, while in Montana, and he and
+his particular chums had practised the art assiduously ever since that
+time.
+
+Now, at his second trial, he dropped the noose right across the punt.
+Helen seized upon it.
+
+"Hitch it to the ring in the bow--quick!" commanded her brother, and
+Helen obeyed.
+
+In five minutes he had her ashore, but the punt sunk in shallow water.
+
+"I don't care! I don't care!" cried Helen, wading through the shallow
+water. "I really thought I was going to drown, Tommy boy."
+
+"But where's Ruth? Whatever have you girls been doing since last
+evening? Where did you go to?"
+
+He held her in his arms for a moment and hugged her tightly. Helen
+sobbed a little, with her face against his shoulder.
+
+"Oh! it's so-o good to have you again, Tommy," she declared.
+
+Then she told him swiftly all that had happened. Tom was mighty glad to
+get his sister back, but he was vastly worried about her chum.
+
+"That's what I feared. I had a feeling that you girls had fallen into
+the hands of those Gypsies. Those men in the old house were two of
+them----"
+
+"I know it. We saw them at the encampment."
+
+"But if Ruth is still with them," Tom said, "Peck will get her. He said
+he knew how to handle Gyps. He's been used to them all his life. And
+this tribe often come through this region, he told me."
+
+"Who is Mr. Peck?" asked Helen, puzzled.
+
+Tom told her of his adventures on the previous night. After returning to
+the spot where the auto had been stalled earlier in the evening, Tom and
+the constable had searched with the lanterns all about the place, and
+had followed the footsteps of the girls and the strange woman to the
+lower road.
+
+"I had no idea then that the wagon you had evidently gotten into was a
+Gypsy cart," pursued Tom. "We saw you'd gone on toward Severn Corners,
+however, and we went back. But you come along with me, now, Helen, and
+we'll return to that very place. I expect Uncle Ike will be waiting for
+us. I telephoned him before daylight this morning--and it's now ten
+o'clock. The car is right back here on the road."
+
+"Oh! I am so glad!"
+
+"Yes. Soon after breakfast Peck and I separated! I came this way in the
+car, hoping to find some trace of you. Peck made inquiries and said he'd
+follow the Gyps. Ruth will be taken away from them," declared Tom, with
+conviction. "That big smith isn't afraid of anybody."
+
+"Oh, I hope so," said Helen. "But that horrible old Gypsy--the queen,
+she calls herself--is very powerful."
+
+"Not much she isn't!" laughed Tom. "Peck fully feels the importance of
+that star he wears. I think he would tackle a herd of elephants, if they
+were breaking the law."
+
+So they sped on in the motor-car, feeling considerably better. The twins
+were very fond of each other, and were never really happy, when they
+were apart for long.
+
+But when they ran down into Severn Corners, expecting to find Ruth at
+the constable's house, they were gravely disappointed. The forge was
+open and Sim Peck was shoeing a horse. He stood up, hammer in hand, when
+the motor-car stopped before the smithy.
+
+"Hello!" he said to Tom. "Did you get her?"
+
+"I got my sister. She's had an awful time. Those Gypsies ought to be all
+shut up in jail," said Tom, vigorously.
+
+"Them 'Gyptians?" drawled Peck, in surprise. "What they got ter do with
+it?"
+
+"Why, they had everything to do with it. Don't you know that they
+carried off both my sister here and Ruth Fielding?"
+
+"Look here," said the blacksmith-constable, slowly, "let me understand
+this. Your sister has been with the 'Gyptians?"
+
+"Yes. Didn't you find Ruth with them?"
+
+"Wait a minute. Was she with old Zelaya's tribe?"
+
+"Yes," cried Helen. "That is the name of the Gypsy queen."
+
+"And the other gal?" demanded the man. "Where is she?"
+
+"That's what I ask you," said Tom, anxiously. "My sister escaped from
+them, but they recaptured the other girl."
+
+"Sure o' that?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, I am!" cried Helen. "I saw them drag her back through the woods to
+the encampment."
+
+"When was this?"
+
+"Not far from six o'clock this morning."
+
+"By gravey!" ejaculated the man. "She ain't with 'em now. I been all
+through them vans, and seen the whole tribe. There ain't a white gal
+with 'em," said Mr. Peck, with confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THROUGH THE NIGHT AND THE STORM
+
+
+Ruth did not really know what to think of Roberto, the Gypsy boy.
+
+His push, as he passed her, had been most rude, but his whispered words
+seemed a promise of friendship. He did not look at her again, as he went
+around the encampment. Roberto seemed a privileged character, and it was
+not hard to guess that he was Queen Zelaya's favorite grandchild.
+
+As for the prisoner, she was scarcely spoken to by anybody. She was not
+abused, but she felt her position keenly. Particularly was she ashamed
+of her appearance--barefooted, bareheaded, and stained until she seemed
+as dark as the Gypsy girls themselves. Ruth thought she looked
+altogether hateful!
+
+"I really would be ashamed to have Tom Cameron see me now," she thought.
+
+Yet she would have been delighted indeed to see Tom! It was in her
+chum's twin brother that she hoped, after all, for escape.
+
+For Roberto, the Gypsy, ignored her completely. She feared that his
+whispered words to her, when he first entered the camp, had meant
+nothing after all. Why should she expect him to be different from his
+tribesmen?
+
+The Gypsies fed her well and allowed her to wander about the camp as she
+pleased. There were two sentinels set to watch the northern and southern
+shores of the lake. Nobody could approach the island without being
+observed and warning given to the camp.
+
+Ruth had lost hope of anybody coming to the encampment in search of her,
+for the present. The constable had doubtless been sent by Tom Cameron,
+and he would report that there was nobody but Gypsies in the camp.
+Nobody but her immediate friends would distinguish Ruth from a Gypsy
+now.
+
+If Helen had found Tom, the situation could not be changed much for
+Ruth--and the latter realized that. Mr. Cameron and Uncle Jabez would
+have to be communicated with, before a general alarm could be sent out
+and detectives put on the case.
+
+By that time, where would the girl from the Red Mill be?
+
+This question was no easy one to answer. Ruth did not believe the
+Gypsies would remain on this island for any length of time. Queen Zelaya
+was doubtless shrewd enough to plan a long jump next time, and so throw
+off pursuit.
+
+Indeed, all the next day the girl could do little but worry about her
+own situation, and about Helen's fate. The last she had seen of her
+chum, she had been drifting out into the middle of this lake. Suppose
+the punt had sprung a leak, or capsized?
+
+Clouds gathered that day, and the second evening on the island closed
+with a steady, fine rain falling. The encampment was quiet early. Even
+the dogs found shelter from the wet, but Ruth had every reason to
+believe that the Gypsy men took turns in guarding the encampment.
+
+Ruth was made to sleep in Queen Zelaya's van, and as soon as it had
+become real dark, the old woman made her enter. In her rags of clothing,
+Ruth was not afraid of a little rain--surely she had on nothing that
+would be spoiled by the wet; but she had to obey the old hag.
+
+At supper time Roberto brought the bowls of savory stew that usually
+made up that meal for the Gypsies. There were three bowls on the tray
+and the boy gave Ruth a sharp side glance and pointed to a certain bowl.
+She dared not refuse to take it.
+
+When he approached his grandmother at the other end of the van, he
+removed his own bowl before setting the tray upon the box beside her.
+Ruth hesitated to eat her own portion; she had been afraid of being
+drugged from the beginning.
+
+Yet, somehow, she could not help feeling confidence in Roberto. The
+latter ate his supper with gusto, talking all the while with the old
+woman. But he went away without a word or look at Ruth after the meal.
+
+Soon Zelaya made her go to bed. Ruth was not sleepy, but she appeared to
+go to sleep almost at once, as she had before. She lay down in all the
+clothing she wore, for she was apprehensive of something happening on
+this night. She saw that the old woman was very drowsy herself.
+
+Appearing to sleep, Ruth waited and watched. The storm whined in the
+trees of the island, but there was no other noise.
+
+Zelaya was at the locked box again, and she soon drew forth her
+treasure-casket. She fondled the collar of pearls as she had on the
+first night Ruth had slept in the van.
+
+The girl was watching for that evil face at the window again. For a
+moment she thought she saw it, but then she recognized that it was
+Roberto's handsome face against the wet pane.
+
+Suddenly Ruth realized that the old woman had fallen asleep over her box
+of valuables. The girl was confident that there had been a drugged bowl
+at supper time, but _she_ had not eaten of it.
+
+There was a little noise at the door--ever so slight. The handle turned,
+and Roberto's head was thrust in. He nodded at Ruth as though he were
+sure she was not asleep, and then creeping up the steps, he gazed at his
+grandmother.
+
+There could be no doubt that she was sound asleep! He slipped in and
+closed the door. At first he did not say a word to Ruth.
+
+He went to Zelaya's side and shook her lightly. She did not awake. As
+though she were a child, the strong youth lifted her and placed her in
+the bed. Then he locked the small box, put the key again around Zelaya's
+neck, and lowered the treasure box into the chest. The padlock of this
+he snapped and then turned cheerfully to the watchful Ruth.
+
+"Come!" he whispered. "Missy not afraid of Roberto? Come!"
+
+No. Ruth was _not_ afraid of him. She rose quickly and preceded him, as
+he directed by a gesture, out of the door of the van. There was neither
+light nor sound in the whole camp.
+
+Once they were free, Roberto seized the girl's hand and led her through
+the darkness and the rain. Ruth's tender feet stumbled painfully over
+the rough ground, but the boy was not impatient.
+
+He seemed to know his way in the dark by instinct. Certainly, Ruth could
+scarcely see her hand before her face!
+
+However, it was not long before she realized that they had come out upon
+the shore of the island. There was a vast, empty-looking place before
+them, which Ruth knew must be the open lake.
+
+Where the sentinels had gone, she could not guess, unless Roberto had
+managed to drug _them_, too!
+
+However, there was not a word said, save when Roberto led her down, to
+the water and she felt it lave her feet. Then he muttered, in a low
+tone:
+
+"Don't fear, little Missy."
+
+As they waded deeper and deeper into the lake, following as she supposed
+the track by which the wagons had come to the island, Ruth _was_ more
+than a little frightened. Yet she would not show Roberto it was so.
+
+Once she whispered to him: "I can swim, Roberto."
+
+"Good! But I will carry you," and he suddenly stooped, slung her across
+his shoulder as though she had been a feather-weight, and marched on
+through the water.
+
+It was plain that the Gypsy boy knew this ford better than the drivers
+of the vans, for he found no spot that he could not wade through and
+carry Ruth, as well. It was nearly an hour before they reached the land.
+
+The rain beat upon them and the wind soughed in the trees. It seemed to
+get darker and darker, yet Roberto never hesitated for direction, and
+setting Ruth down upon her own feet, helped her on till they came to a
+well-traveled road.
+
+Not far ahead was a light. Ruth knew at once that it was a lamp shining
+through the windows of some farmhouse kitchen.
+
+"There they will take you in," Roberto said. "They are kind people. I am
+sorry I could not bring away your own clothes and your bag. But it could
+not be, Missy."
+
+"Oh! you have been so good to me, Roberto!" she cried, seizing both of
+his hands. "However can I thank you--or repay you?"
+
+"Don't be too hard on Gypsy--on my old grandmother. She is old and she
+is a miser. She thought she could make your friends pay her money. But
+now we will all leave here in the morning and you shall never be
+troubled by us again."
+
+"I will do nothing to punish her, Roberto," promised Ruth. "But I hope I
+shall see you at the Red Mill some time."
+
+"Perhaps--who knows?" returned the youth, with a smile that she could
+see in the dark, his teeth were so white. "Now run to the door and
+knock. When I see it opened and you go in, I will return."
+
+Ruth Fielding did as she was bidden. She entered the gate, mounted the
+porch, and rapped upon the kitchen door. The moment she looked into the
+motherly face of the woman who answered her knock, the girl knew that
+her troubles were over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+OFF FOR SCHOOL AGAIN
+
+
+There was much bustle about the old Red Mill. The first tang of frost
+was in the air, and September was lavishly painting the trees and bushes
+along the banks of the Lumano with crimson and yellow.
+
+A week had elapsed since Ruth and Helen had been prisoners in the
+Gypsies' encampment, up in the hills. That week had been crowded with
+excitement and adventure for the chums and Tom Cameron. They would all
+three have much to talk about regarding the Gypsies and their ways, for
+weeks to come.
+
+Uncle Ike Cameron had roused up the County Sheriff and all his minions,
+before Ruth appeared at Severn Corners, driven by the kindly farmer to
+whose door Roberto had brought her through the darkness and rain.
+
+Constable Peck, having searched the Gypsy camp, believed that Ruth must
+have escaped from the Romany people at the same time as Helen.
+Therefore, it was not until Ruth's complete story was told, that actual
+pursuit of the Gypsies by the county authorities was begun.
+
+Then Queen Zelaya and her band were not only out of the county, but out
+of the state, as well. They had hurried across the border, and it was
+understood that the tribe had gone south--as they usually did in the
+winter--and would be seen no more in New York State--at least not until
+the next spring.
+
+The three friends had much to tell wherever they went during this
+intervening week. They had had a fine time at "Uncle Ike's," but every
+adventure they had was tame in comparison to those they had experienced
+on the road overlooking Long Lake.
+
+They wondered what had become of Roberto--if he had returned to his
+people and risked being accused of letting Ruth escape. Ruth discussed
+this point with her friends; but one thing she had never mentioned to
+either Helen, or her brother Tom.
+
+She did not speak to them of the wonderful pearl necklace she had seen
+in the old Gypsy queen's possession. There was a mystery about that; she
+believed Zelaya must have stolen it. The man with the wicked face had
+intimated that it was part of some plunder the Gypsies had secured.
+
+Now, Ruth and Helen--and Tom as well--were ready to start for school
+again. This was the last morning for some time to come, that Ruth would
+look out of her little bedroom window at the Red Mill.
+
+She always left the beautiful place with regret. She had come to love
+old Aunt Alvirah so much, and have such a deep affection and pity for
+the miserly miller, that the joy of going back to Briarwood was well
+tempered with remorse.
+
+The night before, Uncle Jabez had come to Ruth, when she was alone, and
+thrust a roll of coin in her hand. "Ye'll want some ter fritter away as
+us'al, Niece Ruth," he had said in his most snarling tone.
+
+When she looked at it, her heart beat high. There were five ten-dollar
+gold pieces!
+
+It was given in an ungrateful way, yet the girl of the Red Mill believed
+her uncle meant to be kind after all. The very thought of giving up
+possession of so much money made him cranky. Perhaps he was determined
+to give her these fifty dollars on the very day they had been wrecked on
+the Lumano. No wonder he had been so cross all this time!
+
+It was Uncle Jabez's way. As Aunt Alvirah said, he could not help it. At
+least, he had never learned to make any effort to cure this unfortunate
+niggardliness that made him seem so unkind.
+
+"I do wish I had a lot of money," she told Aunt Alvirah, with a sigh. "I
+would never have to ask him to pay out a cent again. I could refuse to
+take this that he has given me and then I----"
+
+"Tut, tut, my pretty! don't say that," said the little old woman,
+soothingly. "It does him good to put his hand in his pocket--it does,
+indeed. If it is a sad wrench for him ter git it out ag'in--all the
+better!" and she chuckled a little as she lowered herself into her
+rocker. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"Ye don't understand yer uncle's nater like I do, Ruthie. You bein' his
+charge has been the salvation of him--yes, it has! Don't worry when he
+gives ye money; it's all thet keeps his old heart from freezin' right up
+solid."
+
+Now the Cameron automobile was at the gate, and Helen and Tom were
+calling to Ruth to hurry. Ben had taken her trunk to the Cheslow station
+the day before. Ruth appeared with her new handbag (the Gypsies had the
+old one), flung her arms about Aunt Alvirah's neck as she sat on the
+porch, and then ran swiftly to the door of the mill.
+
+"Uncle! I'm going!" she called into the brown dusk of the place.
+
+He came slowly to the door. His gray, grim face was unlighted by even an
+attempt at a smile, as he shook hands with her.
+
+"I know ye'll be a good gal," he said, sourly. "Ye allus be. But be
+savin' with--with all thet money I gave ye. It's enough to be the
+ruination of a young gal to hev so much."
+
+He repented of his gift, she knew. Yet she remembered what Aunt Alvirah
+had said, and refrained from handing it back to him. She determined,
+however, if she could, to never touch the five gold pieces, and some
+time, when she was self-supporting, she would hand the very same coins
+back to him!
+
+This was in her thought as she moved away. So, on this occasion, Ruth
+Fielding did not leave the Red Mill with a very happy feeling at her
+heart.
+
+The automobile sped away along the shady road into Cheslow. At the
+station Mercy Curtis, the lame girl, was awaiting them, although it was
+still some time before the train was due that would bear them away to
+Lake Osago.
+
+When it _did_ steam into view and come to a slow stop beside the
+platform, there was Heavy Stone and The Fox with their hands out of the
+windows, shouting to them. They had secured two seats facing each other,
+and Ruth and Mercy joined them, while Tom and Helen took the seat
+behind.
+
+Such a chattering as there was! The fleshy girl and Mary Cox had not
+seen Ruth and Helen and Mercy since they had all returned from the
+Steeles' summer home at Sunrise Farm, and you may believe there was
+plenty to talk about.
+
+"Who else is here?" demanded Ruth, standing up to search the length of
+the car for familiar faces.
+
+"Look out, Miss!" cried Heavy, producing her first joke of the fall
+term. "Remember Lot's wife!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Helen.
+
+"Goodness me! how ignorant you are--and you took chemistry last year,
+too," declared Jennie Stone.
+
+"I--don't--just--see," admitted Helen.
+
+"You mean to say you don't know what two-fold chemical change Lot's wife
+underwent?"
+
+"Give it up!"
+
+"Why," giggled Heavy, "first she turned to rubber, and then she turned
+to salt!"
+
+When the crowd had shown their appreciation, The Fox said:
+
+"We're going to pick up an Infant at Maxwell. Heard about her?"
+
+"No. Who is she?" asked Helen. "Not that Infants interest me much now.
+We can let the juniors take them in hand. Remember, girls, we are
+full-fledged seniors this year."
+
+"You'll have an interest in this new girl," said Miss Cox, with
+assurance.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She is Nettie Parsons. You know her father is the big sugar man. He has
+oodles of money!"
+
+"Lot's of sugar, eh?" chuckled Heavy. "Hope she'll bring some to school
+with her. I have a sweet tooth, I hope you know."
+
+"A tooth! a whole set of sweet teeth, you mean!" cried Ruth.
+
+"I only hope she is nice. I don't care how much money she has," said
+Helen, smiling. "We won't hold her wealth up against her, if she's the
+right sort."
+
+"Oh, I'm not fooling," said The Fox, rather sharply, for she had a short
+temper, "to match her red hair," as Heavy said. "She'll probably bring
+trunks full of nice dresses to school and loads of jewelry----"
+
+"Won't that be silly? For Mrs. Tellingham won't let her wear them."
+
+"Only on state and date occasions," put in Mercy.
+
+"At any rate, her folks have splendid things. Why! don't you remember
+about her aunt losing that be-a-utiful necklace last spring?"
+
+"Necklace?" repeated Ruth. "What sort of a necklace?"
+
+"One of the finest pearl collars in the world, they say. Worth maybe
+fifty thousand dollars. Wonderful!"
+
+"A pearl necklace?" queried the girl from the Red Mill, her interest
+growing.
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"How careless of her!" said Heavy, with a yawn.
+
+"Silly!" exclaimed The Fox. "It was stolen, of course."
+
+"By whom?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Why, if the police knew that, they'd get back the necklace, wouldn't
+they?" demanded Mary Cox, with scorn.
+
+"But I didn't know--they might suspect?" suggested Ruth, meekly.
+
+"They do. Gypsies."
+
+"Gypsies!" cried Ruth and Helen together. And then the latter began:
+"Oh, girls! listen to what happened to Ruth and me only a week ago!"
+
+"Wait a bit, dear," broke in Ruth. "Let us know a little more about the
+lost necklace. Why do they think the Gypsies took it?"
+
+"I'll tell you," said The Fox. "You see, this aunt of Nettie's is very,
+very rich. She comes from California, and she was on to visit the
+Parsons last spring.
+
+"There was a tribe of Gypsies camping near the Parsons estate. They all
+went over to have their fortunes told--just for a lark, you know. It was
+after dinner one evening, and there was company. Nettie's Aunt Rachel
+had dressed her best, and she wore the necklace to the Gypsy camp.
+
+"That very night the Parsons' house was robbed. Not much was taken
+except the aunt's jewel-box and some money she had in her desk. The
+robbers were frightened away before they could go to any of the other
+suites.
+
+"The next day the Gypsies had left their encampment, too. Of course,
+there was nothing to connect the robbery with the Gyps., save
+circumstantial evidence. The police didn't find either the Gypsies or
+the necklace. But Aunt Rachel offered five thousand dollars' reward for
+the return of the pearls."
+
+"Just think of that!" gasped Helen. "Five thousand dollars. My, Ruthie!
+wouldn't you like to win _that_?"
+
+"Indeed I would," returned her chum, with longing.
+
+"But I guess the Gypsies _we_ were mixed up with never owned a pearl
+necklace like that. They didn't look as though they had anything but the
+gaily colored rags they stood in--and their horses."
+
+"What do you know about Gypsies?" asked The Fox.
+
+"A whole lot," cried Helen. "Let me tell you," and she proceeded to
+repeat the story of their adventure with Queen Zelaya and her tribe.
+Ruth said nothing during the story; her mind was busy with the mystery
+of the missing necklace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+GETTING INTO HARNESS
+
+
+Nettie Parsons proved to be a very sweet, quiet girl, when she came
+aboard the train at Maxwell. She was rather older than the majority of
+girls who entered Briarwood Hall as "Infants." It seemed that she had
+suffered considerable illness and that had made her backward in her
+books.
+
+"Never mind! She'll be company for Ann Hicks," said Helen. "Won't that
+be fine? Neither of them will feel so badly, then, because they are in
+the lower classes."
+
+"We'll get the Sweetbriars to make her feel at home," said Ruth, to her
+chum. "No hazing this term, girlie! Let's welcome the newcomers like
+friends and sisters."
+
+"Sure, my dear," agreed Helen. "We haven't forgotten what they did to
+_us_, when we first landed at Briarwood Hall."
+
+When the train ran down to the dock where they were to take the
+steamboat _Lanawaxa_ for the other side of the lake, there was a crowd
+of a dozen or more girls in waiting. A welcoming shout greeted Ruth as
+she headed the party from the vestibule coach:
+
+    "S. B.--Ah-h h!
+    S. B.--Ah-h-h!
+    Sound our battle-cry
+    Near and far!
+    S. B.--All!
+    Briarwood Hall!
+    Sweetbriars, do or die--
+    This be our battle-cry--
+    Briarwood Hall!
+    _That's All!_"
+
+Every girl present belonged to the now famous school society, and Nettie
+Parsons was interested right away. She wished to know all about it, and
+how to join, and of course she was referred to Ruth.
+
+In this way the girl of the Red Mill and the new pupil became better
+acquainted, and Ruth found opportunity very soon to ask Nettie about the
+pearl necklace that her Aunt Rachel had lost some months before.
+
+Meanwhile, the girls, with their hand luggage, trooped down the long
+dock to the _Lanawaxa's_ boarding-plank. Heavy Stone turned suddenly in
+the hot sunshine (for it was a glowing noon) to find two of the smaller
+girls mincing along in her very footsteps.
+
+"I say! what are you two Infants following me so closely for?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Please, Miss," giggled one of them, "mother told me to take Sadie for a
+nice long walk, but to be sure and keep her in the shade!"
+
+This delighted the other girls immensely, for it was not often that
+anybody got ahead of the plump girl. She was too good-natured to take
+offense, however, and only grinned at them.
+
+They all crowded aboard and sought seats on the upper deck of the
+steamer. Tom had met some of his friends who attended the Seven Oaks
+Military Academy, among them big Bob Steele and little Isadore Phelps.
+
+Of course the boys joined the girls, and necessary introductions were
+made. Before the _Lanawaxa_ pulled out of the dock, they were all having
+great fun.
+
+"But how we will miss Madge!" was the general cry of the older girls,
+for Bobbins' sister no longer attended Briarwood Hall, and her absence
+would be felt indeed.
+
+Not being under the immediate eye of his sharp-tongued sister, Bobbins
+showed his preference for Mercy Curtis, and spent a good deal of time at
+the lame girl's side. He was so big and she was so slight and delicate,
+that they made rather an odd-looking pair.
+
+However, Bobbins enjoyed her sharp tongue and withstood her raillery.
+She called him "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" and made believe that she was very much
+afraid of him; yet it was noticeable that there was no venom in the
+sharp speeches the lame girl addressed to her big cavalier--and Mercy
+Curtis could be most unmerciful if she so desired!
+
+Soon they were on the train again, and a short run to the Seven Oaks
+station, where the red brick barracks of the Military School frowned
+down upon the railroad from the heights above.
+
+"I wouldn't go to school in such an ugly place," declared the girls.
+
+Here is where they separated from their boy friends. A great, ramshackle
+bus, and another vehicle, were waiting at the end of the platform. An
+old man in a long duster stood beside the bus to help the girls in and
+see to their baggage. This was "Uncle Noah" Dolliver.
+
+At once The Fox formed the girls into line, and keeping step to the
+march, they tramped the length of the platform, singing:
+
+    "Uncle Noah, he built an ark--
+      One wide river to cross!
+    And in it we have many a lark--
+      One wide river to cross!
+          One wide river!
+          One wide river of Jordan!
+          One wide river!
+          One wide river to cross!
+
+    "The Sweetbriars get in, one by one--
+      One wide river to cross!
+    The last in line is Heavy Stone--
+      One wide river to cross!"
+
+And the plump girl _was_ the last one to pop into the ancient equipage,
+filling the very last seat--_tight_!
+
+"Lucky you brought along another wagon, Uncle Noah," said The Fox, as
+the remainder of the girls ran to the second vehicle.
+
+Both of the wagons soon started. It was a hot and dusty afternoon and
+the girls were really crowded.
+
+"I'm squeezed in so tight I can't think," moaned Helen.
+
+"Ouch!" cried Belle Tingley. "That's my funny-bone you hit, Lluella,
+with your handbag. Oh! how funny it feels."
+
+"Did you ever know why they call that thing in your elbow the funny
+bone?" asked Heavy, mighty serious.
+
+"No," said Belle, rubbing the elbow vigorously.
+
+"Why, it's what makes folks 'laugh in their sleeves,'" chuckled the
+plump girl.
+
+"Oh, dear me! isn't she smart?" groaned Lluella.
+
+"Almost as smart as my Cousin Bill," said The Fox, breaking into the
+conversation. "He won't be called 'Willie' and he'll answer only to
+'Bill,' or 'William.'
+
+"'William,' said the teacher one day to him in school, 'spell "ibex."'
+
+"Bill jumps up and begins: 'I-b----'
+
+"'Stop! stop, William!' cries the teacher. 'Where did you learn such
+grammar? Always say, "I am."'
+
+"And do you know," chuckled Mary, "Bill sat down and gave up spelling
+the word--and he doesn't know how to spell 'ibex' yet!"
+
+The sun had set, when they got out at the end of the Cedar Walk. Ruth,
+who had sat beside Nettie Parsons, went with her to the principal's
+office and introduced her to Mrs. Grace Tellingham.
+
+Later Ruth joined her chums in the old West Dormitory. There were two
+quartette rooms side by side, in which were hatched most of the fun and
+good times that happened at Briarwood Hall. In one were Ruth, Helen,
+Mercy, and Ann Hicks, the girl from the west. The other had long been
+the room of The Fox, Heavy, Belle Tingley, and Lluella Fairfax.
+
+Ann Hicks, right from Silver Ranch, was on hand to greet Ruth and the
+others, she having arrived at Briarwood the day before. She brought
+greetings from her Uncle Bill, Bashful Ike and his Sally.
+
+The crowd quieted down at last. The last guilty shadows stole from room
+to room, and finally every girl sought her own bed. Ruth and Helen
+shared one of the big beds in their room, but they did not go to sleep
+at once. They could hear the quiet breathing of Mercy and Ann, but the
+chum's eyes were still wide open.
+
+"That Nettie Parsons is a much nicer girl than I expected," whispered
+Helen.
+
+"That is something I want to talk with you about," said Ruth, quickly.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Nettie Parsons. At least, something about her Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Oh! the necklace," laughed Helen. "Are you really interested in it,
+Ruth?"
+
+"She offered five thousand dollars' reward for it," continued Ruth,
+breathlessly. "She really did. And the reward still stands."
+
+"Why, Ruthie!" exclaimed Helen, astonished. "Do you mean to say----"
+
+"This is what I mean to say," said Ruth, with energy. "I mean that I'd
+love to win that reward. I believe I know what has become of the pearl
+necklace. In fact, Helen, I am very sure that I have seen the
+necklace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?
+
+
+Ruth was thinking a great deal--it must be confessed!--about money
+during the first days of this new term at Briarwood Hall, and yet she
+was not naturally of a mercenary nature. Nor was she alone in this, for
+the advent of Nettie Parsons into the school quite turned the heads of
+many.
+
+Nettie Parsons was the first multi-millionaire's daughter who had ever
+come to Briarwood Hall. Most of the girls' parents were well-to-do;
+otherwise they could not have afforded to pay the tuition fees, for Mrs.
+Grace Tellingham's institution was of considerable importance on the
+roster of boarding schools.
+
+Many of the girls' parents, like Helen Cameron's father, were really
+wealthy. But Mr. Parsons was way above that! And with a certain class
+the mere fact of money _as_ money, is cause enough for them to kneel
+down and worship!
+
+After a time these "toadies" were disappointed in the daughter of the
+"sugar king." Nettie Parsons was a very commonplace, kindly girl, not
+at all brilliant, and dressed more plainly than the majority of the
+girls at Briarwood Hall.
+
+Ruth's thoughts about money were not in the same lines as the thoughts
+of those girls so much interested in Nettie Parsons' riches. She neither
+envied the wealthy girl her possessions, nor desired to be like her.
+
+What Ruth Fielding desired so keenly was independence. She wanted to
+control her own destiny, instead of being so beholden to Uncle Jabez
+Potter for everything. The sting of being an object of charity had
+gotten deeply into Ruth's heart. The old miller had an unfortunate way
+with him, which made the proud girl feel keenly her situation.
+
+There was really no reason at all why the miller should take care of,
+and educate, his niece's child. He was not legally bound to do it. The
+kinship was not close enough for people to really expect Uncle Jabez to
+do all that he had for Ruth Fielding!
+
+There had been times when the girl, through several fortunate
+circumstances, had been of real help to the miller. She had once helped
+recover some money he had lost when the freshet wrecked a part of the
+Red Mill. Again, it was through her that an investment in a mine in
+Montana had proved productive of gain for Uncle Jabez, instead of loss.
+
+And now, only this summer, she had actually saved the miller's life.
+
+Grudgingly, Uncle Jabez had paid these debts by keeping her at this
+expensive school and furnishing her with clothes and spending money. It
+was plain he had never approved of her being away from the mill during
+vacations, too.
+
+Uncle Jabez saw no reason for young people "junketing about" and
+spending so much time in pleasure, as Ruth's friends did. Boys and girls
+learned to work, in his day, between short terms at school. It was all
+so different now, that the old man could not be blamed for
+misunderstanding.
+
+For a girl to look forward to making a name for herself in the world--to
+have a career--to really be somebody--was something of which Uncle Jabez
+(and Aunt Alvirah as well) could not fail to disapprove.
+
+Ruth desired to prepare for college, and in time enter a higher
+institution of learning. She wished, too, to cultivate her voice, and to
+use it in supporting herself later. She knew she could sing; she loved
+it, and the instructors at Briarwood encouraged her in the belief that
+she had a more than ordinarily fine contralto voice.
+
+Uncle Jabez did not believe in such things. He would never be willing to
+invest money in making a singer of his niece. Useless to think of it!
+
+Uncle Jabez had said that girls were of little use in the world,
+anyway--unless they settled down to housekeeping. The times Ruth had
+been of aid to him were, as he said, "just chancey."
+
+It was of the reward for the return of the missing pearl necklace to
+Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel, that the girl of the Red Mill was thinking
+so continually, while the first days of this term at Briarwood slipped
+by. But five thousand dollars would grant Ruth Fielding the independence
+she craved!
+
+Ruth and Helen Cameron had discussed the mystery of the pearl necklace
+in all its bearings--over and over again. All the "pros" and "cons" in
+the case had "been before the house," as Helen said, and it all came to
+the same answer: Could it be possible that Queen Zelaya, Roberto's
+grandmother, now had in her possession the necklace rightfully the
+property of Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel?
+
+"That is, she had it," said Ruth, believing fully it was so, "if that
+awful man I saw spying on her, has not robbed the old woman and gotten
+away with the necklace. You know how he talked that day in the deserted
+house to the other Gypsy?"
+
+"I guess I do!" exclaimed Helen. "Could I ever forget a single detail of
+that awful time?"
+
+"And where are the Gypsies now?" said Ruth, feelingly. "Ah! _that_ is
+the question."
+
+"Uncle Ike wrote father that they had been traced some distance toward
+the south," Helen returned, doubtfully.
+
+"The south is a big section of the country," and Ruth wagged her head.
+
+"Father was very angry," said Helen, "that the police did not find them,
+so that the whole tribe could be punished for what they did to us, I
+never saw father so angry before. He declared that the Gypsies should be
+taught a lesson, and that their escape was most inexcusable."
+
+Ruth said nothing, but shook her head.
+
+"You know the excuse the sheriff and that Constable Peck, at Severn
+Corners, gave?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Ruth.
+
+"If you had come right up to the village that night, when Roberto
+brought you to the farmhouse, and told where the camp was, they'd have
+nabbed the whole crowd, before they could have gotten over the state
+line."
+
+"I know," murmured Ruth.
+
+She was remembering Roberto's words as he left her that stormy night in
+sight of her refuge. He had asked not to be too hard on the Gypsies;
+therefore, she had not hurried to lodge information against Queen Zelaya
+and her tribe.
+
+But if she had only known about this pearl necklace! Nettie Parsons had
+described the jewel so clearly that the girl of the Red Mill could not
+for a moment doubt that the necklace in Zelaya's possession was the one
+for which the reward was offered.
+
+"I tell you what I'll do, if you say the word," Helen said at last,
+seeing that her friend was really so much troubled about the affair.
+
+"What's that, dear?"
+
+"I'll write to father. Let me tell him all about you seeing the old
+woman handling the pearls, and then about this necklace that was lost by
+Nettie's aunt. He can advise you, at any rate."
+
+So it was agreed. Helen wrote that very day. Inside of a week an answer
+came, and it quite excited Helen.
+
+"What do you think?" she demanded of her chum. "Father has business that
+calls him to Lumberton in a few days. He will come here to see us. And
+he says for me to tell you to be sure and say nothing to anybody else
+about the missing necklace until he sees you."
+
+"Of course I won't speak of it," replied Ruth. "I am not likely to. Oh,
+dear, Helen! if I could only win the reward that woman offers for the
+return of her necklace!"
+
+It was not many days before Helen received the telegram announcing her
+father's coming to Lumberton, which was the nearest town to Briarwood
+Hall. She showed it to Mrs. Tellingham, and asked that she and Ruth be
+excused from lessons, when Mr. Cameron came, as he wished to drive the
+girls over to see Tom at Seven Oaks.
+
+This was, of course, arranged. Mr. Cameron was a very busy man, and he
+could not spend much time in this visit. But he desired to speak to Ruth
+regarding the mystery of the pearl necklace.
+
+He had hired a pair of spirited horses at Lumberton, and he quite had
+his hands full, as they bowled over the hilly road toward the military
+academy. But he could talk to the girls.
+
+He had Ruth give him every particular of what she had seen at night in
+the Gypsy van, and when she had done so, he said:
+
+"I have taken the pains to get from the police the description of Mrs.
+Rachel Parsons' missing necklace. It fits your tale exactly, Ruth. Now,
+I tell you what I shall do.
+
+"I will set a detective agency at work. For my own part, I wish to
+overtake this Queen Zelaya, as she calls herself, and punish her for
+what she did to you two girls. If such people go free, it encourages
+them to do worse next time.
+
+"Now, if she has the necklace, and we can secure it, all the better. I
+would be glad to see you get that reward, Ruthie. And Helen says you are
+very anxious to win it."
+
+"Who wouldn't be?" gasped Ruth. "Just think of five thousand dollars!"
+
+They were driving through a fine piece of chestnut wood as she said
+this. The blight had not struck these beautiful trees and they hung full
+of the prickly burrs. The frost of the previous night had opened many of
+these, and the brown nuts smiled at once through the openings.
+
+"There's a boy knocking them down!" cried Helen. "Let's stop and get
+some, Father. See them rain down!"
+
+At that moment a shower of chestnuts fell and a prickly burr landed on
+the back of one of the team. The beast rose on his hind legs and pawed
+the air, snorting.
+
+"Look out!" exclaimed the boy in the tree.
+
+Mr. Cameron was a good horseman and he had the animals well in hand. The
+boy, however, was so anxious to see what went on below, that he strained
+forward too far. With a scream, and the snap of broken boughs, he
+plunged forward, shot through the leafy-canopy, and landed with a
+sickening thud upon the ground!
+
+Mr. Cameron had halted the horses dead. Ruth was out of the carriage
+like a flash and dropped on her knees by the boy's side. She was
+horror-stricken and speechless; yet she had made a great discovery as
+the boy fell.
+
+He was Roberto, the Gypsy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+HE CANNOT TALK
+
+
+"Is he badly hurt?" cried Mr. Cameron, who dared not get down and leave
+the horses just then.
+
+"Don't tell us he is killed, Ruthie!" wailed Helen, clasping her hands
+and unable to leave the carriage.
+
+The Gypsy boy lay very still. One arm was bent under him in such a queer
+position that the girl of the Red Mill knew it must be broken. His olive
+face was pallid, and there was a little blood on his lips.
+
+She dared not move him. She bent down and put her ear to his chest. His
+heart was beating--he breathed!
+
+"He's alive!" she said, turning to her friends in the carriage. "But I
+am afraid he is badly hurt. At least, one arm----"
+
+The youth groaned. Ruth turned toward him with a tender little cry. She
+thought his eyelids quivered, but they were not opened.
+
+"What will we do with him? He ought to be taken to a hospital. Where's
+the nearest doctor?" asked Mr. Cameron.
+
+"Lumberton," said Ruth, promptly. "And that is the only place where
+there is a hospital around here."
+
+"Back we must go, then," declared Mr. Cameron, promptly. "We sha'n't see
+Master Tom to-day, that's sure. You get out, Helen, and I'll turn
+around."
+
+Helen ran to her friend who still hovered over the boy. At once she
+recognized him.
+
+"My goodness me! Roberto! isn't that strange? Then he did not go south
+with the other Gypsies."
+
+"It seems not--poor fellow," returned Ruth.
+
+"Do you suppose he knows all about the necklace--how his grandmother
+became possessed of it, and all?"
+
+"I don't know. I am sure Roberto is quite honest himself," returned
+Ruth. "He is not a thief like those wicked men who were talking that day
+in the old house, and who seem to have so much influence in the Gypsy
+camp."
+
+"I don't care!" exclaimed Helen, warmly. "I am sorry for Roberto. But I
+hope father _does_ send detectives after the Gyps., and that they catch
+and punish that horrid old woman. How mean she was to us!"
+
+"Sh!" warned Ruth.
+
+Roberto gave no sign of returning consciousness now. That puzzled the
+girl of the Red Mill, for she had thought he was just about to come to.
+
+Mr. Cameron turned the carriage and halted it beside the spot where the
+boy lay. "Of course you two girls can't lift him?" he said.
+
+"Of course we can!" returned his daughter, promptly. "Oh! Ruth and I
+haven't been doing gym. work for two years for nothing. Just watch us."
+
+"Easy!" murmured Ruth, warningly, as Helen seized the youth's legs.
+"Perhaps he has more than a broken arm."
+
+"But he must be lifted," said Helen. "Come on, now! He isn't conscious,
+and perhaps we can get him into the carriage before he wakes up."
+
+And they did. Roberto did not seem to be conscious, and yet, to Ruth's
+surprise, the color came and went in the boy's cheeks, and his black
+brows knitted a little. It was just as though he _were_ conscious and
+was endeavoring to endure the pain he felt without moaning.
+
+They got him into the carriage in as comfortable a position as possible.
+Ruth sat beside him, while Helen joined her father on the front seat.
+Then the gentleman let the spirited team go, and they dashed off over
+the road toward Lumberton.
+
+At once Helen told her father who the injured youth was. Having heard
+all the details of his young folks' adventures on the road to Boisé
+Landing, Mr. Cameron knew just who Roberto was, and he saw the
+importance of learning from him, if possible, where his clan had gone.
+
+"We want to know especially what has become of the old woman--the
+queen," Mr. Cameron said. "I can't help it, if she _is_ the boy's
+grandmother, she is a wicked woman. Besides, we want to get back that
+necklace for Mrs. Parsons."
+
+Unfortunately, it would be impossible for the dry goods merchant to
+remain in Lumberton to watch the case. He had to return that very
+evening, and could not spare the time now to see Tom.
+
+He arranged at the hospital for Roberto to be given every care, and left
+some money with Helen and Ruth for them to purchase little luxuries for
+the boy when he should become convalescent.
+
+He waited until after the doctors had made their examination and learned
+that Roberto not only suffered from a broken arm, but had two ribs
+broken and his right leg badly wrenched.
+
+Mr. Cameron wrote a note to Mrs. Tellingham, asking that Helen and Ruth
+might visit the hospital every day or two to see how the patient fared.
+
+"Besides," said Ruth, eagerly, "I may get him to talk. Perhaps he has
+deserted his tribe for good, and he may help us learn about the
+necklace."
+
+"You want to be very careful in trying to pump the lad," said Mr.
+Cameron, with a smile.
+
+He need not have feared on this point, however, as it turned out. The
+very next afternoon Ruth and Helen hurried in to Lumberton to make
+inquiries at the hospital. They saw the head physician and he was
+frankly puzzled about Roberto.
+
+"I thought I had had every kind of a case in my experience," said the
+surgeon, "but there's something about this one that puzzles me."
+
+"Is he more hurt than you thought?" cried Ruth, anxiously.
+
+"I don't know. It seems that we have found all his injuries that are
+apparent. But there is one we cannot reach. Something is the matter with
+his speech."
+
+"His speech?" gasped Helen.
+
+"You have heard him speak?"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+"Then he is not naturally dumb----"
+
+"Dumb?" repeated Helen, in wonderment. "You don't mean that he is dumb?"
+
+"I mean just that. It appears that since his fall yesterday, he cannot
+talk at all," said the doctor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+RUTH INTERCEDES
+
+
+The two girls did not see Roberto that day, nor for several days
+following. The hospital authorities did not think it best to allow him
+to be excited even in a mild way.
+
+They sent in such delicacies as the nurse said he could have, and Tony
+Foyle was bribed by Helen to get a report from the hospital every day
+about the young Gypsy.
+
+The girls kept very quiet about the patient in the hospital. Their mates
+knew only that Helen and Ruth had been driving with Mr. Cameron when the
+boy fell out of the tree. They did not dream that the victim of the
+accident had any possible connection with the pearl necklace that Nettie
+Parsons' aunt had lost!
+
+Helen kept her father informed of the progress of Roberto's case, and in
+return he wrote Helen that the detectives were confident of reaching old
+Queen Zelaya and her tribe.
+
+"But if we could only get Roberto to talk!" sighed Ruth.
+
+"Why, Ruth Fielding! if the poor fellow has been made speechless by
+that fall, how _can_ he talk?"
+
+"I know, but----"
+
+"Don't you believe it is _so_?"
+
+"Why--yes," admitted Ruth. "Of course, he would have no reason for
+refusing to speak. And they say he has a hard time making them
+understand what he wants, for he doesn't know how to write. Poor fellow!
+I suppose he never realized before, that the art of writing was of any
+use to _him_."
+
+In a week or so the girls were allowed to go to the ward where Roberto
+lay. Helen carried an armful of good things for the Gypsy lad to eat,
+but Ruth remembered that he had not cared much for delicacies, and she
+carried picture papers and a great armful of brilliant fall
+flowers--some picked by herself in the woods, and the others begged from
+Tony Foyle.
+
+"Taking flowers to a boy--pshaw!" scoffed Helen. "Why, that shows you
+have no brother, Ruthie. Tom wouldn't look at flowers when he's sick."
+
+Ruth believed she had made no mistake. When they approached the bed in
+which Roberto lay, he looked very pale indeed, and the expression of
+weariness on his face as he stared out of the distant window, made
+Ruth's heart ache for the captive wild-boy.
+
+"Here are visitors for you, Robert," said the kindly nurse.
+
+The big, black eyes of the Gypsy boy rolled toward the two girls. Then
+his face lit up and his eyes sparkled. They were fixed eagerly on the
+mass of brilliant blossoms Ruth carried. She scattered the flowers over
+the coverlet, and Roberto seized some of them, fairly pressing them to
+his lips. He nodded and smiled at the display of Helen's offerings, too,
+but he could not keep his eyes away from the flowers. He had been
+homesick for his beloved woodlands.
+
+He was still in plaster and could not move much. He did his best to make
+the girls understand how welcome they were, but not a sound came from
+his lips.
+
+"A very strange case, indeed," said the doctor in charge, when the girls
+came down from the ward. "There seems to be absolutely no reason why he
+does not speak. Apparently no paralysis of the vocal cords. But
+speechless he is. And as he cannot read or write, it is a nuisance."
+
+"It isn't possible that for some reason he doesn't _wish_ to speak?"
+queried Ruth, doubtfully.
+
+"Why, Ruth! there you go again!" exclaimed Helen. "I never knew you to
+be so suspicious."
+
+The doctor laughed. "I think not," he said. "Of course, he might, but he
+must be a wonderfully good actor. The next time you come, we shall try
+him."
+
+So on a subsequent call of the two girls at the hospital, the doctor
+entered the ward at the same time they did and likewise approached
+Roberto's bed, only on the opposite side. Ruth had brought more flowers,
+and the boy was evidently delighted.
+
+"Are you sure you can't speak to me, Roberto?" asked Ruth, softly, as he
+nodded and smiled and clasped the flowers to his breast with his one
+good hand.
+
+Roberto shook his head sadly, and his black eyes showed every indication
+of sorrow. But of a sudden he jumped, and a spasm of pain crossed his
+face. The doctor straightened up and Roberto scowled at him wrathfully.
+The boy had not uttered a sound.
+
+"I jabbed him with this needle," said the doctor, with disgust. "You
+see, either he has perfect control over himself; or he absolutely cannot
+speak. While I was setting his arm and fixing up his smashed ribs, he
+only moaned a little."
+
+"Oh!" Helen had gasped, looking at the medical man in some wrath.
+
+"Don't do it again--not for _me_," urged Ruth. "I am sorry I said
+anything about it."
+
+"Oh, he isn't seriously injured by _that_," said the surgeon, holding up
+the needle. "But I do not think he is 'playing possum.'"
+
+"It isn't possible!" exclaimed Helen, confidently.
+
+"And how long must he lie here?" Ruth asked.
+
+"Oh, in a fortnight he'll be as fine as a fiddle. Of course, he won't be
+able to use his arm much for several weeks. But the ribs will knit all
+right. Maybe he can find some light job----"
+
+"We'll see about _that_," Helen interrupted.
+
+"I can see you young ladies are much interested in him," chuckled the
+doctor. "And not entirely because he is a handsome, black-eyed rascal,
+eh?"
+
+Ruth knew that old Tony Foyle, the gardener at Briarwood Hall, was
+interested in the lad. He had gone up to the ward to see Roberto several
+times, and came away enthusiastic in the Gypsy's praise.
+
+"Sure," said Tony, to Ruth, "he's jist the bye after me hear-r-t.
+Herself would like him, he's that doomb!"
+
+"Herself" was Tony's wife, who was the cook at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"And the way that boy do be lovin' flowers! Sure, his bed in the
+horspital is jest covered wid 'em. He'd be a handy lad to have here ter
+give me aid, so he would. An' I been tellin' Mis' Tellingham that I need
+another helper."
+
+"We'll get him the job, Tony!" cried Ruth, in delight. "I believe he
+would like to help around your hothouse and the beds. I'll see."
+
+She interceded with the principal for Roberto, and obtained her promise
+that the Gypsy boy should have the job. Then she sounded Roberto
+himself, and by the way his eyes lit up and he smiled and nodded, Ruth
+knew he would be delighted to be Tony Foyle's assistant.
+
+"At least," thought Ruth, "I can keep in sight of him for a time.
+Perhaps he couldn't tell us, anyway, where Queen Zelaya has hidden
+herself. But I believe he knows, and I haven't much faith in the results
+those detectives get."
+
+Roberto mended rapidly. He was soon up and about the ward, when the
+girls called. He was less restless than Ruth expected him to be, and he
+still signified his intention of coming to help the little old Irish
+gardener at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"When he recovers his powers of speech," said the doctor, "it will be as
+suddenly as he lost them. No doubt of that. But it is a most puzzling
+case. I am glad he is not going far from Lumberton. I want to watch the
+progress of the affair."
+
+The next day Roberto came to Briarwood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A GREAT TEMPTATION
+
+
+About this time Ruth suffered a great temptation. She was so little
+given to covetousness or envy, that other girls of her class might have
+dresses, jewelry, and many other things dear to girlish hearts, without
+Ruth's being at all disturbed.
+
+Her one great, overmastering passion was for Independence! She envied
+none of her mates anything but _that_.
+
+Now she fell under temptation, and this was the way of it: Ruth belonged
+to the picked class that the physical instructor had chosen for
+exhibition gymnasium work at the mid-winter entertainment. This year
+there were to be important visitors at the school, and Mrs. Tellingham
+wished to make the occasion a more than ordinarily successful
+entertainment.
+
+The class of twenty girls, selected from the best of the seniors and
+juniors, was to drill, dance, and go through other gymnastic exercises.
+And it was agreed among them that each girl should have a brand new
+costume, although this was no suggestion of either the teacher or Mrs.
+Tellingham.
+
+The class invented this idea itself. It was agreed--nineteen in favor,
+at least--to appear at the entertainment in a brand new outfit. And how
+could Ruth say "No?"
+
+Every girl in the class but herself had only to write home for money and
+order the uniform. As it chanced, Ruth had plenty of money to pay for a
+costume. Helen, who was one of the number, knew Ruth had that fifty
+dollars in gold that Uncle Jabez had given the girl of the Red Mill the
+day she left home.
+
+This was the temptation: Ruth had promised herself never to use that
+money. She had a small sum left from her vacation money, and she was
+making that do for incidentals, until she could earn more in some way.
+She was already tutoring both Nettie Parsons and Ann Hicks in their more
+advanced textbooks, and they were paying her small sums for this help.
+
+But she could not earn enough in this way--nor in any other--to buy the
+new gymnasium costume. And there were the five ten-dollar gold pieces
+lying in a little jeweler's box in the bottom of her trunk.
+
+She went with Helen to the dressmaker in Lumberton, when Helen ordered
+_her_ new costume. "Why don't you let her fit you now, too, Ruth?"
+demanded Miss Cameron.
+
+"Oh, there is plenty of time. Let us see first how well she makes
+yours," Ruth returned, with a forced laugh.
+
+She knew she could not wear her usual costume with the picked class
+without looking odd. The girls had decided on crimson trimming on the
+blue skirt and blouse, instead of the regulation white. Nineteen girls
+with crimson bands and one with white--and that soiled!--would look odd
+enough.
+
+It would fairly spoil the picture, Ruth knew. She was worried because of
+this, for she did not want to make her mates look ridiculous. Never had
+Ruth Fielding been so uncertain about any question since she had been
+old enough to decide for herself.
+
+She was really so troubled that her recitation marks were not as high as
+they should have been. The teachers began to question her, for Ruth
+Fielding's course at Briarwood had been a triumphant one from the start!
+
+"You are not ill, Miss Fielding?" asked Miss Gould. "I am surprised to
+find that you are going below your past averages. What is the matter?"
+
+"I am sure I do not know, Miss Gould," declared Ruth. Yet she feared
+that the reply was not strictly truthful. She _did_ know; night and day
+she was worrying about the new gymnasium costume.
+
+Should she order one, or should she not? Could she buy a little of the
+crimson ribbon and put it on her old uniform and thus pass muster? What
+would the girls say, if she did that?
+
+And what would they say if she appeared at the exhibition in her old
+costume? Was she purely selfish in trying to get out of buying the new
+dress? Was her reason for not wishing to break into that roll of coin a
+bad one, after all?
+
+Those questions kept coming to Ruth Fielding, and got between her and
+her books. Mrs. Tellingham called her into the office early in October
+and pointed out to her that, unless her averages increased, her standing
+in her class would be greatly changed.
+
+"You are doing no outside work, Miss Fielding?" inquired the principal.
+
+"No, Ma'am."
+
+"I hear you are helping two of the other girls--in a perfectly
+legitimate way, of course. It is not taking too much out of you?"
+
+"Oh, no, dear Mrs. Tellingham!" cried Ruth, fearful that her tutoring
+would be forbidden.
+
+"You are not working too hard in the gym.?"
+
+"I do not think so," stammered Ruth.
+
+"And _this_ is ridiculous," said Mrs. Tellingham, with a smile. "I do
+not think there is a more robust looking girl in my school. But, there
+must be something."
+
+"I suppose so," murmured Ruth.
+
+"But you do not know what it is? If you do, tell me."
+
+"I study just as hard, Mrs. Tellingham," said Ruth, non-committally. "I
+spend quite as much thought over my books. Really, I think I shall do
+better again."
+
+"I hope so. I do not want to see any bright girl like you fall behind.
+There is always some reason for such changes, but sometimes we teachers
+have hard work to get at it. I want all my girls to have confidence in
+me and to tell me if anything goes wrong with them."
+
+"Yes, Ma'am," said Ruth, guiltily.
+
+But she could not take the principal of Briarwood Hall into her
+confidence--she positively could _not_ do it! How ridiculous it would
+seem to the dignified Mrs. Grace Tellingham that she did not dip into
+the money her uncle had given her to buy that costume!
+
+And she was losing her standing, and worrying everybody who cared,
+because of this temptation. She knew she was doing wrong in falling
+behind in her studies.
+
+Surely _that_ was not the way to give Uncle Jabez the best return
+possible for his investment. If she fell back in her books this year,
+Ruth knew she would never be able to make it up. She must either be
+prepared for college half a year later, or skip some work that would be
+found wanting at a later time--would be a thorn in her flesh, indeed,
+for the remainder of her school life.
+
+One hour Ruth told herself that she would be decisive--she would be
+brave--she would not move in her determination to keep the fifty dollars
+intact. And then, the next hour, her heart would sink, as she looked
+forward to what would be said and thought by her companions when the
+exhibition day came around and she appeared in her old suit.
+
+She thought seriously of trying to withdraw in season from the
+exhibition class. But unfortunately she could not easily do that. The
+instructor had selected the twenty girls herself, and what excuse--what
+honest excuse--could Ruth give for demanding her release?
+
+"Oh, dear me!" she thought, tossing on her pillow at night, "if I could
+only be the means of returning that necklace to Mrs. Parsons! My
+troubles would all be over for sure.
+
+"Mr. Cameron's detectives will _never_ find that old Queen Zelaya, but I
+bet Roberto knows just where she has gone for the winter."
+
+With this in mind she tried again and again to get some information out
+of Tony Foyle's new helper. Roberto always had a smile for her, and
+seemed willing enough to try to make signs about anything and everything
+but his tribe and his grandmother.
+
+And so smart was he that his gestures were very understandable indeed,
+when he wished to give information about the new work that he loved, and
+about the fall flowers and bulbs which were being taken up for storage
+in the conservatory against the cold of winter.
+
+It seemed strange--indeed, it made Ruth suspicious--that Roberto could
+convey his meaning so easily by gesture when the subject was not one
+regarding the missing Gypsies!
+
+Again and again the thought came to the girl that the Gypsy boy was
+actually "playing possum." Knowing, perhaps, that he would be questioned
+about his grandmother, and not wishing to give information about her or
+her tribe, he had decided to become dumb.
+
+Yet, if this was so, how wonderfully well he did it! Even the doctor at
+the hospital could not understand the case.
+
+Roberto's condition certainly was puzzling. And Ruth believed that he
+held the clew to the whereabouts of Queen Zelaya and the pearl necklace.
+That being the case, he stood between Ruth and that great reward which
+the girl of the Red Mill was so anxious to win.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+NETTIE PARSONS' FEAST
+
+
+Incidentally there was as much fun going on at Briarwood Hall as usual
+this fall, but Ruth Fielding did not entirely enjoy any of the frolics
+in which she necessarily had a part.
+
+The work of the Sweetbriar organization was all that really interested
+her in this line. Several new girls who entered the school in September
+who were old enough, joined the association, besides others who were
+advanced from the lower classes.
+
+It was an honor--and was so considered by all--to be invited to become a
+Sweetbriar. Within the association was much innocent entertainment.
+Picnics, musicals, evening parties approved by the school faculty--even
+little feasts after curfew--were hatched within the membership.
+
+Nettie Parsons, the daughter of the "sugar king," was destined never to
+be very popular in the school. Those girls who hoped to benefit by
+Nettie's wealth soon found that money meant as little to Nettie as to
+any girl at Briarwood.
+
+On the other hand, she was no brilliant scholar, and she made friends
+slowly. Ruth and Helen determined to help the "poor little rich girl,"
+as they called her, and they egged her on to give a midnight reception
+in the room Nettie occupied with three other girls in the West
+Dormitory.
+
+"There's no way so sure to the hearts of these girls than through their
+stomachs," Mercy said, when she heard of the plan. "Let poor Net stuff
+them full of indigestible 'goodies,' and they will remember her for
+life!"
+
+"Why put it that way, Mercy?" drawled Heavy. "You know, you are fond of
+a bit of candy, or a pickle, yourself. The 'goodies' which we do not get
+at the school table are 'gifts of the gods.' They are unexpected
+pleasures. And when eaten after hours, with a blanket for a tablecloth
+and candles for lights, they become 'forbidden fruit,' which is known to
+be the sweetest of all!"
+
+"Listen to Jen going into rhapsodies over eatables!" sniffed The Fox.
+"Give her her way, and every composition she handed in to Miss Gould
+would be a menu."
+
+"Bah!" scoffed Heavy. "You eat your share when you get a chance, I
+notice."
+
+"When Heavy is free from the scholastic yoke, and bosses her father's
+house for good," said Helen, "every dinner will make old Luculus turn in
+his grave and groan with envy----"
+
+"Or with indigestion," snapped Mercy. "The girl will positively _burst_
+some day!"
+
+"I don't care," mourned Heavy, shaking her head. "It isn't what I get to
+eat at Briarwood that makes me fat--that's sure."
+
+"No," chuckled Ruth. "You grow plump on the remembrance of what you have
+already eaten, dear. Who was it ate three plates of floating island last
+night for supper?"
+
+"Well!" cried Heavy, with wide open eyes, "you wouldn't want me to leave
+them and let them go to waste, would you? Both you and Helen left your
+shares, and the cook would have been hurt, if the pudding had come back
+untouched."
+
+"Kind-hearted girl!" said The Fox, with a sniff.
+
+After-hour parties were frowned upon by Mrs. Tellingham and the
+teachers, of course; not for the mild breaking of the school rules
+entailed, but because the girls' stomachs were apt to suffer.
+
+In the West Dormitory, too, Miss Picolet was known to be very sharp-eyed
+and sharp-eared for such occasions. It took some wit to circumvent Miss
+Picolet; perhaps that is why the girls on Ruth's corridor so delighted
+in holding orgies unbeknown to the little French teacher.
+
+Miss Scrimp, the matron, was a heavy sleeper. The girls did not worry
+about her.
+
+Nettie Parsons' room was at the very end of the cross-corridor, and
+farthest from the stairway. The stairway went up through the middle of
+the big brick dormitory building, and perhaps _that_ was not the best
+arrangement in case of fire; but there were plenty of fire escapes on
+the outside.
+
+The question which at once arose, when the sixteen girls Nettie chose
+had been invited to the feast, was who should stand guard?
+
+This was always a matter for discussion--sometimes for heart burnings,
+too. It was no pleasant task to sit out upon the cold stairway and watch
+for the opening of Miss Picolet's door below.
+
+Sometimes they decided by casting lots. Sometimes some girl who was very
+good-natured was inveigled into taking her plate of goodies out there in
+the dimly lit corridor. And sometimes one had to be bribed to stand
+watch for the others.
+
+Miss Picolet was always known to light her candle when she was disturbed
+by any sound, or suspicion; then she would come to her door and listen.
+She never moved about her room without a light, that was one good thing!
+The girl on watch had warning the instant the French teacher opened her
+door.
+
+But of the sixteen girls Nettie Parsons had chosen, not one wanted to
+play sentinel. Some of them said they would rather not attend the
+jamboree at all!
+
+The season was far enough advanced for the nights to be cold, and the
+corridors were not warm after the steam went down. The party was called
+for ten o'clock. By that time frost would most likely be gathering on
+the window panes.
+
+"Catch _me_ bundling up in a fur coat and mittens and stopping out there
+in that draughty place!" cried The Fox, "while the rest of you are
+stuffing yourself to repletion in a nice warm room."
+
+"Thought you didn't care for the goodies?" demanded Heavy, slily.
+
+"I don't care for catching my death of cold, Miss!" snapped Mary Cox.
+
+Neither Lluella, nor Belle, would "be the goat." Of course, it was
+understood that Heavy herself could never be out of reach of the cake
+plates! Nettie would not hear of Ruth being on watch.
+
+"I have it!" said Ruth, at last. "Leave it to me. I'll find a new guard,
+and I know he will not fail us."
+
+"Who is that?" demanded her chum.
+
+"Roberto."
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Nettie. "Not that boy who helps Foyle?"
+
+"That's the one. And he'll do anything for Ruth," declared Helen,
+promptly.
+
+"Anything but talk!" thought Ruth, to herself, but she did not say it
+aloud.
+
+"I don't see how _he_ can help us," Ann Hicks said. "He can't come into
+the dormitory."
+
+"I--guess--not!" cried Helen.
+
+"But he won't mind watching outside," Ruth explained. "At least, I'll
+ask him----"
+
+"But what good will _that_ do?" demanded Heavy. "If Miss Picolet gets up
+out of her warm nest, _he_ won't know it."
+
+"Yes, he will," said Ruth, nodding.
+
+The Fox began to laugh. "Don't let _her_ hear you say that, Fielding.
+Picolet is an awful old maid. She would be horrified, if she thought a
+male person even imagined her in bed!"
+
+"But how will he know?" demanded Ann.
+
+"That's easy," laughed Ruth. "He will stand where he can watch her
+window. If he sees her candle lit, he will give the alarm."
+
+"How?" asked Nettie.
+
+"We'll rig a 'tick-tack'--you know what I mean?"
+
+"Oh, don't I!" giggled Heavy.
+
+"Roberto can pull the string below, and that will make a tick-tack rap
+on Nettie's window."
+
+"Splendid!" cried the giver of the feast. "You just see if he will do
+it, Miss Fielding. And I'll give him a dollar--or more, if he wants
+it."
+
+"A dollar will be a lot of money for Roberto," laughed Helen. "But he
+won't do it for that."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Of course not. He'll only do it because Ruth asks him."
+
+Which was really the fact. Roberto understood well enough what was
+desired of him. Ruth pointed out the French teacher's window, and the
+windows of Nettie Parsons' quartette room. From one of them would hang a
+weighted string on that night. Everything was agreed, and the feast
+planned.
+
+It was a starlight night, when it arrived, but Roberto could find a
+place to hide in the shrubbery, where he could watch both windows, as
+agreed. He slept in a little back room of Tony Foyle's suite in the
+basement of the main building, and could get out and in without
+disturbing Mr. and Mrs. Foyle.
+
+If he were caught out of his room after hours, Ruth knew that Tony would
+be angry, but she had great influence with the little Irishman and
+promised Roberto that she would "make it all right" for him, if he were
+caught.
+
+The hour of the party came. The West Dormitory had apparently been "in
+the arms of Morpheus" for half an hour, at least.
+
+"But Mr. Murphy didn't get a strangle hold on us to-night," giggled
+Heavy, as she led the procession from her room.
+
+The girls were all in their kimonas, and many brought plates, knives and
+forks, cups, and other paraphernalia for the feast. There was to be hot
+chocolate and there were two alcohol lamps and two pots.
+
+The Fox presided over one lamp and Heavy bossed the other one. There was
+something wrong with the plump girl's lamp; either it had been filled
+too full, or it leaked. From the start it kept flaring and frightening
+the girls.
+
+"I really wish you would not use that old contraption!" exclaimed Ann
+Hicks. "It's just as uncertain as a pinto pony."
+
+"Never you mind," snapped Heavy. "I guess I know----"
+
+Pouf!
+
+The flames flared suddenly. Heavy leaped back, stumbled over another
+girl, and went sprawling. The flames did not touch her, but they _did_
+ignite the curtain at the window.
+
+There was a great squealing as the girls ran. Nobody dared tear down the
+blazing curtain, and the flames leaped higher and higher each instant.
+
+Then one of the most frightened of the company jerked open the door, put
+her head out into the corridor, and shrieked "Fire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ROBERTO FINDS HIS VOICE
+
+
+That settled it! There was a full-fledged panic in that quartette room
+in an instant. It bade fair, too, to spread to the whole building.
+
+Ruth, who had been busy distributing cakes before the accident, sprang
+to the open door, seized the girl who had yelled, and literally "yanked"
+her back into the room. Then she banged the door to and placed her back
+against it.
+
+"Stop!" she cried, yet in a low voice. "Don't be foolish. It's only a
+little fire. We can put it out. Don't rouse the whole house and frighten
+everybody."
+
+"Oh, Ruth! I can't reach it!" wailed Helen, who was really trying to
+pull down the curtain.
+
+Ann ran with a bowl of water and tried to splash it over the burning
+curtain. But the bowl tipped backwards and part of the water went over
+Heavy, who was just trying to struggle to her feet.
+
+"Oh! oh! wow!" gasped the plump girl. "I'm drowning! Do you think I'm
+afire, Ann Hicks?"
+
+Some of the others were sane enough to laugh, but the more nervous girls
+were already in tears, and the fire _was_ spreading from one curtain to
+the other. There was a smell of scorching varnish, too. The window frame
+was catching!
+
+In the very midst of the confusion, when it seemed positive that the
+whole school must be aroused, there came a commanding rap upon the
+window pane. It was not the gentle signal of the tick-tack--no, indeed!
+
+"Will you hear _that_?" gasped Belle Tingley. "Miss Picolet's up."
+
+"No!" cried Ruth, from the other end of the room. "Open that window,
+Ann! It's Roberto. He's climbed the fire-escape."
+
+"My goodness me!" gasped The Fox. "I never was so glad to see a boy in
+all my life! Let him in--do!"
+
+No sooner said than done. The girl from Silver Ranch had her wits about
+her. She snapped open the catch and raised the sash.
+
+Into the room bounded the Gypsy lad. He had seen the flames from the
+ground and he immediately knew what to do when he got inside.
+
+He seized a chair, leaped up into it, and with his long arms was enabled
+to tear down the blazing hangings. These he thrust into the bowl of
+water.
+
+"Oh, Roberto! your hands are burned!" cried Ruth, darting to his side,
+as the fire was quenched.
+
+"Never you mind, little Missy----"
+
+He halted, staring at her. Then his face flushed like fire and his eyes
+dropped before her accusing gaze.
+
+"You _can_ speak!" exclaimed the girl from the Red Mill. "You _can_!"
+
+"He's gotten back his tongue!" cried Helen, in surprise. "Isn't that
+wonderful?"
+
+But Ruth was sure, by the Gypsy boy's shamefaced look, that there was
+nothing wonderful about it at all. Roberto had been able to speak all
+the time, but he did not wish to. Now, in his excitement, he had
+betrayed the fact.
+
+There was too much confusion just then for the matter to be discussed or
+explained. The girls, seeing that the fire was out, scattered at once to
+their rooms. Roberto left instantly by the window, and Ruth helped
+Nettie and her roommates repair the damage as well as possible.
+
+"I'll buy new curtains for the windows," said the "sugar king's"
+daughter. "And I'm only glad nothing worse happened."
+
+"The worst hasn't happened yet," giggled one of her roommates.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I saw Jennie Stone take a bag of pickles, some seed cakes, a citron
+bun, and about half a pound of candy with her, when she flew. If she
+absorbs all that to-night, she will be sick to-morrow, that's all!"
+
+"Well," Ruth advised, "the best we can do won't hide the damage. Miss
+Scrimp will find out about the fire, anyway. The best thing to do is to
+make a clean breast of it, Nettie. I'm sorry the feast was a failure,
+but we all know you did your best."
+
+"I'm thankful it was no worse," returned the new girl. "And how brave
+that Gypsy boy was, Ruth! I must thank him to-morrow."
+
+"You leave him to me," said the girl of the Red Mill, grimly. "I want to
+talk to Roberto myself."
+
+When she got back to her excited roommates, she said little about the
+wonderful recovery of the Gypsy boy's power of speech, until Mercy and
+Ann were asleep. Then she said to Helen Cameron:
+
+"I am going to telegraph to your father the first thing in the morning.
+Roberto has been fooling us all. You can't tell me! I know he's been
+able to talk all the time."
+
+"You don't really think so, dear?" asked Helen.
+
+"I do. He must have been conscious when we picked him up that time and
+carried him to the carriage. And we mentioned his grandmother then and
+the necklace. He's just as sharp as a knife, you know; he's been dumb
+for a purpose. He did not want to be questioned about Zelaya and the
+missing pearl necklace."
+
+"My goodness me! Father will be _so_ angry," cried Helen.
+
+"Roberto will have to tell. I like him, and he was very brave to-night.
+But I do not believe the boy is a thief himself, and he would be better
+if he entirely left his thieving relatives."
+
+"Maybe he'll run away," suggested Helen.
+
+But Roberto would have been obliged to start very early that next
+morning to have run away. Ruth Fielding was the first person up in the
+school, and she was standing outside Tony's door, when the little
+Irishman first appeared.
+
+"Helen Cameron wants you to take this telegram down to the office at
+once, Tony," she said. "Mrs. Tellingham knows about it. We are in a
+dreadful hurry. Is Roberto inside?"
+
+"Sure he is, Miss----"
+
+"You take the message; don't let Roberto see it, and you keep your eye
+on that boy to-day, until Mr. Cameron arrives. He'll want to see him."
+
+"Now, don't be tellin' me th' bye has been inter mischief?" cried the
+warm-hearted Irishman.
+
+"Not much. Only he's suddenly recovered the use of his tongue, Tony, and
+Mr. Cameron wants to talk with him."
+
+"Gracious powers!" murmured Tony. "Recovered his spache, has he? The
+saints be praised!"
+
+He obeyed Ruth, however, in each particular. If Roberto had it in his
+mind to run away, he had no chance to do so that day. Tony watched him
+sharply, and in the evening Mr. Cameron arrived at Briarwood Hall.
+
+The gentleman greeted his daughter and Ruth in Mrs. Tellingham's parlor,
+but when he interviewed Roberto, it was downstairs in Tony Foyle's
+rooms.
+
+The girls saw Mr. Cameron only for a moment after that. He was just
+starting for the train, and Roberto was going with him.
+
+"The young rascal has admitted just what Ruth suspected," said Mr.
+Cameron, chuckling a little. "He fooled us all--including the doctor.
+Though the Doc., I reckon, suspected strongly that the boy could talk,
+if he desired to.
+
+"Roberto did not want to be questioned. Now he has told me that his
+grandmother did not go south at all. He says she often spends the winter
+in New York City as do other Gypsies. She is really a great character
+among her people, and with the information I have gathered, I believe
+the New York police will be able to locate her.
+
+"I shall hang on to Master Roberto until the matter is closed up. He
+will say nothing about the necklace. He'll not even own up that he ever
+saw it. But he tells me that his grandmother is a miser and hoards up
+valuables just like a magpie."
+
+Helen's father and the Gypsy boy went away then, and the chums had to
+possess their souls with patience, and attend strictly to their school
+work, until they could hear how the matter turned out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS
+
+
+It was not likely that Ruth found it any easier, after this, to attend
+strictly to her school duties, but after her conversation with Mrs.
+Tellingham she _had_ put forth a greater effort to recover her standing
+in her class.
+
+Whether Mrs. Parsons' necklace was found, or not; whether Ruth obtained
+a portion of the reward in pay for the information she had lodged, the
+girl realized that she had no right to neglect her studies.
+
+She had come to one conclusion at least: whether or no, she would not
+break into that fifty dollars Uncle Jabez had given her so unwillingly.
+And she would use no more of his money for vacation jaunts, or for
+luxuries.
+
+"I must accept his help in gaining my education," she told herself. "But
+beyond that, I need not go. I have gone about, and had good times, and
+bought many things just as though I really had a right to expect Uncle
+Jabez to supply every need.
+
+"No more of that, Ruth Fielding! You prate of wishing to be
+independent: be so in any event!"
+
+She was young to come to such a determination; yet Ruth's experiences
+since her parents had died were such as would naturally make her
+self-assertive. She knew what she wanted, _and she went after it_!
+
+As for the matter of the new gymnasium suit--why! that Ruth gave up
+entirely. She decided that she had no business to use Uncle Jabez's
+money for it, and of course she could not go into debt for a new
+costume.
+
+No matter what the other girls thought, or what they did, _she_ would
+have to be content with her old uniform when it came to the exhibition
+games.
+
+She did not have the courage yet to tell even Helen of this decision;
+nevertheless she was determined to stick to it. At once she had begun to
+pick up in recitation marks, and Miss Gould no longer scowled over
+Ruth's reports.
+
+The strain of mind had been considerable, however; Ruth had much to make
+up in her studies; she wasted no time and began to forge ahead again.
+
+She would not even think of Roberto and Mr. Cameron's search for Queen
+Zelaya. Helen was full of the topic, and often tried to discuss it with
+Ruth, but the latter put it aside.
+
+She had done all she could (or so she thought) to help restore the
+missing pearl necklace to Nettie's aunt. Worrying about it any more was
+not going to help a bit.
+
+It seemed too ridiculous to think of _her_ ever obtaining five thousand
+dollars--or any part of that generous reward!
+
+So the busy days passed. Helen heard from her father several times, but
+although she knew he was in New York, ostensibly buying goods, and that
+he had Roberto with him, the gentleman said very little about the other
+Gypsies and the missing necklace.
+
+Then one day Mrs. Tellingham sent for Ruth. To be sent for by the
+principal never frightened the girl of the Red Mill--much. She stood
+well on the principal's books, she knew.
+
+But the lady had called her to discuss nothing about the school work.
+She had a letter and a railroad ticket in her hand.
+
+"Tony has telephoned for Dolliver to come for you, Ruth," said Mrs.
+Tellingham. "You must go away----"
+
+"Nothing has happened at home? Uncle Jabez--Aunt Alvirah----?"
+
+"Nothing is wrong with them at all, my dear," declared the lady, kindly.
+"It is Mr. Cameron. He wants you to come to New York at once. Here is
+transportation for you. He will meet your train at the Grand Central
+Station."
+
+"Mrs. Parsons' necklace!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"He says something about that--yes," said Mrs. Tellingham. "It is
+important for you to come and identify somebody, I believe. You must
+tell him that, at this time in the term, you can be spared only a short
+time."
+
+All was bustle and confusion for Ruth during the next two hours. Then
+she found herself on the train bound for New York. She had a section of
+the sleeper to herself, and arrived in the city the next morning at an
+early hour.
+
+She was making her toilette, as the electric engine whisked the long
+train through the upper reaches of the city, and she marveled at the
+awakening Bronx and Harlem streets.
+
+When she came out through the gateway of the trainshed, she saw a youth
+standing by, watching the on-coming passengers sharply. But she was
+almost upon him, and he had stepped forward, lifting his hat and putting
+out a hand to take her bag, before she recognized Roberto, the Gypsy
+boy.
+
+But how changed in appearance! Of course, he was still dark of skin, and
+his black eyes flashed. But he had removed the gold rings from his ears,
+his hair had been trimmed to a proper length, he was dressed smartly in
+a gray suit, and wore a nice hat and shoes.
+
+Altogether Roberto was a very handsome youth indeed--more so now than
+when he had been a wild boy!
+
+"You do not know me, Miss Fielding?" he said, his eyes twinkling and a
+warm blush rising in his cheeks.
+
+"You--you are so changed!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Yes. Mr. Cameron is a fine man," said the boy, nodding. "I like him. He
+do all this for me," and he made a gesture that included his new outfit,
+and flashed her another brilliant smile.
+
+"Oh! how it does improve you, Roberto!" she cried.
+
+"_Robert_, if you please," he said, laughing. "_I_ am going to be
+American boy--yes. I have left the Gypsy boy forever behind--eh?"
+
+Ruth fairly clapped her hands. "Do you mean all that, Robert?" she
+cried.
+
+"Sure!" he said proudly. "I like America. Yes! I have been here now ten
+years, and it suit me. And Mr. Cameron say I can go to school and learn
+to be American business man. That is better than trading horses--eh?"
+
+"Oh, isn't that fine!" cried the girl of the Red Mill. "Now, where are
+you going to take me?"
+
+"To the hotel. Mr. Cameron will wait breakfast for us," declared the
+lad, and in ten minutes Ruth was greeting her chum's father across the
+restaurant table.
+
+"And I suppose you are just about eaten up with curiosity as to why I
+sent for you?" Mr. Cameron asked her, smiling, when Robert had gone out
+on an errand.
+
+"Just about, sir," admitted the girl.
+
+"Why, I want to tell you, my dear, that you are likely to be a very
+lucky girl indeed. The five thousand dollars reward----"
+
+"You haven't found the necklace?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. That has been found and identified. What I want you for is
+so you can identify that old Gypsy, Queen Zelaya. I did not want to
+force her grandson to appear against her before the authorities. But you
+can do so with a clear conscience.
+
+"Queen Zelaya will be sent back to Bohemia. She has a bad record, and
+entered the country secretly some years ago. Your evidence will enable
+the Federal authorities to clinch their case, and return the old woman
+to the country of her birth.
+
+"It is not believed that she actually stole the pearl necklace, but it
+is plain she shared in the proceeds of all the Gypsies' plundering, and
+in this case she took the giant's portion.
+
+"We could not prove robbery upon her, but she can be transported, and
+she shall be," concluded Mr. Cameron, firmly.
+
+This was what finally happened to Queen Zelaya. Her clan was broken up,
+and not one of them was ever seen in the neighborhood of the Red
+Mill--or elsewhere in that county--again.
+
+Robert Mazell, as is the Gypsy boy's Americanized name, promises to be
+all that he told Ruth he hoped to be--in time. He must begin at the
+bottom of the educational ladder, but he is so quick to learn that his
+patron, Mr. Cameron, tells Tom, laughingly, that _he_, Tom, will have to
+look to his laurels, or the boy from Bohemia will outstrip him.
+
+Having carried out the trailing of the Gypsy Queen at his own expense,
+and recovered the necklace privately, Mr. Cameron did not have to divide
+the reward offered by Mrs. Rachel Parsons with anybody.
+
+The entire five thousand dollars was deposited in Ruth's name in the
+Cheslow Savings Bank. And this happened in time so that Ruth could draw
+enough of her fortune to get a new gymnasium costume for the mid-winter
+exhibition!
+
+She did not have to use the money Uncle Jabez grudgingly gave her. Her
+tuition fees were paid in advance for this year at Briarwood Hall, but
+she determined thereafter to pay all her own expenses, at school and
+elsewhere.
+
+At last she felt herself to be independent. By going to Mr. Cameron, she
+could get money when she wished, without annoying the miller, and for
+this situation she was very very thankful.
+
+Her life stretched before her over a much pleasanter path than ever
+before. There were kind friends whom she could help in the future, as
+they needed help--and that delighted Ruth Fielding.
+
+Her own future seemed secure. She could prepare herself for college and
+could gain the education she craved. It seemed that nothing could balk
+her ambition in that direction. And so--this seems to be a very good
+place indeed in which to bid good-bye for a time to Ruth Fielding of the
+Red Mill.
+
+THE END
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. By
+her sunny disposition she melted the old miller's heart. Her adventures
+and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every reader.
+The Ruth Fielding Series is the biggest and best selling series of books
+for girls ever published.
+
+Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill
+    or Jaspar Parloe's Secret
+
+Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall
+    or Solving the Campus Mystery
+
+Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp
+    or Lost in the Backwoods
+
+Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point
+    or Nita, the Girl Castaway
+
+Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch
+    or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys
+
+Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island
+    or The Old Hunter's Treasure Box
+
+Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm
+    or What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies
+    or The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures (New)
+    or Helping the Dormitory Fund
+
+Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie (New)
+    or Great Days in the Land of Cotton
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of the highly successful "Dorothy Dale Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Since the enormous success of our "Motor Boys Series," by Clarence
+Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No one
+is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,
+besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.
+
+The Motor Girls
+    or A Mystery of the Road
+
+The Motor Girls on a Tour
+    or Keeping a Strange Promise
+
+The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach
+    or In Quest of the Runaways
+
+The Motor Girls Through New England
+    or Held by the Gypsies
+
+The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake
+    or The Hermit of Fern Island
+
+The Motor Girls on the Coast
+    or The Waif from the Sea
+
+The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay
+    or The Secret of the Red Oar
+
+The Motor Girls on Waters Blue
+    or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar
+
+The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise
+    or The Cave in the Mountain
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of "The Motor Girls Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old Civil War veteran who is running
+a weekly newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her sunny disposition, her
+fun-loving ways and her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting and
+fascinating reading. The Dorothy Dale Series is one of the most popular
+series of books for girls ever published.
+
+Dorothy Dale: a Girl of To-day
+Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School
+Dorothy Dale's Great Secret
+Dorothy Dale and Her Chums
+Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays
+Dorothy Dale's Camping Days
+Dorothy Dale's School Rivals
+Dorothy Dale in the City
+Dorothy Dale's Promise
+Dorothy Dale in the West
+Dorothy Dale's Strange Discovery (New)
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SADDLE BOYS SERIES
+
+By CAPTAIN JAMES CARSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+All lads who love life in the open air and a good steed, will want to
+peruse these books. Captain Carson knows his subject thoroughly, and his
+stories are as pleasing as they are healthful and instructive.
+
+The Saddle Boys of the Rockies
+    or Lost on Thunder Mountain
+
+Telling how the lads started out to solve the mystery of a great noise
+in the mountains--how they got lost--and of the things they discovered.
+
+The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon
+    or The Hermit of the Cave
+
+A weird and wonderful story of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, told in
+a most absorbing manner. The Saddle Boys are to the front in a manner to
+please all young readers.
+
+The Saddle Boys on the Plains
+    or After a Treasure of Gold
+
+In this story the scene is shifted to the great plains of the southwest
+and then to the Mexican border. There is a stirring struggle for gold,
+told as only Captain Carson can tell it.
+
+The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch
+    or In at the Grand Round-up
+
+Here we have lively times at the ranch, and likewise the particulars of
+a grand round-up of cattle and encounters with wild animals and also
+cattle thieves. A story that breathes the very air of the plains.
+
+The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails
+    or In the Hands of the Enemy
+
+The scene is shifted in this volume to Mexico. The boys go on an
+important errand, and are caught between the lines of the Mexican
+soldiers. They are captured and for a while things look black for them;
+but all ends happily.
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+UP-TO-DATE BASEBALL STORIES
+
+THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
+
+By LESTER CHADWICK
+
+Author of "The College Sports Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Baseball Joe of the Silver Stars
+    or The Rivals of Riverside
+
+In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is introduced as an
+everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and is particularly
+anxious to make his mark as a pitcher. A splendid picture of the great
+national game in the smaller towns of our country.
+
+Baseball Joe on the School Nine
+    or Pitching for the Blue Banner
+
+Joe's great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school
+team. He got to boarding school but found it harder making the team
+there than it was getting on the nine at home.
+
+Baseball Joe at Yale
+    or Pitching for the College Championship
+
+From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University. He makes
+the freshman nine and in his second year becomes a varsity pitcher and
+pitches in several big games.
+
+Baseball Joe in the Central League
+    or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher
+
+In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale College to a
+baseball league of our central states. Baseball Joe's work in the box
+for Old Eli had been noted by one of the managers and Joe gets an offer
+he cannot resist.
+
+Baseball Joe in the Big League
+    or A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggle
+
+From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. At
+first he has little to do in the pitcher's box, but gradually he wins
+favor. A corking baseball story that fans, both young and old, will
+enjoy.
+
+Baseball Joe on the Giants
+    or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis
+
+How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box
+makes an interesting baseball story.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR BOYS SECOND SERIES
+(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)
+
+By CLARENCE YOUNG
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+This, the Second Series of the now world famed Motor Boys virtually
+starts a new series, but retains all the favorite characters introduced
+in the previous books. The Motor Boys Series is the biggest and best
+selling series of books for boys ever published.
+
+Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall
+    or The Motor Boys as Freshmen
+
+Fresh from their adventures in their automobile, their motor boat and
+their airship, the youths are sent to college to complete their
+interrupted education. Some boys at the institution of learning have
+heard much about our heroes, and so conclude that the Motor Boys will
+try to run everything to suit themselves.
+
+A plot is formed to keep our heroes entirely in the background and not
+let them participate in athletics and other contests. How the Motor Boys
+forged to the front and made warm friends of their rivals makes
+unusually interesting reading.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES
+
+By BROOKS HENDERLEY
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys' club of the Y.
+M. C. A., full of good times and everyday, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read by
+every boy.
+
+The Y. M. C. A. Boys of Cliffwood
+    or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize
+
+Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on
+Hallowe'en, they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an
+organization of a boys' department in the local Y. M. C. A. When the
+lads realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement
+with vigor and did all they could to help the good cause. To raise funds
+they gave a minstrel show and other entertainments, and a number of them
+did their best to win a gold medal offered by a local minister who was
+greatly interested in the work of upbuilding youthful character.
+
+The Y. M. C. A. Boys on Bass Island
+    or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp
+
+Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y. M. C. A. of
+Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be
+instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and
+there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their
+heart's content. There were a great many surprises, but in the end the
+boys managed to clear up a mystery of long standing. Incidentally, the
+volume gives a clear insight into the workings of the now justly popular
+summer camps of the Y. M. C. A., throughout the United States.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES
+(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)
+
+By CLARENCE YOUNG
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+The Motor Boys
+    or Chums Through Thick and Thin
+
+The Motor Boys Overland
+    or A Lone Trip for Fun and Fortune
+
+The Motor Boys in Mexico.
+    or The Secret of The Buried City
+
+The Motor Boys Across the Plains
+    or The Hermit of Lost Lake
+
+The Motor Boys Afloat
+    or The Stirring Cruise of the Dartaway
+
+The Motor Boys on the Atlantic
+    or The Mystery of the Lighthouse
+
+The Motor Boys in Strange Waters
+    or Lost in a Floating Forest
+
+The Motor Boys on the Pacific
+    or The Young Derelict Hunters
+
+The Motor Boys in the Clouds
+    or A Trip for Fame and Fortune
+
+The Motor Boys Over the Rockies
+    or A Mystery of the Air
+
+The Motor Boys Over the Ocean
+    or A Marvellous Rescue in Mid-Air
+
+The Motor Boys on the Wing
+    or Seeking the Airship Treasure
+
+The Motor Boys After a Fortune
+    or The Hut on Snake Island
+
+The Motor Boys on the Border
+    or Sixty Nuggets of Gold
+
+The Motor Boys Under the Sea
+    or From Airship to Submarine
+
+The Motor Boys on Road and River
+    or Racing to Save a Life
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson.
+    </title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+    /*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+    <!--
+    p                 {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;}
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+    h2                {text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; clear: both;}
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+    a                 {text-decoration: none;}
+    .smcap            {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    table p           {text-align: center; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;}
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+    .figcenter        {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+    .center           {text-align:center;}
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies
+       The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: September 23, 2007 [EBook #22743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style='width:325px'>
+<a name="illus-000" id="illus-000"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" alt="HE PUSHED RUTH ROUGHLY BACK INTO HER SEAT. Page 123" title="" width="325" /><br />
+    <p style='text-align:center; font-size:80%'>HE PUSHED RUTH ROUGHLY BACK INTO HER SEAT.</p>
+    <p style='text-align:right; font-size:80%'>Page 123</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed' />
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width:25em" summary="">
+    <tr><td>
+        <p style="font-size:2.2em; margin-top:1em;">Ruth Fielding</p>
+        <p style="font-size:2.2em; margin-bottom:1em;">and the Gypsies</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:1em;">OR</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1.3em; margin-bottom:2em;">THE MISSING PEARL NECKLACE</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1.0em; margin-bottom:1em;">BY</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:0.7em;">ALICE B. EMERSON</p>
+        <p style="font-size:0.7em; font-variant:small-caps;">Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"</p>
+        <p style="font-size:0.7em; font-variant:small-caps; margin-bottom:2em;">"Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch," etc.</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1em; margin-bottom:2em; font-style:italic;">ILLUSTRATED</p>
+    </td></tr>
+    <tr><td>
+        <div class='figcenter'>
+        <img src='images/illus-emb.jpg' alt="emblem" />
+        </div>
+    </td></tr>
+    <tr><td>
+        <p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-top:2em;">NEW YORK</p>
+        <p style="font-size:1.0em;">CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY</p>
+        <p style="font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:2em;">PUBLISHERS</p>
+    </td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class='dashed' />
+
+<table style="margin: auto; border: black 1px solid;" summary="">
+<tr><td align='center'>
+    <span style='font-size:1.4em;'>Books for Girls</span>
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>
+    <span class='smcap' style='font-size:1.2em;'>By</span> ALICE B. EMERSON<br />
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>
+RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>
+<span style='font-size:0.7em;'>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</span><br />
+Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p style='text-align:left; margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em; font-size:0.8em;'>
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, Lost in the Backwoods.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.</span><br />
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.</span><br />
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:0.8em; margin-top:0.7em; margin-bottom:1em'>
+<span class="smcap">Cupples &amp; Leon Co., Publishers, New York.</span>
+</p>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<div style='font-size:smaller'>
+<p class='center'>
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1915, by<br />
+Cupples &amp; Leon Company</span></p>
+<hr class='minor' />
+<p class='center'><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed' />
+
+<h2 class="toc"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
+<col style="width:15%;" />
+<col style="width:5%;"  />
+<col style="width:70%;" />
+<col style="width:10%;" />
+<tr>
+    <td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>CHAPTER</span></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">I</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">On the Lumano River</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#ON_THE_LUMANO_RIVER_110">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">II</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Roberto, the Gypsy</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#ROBERTO_THE_GYPSY_370">10</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">III</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Evening At the Red Mill</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#EVENING_AT_THE_RED_MILL_609">19</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">IV</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">The Auto Tour</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#THE_AUTO_TOUR_834">27</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">V</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">A Prophecy Fulfilled</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#A_PROPHECY_FULFILLED_1097">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">VI</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">A Transaction in Mutton</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#A_TRANSACTION_IN_MUTTON_1256">43</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">VII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Fellow Travelers</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#FELLOW_TRAVELERS_1549">53</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">VIII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">What Was it All About?</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#WHAT_WAS_IT_ALL_ABOUT_1786">61</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">IX</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Queen Zelaya</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#QUEEN_ZELAYA_2024">69</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">X</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">In the Gypsy Camp</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#IN_THE_GYPSY_CAMP_2308">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XI</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Tom on the Trail</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#TOM_ON_THE_TRAIL_2608">91</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">A Break For Liberty</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#A_BREAK_FOR_LIBERTY_2967">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XIII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Ruth in the Toils</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#RUTH_IN_THE_TOILS_3166">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XIV</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Roberto Again</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#ROBERTO_AGAIN_3304">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XV</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Helen's Escape</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#HELENS_ESCAPE_3515">124</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XVI</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Through the Night And the Storm</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#THROUGH_THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_STORM_3763">133</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XVII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Off For School Again</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#OFF_FOR_SCHOOL_AGAIN_3954">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XVIII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Getting Into Harness</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#GETTING_INTO_HARNESS_4208">149</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XIX</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Can it Be Possible?</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#CAN_IT_BE_POSSIBLE_4405">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XX</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">He Cannot Talk</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#HE_CANNOT_TALK_4626">164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XXI</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Ruth Intercedes</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#RUTH_INTERCEDES_4771">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XXII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">A Great Temptation</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#A_GREAT_TEMPTATION_4938">175</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XXIII</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Nettie Parsons' Feast</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#NETTIE_PARSONS_FEAST_5126">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XXIV</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Roberto Finds His Voice</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#ROBERTO_FINDS_HIS_VOICE_5364">190</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="right">XXV</td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align="left">Five Thousand Dollars</td>
+  <td align="right"><a href="#FIVE_THOUSAND_DOLLARS_5546">197</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+
+<h2>RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES</h2>
+
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<a name="ON_THE_LUMANO_RIVER_110" id="ON_THE_LUMANO_RIVER_110"></a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_1" id="pg_1">1</a></span>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>ON THE LUMANO RIVER</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The steady turning of the grinding-stones set the old Red Mill a-quiver
+in every board and beam. The air within was full of dust&mdash;dust of the
+grain, and fine, fine dust from the stones themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez Potter, the miller, came to the door and looked across the
+grassy yard that separated the mill and the farmhouse attached from the
+highroad. Under a broad-spreading tree sat two girls, busy with their
+needles.</p>
+
+<p>One, a sharp-faced, light-haired girl, who somehow carried a look of
+endured pain in her eyes in spite of the smile she flung at the old man,
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Dusty Miller! come out and fly about a little. It will do you
+good."</p>
+
+<p>The grim face of the miller lightened perceptibly. "How do you reckon a
+man like me kin fly, Mercy child?" he croaked.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll lend you my aeroplanes, if you like," she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_2" id="pg_2">2</a></span> returned, gaily, and
+held up the two ebony canes which had been hidden by the tall grass.
+<i>They</i> told the story of Mercy Curtis' look of pain, but once she had
+had to hobble on crutches and, as she pluckily declared, canes were
+"miles better than crutches."</p>
+
+<p>"I ain't got no time, gals, an' that's a fac'," said the miller, his
+face clouding suddenly. "Ain't ye seen hide nor hair of Ben an' them
+mules?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Uncle," said the second girl, quietly, "you know how many errands
+Ben had to do in town. He couldn't do them all and get back in so short
+a time."</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno about that, Niece Ruth&mdash;I dunno about that," said the old man,
+sharply. "Seems ter me I could ha' gone an' been back by now. An' hi
+guy! there's four sacks o' flour to take acrost the river to Tim
+Lakeby&mdash;an' I kyan't do it by meself&mdash;Ben knows that. Takes two' on us
+ter handle thet punt 'ith the river runnin' like she is right now."</p>
+
+<p>The girl who had last spoken folded the work in her lap and got up
+agilely. Her movements were followed&mdash;perhaps a little enviously&mdash;by the
+gaze of the lame girl.</p>
+
+<p>"How quick you are, Ruthie," she said. When Ruth Fielding looked down
+upon Mercy Curtis, her smile started an answering one upon the lame
+girl's thin face.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_3" id="pg_3">3</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Quick on my feet, dearie," said Ruth. "But you have so much quicker a
+mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Flatterer!" returned the other, yet the smile lingered upon the thin
+face and made it the sweeter.</p>
+
+<p>The miller was turning, grumblingly, back into the shadowy interior of
+the mill, when Ruth hailed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle!" she cried. "Let me help you."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" he demanded, wheeling again to look at her from under his
+shaggy eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Ruth Fielding was worth looking at. She was plump, but not too
+plump; and she was quick in her movements, while her lithe and graceful
+figure showed that she possessed not only health, but great vitality.
+Her hair was of a beautiful bright brown color, was thick, and curled
+just a little.</p>
+
+<p>In her tanned cheeks the blood flowed richly&mdash;the color came and went
+with every breath she drew, it seemed, at times. That was when she was
+excited. But ordinarily she was of a placid temperament, and her brown
+eyes were as deep as wells. She possessed the power of looking
+searchingly and calmly at one without making her glance either
+impertinent or bold.</p>
+
+<p>In her dark skirt, middy blouse, and black stockings and low shoes, she
+made a pretty picture as she stood under the tree, although her
+features
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_4" id="pg_4">4</a></span> were none of them perfect. Her cheeks were perhaps a little
+too round; her nose&mdash;well, it was not a dignified nose at all! And her
+mouth was generously large, but the teeth gleaming behind her red lips
+were even and white, and her smile lit up her whole face in a most
+engaging manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Do let me help you, Uncle. I know I can," she repeated, as the old
+miller scowled at her.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" he said again. "Go with me in that punt to Tim Lakeby's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tain't no job for a gal, Niece Ruth," grumbled the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Any job is all right for a girl&mdash;if she can do it," said Ruth, happily.
+"And I can row, Uncle&mdash;you know I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! rowing one o' them paper-shell skiffs of Cameron's <i>one</i> thing; the
+ash oars to my punt ain't for baby's han's," growled the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Do let me try, Uncle Jabez," said Ruth again, when the lame girl broke
+in with:</p>
+
+<p>"You are an awfully obstinate old Dusty Miller! Why don't you own up
+that Ruthie's more good to you than a dozen boys would be?"</p>
+
+<p>"She ain't!" snarled the old man.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment there appeared upon the farmhouse porch a little, bent
+old woman who hailed them in a shrill, sweet voice:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, gals? What's the matter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_5" id="pg_5">5</a></span> Jabez? Ain't nothin' broke
+down, hez there?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Aunt Alvirah," laughed Ruth. "I just want Uncle Jabez to let me
+help him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman had started down the steps, her hand upon her back as she
+came, and intoning in a low voice: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" She
+caught up the miller's remark, as he turned away again, very sharply,
+for he muttered something about "Silly gals' foolish idees."</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye mean by that, Jabez Potter?" she demanded. "If Ruth says she
+kin help ye, she <i>kin</i>. You oughter know that by this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Help me row that punt across the river?" snarled the old man,
+wrathfully. "What nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"I dunno," said the old woman, slowly. "I see Tim's flag a-flyin'. I
+guess he wants his flour bad."</p>
+
+<p>"And I can pull an oar as good as <i>you</i> can, Uncle Jabez," added Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right! Come on, then. I see I shell hev no peace till I let ye
+try it. Ef we don't git back fer supper, don't blame <i>me</i>, Alviry."</p>
+
+<p>The miller disappeared in the gathering gloom of the mill. Soon the
+jarring of the structure and the hum of the stones grew
+slower&mdash;slower&mdash;slower, and finally the machinery was altogether still.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had run for her hat. Then, waving her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_6" id="pg_6">6</a></span> hand to Mercy and Aunt
+Alvirah, she ran around to the landing.</p>
+
+<p>The Lumano River was a wide stream, but at this season of the year it
+was pretty shallow. There was little navigation from Lake Osago at any
+time, but now the channel was dotted with dangerous rocks, and there
+were even more perilous reefs just under the surface.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez's boat was not really a "punt." It was a heavy rowboat, so
+stained and waterlogged in appearance that it might have been taken for
+a bit of drift-stuff that had been brought in to the Red Mill landing by
+the current.</p>
+
+<p>And truly, that is probably the means by which the miller had originally
+obtained the boat. He was of a miserly nature, was Uncle Jabez Potter,
+and the old boat&mdash;which its first owner had never considered worth
+coming after, following some spring freshet&mdash;served the miller well
+enough to transport his goods across the river.</p>
+
+<p>Tim Lakeby's store, on the north shore of the river, was in sight of the
+Red Mill. There were four sacks of flour to be transported, and already
+Uncle Jabez had placed two of them in the bottom of the boat, upon a
+clean tarpaulin.</p>
+
+<p>"Ef we go down the river an' swamp, I shell lose this flour," grumbled
+Uncle Jabez. "Drat that Ben! I tell ye, he'd ought to be hum by now."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_7" id="pg_7">7</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ben was the hired man, and if the miller had not really been kindlier
+underneath than he appeared on the surface, Ben would never have
+remained as long with him as he had!</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez balanced the weight in the boat with judgment. Although
+there seemed to be no real danger, he knew very well the nature of the
+treacherous current. Ruth slipped into the bow seat with her oar, and
+Uncle Jabez took stroke.</p>
+
+<p>The girl unknotted the painter, and the boat drifted out from the
+landing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, set yer feet square, an' <i>pull</i>!" ejaculated her uncle, thrusting
+the blade of his own oar beneath the rippling surface.</p>
+
+<p>They were heavy ash oars&mdash;one was all the girl really could manage. But
+she was not afraid of a little hard work, her muscles were supple, and
+she had rowed one season in the first eight at Briarwood Hall, and so
+considered herself something of an oarswoman.</p>
+
+<p>The miller, by stretching to see over his shoulder, got the boat pointed
+in the right direction. "Pull, now!" he commanded, and set a long,
+forceful stroke for the girl to match. With the water slapping against
+the high side of the craft, sometimes sprinkling them with spray, they
+drove her forward for some minutes in silence.</p>
+
+<p>The boat lumbered heavily, and it was true that Ruth had all she could
+do to manage the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_8" id="pg_8">8</a></span> oars. In some places, where the eddies tugged at the
+blade, it seemed as though a submerged giant seized it and tried to
+twist it from her grasp!</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you air gittin' yer fill-up of it, Niece Ruth," growled the
+miller, with a sound in his throat that might have been a chuckle. "Look
+out, now! ye'll hev us over."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth knew very well she had done nothing to give the boat that sudden
+jerk. It was the current; but she had no breath with which to argue the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>On and on they pulled, while the sinking sun gilded the little wavelets,
+and bathed both river and the shores in golden glory. A homing bird
+shrieked a shrill "good-night," as it passed above them, flying from
+shore to shore.</p>
+
+<p>Now the northern shore was nearer than the landing they had left. Only
+occasionally Ruth turned her head, for she needed her full attention
+upon the oar which she managed with such difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"We gotter p'int up-stream," growled Uncle Jabez, after wringing his
+neck around again to spy out the landing near Lakeby's store. "Pesky
+current's kerried us too fur down."</p>
+
+<p>He gave a mighty pull to his own oar to rehead the boat. It was a
+perilous move, and in a perilous place. Here the water ran, troubled and
+white-capped, over a hidden reef.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! do be careful, Uncle!" cried Ruth.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_9" id="pg_9">9</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pull!" yelled the old man, in return.</p>
+
+<p>By chance he sunk his own oar-blade so deeply, that it rubbed against
+the reef. It lifted Uncle Jabez from his seat, and unbalanced the boat.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash the heavy oar flew out of its socket, and the old man
+sprawled on his back in the bottom of the boat. The latter whirled
+around in the current, and before Ruth could scream, even, it crashed
+broadside upon the rock!</p>
+
+<p>The rotting planks of the boat could not stand such a blow. Ruth saw the
+plank cave in, and the water followed. Down the boat settled upon the
+submerged part of the rock&mdash;a hopeless wreck!</p>
+
+<p>This was not the worst of the accident. In seeking to recover his seat,
+Uncle Jabez went overboard, as the old boat tipped. He dove into the
+shallow water, and struck his head heavily on the reef.</p>
+
+<p>Blood-stained bubbles rose to the surface, and the old man struggled
+only feebly to rise.</p>
+
+<p>"He is hurt! he will be drowned!" gasped Ruth, and seeing him so
+helpless, she sprang nimbly over the canted side of the boat and sought
+to draw her uncle's head out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Although she was a good swimmer, and was not afraid of the water, the
+current was so swift, and her own footing so unstable, it was doubtful
+if Ruth Fielding could save both the miller and herself from the peril
+that menaced them.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_10" id="pg_10">10</a></span>
+<a name="ROBERTO_THE_GYPSY_370" id="ROBERTO_THE_GYPSY_370"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>ROBERTO, THE GYPSY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding, following the death of her parents and while she was
+still a small girl, had left Darrowtown and Miss True Pettis, and all
+her other old friends and acquaintances, to live with her mother's
+uncle, at the Red Mill. Her coming to the mill and her early adventures
+in and about that charming place were related in the first volume of
+this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth made many friends in her new home, among them Helen and Tom
+Cameron, the twin, motherless children of a wealthy dry-goods merchant
+who had a beautiful home, called "the Outlook," near the mill, and Mercy
+Curtis, the daughter of the railroad station agent at Cheslow, the
+nearest important town to Ruth's new home. Ruth, Helen, and Mercy all
+went to Briarwood Hall, a girls' school some distance from Cheslow,
+while Master Tom attended a military academy at Seven Oaks, near the
+girls' institution of learning. The incidents of their first
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_11" id="pg_11">11</a></span> term at
+school are related in the second volume of the series, while in the
+mid-winter vacation Ruth and her friends go to Snow Camp in the
+Adirondacks.</p>
+
+<p>Later, our friends spent part of a summer vacation at Lighthouse Point
+on the Atlantic Coast, after which they visited Silver Ranch in Montana.
+The sixth volume tells of another mid-winter camping adventure on Cliff
+Island, while the volume previous to our present story&mdash;number seven, in
+fact&mdash;was entitled "Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm."</p>
+
+<p>This story narrated Ruth's particular interest in Sadie Raby, a strange,
+wild girl who ran away from cruel people who had taken her "to raise."
+Her reunion with her twin brothers, Willie and Dickie, and how they all
+three became the special care of Mr. Steele, the wealthy owner of
+Sunrise Farm, is told. It is through Ruth's efforts that the Rabys are
+settled in life and win friends.</p>
+
+<p>Now Ruth and her schoolmates had returned to the Red Mill and Cheslow,
+and but a brief space would elapse before the girls would begin their
+third year at Briarwood Hall; they were all looking toward the beginning
+of the fall term with great eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>Had Ruth Fielding been able to think at this moment of the boat's
+overturn, or of anything but her uncle's peril, she might have
+considered that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_12" id="pg_12">12</a></span> the possibility of her ever seeing Briarwood Hall again
+was somewhat doubtful!</p>
+
+<p>The hurrying water tugged at her as though a hundred hands had laid hold
+of her person. She was nearly arm-pit deep in the flood, and her uncle's
+body was so heavy that she had all she could do to hold his head above
+the surface.</p>
+
+<p>She could not get him back into the boat, even, and perhaps that would
+not have been a wise move. For the old skiff, shaking and rocking, was
+likely to be torn free by the battling current. If it should swing into
+deep water, it must sink almost at once, for the water was pouring in
+through the hole that had been battered in its side.</p>
+
+<p>The flour was fast becoming saturated with the river-water, and its
+increased weight would bear the boat to the bottom, if it slipped from
+the reef.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to see any good of boarding the boat again, Ruth tried to work
+her way along the reef until she stood upon a higher part of it. Uncle
+Jabez was unconscious, blood flowed from a deep cut on his head, and he
+lay a dead weight in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>Never had Ruth Fielding been in greater peril. She was frightened, but
+mostly for the old man who seemed so seriously hurt.</p>
+
+<p>Tossing her loosened hair out of her eyes, she stared longingly at the
+landing near Lakeby's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_13" id="pg_13">13</a></span> store. It was some distance up-stream, and not a
+person was in sight. She feared, too, that it was too far away for her
+voice to carry.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she must scream for help. She shouted again and again, endeavoring
+to put all the strength of her voice into the cries. Was that an answer?
+The girl held her uncle high in her arms and looked all about.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody was at the store landing. Nobody was behind on the other shore of
+the river&mdash;and she was glad that Aunt Alvirah and Mercy had not seen the
+accident, for neither of them could have helped in this predicament.</p>
+
+<p>Yes! there was the repeated shout&mdash;and nearer. Ruth's eyes turned to the
+north shore of the Lumano again. There was somebody running down the
+bank&mdash;not near the store kept by Timothy Lakeby, but directly opposite
+the rock on which the old boat had stranded.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh! Help! help!" shrieked the girl of the Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on! I'm coming!"</p>
+
+<p>The voice came to her more strongly than before. She could not see who
+the person was, but she knew he was alone. She could not imagine how he
+was to aid them.</p>
+
+<p>Why did he not run to the store and bring other men to help? There! he
+seemed to have leaped right into the river!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_14" id="pg_14">14</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me! the strongest swimmer could not reach us, let alone help
+Uncle Jabez ashore," was Ruth's thought.</p>
+
+<p>But up came the figure into sight again. Dripping, of course, now he
+stood firmly on a peak of rock that was thrust above the tide, and shook
+back the long black hair from his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He was a wild looking person. His feet were bare and his ragged trousers
+were rolled to his knees. He wore neither vest nor coat, and his shirt
+was open at his throat. To Ruth he seemed very bronzed and rough
+looking.</p>
+
+<p>But whoever, or whatever, he might be, the girl prayed that he would
+prove able to rescue Uncle Jabez. She felt that she could save herself,
+but she was having all she could do to bear up the unconscious miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on!" shouted the rescuer again.</p>
+
+<p>Once more he plunged forward. He disappeared off the rock. Was he
+swimming again? The half-overturned boat hid him from Ruth's gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he shouted close at hand. Up he bobbed on the higher point of
+rock just beyond the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Missy?" he demanded. "Is the old man hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"He hit his head. See! he is unconscious," explained Ruth.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_15" id="pg_15">15</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll get him! Look out, now; I've got to push off this old boat, Missy.
+She ain't no good, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth saw that he was a big, black-haired, strong looking boy. His
+complexion was very dark and his eyes sparkling&mdash;like cut jet beads. He
+might have been seventeen or eighteen years old, but he was fully as
+tall, and apparently as strong, as an ordinary man.</p>
+
+<p>His long hair curled and was tangled like a wild man's. His beard had
+begun to grow on his lip and chin. In his ears Ruth saw small gold rings
+and his wrists and forearms&mdash;which were bared&mdash;were covered with an
+intricate pattern of tattooing in red and blue ink.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, she had never seen so strange a boy in all her life&mdash;and
+certainly none so strong. He leaped into the broken boat, seized Ruth's
+oar that had not been lost in the overset, and bracing it against the
+rock, pushed the trembling boat free in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth could not repress a scream. It looked as though he, too, must be
+thrown into the river, as the boat was caught by the current and jerked
+free.</p>
+
+<p>But the wild boy laughed and leaped upon the higher part of the rock. As
+the miller's old boat drifted down stream, he sprang into the water
+again and reached the girl and her burden.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_16" id="pg_16">16</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Give him to me!" commanded the boy. "I can bear him up better than you,
+Missy. We'll get him ashore&mdash;and you can't be any wetter than you are
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind me!" cried Ruth. "I am not afraid of a ducking. And I
+can swim."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want to try swimming in <i>this</i> place, Missy," he returned.
+"You follow right behind me&mdash;so."</p>
+
+<p>He turned, carrying the heavy figure of the miller in his arms as though
+he weighed but a hundred pounds instead of nearer two, and set off
+toward the shore along the ledge of rock by which he had come.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth saw, now, that beyond where the boat had been wrecked, the rock
+joined the shore, with only here and there a place where it was deep
+under water.</p>
+
+<p>She saw, too, that the boat was now sinking. It had not sailed ten yards
+in the fierce current before its gunwales disappeared. It sank in a
+deeper channel below&mdash;flour and all! Ruth realized that Uncle Jabez
+would be sorely troubled over the loss of those bags of flour.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth paddled to the shore behind the strong boy, but before they really
+reached terra firma, she knew that Uncle Jabez was struggling back to
+consciousness. The boy lowered the miller easily to the ground.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_17" id="pg_17">17</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He's coming 'round, Missy," he said. His smile was broad, and the
+little gold rings twinkled in his ears.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, wet and bedrabbled as she was, did not think of her own
+discomfort. She knelt beside Uncle Jabez and spoke to him. For some
+seconds he was so dazed that he did not seem to recognize her. Then he
+stammered:</p>
+
+<p>"Ha&mdash;ha&mdash;&mdash;I knowed we couldn't do it. No&mdash;no gal kin do a man's work.
+Ha!"</p>
+
+<p>This seemed rather hard on Ruth, after she had done her best, and it had
+not been her fault that the boat was wrecked, but she was too excited
+just then to trouble about the miller's grumbling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle! you're not badly hurt, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha&mdash;hum! I dunno," stuttered the miller, and sat up. He rubbed his
+forehead and brought his hand, with a little blood upon it, back to the
+level of his eyes. "I vum!" he ejaculated, with more interest than
+before. "I must ha' cracked my head some. Why was it I didn't drown?"</p>
+
+<p>"This little missy, here," said the black-eyed youth, quickly. "<i>She</i>
+saved you, Mister. She held your head above water till I come."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;Niece Ruth! you did <i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was nothing, Uncle Jabez! I am so glad you are not hurt worse.
+This boy really saved you. He brought you ashore."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_18" id="pg_18">18</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who be ye, young man?" asked the miller. "I'm obleeged to ye&mdash;if what
+my niece says is true."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am named Roberto. You need not to thank&mdash;no!" exclaimed the
+stranger, suddenly getting up and looking all about.</p>
+
+<p>"But it was very brave of him," declared Ruth, and she seized the boy's
+hand. "I&mdash;I am so glad you were near."</p>
+
+<p>"Here's Tim and Joe Bascom coming," said Uncle Jabez, who was facing the
+store.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Roberto, as he called himself, jerked his hand from Ruth's
+grasp. He had seen the men coming, too, and without a word he turned and
+fled back into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;" began Ruth, in utter surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with that feller?" demanded Uncle Jabez, just as the
+storekeeper and Farmer Bascom arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"I seen the feller, Jabe," said the latter, eagerly. "He's one o' them
+blamed Gypsies. I run him out o' my orchard only yisterday."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_19" id="pg_19">19</a></span>
+<a name="EVENING_AT_THE_RED_MILL_609" id="EVENING_AT_THE_RED_MILL_609"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>EVENING AT THE RED MILL</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>About this time Uncle Jabez began to wake up to the fact that his boat
+and the flour were gone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a dumbed shame, Jabez! an' I needed that flour like tunket," said
+Timothy Lakeby, the storekeeper.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted the miller. "'Tain't nothin' out o' your pocket, Tim."</p>
+
+<p>"But my customers air wantin' it."</p>
+
+<p>"You lemme hev your boat, an' a boy to bring it back, an' we'll go right
+hum an' load ye up some more flour," groaned the miller. "That dratted
+Ben will be back by thet time, I fancy. Ef he'd been ter the mill I
+wouldn't hev been dependent upon my niece ter help row that old boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Too heavy for her&mdash;too heavy for her, Jabe," declared Joe Bascom.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! is thet so?" snapped the miller. He could grumble to Ruth himself,
+but he would not stand for any other person's criticism of her.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_20" id="pg_20">20</a></span> "Lemme
+tell ye, she worked her passage all right. An' I vum! I b'lieve thet
+'twas me, myself, thet run the old tub on the rock."</p>
+
+<p>"Aside from the flour, Jabez," said the storekeeper, "'tain't much of a
+loss. But you an' Ruthie might ha' both been drowned."</p>
+
+<p>"I would, if it hadn't been for her," declared the miller, with more
+enthusiasm than he usually showed. "She held my head up when I was
+knocked out&mdash;kinder. Ye see this cut in my head?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye got out of it lucky arter all, then," said Bascom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ya-as," drawled the miller. "But I ain't feelin' so pert erbout losin'
+thet boat an' the flour."</p>
+
+<p>"But see how much worse it might have been, Uncle," suggested Ruth,
+timidly. "If it hadn't been for that boy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say his name was?" interrupted Timothy.</p>
+
+<p>"Roberto."</p>
+
+<p>"Yah!" said Bascom. "Thet's a Gypsy name, all right! I'd like ter got
+holt on him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could have thanked him," sighed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"If you see him ag'in, Joe," said the miller, "don't you bother about a
+peck o' summer apples. I'll pay for them," he added, with a sudden
+burst
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_21" id="pg_21">21</a></span> of generosity. "Of course&mdash;in trade," he added.</p>
+
+<p>He could move about now, and the gash in his head had ceased bleeding.
+It was a warm evening, and neither Ruth nor her uncle were likely to
+take cold from their ducking. But her clothing clung to her in an
+uncomfortable manner, and the girl was anxious to get back to the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Timothy Lakeby routed out a clerk and sent him with them in the lighter
+boat that was moored at the store landing. Ruth begged to pull an oar
+again, and her uncle did not forbid her. Perhaps he still felt a little
+weak and dazed.</p>
+
+<p>He kept speaking of Roberto, the Gypsy boy. "Strong as an ox, that
+feller," he said. "Wisht I had a man like him at the mill. Ben ain't
+wuth his salt."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sure, Uncle Jabez, Ben is very faithful and good," urged Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, a feller that could carry me like that young man done&mdash;he's jest
+another Sandow, <i>he</i> is," said Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>They easily got across the river in the storekeeper's lighter boat, and
+Ruth displayed her oarsmanship to better advantage, for the oars were
+lighter. The miller noted her work and grunted his approval.</p>
+
+<p>"I vum! they <i>did</i> teach ye suthin' at thet school 'sides folderrols,
+didn't they?" he said.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_22" id="pg_22">22</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ruth asked the store clerk if he knew anything about the Gypsies.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, Miss. I hear they are camping 'way up the river&mdash;up near the
+lakes, beyond Minturn's Dam. You know that's a wild country up there."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth remembered. She had been a little way in that direction with her
+friends, Tom and Helen Cameron, in their auto. Minturn Dam had burst two
+years before, and done much damage, but was now repaired.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a long way from here," she suggested to the clerk.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm. But Romany folks is gret roamers&mdash;thet's why they're called
+'Romany,' mebbe," was the reply. "And I guess that black-eyed rascal is
+a wild one."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. He got me out o' the river," mumbled Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>They brought the boat to the mill landing in safety, and Ben appeared,
+having returned from town and put up the mules. He gazed in blank
+amazement at the condition of his employer and Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"For the good land!" exclaimed Ben; but he got no farther. He was not a
+talkative young man, and it took considerable to wake him up to as
+exciting an expression as the above.</p>
+
+<p>"You kin talk!" snarled Uncle Jabez. "If
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_23" id="pg_23">23</a></span> you'd been here to help me, I
+wouldn't ha' lost our boat and the flour."</p>
+
+<p>The miller fairly <i>ached</i> when he thought of his losses, and he had to
+lay the blame on somebody.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you help me git four more sacks over to Tim Lakeby's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth would not hear of his going back before he changed his clothing and
+had something put upon the cut in his head. After a little arguing, it
+was agreed that Ben and the clerk should ferry the flour across to the
+store, and then the clerk would bring Ben back.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness sakes alive!" shrieked Aunt Alvirah, when she saw them come
+onto the porch, still dripping. "What you been doing to my pretty, Jabez
+Potter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" sniffed the miller. "Mebbe it's what she's been doing to <i>me</i>?"
+and he wreathed his thin lips into a wry grin.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Alvirah and Mercy must hear it all. The lame girl was delighted.
+She pointed her finger at the old man, who had now gotten into his
+Sunday suit and had a bandage on his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, tell me, Dusty Miller, what do you think about girls being of some
+use? Isn't Ruth as good as any boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"She sartainly kep' me from drownin' as good as any boy goin'," admitted
+the old man. "But
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_24" id="pg_24">24</a></span> that was only chancey, as ye might say. When it comes
+to bein' of main use in the world&mdash;&mdash;Wal, it ain't gals thet makes the
+wheels go 'round!'</p>
+
+<p>"And don't you really think, Uncle, that girls are any use in the
+world?" asked Ruth, quietly. She had come out upon the dimly lit porch
+(this was after their supper) in season to hear the miller's final
+observation.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" ejaculated Jabez. Perhaps he had not intended Ruth to hear just
+that. "They're like flowers, I reckon&mdash;mighty purty an' ornamental; but
+they ain't no manner o' re'l use!"</p>
+
+<p>Mercy fairly snorted, but she was too wise to say anything farther.
+Ruth, however, continued:</p>
+
+<p>"That seems very unfair, Uncle. Many girls are 'worth their salt,' as
+you call it, to their families. Why can't <i>I</i> be of use to you&mdash;in time,
+of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! everyone to his job," said Uncle Jabez, brusquely. "You kin be of
+gre't help to your Aunt Alviry, no doubt. But ye can't take a sack of
+flour on your shoulders an' throw it inter a waggin&mdash;like Ben there. Or
+like that Roberto thet lugged me ashore to-night. An' I'm some weight, I
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all the kind of help you think you'll ever need, Uncle?"
+demanded Ruth, with rising emotion.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_25" id="pg_25">25</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I ain't expectin' ter be helpless an' want nussin' by no gal&mdash;not yet
+awhile," said Uncle Jabez, with a chuckle. "Gals is a gre't expense&mdash;a
+gre't expense."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Jabez! ye don't mean thet air," exclaimed the little old woman,
+coming from the kitchen. She lowered herself into the little rocker
+nearby, with her usual moan of, "Oh, my back! an' oh, my bones! Ye don't
+mean ter hurt my pretty's feelin's, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"She axed me!" exclaimed the miller, angrily. "I vum! ain't I spendin' a
+fortun' on her schoolin' at that Briarwood Hall?"</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't she save ye a tidy fortun' when she straightened out that
+Tintacker Mine trouble for ye, Jabez Potter?" demanded the old woman,
+vigorously. "An' the good Lord knows she's been a comfort an' help to
+ye, right an' left, in season an' out, ever since she fust stepped foot
+inter this Red Mill&mdash;&mdash;What's she done for ye this very day, Jabez, as
+ye said yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Alvirah was one of the very few people who dared to talk plainly to
+the miller, when he was in one of his tempers. Now he growled out some
+rough reply, and strode into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"You've driven him away, Auntie!" cried Ruth, under her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"He'd oughter be driv' away," said the old woman, "when he's in thet
+mind."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_26" id="pg_26">26</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But what he says is true. I <i>am</i> a great expense to him. I&mdash;I wish I
+could earn my own way through school."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ye worry, my pretty. Jabez Potter's bark is wuss than his bite."</p>
+
+<p>"But the bark hurts, just the same."</p>
+
+<p>"He ought to be whipped!" hissed Mercy, in her most unmerciful tone.
+"I'd like to whip him, till all the dust flew out of his Dusty Miller
+clothes&mdash;so I would!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" commanded Ruth, recovering her self-command again and fighting
+back the tears. "Just as Aunt Alvirah observes, he doesn't mean half of
+what he says."</p>
+
+<p>"It hurts just the same&mdash;you said it yourself," declared the lame girl,
+with a snap.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to be independent, anyway," said Ruth, with some excitement. "I
+want an education so I can <i>do</i> something. I'd like to cultivate my
+voice&mdash;the teacher says it has possibilities. Mr. Cameron is going to
+let Helen go as far as she likes with the violin, and she doesn't <i>have</i>
+to think about making her way in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Gals ain't content now to sit down after gittin' some schoolin'&mdash;I kin
+see thet," sighed Aunt Alvirah. "It warn't so in my day. I never see the
+beat of 'em for wantin' ter go out inter the worl' an' make a
+livin'&mdash;jes' like men."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_27" id="pg_27">27</a></span>
+<a name="THE_AUTO_TOUR_834" id="THE_AUTO_TOUR_834"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>THE AUTO TOUR</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Hi, Ruth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, Ruth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Straw, Ruth!&mdash;why don't you say?" cried the owner of the name, running
+to the porch and smiling out upon the Cameron twins, who had stopped
+their automobile at the Red Mill gate on a morning soon following that
+day on which Uncle Jabez and Ruth had undergone their involuntary
+ducking in the Lumano.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you ready, Ruthie?" cried Helen from the back seat of the car.</p>
+
+<p>"Do hurry up, Ruth&mdash;the horses don't want to stand," laughed Tom, who
+was slim and black haired and black eyed, like his twin. Indeed, the two
+were so much alike that, dressed in each other's clothing, it is
+doubtful if they could have been suspected in such disguise.</p>
+
+<p>"But my bag isn't packed yet," cried Ruth. "I didn't know you'd be here
+so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Take your toothbrush and powder puff&mdash;that's all you girls really
+need," declared the irrepressible Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"I like that! And on a two days' trip into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_28" id="pg_28">28</a></span> the hills," said his sister,
+beating him soundly with an energetic fist.</p>
+
+<p>"Give him one or two good ones for me, Helen," said Ruth, and ran in to
+finish her preparations for the journey she was to take with her
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw!" grumbled the impatient Tom, "going to Uncle Ike's isn't like
+going to a fancy hotel. And we'll stop over to-night with Fred Larkin's
+folks&mdash;the girls there would lend you and Ruth all you need."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on!" exclaimed his sister. "Just what have you in <i>your</i> bag? I
+know it's heavy. You have all you want&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. Pair of socks, two collars, fishing tackle, some books I borrowed
+of Fred last year, my bicycle wrench&mdash;you never know when you are going
+to need it,&mdash;a string of wampum I promised to take to Nealy
+Larkin&mdash;she's a Campfire girl, you know&mdash;and an Indian tomahawk for
+Fred&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But, clothes! clothes!" gasped Helen. "Where are your shirts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll borrow a shirt, if I need one," declared Master Tom, grinning.
+"Uncle Ike's Benjy is about my size, you know. What's the use of carting
+around so much stuff?"</p>
+
+<p>"I notice you have your bag full of trash," sniffed Helen. "It can
+plainly be seen that Mrs.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_29" id="pg_29">29</a></span> Murchiston was called away so suddenly that
+she could not oversee our packing."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Ruth!" shouted Tom again, turning toward the farmhouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't get her in a flurry," admonished Helen. "She hasn't had but
+two hours' notice to get ready for this two days' trip. It's a wonder
+Uncle Jabez would let her go with us at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle Jabe isn't such a bad old fellow after all," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"He's been just as cross and cranky as he can be, ever since he lost his
+boat in the river the other evening&mdash;you know that. And they say he
+would have been drowned, too, if it hadn't been for Ruthie. What a brave
+girl she is, Tom!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bravest in seven states!" acknowledged Master Tom, promptly. He had
+always thought there was nobody just like Ruth, and his sister smiled
+upon him approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess she is!" she agreed. "There isn't a girl at Briarwood Hall that
+will be her match in anything&mdash;now that Madge Steele has gotten through.
+Ruth is going to be head of the senior class before we graduate&mdash;you
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"She'll have to hustle some to beat little Mercy Curtis," grinned Tom.
+"<i>There's</i> a sharp suffragette for you!"</p>
+
+<p>Helen laughed. "That's right. But, unfortunately
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_30" id="pg_30">30</a></span> for Mercy, Mrs.
+Tellingham considers other work beside our books in grading us. Oh,
+Tommy! we're going to have a dandy time this coming year at school."</p>
+
+<p>"You have my best wishes," returned her brother, with a slightly clouded
+face. "Bobbins and Busy Izzy and I expect to be drilled like everything,
+when we get back to Seven Oaks. Professor Darly is a terror."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth came out with her bag then, and in the doorway behind her appeared
+the little, stooped figure of Aunt Alvirah. The Camerons waved their
+hands and shouted greetings to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Take good keer of my pretty, Master Tom," shrilled the old lady,
+hobbling out into the yard. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll handle her as if she were made of glass," declared Tom, laughing.
+"Hop in, Ruthie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Aunt Alvirah!" cried the girl of the Red Mill, clasping the
+little old lady around the neck and kissing her. Then she waved her hand
+to Uncle Jabez, who appeared in the mill doorway, and he nodded grimly,
+as the car started.</p>
+
+<p>Ben appeared at a window and bashfully nodded to the departing pleasure
+party. The car quickly passed the end of the Cheslow road and sped up
+the riverside. These lowlands beyond the Red Mill had once been covered
+by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_31" id="pg_31">31</a></span> a great flood, and the three friends would never forget their race
+with the freshet from Culm Falls, at the time the Minturn Dam burst.</p>
+
+<p>"But we're bound far, far above the dam this time," said Tom. "Fred
+Larkin lives farther than that&mdash;beyond the gorge between the hills, and
+at the foot of the first pond. We'll get there long before dark unless
+something happens to this old mill I'm driving."</p>
+
+<p>"There! Tommy's harping on his pet trouble," laughed Helen. "Father
+won't let us use the new car to go scooting about the country alone in,
+and Tommy thinks he is abused."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! that 'six' is just eating its head off in the garage," grumbled
+the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as though it were a horse!" chuckled Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"You wait! I bet something happens on this trip, because of this old
+heap of scrap iron that pa calls a car."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with some exasperation. "Don't you dare
+have a breakdown in the hills, Tom! I should be frightened. It's so wild
+up there beyond Loon Lake."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't blame me," returned her twin. "I shall do my best."</p>
+
+<p>"And so will the auto&mdash;I have no doubt," added Ruth, laughingly. "Cheer
+up, Helen, dear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know the rest of it!" interrupted her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_32" id="pg_32">32</a></span> chum. "'The worst is yet to
+come!' I&mdash;hope&mdash;not!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding would allow no worrying or criticism in this event. They
+were out for a good time, and she at once proceeded to cheer up the
+twins, and laugh at their fears, and interest them in other things.</p>
+
+<p>They crossed the river at Culm Falls&mdash;a beautiful spot&mdash;and it was
+beyond the bridge, as the car was mounting the first long rise, that the
+party of adventurers found their first incident of moment.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there were clearings in the forest upon the right side of the
+road (on the other side the hill fell abruptly to the river), and little
+farms. As the party came in sight of one of these farms, a great cry
+arose from the dooryard. The poultry was soundly disturbed&mdash;squawking,
+cackling, shrieking their protests noisily&mdash;while the deep baying of a
+dog rose savagely above the general turmoil.</p>
+
+<p>"Something doing there!" quoth Tom Cameron, slowing down.</p>
+
+<p>"A chicken hawk, perhaps?" suggested Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>A woman was screaming admonition or advice; occasionally the gruffer
+voice of a man added to the turmoil. But the dog's barking was the
+loudest sound.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, from around the corner of the barn,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_33" id="pg_33">33</a></span> appeared a figure wildly
+running. It was neither the farmer, nor his wife&mdash;that was sure.</p>
+
+<p>"Tramp!" exclaimed Tom, reaching for the starting lever again.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Helen shrieked. After the running man appeared a hound.
+He had broken his leash, and a more savage brute it would be difficult
+to imagine. He was following the runner with great leaps, and when the
+fugitive vaulted the roadside fence, the dog crashed through the rails,
+tearing down a length of them, and scrambling in the dusty road in an
+endeavor to get on the trail of the man again.</p>
+
+<p>Only, it was not a man; it was a boy! He was big and strong looking, but
+his face was boyish. Ruth Fielding stood up suddenly in the car and
+shrieked to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Come here! This way! Roberto!"</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness! is he a friend of yours, Ruthie?" gasped Tom Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>"He's the Gypsy boy that saved Uncle Jabez," returned Ruth, in a breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him aboard&mdash;<i>do</i>!" urged Helen. "That awful dog&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Roberto had heard and leaped for the running-board of the car. Tom
+switched on the power. Just as the huge hound leaped, and his fore-paws
+touched the step, the car darted away and the brute was left sprawling.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_34" id="pg_34">34</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The car was a left-hand drive, and Tom motioned the panting youth to get
+in beside him. The dark-faced fellow did so. At first he was too
+breathless to speak, but his black eyes snapped like beads, and his lips
+smiled. He seemed to have enjoyed the race with the savage dog, instead
+of having been frightened by it.</p>
+
+<p>"You save me, Missy, like I save your old man&mdash;eh?" he panted, at last,
+turning his brilliant smile upon Ruth. "Me! that dog mos' have me, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"What was the matter? How came you to start all that riot?" demanded
+Tom, looking at the Gypsy youth askance.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto's grin became expansive. The little gold rings in his ears
+twinkled as well as his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I did them no wrong. I slept in the man's haymow. He found me a little
+while ago. He say I haf to <i>pay</i> for my sleep&mdash;eh? How poor Gypsy pay?"
+and he opened his hands and shrugged his shoulders to show that his
+pockets were empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Me, no money have got. Can I work? Of course I work&mdash;only the farmers
+do not trust me. They call all Gypsies thieves. Isn't it so, Missy?" and
+he flashed a glance at Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, Mr. Joe Bascom drove you out of his orchard," agreed the girl
+of the Red Mill.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_35" id="pg_35">35</a></span> "But you should have come across the river to <i>us</i>.
+Uncle Jabez is really grateful to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>that</i>?" and the boy shrugged his shoulders again. "I do not want
+pay for what I do&mdash;no. I want no money. I would not work a day for all
+my grandmother's wealth&mdash;and she is a miser," and Roberto laughed again,
+showing all his white, strong teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"But these people back here&mdash;this man and his woman&mdash;they want me to
+churn. It is a dog's work&mdash;no? I see where the dog haf to churn, but
+that dog die and they get this new, savage one&mdash;and it will not. Me, I
+think this dog very wise!" and Roberto's merriment broke out again, and
+he shook with it.</p>
+
+<p>"So I tell them I will not do dog's work, and then he, the man, chases
+me with his pitchfork, and the woman unloose the dog. Oh, yes! I make a
+great noise in the henyard. That dog chase me hard. So&mdash;I got away as
+you see," he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Say! you're a cool one," declared Tom, with growing admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"But you ought not to be loafing about, sleeping anywhere, and without
+employment," said Helen, primly.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto's black eyes sparkled. "Why does the little missy say I should
+work?" he demanded. "There is no need. I return to my people,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_36" id="pg_36">36</a></span> perhaps.
+There I curry horses and fill the water pails for the women, and go with
+my uncle to the horse-fairs where he trades, or be under my
+grandmother's beck and call&mdash;the grandmother whom I tell you is a miser.
+But I never have money with them, and why should I work for it
+elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"To get good clothes, and good food, and pay your way everywhere,"
+suggested Tom.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto laughed again. He spread out his strong hands. "These keep me
+from day to day," he said. "But money burns a hole in my pocket. Or,
+would you have me like my grandmother? She hoards every penny-piece, and
+then gloats over her money-box, by the firelight, when the rest of the
+camp is asleep. Oh, I see her!"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_37" id="pg_37">37</a></span>
+<a name="A_PROPHECY_FULFILLED_1097" id="A_PROPHECY_FULFILLED_1097"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>A PROPHECY FULFILLED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>This queer youth interested Ruth Fielding and her friends, the Cameron
+twins, very much. Roberto was not naturally talkative, it seemed, for he
+soon dropped into silence and it was hard to get aught out of him but
+"Yes" and "No." At first, however, he had been excited, and he told them
+a great deal of his life with the tribe and along the pleasant country
+roads.</p>
+
+<p>The cities Roberto could not bear. "There is no breath left in them&mdash;it
+is used up by so many," he explained. He did not eschew work because he
+was lazy, it seemed; but he saw no use in it.</p>
+
+<p>Clothing? Money? Rich food? Other things that people strive for in the
+main? They were nothing to Roberto. He could sleep under a haystack,
+crunch a crust of bread, and wear his garments until they fell off him
+in rags.</p>
+
+<p>But he knew the woods and fields as nobody but a wild boy could. Every
+whistle and note of every bird was as familiar to him as his own
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_38" id="pg_38">38</a></span>
+Tzigane speech; and he could imitate them with exactness.</p>
+
+<p>He delighted his new friends, as the car rumbled along. He soon stopped
+talking much, as I have said, but he answered their multitude of
+questions, and did not seem to mind being cross-questioned about the
+life of the Gypsies.</p>
+
+<p>The auto party stopped soon after noon to lunch. It was Roberto who
+pointed out the spring of clear, cold water for which they searched. He
+had been over this road before and, it seemed, once along a trail was
+enough for the young Gypsy. He never forgot.</p>
+
+<p>He went away down the little stream, and made himself very clean before
+appearing for his share of the food. To the surprise of Ruth and Helen
+he ate daintily and showed breeding of a kind. Nor was he enamored of
+the cakes and other dainties that Babette, the Camerons' cook, had put
+into the lunch hamper, but enjoyed, instead, the more simple viands.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto grew restless of riding in the car soon after luncheon. He
+thanked them for giving him the lift, but explained that there were
+paths through the woods leading to the present camp of his tribe that he
+preferred to follow.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a mark of kindness for you to have brought me this way," he said,
+softly, bending over Ruth's hand, for he insisted upon considering
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_39" id="pg_39">39</a></span> her
+his hostess. He realized that, had it not been for her, the Camerons
+would have been chary of taking him aboard.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are ever near the Red Mill again," Ruth told him, "be sure to
+come and speak with Uncle Jabez. He will not forget you, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that&mdash;pooh!" exclaimed the Gypsy. "I do not want pay for such an
+act. Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>And that set Ruth Fielding to thinking a bit. Perhaps she <i>had</i> expected
+payment&mdash;of a kind&mdash;for her action in helping Uncle Jabez in the river.
+She had hoped he would more freely respond to her affection than he did.
+Ah! it is hard to do a good act and not secretly hope for some small
+return. "Virtue is its own reward" is a moral hard to understand!</p>
+
+<p>After Roberto had left them, the trio of friends were occupied in
+exchanging views regarding the Gypsy boy, and in discussing their
+several opinions as to what kind of people his folk really were.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be loads of fun to jog along the roads in those caravans, and
+camp where you please, and all that," said Helen, reflectively. "I
+believe I'd like it."</p>
+
+<p>"About twenty miles on a fast day, eh?" chuckled Tom, with scorn. "Not
+for me! When Gypsies get to riding in autos&mdash;and six-cylinder,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_40" id="pg_40">40</a></span>
+up-to-date ones, too&mdash;I'll join the first tribe that comes along."</p>
+
+<p>"I declare, Tommy!" laughed his sister, "you are getting to be a 'speed
+fiend.' Ruth and I will be scared to drive with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's great to go fast," exclaimed Master Tom. "Here's a straight piece
+of road ahead, girls. Hold on!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, he manipulated the levers and the car leaped ahead. Ruth's
+startled "Oh!" was left a quarter of a mile behind. The girls clung to
+the hand-holds, and Tom crouched behind the windshield and "let her
+out."</p>
+
+<p>It was a straight piece of road, as he had said. But before they reached
+the first turn there was another house beside the road&mdash;a small
+farmhouse. Beyond it was a field, with a stone wall, and it chanced that
+just as the Camerons' car roared down the road, clearing at least thirty
+miles an hour, the leader of a flock of sheep in that pasture, butted
+through a place in the stone-fence and started to cross the highway.</p>
+
+<p>One sheep would not have made much trouble; it would have been easy to
+dodge just one object. But here came a string of the woolly
+creatures&mdash;and greater fools than sheep have not been discovered in the
+animal world!</p>
+
+<p>The old black-faced ram trotted across the road and through a gap in a
+fence on the river
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_41" id="pg_41">41</a></span> side. After him crowded the ewes and youngsters.</p>
+
+<p>The roaring auto frightened the creatures, but they would not give way
+before it. They knew no better than to follow that old ram through the
+gap, one after the other.</p>
+
+<p>Tom had shut off the engine and applied the brakes, as the girls
+shrieked. But he had been going too fast to stop short of the place
+where the sheep were passing. At the end of the flock came a lamb,
+bleating and trying to keep up with its mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the lamb!" shrieked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out, Tom!" added Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>The lamb did not get across the road. The car struck it, and with a
+pitiful "baa-a-a!" it was knocked a dozen feet.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment the car stopped. It had scarcely run its entire length past
+the spot where the lamb was struck. The poor creature lay panting,
+"baa-aing" feebly, beside the road.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was out of the tonneau and kneeling beside the creature almost
+before the wheels ceased to roll. The mother ewe had crowded through the
+fence. Now she put her foolish face out, and called to the lamb to
+follow.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't!" almost sobbed Ruth. "He has a broken leg. Oh! what a foolish
+mother you were to lead him right into danger."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was silent and looked pretty solemn,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_42" id="pg_42">42</a></span> while Helen was scolding him
+nervously&mdash;although she knew that he was not really at fault.</p>
+
+<p>"If you hadn't been speeding, this wouldn't have happened, Tom Cameron!"
+she said. "I told you so."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right. You're a fine prophetess," grunted her brother. "Keep on
+rubbing it in."</p>
+
+<p>The lamb had tried to scramble up, but one of its forelegs certainly was
+broken. It tumbled over on its side again, and Ruth held it down
+tenderly and tried to soothe its fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! whatever shall we do?" she murmured. "The poor, poor little
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Guess we'll know pretty soon what we'll do," quoth Master Tom, standing
+beside the machine and looking back along the road. "Here comes the man
+that owns him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me!" whispered Helen. "Doesn't he look savage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than the old ram there," agreed her brother, for the black-faced
+leader of the flock was eyeing them through the fence.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_43" id="pg_43">43</a></span>
+<a name="A_TRANSACTION_IN_MUTTON_1256" id="A_TRANSACTION_IN_MUTTON_1256"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>A TRANSACTION IN MUTTON</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The man who approached was a fierce, red-faced individual, with long
+legs encased to the knees in cowhide boots, overalls, a checked shirt,
+and a whisp of yellow whisker under his chin that parted and waved, as
+he strode toward the auto party.</p>
+
+<p>His pale blue eyes were ablaze, and he had worked himself up into a
+towering rage. Like many farmers (and sometimes for cause), he had
+evidently sworn eternal feud against all automobilists!</p>
+
+<p>"What d'ye mean, runnin' inter my sheep?" he bawled. "I'll have the law
+on ye! I'll make ye pay for ev'ry sheep ye killed! I'll attach yer
+machine, by glory! I'll put ye all in jail! I'll&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You're going to have your hands full with all <i>that</i>, Mister,"
+interrupted Tom Cameron. "And you're excited more than is necessary.
+I'll pay for all the damage I've done&mdash;although there would have been
+none at all, had your sheep remained in their pasture. This is a county
+road, I take it."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_44" id="pg_44">44</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"By glory!" exclaimed the farmer, arriving at the spot at last. "This
+road was built for folks ter drive over decent. Nobody reckoned on
+locomotives, an' sich comin' this way, when 'twas built&mdash;no, sir-ree!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry," began Tom, but the man broke in:</p>
+
+<p>"Thet don't pay me none for havin' all my sheep made into mutton b'fore
+their time. By glory! I got an attic home full o' 'sorries.' Ye can't
+git out o' it thet way."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not trying to. I'll pay for any sheep I have hurt or killed," Tom
+said, unable to keep from grinning at the excited farmer.</p>
+
+<p>"And don't ye git sassy none, neither!" commanded the man. "I'm one o'
+the school trustees in this deestrict, an' the church clerk. I got some
+influence. I guess if I arrested ye right naow&mdash;an' these gals, too&mdash;the
+jestice of the peace would consider I done jest right."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" murmured Helen, clinging to Ruth's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't do it," whispered the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel sure, sir," said Tom, politely, "that it will be unnecessary for
+you to go to such lengths. I will pay satisfactory damages. There is the
+lamb we struck&mdash;and the only beast that is hurt."</p>
+
+<p>The man had given but one glance to the lamb that lay on the grass
+beside the girls. He did not look to be any too tender-hearted, and the
+little
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_45" id="pg_45">45</a></span> creature's accident did not touch him at all&mdash;save in the region
+of his pocketbook.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped to the gap in the fence, kicked the bleating ewe out of the
+way in a most brutal manner, and proceeded to count his flock. He had to
+do this twice before he was assured that none but the lamb was missing.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," Tom said, quietly, "I have turned only one of your sheep into
+mutton&mdash;for I suppose this lamb must be killed."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Tom!" cried Ruth, who was bending over the little creature
+again. "I am sure its leg will mend."</p>
+
+<p>The farmer snorted. "Don't want no crippled critters erbout. Ye'll
+hafter pay me full price for that lamb, boy&mdash;then I'll give it to the
+dogs. 'Tain't no good the way it is."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had tied the leg firmly with her own handkerchief&mdash;which was of
+practical size. "If we could put it in splints, and keep the lamb still,
+it would mend," she declared to Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you consider the thing worth, sir?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Four dollars," declared the farmer, promptly. It was not worth two,
+even at the present price of lamb, for the creature was neither big nor
+fat.</p>
+
+<p>"Here you are," said Tom, and thrust four one-dollar notes into his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>The man stared at them, and from them to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_46" id="pg_46">46</a></span> Tom. He really seemed
+disappointed. Perhaps he wished he had said more, when Tom did not
+haggle over the price.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, I'll take it along to the house then," said the farmer. "An' when
+ye come this road ag'in, young man, ye better go a leetle slow&mdash;yaas, a
+leetle slow!"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall&mdash;as long as you have gaps in your sheep pasture
+fence," returned Tom, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Git out'n the way, leetle gal," said the man, brushing Ruth aside.
+"I'll take him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The lamb struggled to get on its feet. The sudden appearance of the man
+frightened the animal.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop that!" cried Ruth. "You'll hurt the poor thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll knock him in the head, when I git to the chopping block," said the
+farmer, roughly. "Shucks! it's only a lamb."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you dare!" Ruth cried, standing in front of the quivering
+creature. "You are cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoity-toity!" cried the farmer. "I guess I kin do as I please with my
+own."</p>
+
+<p>Helen clung to Ruth's hand and tried to draw her away from the rough
+man. Even Tom hesitated to arouse the farmer's wrath further. But the
+girl from the Red Mill stamped her foot and refused to move.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_47" id="pg_47">47</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you dare touch it!" she exclaimed. "It isn't your lamb."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" he demanded, and then broke into a hoarse laugh. "Thet
+thar's a good one! I raised thet lamb&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And we have just bought it&mdash;paid you your own price for it," cried
+Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Crickey! that's so, Ruthie," Tom Cameron interposed. "Of course he
+doesn't own it. If you want the poor thing, we'll take it along to Fred
+Larkin's place."</p>
+
+<p>"Say!" exclaimed the farmer. "What does this mean? I didn't sell ye the
+carcass of thet thar lamb; I only got damages&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You sold it. You know you did," Ruth declared, firmly. "I dare you to
+touch the poor little thing. It is ours&mdash;and I know its life can be
+saved."</p>
+
+<p>"Pick it right up, girls, and come on," advised Tom, starting his
+engine. "We have the rights of it, and if he interferes, we'll just run
+on to the next town and bring a constable back with us. I guess we can
+call upon the authorities, too. What's sauce for the goose, ought to be
+sauce for the gander."</p>
+
+<p>The man was stammering some very impolite words, and Tom was anxious to
+get his sister and Ruth away. The girls lifted the lamb in upon the back
+seat and laid it tenderly upon some
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_48" id="pg_48">48</a></span> wraps. Then the boy leaped into the
+front seat and prepared to start.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell ye what it is!" exclaimed the farmer, coming close to the car.
+"This ain't no better than highway robbery. I never expected ter have ye
+take the carcass away, when I told ye sich a low price&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have paid its full value, and you don't own a thread of its wool,
+Mister," said Tom, feeling the engine throb under him now. "I'm going to
+start&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You wait! I ain't got through with you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Just then the car started. The man had been holding to the end of the
+seat. He foolishly tried to continue his hold.</p>
+
+<p>The car sprang ahead suddenly, the farmer was swung around like a top,
+and the last they saw of him he was sitting in the middle of the dusty
+road, shaking both fists after the car, and yelling at the top of his
+voice. Just what he said, it was perhaps better that they did not hear!</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't he a mean old thing?" cried Tom, when the car was purring along
+steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"And wasn't Ruth smart to see that he had no right to this poor little
+sheep?" said Helen, admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"What you going to do with it, Ruthie?" demanded Tom, glancing back at
+the lamb. "Going
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_49" id="pg_49">49</a></span> to sell it to a butcher in Littletop? That's where
+Fred Larkin's folk live, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Sell it to a butcher!" exclaimed Ruth, in scorn. "That's what the
+farmer would have done&mdash;butchered it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the fate of most sheep to be turned into mutton," returned Tom,
+his eyes twinkling.</p>
+
+<p>"And then the mutton is turned into boys and girls," laughed Ruth. "But
+if I have my way, this little fellow will never become either a Cameron,
+or a Fielding."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I wouldn't want to eat him&mdash;after seeing him hurt," cried Helen.
+"Isn't he cunning? See! he knows we are going to be good to him."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he knows it," her chum replied. "After all, it doesn't take much
+to assure domestic animals of our good intentions toward them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Tom, grinning, "I promise not to eat this lamb, if you make
+a point of it, but if I don't get something to eat pretty soon, I assure
+you he'll be in grave danger!"</p>
+
+<p>They made Littletop and the Larkins' residence before Tom became too
+ravenous, however; and the younger members of the Larkin family welcomed
+the adventurers&mdash;including the lamb&mdash;with enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>Fred Larkin had some little aptitude for medicine and surgery&mdash;so they
+all said, at least&mdash;and he set the broken leg and put splints upon it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_50" id="pg_50">50</a></span>
+Then they put the little creature in one of the calf pens, fed it
+liberally, and Fred declared that in ten days it would be well enough to
+hop around.</p>
+
+<p>The little Larkin folk were delighted with the lamb for a pet, so Ruth
+knew that she could safely trust her prot&eacute;g&eacute; to them.</p>
+
+<p>There was great fun that night, for the neighboring young folk were
+invited to meet the trio from Cheslow and the Red Mill, and it was
+midnight before the girls and boys were still. Therefore, there was no
+early start made for the second day's run.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was late, and it was half-past nine before Tom started the
+car, and they left Littletop amid the cheers and good wishes of their
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>"We must hustle, if we want to get to Uncle Ike's before dark," Tom
+declared. "So you will have to stand for some scorching, girls."</p>
+
+<p>"See that you don't kill anything&mdash;or even maim it," advised his sister.
+"You are out four dollars for damages already."</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind. I reckon you girls won't care to be marooned along some
+of these wild roads all night."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor to travel over them by night, either," advised Ruth. "My! we
+haven't seen a house for ten miles."</p>
+
+<p>"It's somewhere up this way that those Gypsy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_51" id="pg_51">51</a></span> friends of Roberto are
+encamped&mdash;as near as I could make out," Tom remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"My! I wouldn't like to meet them," his sister said.</p>
+
+<p>"They wouldn't hurt us&mdash;at least, Roberto didn't," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right. But Gypsies <i>do</i> carry off people&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And eat them?" scoffed Tom. "How silly, Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Smartie! they might hold us for ransom."</p>
+
+<p>"Like regular brigands, eh?" returned Tom, lightly. "That <i>would</i> be an
+adventure worth chronicling."</p>
+
+<p>"You can laugh&mdash;&mdash;Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>As she was speaking, Helen saw a head thrust out of the bushes not far
+along the road they traveled.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" demanded Ruth, seizing her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Look there!" But the car was past the spot in a moment. "Somebody was
+watching us, and dodged back," declared Helen, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense!" laughed her brother.</p>
+
+<p>But before they took the next turn they looked back and saw two men
+standing in the road, talking. They were rough-looking fellows.</p>
+
+<p>"Gypsies!" cried Helen.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_52" id="pg_52">52</a></span></p>
+
+<p>However, they saw nobody else for a few miles. Now they were skirting
+one of the lakes in the upper chain, some miles above the gorge where
+the dam was built, and the scenery was both beautiful and rugged. There
+were few farms.</p>
+
+<p>On a rising stretch of road, the engine began to miss, and something
+rattled painfully in the "internal arrangements" of the car. Tom looked
+serious, stopped several times, and just coaxed her slowly to the summit
+of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>"Now don't tell us that we're going to have a breakdown!" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think those are thunder-heads hanging over the mountain?" asked
+Ruth, seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure of it!" responded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a regular 'calamity howler'!" exclaimed Tom. "By Jove! this old
+mill <i>is</i> going to kick up rusty."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a house!" cried Ruth, gaily, standing up in the back to look
+ahead. "Now we're all right if the machine has to be repaired, or a
+storm bursts upon us."</p>
+
+<p>But when the car limped up and stopped in the sandy road before the
+sagging gate, the trio saw that their refuge was a windowless and
+abandoned structure that looked as gaunt and ghostly as a
+lightning-riven tree!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_53" id="pg_53">53</a></span>
+<a name="FELLOW_TRAVELERS_1549" id="FELLOW_TRAVELERS_1549"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>FELLOW TRAVELERS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Well! this is a pretty pickle!" groaned Tom, at last as much disturbed
+as Helen had been. "It's no use, girls. We'll have to stop here till the
+storm is over. It is coming."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that will be fun!" cried Ruth, cheerfully. "Of course we ought to
+be storm-bound in a deserted house. That is according to all romantic
+precedent."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! you and your precedent!" grumbled her chum. "I'd rather it was a
+nice roadside hotel, or tearoom. That would be something like."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on! we'll take in the hamper, and make tea on the deserted
+hearthstone," said Ruth. "Tom can stay out here and repair his old
+auto."</p>
+
+<p>"Tom will find a shelter for the machine first, I reckon. There! hear
+the thunder? We are going to get it, and I must raise the hood of the
+tonneau, too," proclaimed the lad. "Go on with your hamper and wraps. I
+see sheds back there, and I'll try to coax the old Juggernaut into that
+lane and so to the sheds."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_54" id="pg_54">54</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He did as he proposed during the next few minutes, while the girls
+approached the deserted dwelling, with the hamper. The lower front
+windows were boarded, and the door closed. But the door giving entrance
+from the side porch was ajar.</p>
+
+<p>"'Leave all hope behind, ye who enter here,'" quoted Helen, peering into
+the dusky interior. "It looks powerful ghostly, Ruthie."</p>
+
+<p>"There are plenty of windows out, so we'll have light enough," returned
+the girl of the Red Mill. "Don't be a 'fraid cat,' Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," grumbled her chum. "You're only making a bluff
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth laughed. She was not bothered by fears of the supernatural, no
+matter what the old house was, or had been. Now, a good-sized rat might
+have made her shriek and run!</p>
+
+<p>Into the house stepped Ruth Fielding, in her very bravest manner. The
+hall was dark, but the door into a room at the left&mdash;toward the back of
+the house&mdash;was open and through this doorway she ventured, the old,
+rough boards of the floor creaking beneath her feet.</p>
+
+<p>This apartment must have been the dining-room. There was a high, ornate,
+altogether ugly mantle and open fireplace at one end of the room. At the
+other, there stood, fastened to the wall, or built into it, a china
+closet, the doors of which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_55" id="pg_55">55</a></span> had been removed. These ugly, shallow
+caverns gaped at them and promised refuge to spiders and mice. On the
+hearth was a heap of crusted gray ashes.</p>
+
+<p>"What a lonesome, eerie sort of a place," shivered Helen. "Wish the old
+car had kept running&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Through the rain?" suggested Ruth, pointing outside, where the air was
+already gray with approaching moisture.</p>
+
+<p>Down from the higher hills the storm was sweeping. They could smell it,
+for the wind leaped in at the broken windows and rustled the shreds of
+paper still clinging to the walls of the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't a fit place to eat in," grumbled Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go above stairs. Carry that alcohol stove carefully, dear. We'll
+have a nice cup of tea, even if it does&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" shrieked Helen, as a long streak of lightning flew across their
+line of vision.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Even in spite of <i>that</i>," repeated Ruth, smiling, and raising her
+voice that she might be heard above the cannonade of thunder.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like it, I tell you!" declared her chum.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that I do myself, but I do not see how we are to help it."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_56" id="pg_56">56</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I wish Tom was inside here, too."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had glanced through the window and seen that Master Tom had managed
+to get the auto under a shed at the back. He was industriously putting
+up the curtains to the car, and making all snug against the rain, before
+he began to tinker with the machinery.</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint drumming in the air&mdash;the sound of rain coming down the
+mountain side, beating its "charge" upon the leaves as it came. There
+were no other sounds, for the birds and insects had sought shelter
+before the wrathful face of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>Yes! there was one other. The girls had not heard it until they began
+climbing the stairs out of the side entry. Helen clutched Ruth suddenly
+by the skirt.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear that!" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Say it out loud, dear, do!" exclaimed the girl of the Red Mill. "There
+is never anything so nerve-shaking as a stage whisper."</p>
+
+<p>"There! you heard it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The wind rustling something," said Ruth, attempting to go on.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Something squeaks&mdash;mice, I do believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Mice would starve to death here," declared Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"How smart of you! That is right," agreed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_57" id="pg_57">57</a></span> Ruth. "Come on. Let us see
+what it is&mdash;if it's upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>Helen clung close to her and trembled. There was the rustling, squeaking
+sound again. Ruth pushed on (secretly feeling rather staggered by the
+strange noise), and they entered one of the larger upper chambers.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately she saw an open stovepipe hole in the chimney. "The noise
+comes from that," she declared, setting down the basket and pointing.</p>
+
+<p>"But what is it?" wailed her frightened chum.</p>
+
+<p>"The wind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!"</p>
+
+<p>The lightning flashed again, and the thunder rolled nearer. Helen
+screamed, crouched down upon the floor, and covered her ears, squeezing
+her eyelids tight shut too.</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadful! dreadful!" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Still the silence outside between the reports of thunder; but the
+rustling in the chimney continued. Ruth looked around, found a piece of
+broken window-sash on the floor, and approached the open pipe-hole.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's for stirring up Mr. Ghost," she said, in a much braver tone than
+she secretly felt.</p>
+
+<p>She always felt her responsibility with Helen. The latter was of a
+nervous, imaginary temperament, and it was never well for her to get
+herself worked up in this way.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_58" id="pg_58">58</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruth! Don't! Suppose it bites you!" gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>At that Ruth <i>did</i> laugh. "Whoever heard of a ghost with teeth?" she
+demanded, and instantly thrust the stick into the gaping hole.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir&mdash;a flutter&mdash;a squeaking&mdash;and out flopped a brown object
+about the size of a mouse. Helen shrieked again, and even Ruth darted
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"A mouse!" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Right&mdash;<i>a flittermouse</i>!" agreed Ruth, suddenly bursting into a laugh.
+"The chimney's full of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let's get out!"</p>
+
+<p>"In this rain?" and Ruth pointed to the window, where now the drops were
+falling, big and fast&mdash;the vanguard of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>"But if a bat gets into your hair!" moaned Helen, rocking herself on her
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth opened the big hamper, seized a newspaper, and swooped down upon
+the blind, fluttering brown bat. Seizing it as she would a spider, she
+ran to the window and flung it out, just as the water burst into the
+room in a flood.</p>
+
+<p>Then she ran to the pipe-hole and thrust the paper into it, making a
+"stopper" which would not easily fall out. She dragged Helen to the
+other side of the room, where the floor was dry and they were out of the
+draught.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_59" id="pg_59">59</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There the two girls cowered for some moments, hugged close together,
+Helen hiding her eyes from the intermittent lightning against Ruth's
+jacket. The thunder roared overhead, and the rain dashed down in
+torrents. For ten minutes it was as hard a storm as the girl of the Red
+Mill ever remembered seeing. Such tempests in the hills are not
+infrequent.</p>
+
+<p>When the thunder began to roll away into the distance, and the lightning
+was less brilliant, the girls could take some notice of what else went
+on. The fierce drumming of the rain continued, but there seemed to be a
+noise in the lower part of the building.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom has come in," said Helen, with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have gotten awfully wet, then, getting here from that shed,"
+Ruth returned. "Hush!"</p>
+
+<p>Somebody sneezed heavily. Helen opened her mouth to cry out, but Ruth
+put her palm upon her lips, effectually smothing the cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" the girl of the Red Mill admonished. "Let him find us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that will be fun," agreed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not look at her. She listened intently. There was a heavy,
+scraping foot upon the floor below. To <i>her</i> mind, it did not sound like
+Tom at all.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_60" id="pg_60">60</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She held Helen warningly by the wrist and they continued to strain their
+ears for some minutes. Then an odor reached them which Ruth was sure did
+not denote Tom's presence in the room below. It was the smell of strong
+tobacco smoked in an ancient pipe!</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" sniffed Helen, whisperingly.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez smoked a strong pipe and Ruth could not be mistaken as to
+the nature of this one. She remembered the two men who had hidden in the
+bushes as the car rolled by, not many miles back on this road.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's shout for Tom and bring him in here," Helen suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps get him into trouble? Let's try and find out, first, what sort
+of people they are," objected Ruth, for they now heard talking and knew
+that there were at least two visitors below.</p>
+
+<p>Rising quietly, Ruth crept on tiptoe to the head of the stair. The
+drumming rain helped smother any sound she might have made.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, stair by stair, Ruth Fielding let herself down until she could
+see into the open doorway of the dining room. Two men were squatting on
+the hearth, both smoking assiduously.</p>
+
+<p>They were rough looking, unlovely fellows, and the growl of their voices
+did not impress Ruth as being of a quality to inspire confidence.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_61" id="pg_61">61</a></span>
+<a name="WHAT_WAS_IT_ALL_ABOUT_1786" id="WHAT_WAS_IT_ALL_ABOUT_1786"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The two men were mumbling together&mdash;Ruth could not catch the words at
+first. When she did, they meant nothing to her, and she was puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly one said in clear, if peculiar, English:</p>
+
+<p>"The old hag bags the best of the loot&mdash;always, my Carlo."</p>
+
+<p>The other replied, still gruffly, yet in a musical language that Ruth
+could not identify; yet somehow she was reminded of Roberto. He, the
+Gypsy lad, had formed his English sentences much as this ruffian had
+formed his phrase. Were these two of Roberto's tribesmen?</p>
+
+<p>"I like it not&mdash;I like it not!" the other burst out again, in anger.
+"Why should she govern? It is an iron rod in a trembling hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Psst!" snapped the other. "You respect neither age nor wisdom." He now
+spoke in English, but later he relapsed into the Tzigane tongue. Helen
+crept down to Ruth's side and listened, too; but it was little the girls
+understood.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_62" id="pg_62">62</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The angry ruffian&mdash;the complaining one&mdash;dropped more words in English
+now and then, like: "We risk all&mdash;she nothing." "There were the pearls,
+my Carlo&mdash;ah! beautiful! beautiful! Does she not seize them as her own?"
+"I put my neck in a noose no longer for any man but myself&mdash;surely not
+for a woman!"</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that the man Carlo burst into a tirade in his native speech,
+and under cover of his loud talk Ruth motioned her chum to creep back up
+the stairway, and she followed.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden disquieting thought came to her. The rain was growing less.
+Suppose Tom should come abruptly into the house? He might get into
+trouble with these ruffians.</p>
+
+<p>She whispered this thought to Helen, and her friend was panic-stricken
+again. "We must warn Tom&mdash;oh, we <i>must</i> warn him somehow!" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely we will," declared the girl from the Red Mill. "Now, careful how
+you step. A creaking board might give us away."</p>
+
+<p>They crept across the upper chamber to the rear of the house. Through
+another room they went, until they could look out of a broken window
+upon the sheds. There was Master Tom standing before the shed (the
+machine was hidden), wiping his hands upon a piece of waste, and looking
+out upon the falling rain.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_63" id="pg_63">63</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He saw the girls almost instantly, and opened his mouth to shout to
+them, but Ruth clapped her own hand to her lips and motioned with the
+other for him to be silent. Tom understood.</p>
+
+<p>He looked more than surprised&mdash;not a little startled, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>"What will he think?" murmured Helen. "He's so reckless!"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave it to me," declared Ruth, leaning out of the window into the
+still falling rain.</p>
+
+<p>She caught the boy's eye. He watched her motions. There was built at
+this end of the house an outside stairway, and although it was in bad
+repair, she saw that an agile fellow like Tom could mount the steps
+without any difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Pointing to this flight, she motioned him to come by that means to their
+level, still warning him by gesture to make no sound. The boy understood
+and immediately darted across the intervening space to the house.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth knew there was no dining-room window from which the ruffians
+downstairs could see him. And they had made no move as far as she had
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>She left Helen to meet Tom when he came in through the sagging door at
+the top of the outside flight of stairs, and tiptoed back into that room
+where they had been frightened by the bat.</p>
+
+<p>It was directly over the dining-room. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_64" id="pg_64">64</a></span> same chimney was built into
+each room. This thought gave Ruth's active mind food for further
+reflection.</p>
+
+<p>The rumble of the men's voices continued from below. Tom and Helen
+followed her so softly into the room that Ruth did not hear them until
+they stood beside her. Tom touched her arm and pointed downward:</p>
+
+<p>"Tramps?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Those Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth, in return.</p>
+
+<p>Helen was just as scared as she could be, and clung tightly to Tom's
+hand. "Wish we could scare them away," suggested the boy, with knitted
+brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we can!" uttered Ruth, suddenly eager, and her brown eyes
+dancing. "Sh! Wait! Let me try."</p>
+
+<p>She went to the paper-stuffed stovepipe hole, out of which the bat had
+fallen. Helen would have exclaimed aloud, had not Tom seen her lips open
+and squeezed her hand warningly.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" he hissed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't! don't!" begged Helen. "You'll let those bats all out here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bats?" queried Tom, in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"In the chimney," whispered Ruth. "Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>The stir and squeaking of the bats were audible. Enough rain had come in
+at the top of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_65" id="pg_65">65</a></span> broken chimney to disturb the nocturnal creatures.</p>
+
+<p>"Just the thing!" giggled Tom, seeing what Ruth would do. "Frighten them
+to pieces!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl of the Red Mill had secured the stick she used before. She
+pulled aside the "stopper" of newspaper and thrust in the stick. At once
+the rustling and squeaking increased.</p>
+
+<p>She worked the stick up and down insistently. Scale from the inside of
+the chimney began to rattle down to the hearth below. The voices ceased.
+Then the men were heard to scramble up.</p>
+
+<p>The bats were dislodged&mdash;perhaps many of them! There was a scuffling and
+scratching inside the flue.</p>
+
+<p>Below, the men broke out into loud cries. They shouted their alarm in
+the strange language the girls had heard before. Then their feet stamped
+over the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Tom ran lightly to the window. He saw a bat wheel out of the window
+below, and disappear. The rain had almost stopped.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that many of the creatures were flapping about that
+deserted dining-room. The two ruffians scrambled to the door, through
+the entry, and out upon the porch.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of their feet did not hold upon the porch. They leaped down
+the steps, and Tom beckoned the girls eagerly to join him at the window.
+The two men were racing down the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_66" id="pg_66">66</a></span> lane toward the muddy highroad, paying
+little attention to their steps or to the last of the rainstorm.</p>
+
+<p>"Panic-stricken, sure enough! Smart girl, Ruthie," was Master Tom's
+comment. "Now tell a fellow all about it."</p>
+
+<p>The girls did so, while Ruth lit the alcohol lamp and made the tea. Tom
+was ravenous&mdash;nothing could spoil that boy's appetite.</p>
+
+<p>"Gyps., sure enough," was his comment. "But what you heard them say
+wasn't much."</p>
+
+<p>"They'd been robbing somebody&mdash;or were going to rob," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "What frightful men they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! they've gone now, and the old machine is fixed. We'll plow on
+through the mud as soon as you like."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be glad, when we get to civilization again," said his sister.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'd like very much to understand what those men were talking
+about," Ruth observed. "Do you suppose Roberto knows about it?
+Pearls&mdash;beautiful pearls, that fellow spoke of."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you they are thieves!" declared Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll probably never know," Tom said, confidently. "So let's not
+worry!"</p>
+
+<p>Master Tom did not prove a good prophet on this point, although he had
+foreseen the breaking down of the automobile before they started from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_67" id="pg_67">67</a></span>
+the Red Mill. They went back to the car and started from the old house
+in a much more cheerful mood, neither of the girls supposing that they
+were likely to run across the Gypsy men again.</p>
+
+<p>"We must hustle to make Uncle Ike's to-night, sure enough," Tom said, as
+the car rolled out into the muddy highway.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it very far yet?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"More than sixty miles, and a bad road, and it is now half-past five,"
+replied the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my! I hope we'll not be delayed after dark," said his sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew you to be such a 'fraid-cat before, Helen," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything's gone wrong to-day. And those awful men scared me. Let's
+stop at the hotel at Bois&eacute; Landing, if it grows dark. Uncle Ike's is a
+long way beyond the town, Tom."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure&mdash;if you say so," agreed her brother, cheerfully. "I can send word
+up to the folks that we are all right. Of course, they will be expecting
+us this evening. I telegraphed them this morning that we were on the
+way."</p>
+
+<p>The car plowed on through the mud. These roads were in very bad shape,
+and even while it had been dry, the traveling was bad enough. Now the
+wheels skidded and slipped, and the engine panted as though it were
+tired.</p>
+
+<p>It missed explosions frequently, too, and Tom
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_68" id="pg_68">68</a></span> sat under the wheel with
+a very serious face indeed. It was not far to a small settlement called,
+on the map, Severn Corners. Tom knew he could get gas there, if he
+needed it, but he was not sure that there was a repair shop at the
+place. If the old machine played a trick on them again&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And it did! Right at the foot of a hill, and not far from the shore of
+Long Lake, the engine "died."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever shall we do?" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"No use wrangling about it," said Ruth, with a laugh. "Will we have to
+walk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Walk! and carry the ropes and everything else of value?" demanded
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't leave the machine unprotected," said Tom, seriously. "No
+knowing what would happen to it. But it's not far to Severn Corners.
+Only two miles, or so."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I tell you," said Ruth, briskly. "You walk on, Tom, and get help.
+Bring back a team to drag the auto into town. Perhaps you'll find a farm
+before you go far. We'll remain here till you come back."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what you'll have to do, Tommy," agreed his sister, as the boy
+hesitated. "Of course, I'm only fooling. I won't be afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best, girls," Tom assured them. "I am sure you'll be
+perfectly safe," and Master Tom started off along the road at a quick
+trot.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_69" id="pg_69">69</a></span>
+<a name="QUEEN_ZELAYA_2024" id="QUEEN_ZELAYA_2024"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>QUEEN ZELAYA</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth and her chum were both a little troubled by Tom Cameron's
+departure, but even Helen had braced up and was determined not to show
+her fear. The situation of the girls in the auto on this lonely road was
+enough to trouble the mind of any person unfamiliar with the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>The shore of Long Lake (which they could see from their seats in the
+car) was as wild as any stretch of country through which they had
+traveled during the two days of the tour.</p>
+
+<p>The stalled auto was on the main-traveled road, however, and there was a
+chance of somebody coming along. Ruth and Helen hoped that if this
+happened, it would be somebody who would remain with them until Tom's
+return.</p>
+
+<p>Both kept this wish a secret, for each tried to cheer the other.
+Perhaps, had it not been for that adventure at the old house shortly
+before, neither girl would have felt so nervous.</p>
+
+<p>The outlook from the stalled auto was very attractive, if wild. They
+could overlook a considerable
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_70" id="pg_70">70</a></span> part of Long Lake, a stretch of its
+distant southern shore, and several islands.</p>
+
+<p>The edge of the water was perhaps half a mile away, and the ground
+sloped abruptly from this road toward the lake. Following the very edge
+of the water was another road, but one which the girls knew nothing
+about and could scarcely see from the auto.</p>
+
+<p>It was merely a brown ribbon of cart-path through the second-growth
+timber, and it wound along the hillside, sometimes approaching very
+close to the main highway. Before the county had built the better road,
+this path had been the trail to Bois&eacute; Landing.</p>
+
+<p>Had the girls been looking that way, they might have seen, through a
+small break in the trees, some minutes after Tom left them, a string of
+odd-looking wagons moving slowly along this lower trail.</p>
+
+<p>First two men walked ahead, smoking their pipes and plowing through the
+mud and water without regard to where they stepped. Then followed three
+freshly painted green wagons&mdash;vehicles something like old-fashioned
+omnibuses, but with windows in the sides and front, and a door and steps
+behind. Through the roof of one a stovepipe was thrust.</p>
+
+<p>Behind followed a troop of horses, with two bare-legged, wild-looking
+youngsters astride each
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_71" id="pg_71">71</a></span> a barebacked steed, and holding the others with
+leading-reins. These horses, as well as those drawing the wagons, were
+sleek and well curried.</p>
+
+<p>A multitude of dogs ran in the mud and water, too, but there were no
+women and children about, save upon the front seats of each van with the
+drivers. Sounds from within the green vehicles, however, proclaimed the
+presence of a number of others.</p>
+
+<p>They were a strange-looking people&mdash;all swarthy, dark-haired,
+red-lipped, men and women alike having their ears pierced. The rings in
+the lobes of the women's ears were much larger than the ornaments in
+those of the men.</p>
+
+<p>At a certain opening in the shrubbery, the men ahead, looking upward,
+beheld the stalled auto and the two girls in it. One man held up his
+hand and the first wagon stopped. So did the remainder of the caravan.</p>
+
+<p>The two spoke together, and then strode back to the first green van. The
+window behind the driver's seat was already open and a strange face
+appeared at it.</p>
+
+<p>The man driving this van was young and rather handsome&mdash;in the same wild
+way that Roberto was handsome. Beside him sat a comely young woman,
+buxom of figure, with a child in her lap. Her head was encircled with a
+yellow silk kerchief, she wore a green, tight-fitting bodice, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_72" id="pg_72">72</a></span> her
+short skirt was of a peculiar purple. She wore black stockings and neat
+black pumps on her feet.</p>
+
+<p>Between these two on the seat, from the open window, was thrust the
+wicked, haggard head of a woman who might have been a hundred from the
+network of wrinkles in her face, and her generally aged appearance. But
+her eyes&mdash;black as sloes&mdash;were as sharp as a bird's. Her lips were gray,
+thin, and drew back when she spoke, displaying several strong, yellow
+fangs rather than teeth!</p>
+
+<p>When she spoke, it was with a hissing sound. She used the speech of the
+Gypsy folk, and the others&mdash;even the rough men in the road&mdash;were very
+respectful to her. They explained the stoppage of the caravan, and
+pointed out the auto and the girls above.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that one of the men had suggested something which pleased
+the hag, in regard to the strangers in the motor-car. She grinned
+suddenly, displaying gums and fangs in a most horrible grimace.</p>
+
+<p>Nodding vigorously, she gave them some commands, and then spoke to the
+comely woman beside the driver. The latter passed the sleeping infant
+back to the old woman, who disappeared into the interior of the van. The
+younger woman leaped down into the road, and waiting beside
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_73" id="pg_73">73</a></span> the two
+rough men, allowed the entire caravan to pass on, leaving them behind.</p>
+
+<p>It was fast growing dark. The sun had disappeared behind the hills in
+the west, and long shadows were stretching their gaunt hands out for the
+girls in the auto. The chill wind which came after the tempest made them
+shiver, although they were somewhat sheltered by the curtains which Tom
+had arranged.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we <i>could</i> snuggle down here with the robes, in the tonneau,
+and spend the night in some comfort," suggested Ruth Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! don't mention it!" exclaimed her friend. "If Tom doesn't come back
+with a team, or with another auto, I'll never forgive him."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will return. But he may be delayed, Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"This auto-touring isn't as much fun as I thought it would be," groaned
+Helen Cameron. "Oh! what's that?"</p>
+
+<p>She peered out of the automobile. There was a handsome, smiling, dark
+young woman standing in the road beside the car.</p>
+
+<p>"Young ladies," said the stranger, in a pleasant voice, "are you in
+trouble? Can I help you at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness me! do you live near here? Can we go home with you?" cried
+Helen, in excitement.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_74" id="pg_74">74</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" breathed Ruth, seizing her chum's arm, but Helen was too anxious
+to escape from her present situation to listen to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"For if you'll take us in till my brother gets back from Severn
+Corners&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We are going to Severn Corners&mdash;my husband and I," said the woman,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! then you do not live near here?" cried Helen, in disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody lives near here, little lady," explained the stranger. "Nobody
+lives nearer than Severn Corners. But it is lonesome here. We will take
+you both on in our wagon&mdash;nobody shall hurt you. There is only my
+husband and baby and the old grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your wagon?" demanded Ruth, suddenly hopping out into the road
+and looking all about.</p>
+
+<p>"Down yonder," said the woman, pointing below. "We follow the lower
+road. Just there. You can see the top of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! A bus! It's like Uncle Noah's," declared Helen, referring to the
+ancient vehicle much patronized by the girls at Briarwood Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" demanded Ruth, again, with keen suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"We are pedlars. We are good folks," laughed the woman. She did, indeed,
+seem very pleasant, and even Ruth's suspicions were allayed.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_75" id="pg_75">75</a></span> Besides,
+it was fast growing dark, and there was no sign of Tom on the hilltop
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go on with them," begged Helen, seizing her chum's hand. "I am
+afraid to stay here any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"But Tom will not know where we have gone," objected Ruth, feebly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll write him a note and leave it pinned to the seat."</p>
+
+<p>She proceeded to do this, while Ruth lit the auto lamps so that neither
+Tom, on his return, or anybody else, would run into the car in the dark.
+Then they were ready to go with the woman, removing only their personal
+wraps and bags. They would have to risk having the touring car stripped
+by thieves before Tom Cameron came back.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe there are any thieves around here," whispered Helen.
+"They would be scared to death in such a lonesome place!" she added,
+with a giggle.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth felt some doubt about going with the woman. She was so dark and
+foreign looking. Yet she seemed desirous of doing the girls a service.
+And even she, Ruth, did not wish to stay longer on the lonely road.
+Something surely had happened to detain Tom.</p>
+
+<p>In the south, too, "heat lightning" played sharply&mdash;and almost
+continuously. Ruth knew
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_76" id="pg_76">76</a></span> that this meant the tempest was raging at a
+distance and that it might return to this side of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of being marooned on this mountain road, at night, in such a
+storm as that which they had experienced two or three hours before, was
+more than Ruth Fielding could endure with calmness.</p>
+
+<p>So she agreed to go with the woman. Tom would know where they had gone
+when he returned, for he could not miss the note his sister had left.</p>
+
+<p>At least, that is what both girls believed. Only, they were scarcely out
+of sight of the car with the woman, when one of the rough-looking men,
+who had walked ahead of the Gypsy caravan, appeared from the bushes,
+stepped into the auto, tore the note from where it had been pinned, and
+at once slipped back into the shadows, with the crumpled paper in his
+pocket!</p>
+
+<p>Now the girls and their guide were down on the lower road. There was a
+twinkling light that showed the green van, horses, and the handsome
+driver&mdash;and the man looked like Roberto.</p>
+
+<p>"They are Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you have Gypsies on the brain," flung back her chum. "At least, we
+shall be dry in that bus, if it rains. And we can find somebody
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_77" id="pg_77">77</a></span> at
+Severn Corners to put us up, even if there is no hotel."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth sighed, and agreed. The woman had been speaking to the man on the
+seat. Now she took the lantern and went around to the back of the van.</p>
+
+<p>"This way, little ladies," she said, in her most winning tone. "You may
+rest in comfort inside here. Nobody but the good old grandmother and my
+b&eacute;b&eacute;."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on!" said Helen to Ruth, leading the way.</p>
+
+<p>There was a light in the interior and it dazzled the girls' eyes, as
+they climbed in. The door snapped to behind them, and the horses started
+along the road before either Ruth or Helen were able to see much of
+their surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>And strange enough their surroundings were; berths on either side of the
+strange cart, made up for sleeping and covered with gay quilts. There
+were chests and boxes, some of them padlocked, and all with cushions on
+them for seats.</p>
+
+<p>There was a table, and a hanging lamp, and a stove. A child was asleep
+in one of the bunks; a white-haired poodle lay crouched at the child's
+feet, and showed its teeth and snarled at the two visitors.</p>
+
+<p>But the appearance that amazed&mdash;and really startled&mdash;the girls most was
+the figure that sat
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_78" id="pg_78">78</a></span> facing them, as they entered the van. It was that
+of an old, old crone, sitting on a stool, bent forward with her sharp
+chin resting on her clenched fists, and her elbows on her knees, while
+iron-gray elf-locks hung about her wrinkled, nut-brown face, half
+screening it.</p>
+
+<p>Her bead-like eyes held the girls entranced from the first. Ruth and
+Helen looked at each other, startled and amazed, but they could not
+speak. Nor could they keep their gaze for long off the strange old
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you, little ladies?" croaked the hag at last.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth became the spokesman. "We are two girls who have been motoring over
+the hills. Our motor-car broke down, and we were left alone while my
+friend's brother went for help. We grew fearful when it became dark&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The gray lips opened again: "You own the motor-car, little ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>"My friend's father owns it," said Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Then your parents are wealthy," and the fangs suddenly displayed
+themselves in a dreadful smile. "It is fine to be rich. The poor Gypsy
+scarcely knows where to lay her head, but you little ladies have great
+houses and much money&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gypsy!" gasped Helen, seizing Ruth's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth felt a sinking at her own heart. All the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_79" id="pg_79">79</a></span> stories she had ever
+heard of these strange, wandering tribes rushed in upon her mind again.
+She had not been afraid of Roberto, and the woman who had brought them
+to the van seemed kind enough. But this old hag&mdash;&mdash;!</p>
+
+<p>"Do not shrink from the old Romany woman," advised the hag, her eyes
+sparkling again. "She would not hurt the little ladies. She is a queen
+among her people&mdash;what she says is law to them. Do not fear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see no reason why we should be afraid of you," Ruth said, trying
+to speak in an unshaken voice. "I think you all mean us kindly, and we
+are thankful for this lift to Severn Corners."</p>
+
+<p>Something like a cackle broke from the hag's throat. "Queen Zelaya will
+let nothing befall you, little ladies," she declared. "Fear not. Her
+word is law among the Romany folk, poor as she may be. And now tell me,
+my little birds,&mdash;tell me of your riches, and your great houses, and all
+the wealth your parents have. I love to hear of such things&mdash;even I,
+poor Zelaya, who have nothing after a long, long life of toil."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_80" id="pg_80">80</a></span>
+<a name="IN_THE_GYPSY_CAMP_2308" id="IN_THE_GYPSY_CAMP_2308"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>IN THE GYPSY CAMP</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth remembered what Roberto had said about his miserly grandmother. She
+believed these people who had offered her and Helen a ride were of the
+same tribe as Roberto, and the way Queen Zelaya spoke, caused the girl
+to believe that this old woman and Roberto's grandmother were one and
+the same person.</p>
+
+<p>She could say nothing to Helen at the moment. Personally she felt more
+afraid of this Gypsy Queen than she had of the two rough men in the
+abandoned house that afternoon!</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" repeated Zelaya. "Tell me of all the riches and jewels&mdash;the gold
+and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich
+silks&mdash;all of it! I love to hear of such things," exclaimed the woman,
+grinning again in her terrible way.</p>
+
+<p>Helen opened her lips to speak, but Ruth pinched her. "Tell her
+nothing," the girl of the Red Mill whispered. "I am afraid we have said
+too much already."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_81" id="pg_81">81</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! this old woman can't hurt us. Isn't she funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Speak up, my little ladies!" commanded Queen Zelaya. "My will is law
+here. Do not forget that."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess your will isn't much law to <i>us</i>," replied Helen, laughing and
+tossing her head. "You see, we do not know you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall!" hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forth
+one of her claw-like hands. "Come here!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly she
+stopped. The queen's terrible eyes seemed to hold the girl in a spell.
+Involuntarily Helen's limbs bore her toward the far end of the van.</p>
+
+<p>The girl's face became pale; her own eyes protruded from their sockets;
+the Gypsy Queen charmed her, just as a snake is said to charm a young
+bird in its nest.</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth sprang after her, seized Helen's arm again, and shook her.</p>
+
+<p>"You stop that!" she cried, to the old woman. "Don't you mind her,
+Helen. She has some wicked power in her eyes, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Her cry broke the hypnotic spell the woman had cast over Helen Cameron.
+The latter sank down, trembling and sobbing, with her hands over her
+face.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_82" id="pg_82">82</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, Ruthie! I wish we hadn't gotten into this wagon," she moaned.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I wish so, too," returned her chum, in a low voice, while the
+old woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horrid
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only two
+miles or a little over."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could speak to that other woman," muttered Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose this old thing is crazy?" whispered Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Worse than that," returned Ruth. "I am afraid of them all. I don't
+believe they mean us well. Let's get out, Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! where shall we go?" returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft as
+Ruth's own.</p>
+
+<p>"We must be somewhere near the town."</p>
+
+<p>"It is pitch dark outside the windows," complained Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's try it. Pitch dark is not as bad as this wicked old creature&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The hag laughed again, although she was not looking at them. Surely she
+could not hear the girls' whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a shiver
+over both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she called
+herself, could read what was in their minds.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_83" id="pg_83">83</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes!" whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. "You
+are right. We will go."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us&mdash;&mdash;Then
+we'll run!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.
+She turned the knob and tried to open it. <i>The door was fastened upon
+the outside!</i></p>
+
+<p>Again the old woman broke into her cackling laugh. "Oh, no! oh, no!" she
+cried. "The pretty, rich little ladies cannot go yet. They must be the
+guests of the poor old Gypsy a little longer&mdash;they must eat of her salt.
+Then they will be her friends&mdash;and maybe they will help to make her
+rich."</p>
+
+<p>The girls stood close together, panting, afraid. Helen put her lips to
+Ruth's ear, and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Does <i>that</i> mean she is going to hold us for ransom? Oh, dear! what did
+I say this very day? I <i>knew</i> Gypsies were like this."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" warned Ruth. "Try and not let her see you are so afraid. Perhaps
+she means only to frighten us."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but when she looks at me, I seem to lose everything&mdash;speech, power
+to move, even power to think," gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the van turned suddenly from the road and came to a halt. They
+had been traveling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_84" id="pg_84">84</a></span> much faster than Ruth and Helen had supposed.</p>
+
+<p>Lights flashed outside, and dogs barked, while the voices of men, women
+and children rose in a chorus of shouts and cries.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "They have gotten into town at
+last."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth feared this was not so. She tried to peer out of one of the
+windows. There was a bonfire at one side, and she thought she saw a
+tent. There were other wagons like the one in which they seemed to be
+imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>"Now they'll <i>have</i> to let us out," repeated Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid not," returned the girl of the Red Mill. "This is the Gypsy
+camp, I am sure, dear. Do try to be brave! I think they never meant to
+take us after Tom, at all. We are prisoners, dear."</p>
+
+<p>At once Helen's spirits sank, but she grew angry.</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better not keep us here," she cried, looking again at the old
+woman. "My father has plenty of money and he will spend it all to get me
+back&mdash;and to punish you."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not take all his money from him, my pretty little lady,"
+returned Zelaya. "Only a part of it. And the poor Gypsy has nothing,"
+and once more she cackled.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_85" id="pg_85">85</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The door of the van was unlocked and opened. In the lamplight appeared a
+rough-looking man, with an evil face and a squint in one eye. He said
+something to the queen in their own tongue, but he spoke with great
+respect, and removed his hat and bowed to her, when she replied.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen started for the door, but the man motioned them back and
+scowled at them in an evil manner. They could see a crowd of curious
+faces without, and behind this man were children, women both old and
+young, and a few men.</p>
+
+<p>Zelaya lifted the child from its bed, and passed her into the arms of
+the woman who had guided Ruth and Helen to the van. She smiled upon the
+girls just as pleasantly as before, but now they knew that she was false
+and cruel.</p>
+
+<p>Then the queen waved her hand and the door was closed. "You remain with
+me to-night, little ladies. Oh! Zelaya would let nothing trouble
+you&mdash;no, no!"</p>
+
+<p>Helen burst into wild sobs at this, and threw herself upon the floor of
+the van. Ruth faced the old woman with wrathful sparks in her brown
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You are acting very foolishly, indeed, whoever you are. You Gypsies
+cannot carry things with such a high hand in this State of New York.
+You'll find out&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Zelaya, the Queen," interrupted the old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_86" id="pg_86">86</a></span> hag, hoarsely. "Have a
+care! I will put a spell upon you, little lady&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! you can't frighten me that way," declared Ruth Fielding. "I am
+not afraid of your spells, or your fortune telling, or any of your
+foolish magic. If you believe in any of it yourself, you have not gained
+much wisdom all the years you have lived."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not fear the arts of my people?" repeated Zelaya, trying to hold
+Ruth with her eye as she had Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not. I fear your wickedness. And I know you must be very
+dishonest and cruel. But you have no more supernatural power than I have
+myself!"</p>
+
+<p>Zelaya's wrinkled face suddenly reddened with passion. She raised her
+claw-like hand and struck the bold girl sharply upon the cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Impudence!" she muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>that</i> is nothing supernatural," said Ruth, with continued
+boldness, although the blow had hurt her&mdash;leaving its mark. "You are
+breaking the laws of the land, which are far more powerful than any
+Gypsy law&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" commanded the woman, threateningly. "You will learn yet, bold
+girl, how strong our laws are."</p>
+
+<p>She went back to her stool, mumbling to herself. Ruth lifted Helen into
+one of the berths,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_87" id="pg_87">87</a></span> and sat down beside her. By and by the door of the
+van opened again and a bold-looking young woman&mdash;not the one that had
+brought them to the van&mdash;came in with three wooden bowls of a savory
+stew. She offered the tray to the visitors at a motion from old Zelaya,
+so that they had their choice before the queen received her own supper.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's eat it," whispered Ruth to Helen, when she saw that Zelaya
+plunged her own tin spoon into the stew. "It surely isn't drugged, or
+<i>she</i> wouldn't touch it."</p>
+
+<p>They ate greedily, for both were hungry. It takes more than fear to
+spoil the healthy appetite of youth!</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose," whispered Helen, "that we could climb out of one of
+these windows after she falls asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I couldn't get through one," returned Ruth. "And I doubt if
+you could. Besides, there will be guards, and the dogs are awake. We've
+got to wait for help from outside, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose Tom will find us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not while he is alone. But he certainly
+will give the alarm, and the whole countryside will be aroused."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, me! this old woman seems so sure that she can hold us
+captive."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_88" id="pg_88">88</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I think she is crazy," Ruth declared. "And the other Gypsies must lack
+good sense, too, or they would not be governed by her."</p>
+
+<p>The queen gobbled down her supper and then prepared to retire to her own
+bunk. She told the girls to do the same, and they removed their shoes
+and outer garments and lay down&mdash;one on one side of the wagon, and one
+on the other.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth's head was toward the door. She could watch the movements of the
+old Gypsy woman. Zelaya did not go to sleep at all, but seemed to be
+waiting for the camp to get quiet and for her two visitors to fall into
+slumber.</p>
+
+<p>She kept raising her head and looking first at Helen, then at Ruth. The
+latter knew by her chum's breathing that, despite her fears, Helen had
+fallen asleep almost instantly.</p>
+
+<p>So Ruth began to breathe deeply and regularly, too. She closed her
+eyes&mdash;almost entirely. This was what Zelaya had been waiting for.</p>
+
+<p>Silently the old woman arose and turned up the lampwick a little. She
+knelt down before one of the padlocked boxes and unlocked it softly.
+Then she rummaged in the box&mdash;seemingly beneath a lot of rubbish that
+filled it, and drew forth a japanned box&mdash;like a cashbox. This was
+locked, too, and Zelaya wore the key of it on a string about her neck.</p>
+
+<p>Silently, with a glance at the two girls now and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_89" id="pg_89">89</a></span> then, she unlocked
+this box and opened it on the top of the chest, before which she knelt.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth could see the old woman's face. It changed very much as she gazed
+upon what was in the japanned box. Her black eyes glowed, and her gray,
+thin lips were wreathed in a smile of delight.</p>
+
+<p>Again Ruth remembered Roberto's account of his grandmother. She was a
+miser, and he had mentioned that he had seen her at night gloating over
+her hoarded wealth.</p>
+
+<p>Surely Zelaya had all the signs of a miser. The next moment Ruth saw
+that the old woman verily possessed something worth gloating over.</p>
+
+<p>She lifted from the interior of the box a string of flashing gems&mdash;a
+broad band, or necklace, of them, in fact&mdash;and let them flow through her
+fingers in a stream of sparkling light. They were beautiful, beautiful
+pearls&mdash;a really wonderful necklace of them!</p>
+
+<p>Ruth held her breath for a moment. The queen turned suddenly and shot a
+keen, suspicious glance at her. The girl knew enough to cough, turn
+slightly, and recommence her steady breathing.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman had dropped the pearls in haste. Now she picked them up
+again, and went on with her silent worship of the gems.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not startle her again; but she saw
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_90" id="pg_90">90</a></span> something that made her own
+heart beat faster and brought the perspiration out upon her limbs.</p>
+
+<p>Above the old woman's head, and behind her, was a window. Pressed close
+to the pane of the window Ruth saw a face&mdash;dark, evil, be-mustached. It
+was one of the Gypsy men.</p>
+
+<p>She remembered now what she had overheard between the two supposed
+tramps who had taken shelter in the deserted house during the tempest.
+Was <i>this</i> one of those two ruffians? And was he the one who had railed
+at the division of some stolen treasure, and had spoken with
+covetousness of the beautiful pearls?</p>
+
+<p>The thought made Ruth tremble. His wicked face withdrew, but all the
+time the Gypsy queen was admiring the necklace, Ruth felt that the evil
+eyes of the man were also gloating over the pearls.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_91" id="pg_91">91</a></span>
+<a name="TOM_ON_THE_TRAIL_2608" id="TOM_ON_THE_TRAIL_2608"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>TOM ON THE TRAIL</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>In spite of the fact that his sister thought it hard that Tom Cameron
+had not returned to the stalled auto by dark, the lad was having no easy
+time.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, he had not run a mile on the road to Severn Corners
+when he stepped on a pebble, turned his ankle sharply, and had to hobble
+the rest of the way at a much slower pace than he had expected.</p>
+
+<p>All the time, too, Tom was troubled about the uncertainty of there being
+at the Corners any repair shop. He knew it was a small settlement. At
+most, the repair garage would be very small, and perhaps the mechanic a
+mere country "jack-of-all-trades," who would fumble the job.</p>
+
+<p>To obtain a car to drag his own into the town was beyond the boy's
+hopes, and when he came at last to a comfortable looking farmhouse some
+half a mile that side of the settlement, he determined to see if he
+could not obtain a pair of horses
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_92" id="pg_92">92</a></span> from the farmer, to get the car to
+the hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>He approached the back door of the house without seeing anybody about.
+It was already growing dark, he had hobbled so slowly on the road. As he
+stepped upon the porch, Tom heard a sudden furious barking inside the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome to our city!" he muttered. "If nobody's at home but <i>that</i>
+savage beast, I'm likely to fare about as Roberto did at that farmhouse
+'way back on the road by Culm Falls."</p>
+
+<p>But he ventured to rap upon the door. It was one of those old-fashioned
+doors which opens in two parts. The upper half swung outward, but the
+lower remained bolted.</p>
+
+<p>Lucky for Tom Cameron this was so. A great, shaggy beast, with gleaming
+fangs and slobbering jaws, appeared over the ledge, scratching with his
+strong claws to get out at the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" demanded a shrill voice from somewhere behind the
+excited brute. "We ain't got nothin' for tramps."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say you most certainly <i>had</i> something for tramps, Madam,"
+said Tom, when he could make himself heard. "Any tramp would run from
+that fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see <i>you</i> running. But you better," advised the woman, who was
+thin-faced, scant of hair, and had a voice about as pleasant as a
+whip-saw going through a knot.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_93" id="pg_93">93</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But <i>I</i> am not a tramp, I assure you, Madam," said Tom, politely.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! ye look it," declared the woman, without any politeness at all.</p>
+
+<p>And the boy <i>did</i> look rather dilapidated. He had gotten more than a
+little wet in the first of the shower, and he had pawed around among the
+"internal arrangements" of the balky auto to such purpose, that he was
+disheveled and oil-streaked from head to foot.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm in disguise just now, Ma'am," laughed Tom, cheerfully. "But really,
+I have not come begging either food or lodging. Is your husband at
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is. And he'll be here in a minute and chase ye off the
+place&mdash;ef ye don't scat at once," said the woman, sourly. "<i>He</i> wouldn't
+hold back this dog, now, I tell ye."</p>
+
+<p>"Please believe me, Madam," urged Tom, "that I am better than I appear.
+Our car broke down on the road yonder, and I have come to see if I can
+hire a team of horses to drag it into the Corners."</p>
+
+<p>"Car? What kind of a car? Ain't no railroad here," she said,
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>The dog had barked himself breathless by now and they could talk a
+little easier. Tom smiled, as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Our motor car&mdash;automobile."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_94" id="pg_94">94</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Huh! why didn't ye say so?" she demanded. "Tryin' to fool me. It's bad
+enough ter drive one o' them abominations over people's roads, but
+tryin' to make out ye air on a train&mdash;though, land o' Goshen! some of ye
+make 'em go as fast as airy express I ever see. Wal! what about your
+ortermobile?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's broken down," said Tom, feeling that he had struck the wrong
+house, after all, if he expected help.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm 'tarnal glad of it!" snapped the farmer's wife. "Nuthin' could
+please me better. Las' time I went to town one o' them plagued nuisances
+come hootin' erlong an' made the old mare back us clean inter the
+ditch&mdash;an' I broke a dozen an' a ha'f of aigs right in the lap of my new
+bombazeen dress. Drat 'em all, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry, Ma'am, that the accident occurred. But I can assure
+you I was not the cause of it," Tom said, quietly, and stifling a great
+desire to laugh. "I wish only to get your husband to help me with his
+team&mdash;and I will pay him well."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! what d'ye call well?" she demanded. "A boy like you ain't likely
+to have much money."</p>
+
+<p>Thus brought to a "show down," Tom promptly pulled out his billcase and
+opened it in the light that streamed out of the doorway. The woman could
+see that he carried quite a bundle of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_95" id="pg_95">95</a></span> notes&mdash;and that they were not all
+single dollar bills!</p>
+
+<p>"Land o' Goshen!" she ejaculated. "Where'd you steal all that money, ye
+young ruffian? I thought there was suthin' mighty bad about you when I
+fust set eyes on ye."</p>
+
+<p>This was a compliment that Tom Cameron had not been looking for! He was
+certainly taken aback at the woman's words, and before he could make any
+response, she raised her voice and began to shout for "Sam!"</p>
+
+<p>"Crickey!" thought the boy, "I hope Sam will have a better opinion of me
+than she does, or I'm likely to get into trouble."</p>
+
+<p>He began to back off the porch, and had his ankle not pained him so, he
+certainly would have set off on a run. Perhaps it is well he did not try
+this, however, for the woman cried:</p>
+
+<p>"You move a step off'n thet platform before Sam Blodgett comes an' I'll
+open the lower ha'f of this door and let the dawg loose on ye!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she bawled for her husband again, and pretty soon a shouted
+response came from the direction of the barns. Then a lantern flickered
+and swung, and Tom knew the man was coming toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>He appeared&mdash;a short, heavy-set man, barefooted, and with a pail of milk
+in one hand and the lantern in the other.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_96" id="pg_96">96</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Sairy?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thet's what <i>I</i> wanter know," snapped the woman. "It 'pears like he's
+one o' these runaway boys ye read about in the papers&mdash;an' he's stole
+some money."</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't either!" cried Tom, in some exasperation. "I don't have to
+steal money&mdash;or anything else, I hope. I showed her that I had some
+money, so that she would believe I could pay you for some work I wanted
+done&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What work?" interposed the farmer.</p>
+
+<p>Tom told him about the stalled auto and what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"How much'll ye give?" shot in the farmer, right to the point.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you ask to drag the machine to town&mdash;to the Corners, I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it's where ye say it is, ten dollars!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," agreed the boy. "Your wife knows I have the money. I'll pay
+you when we get to the Corners."</p>
+
+<p>"I know ye got the money," said the woman. "But I don't know <i>how</i> ye
+got it. And if you've got an ortermobile, too, I bet ye stole <i>that</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"You hesh up, Sairy," advised Mr. Blodgett. "No need of your sp'ilin' a
+trade. Gimme my supper. I'll hafter eat b'fore I go with ye, young
+man."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_97" id="pg_97">97</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right," sighed Tom, remembering how the girls must be very much
+frightened by this time.</p>
+
+<p>The man tramped into the house with the milk and the lantern. Neither he
+nor his wife asked Tom inside&mdash;or mentioned supper to him. The woman put
+it steaming on the table and Tom&mdash;like the dog&mdash;might stand and look on.</p>
+
+<p>At last the farmer was finished. "Guess the team's eat by now," he
+remarked, and came out with the lantern hung on his arm. All this time
+the dog had had "fits and starts" of wanting to get at Tom and eat him
+up. Now he slipped past his master and ran at the visitor with a savage
+growl.</p>
+
+<p>The boy had no idea of being made the supper of the brute, no matter how
+hungry Fido might be. So he kicked out and barely touched him. Instantly
+the brute set up a terrible "ki-yi-ing!" and shot off the porch and
+disappeared into the darkness. Evidently the Blodgetts kept the animal
+for its bark, for it did not have the pluck of a woodchuck!</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," advised Sam, as the woman began to rail again. "She's wound
+up an' ain't likely to run down again for a week. You sure you wanter
+pay ten dollars for this job?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I <i>will</i> pay that for it, whether I want to or not," declared
+Tom, with confidence.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_98" id="pg_98">98</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Aw right. We'll be movin'. Maybe another shower by'm'by, an' I sha'n't
+wanter be out in it."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll go just as fast as you want to," said Tom, hobbling along to the
+stables. "I won't keep you back, Mr. Blodgett."</p>
+
+<p>"You're lame, I see," said the man, not unkindly. "You kin straddle one
+of the hosses if you like."</p>
+
+<p>Tom was glad enough to do this, and in a few minutes they were going
+back over the dark track Tom had come, the harness jingling from the
+horses' hames, and Mr. Blodgett trudging sturdily along by the animals'
+heads.</p>
+
+<p>They came to the top of the ridge from which the stalled car had last
+been seen by Tom. "There are the lights!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad to see them. They shone cheerfully in the dark, and he had
+no idea that the girls were in any trouble.</p>
+
+<p>But when they got down to the bottom of the hill there was neither sign
+nor sound of the two girls. Tom shouted at the top of his voice. He
+searched the car all over for some written word. He saw that the girls
+had carried off only their own personal belongings and nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>What could it mean? Surely no thieves had come this way, or the car
+would have been stripped of everything portable, and of value. At
+least,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_99" id="pg_99">99</a></span> so it seemed to Master Tom. He was not wise enough to suspect
+that the goods in the car had been left alone to mislead him. The
+Gypsies had been after bigger game than a few dollars' worth of auto
+furnishings.</p>
+
+<p>"Come now!" exclaimed Sam Blodgett. "I can't wait here all night. I only
+agreed to drag the car ter town."</p>
+
+<p>"But where could those girls have gone? My sister and Ruth Fielding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye ain't payin' me ter be no detectif," drawled the man. "Come! Shell I
+hitch on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes! I don't know what else to do," groaned the boy. "I've got to
+get the car fixed first of all. Then I will find help and follow the
+girls."</p>
+
+<p>The farmer was as unsympathetic as a man possibly could be. He started
+the car and let Tom ride in it. But he had no word of advice to give
+about the absent girls.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, like his wife, he believed that Tom was not honest, that the
+car was stolen, and that Tom's companions were mythical!</p>
+
+<p>They rolled into Severn Corners at ten o'clock. Of course, in a hamlet
+of that kind, there was scarcely a light burning. Tom had learned from
+Blodgett that the local blacksmith sometimes "monkeyed with ortermobiles
+that come erlong busted."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_100" id="pg_100">100</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So he had the farmer draw the car to the door of the blacksmith shop.</p>
+
+<p>"Sim lives right next door, there," said Blodgett, preparing to depart.
+"Mebbe ye kin wake him up an' convince him he'd oughter mend yer
+contraption in the middle of the night. But Sim Peck is constable, too,
+so mebbe ye won't keer ter trouble him," and the farmer drove away with
+a chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>This news was, however, important to Tom. A constable was just about the
+man he most wanted to see. It had dawned on the boy's mind that his
+sister and Ruth had gotten into trouble, and he must find help for them.</p>
+
+<p>The street of the village was dark. This was one of the nights when the
+moon was booked to shine, but forgot to! The town fathers evidently lit
+the street lights only when the almanac said there was to be no moon.</p>
+
+<p>Tom removed one of the headlights and found his way to the door of the
+cottage next to the smithy. There was neither bell nor knocker, but he
+thundered at the panel with right good will, until he heard a stir in a
+chamber above. Finally a blind opened a little way and a sleepy voice
+inquired what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you the blacksmith, sir?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh? Wal! I should say I was. But I ain't no doctor," snarled the man
+above, "and I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_101" id="pg_101">101</a></span> ain't in the habit of answering night calls. Don't ye see
+I ain't got no night bell? Go away! you're actin' foolish. I don't shoe
+hosses this time o' night."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not a horse," explained Tom, near laughter despite his serious
+feelings. "It's a motor-car."</p>
+
+<p>"Naw, I don't shoe no ortermobile, neither!" declared the man, and
+prepared to close the blind.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Mister!" shouted Tom. "Do come down. I need you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If I come down thar, I won't come as no blacksmith, nor no mechanic.
+I'll come as the constable and run ye in&mdash;ye plaguey whipper-snapper!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right," cried Tom, fearing he would shut the blind. "Come down as
+constable. I reckon I need you in that character more than any other."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe ye do!" exclaimed the man, angrily. "If you air there when I
+git on my pants, you'll take a walk to the callaboose. None o' you young
+city sports air goin' to disturb the neighborhood like this&mdash;not if I
+know it!"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Tom could hear him stirring around, tumbling over the chairs
+in the dark, and growling at his boots, and otherwise showing his anger.
+But the boy was desperate, and he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_102" id="pg_102">102</a></span> stood still until the man
+appeared&mdash;tin star pinned to his vest.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, by gravey!" exclaimed the blacksmith-constable. "Ain't you a
+reckless youngster ter face up the majesty of the law in this here way?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom saw that, after all, the constable was grinning, and was not such an
+ill-natured fellow, now that he was really awake. The boy plunged into
+his story and told it with brevity, but in detail.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I see how it is, youngster," said the man. "You're some scart
+about your sister and that other girl. But mebbe nothing's happened 'em
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>"But where have they gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't tell you. We'll make search. But we've got to have something
+to travel in, and if it don't take too long to fix your auto, we'll
+travel in <i>that</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, this was good sense, and Tom saw it, impatient as he was. The
+constable laid aside the vest with the badge of office upon it, and the
+blacksmith proceeded to open his forge and light a fire and a lantern.
+Then he listened to Tom's explanation of what had happened to the car,
+and went to work.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately the damage was not serious, and the blacksmith was not a bad
+mechanic. Therefore, in an hour and a half he closed the smithy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_103" id="pg_103">103</a></span> again,
+removing his apron, and the constable donned his vest and got into the
+car beside the troubled Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let her out, son!" advised the official. "You've got all the law
+with ye that there is in this section, and ye kin go as fast as ye
+please."</p>
+
+<p>Tom needed no urging. He shot the repaired car over the road at a pace
+that would have made his sister and her chum scream indeed!</p>
+
+<p>Once at the bottom of the hill where the car had been stalled, they
+stopped and got out, each taking a lantern by the constable's advice.
+Blodgett and his horses had done their best to trample out the girls'
+footsteps, but there had been no other vehicle along the road, and the
+searchers managed to find footprints of the girls at one side.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure them's them?" asked Mr. Peck.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see they are not the prints of men's shoes," said Tom,
+confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Right ye air! And here's another woman's shoe&mdash;only larger. They went
+away with some woman, that's sure."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman?" muttered Tom, greatly amazed. "Whoever could she be&mdash;and
+where have they gone with her?"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_104" id="pg_104">104</a></span>
+<a name="A_BREAK_FOR_LIBERTY_2967" id="A_BREAK_FOR_LIBERTY_2967"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>A BREAK FOR LIBERTY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth finally slept in the Gypsy van as sweetly as though she were in her
+own little bed in the gable room at the Red Mill. She was bodily
+wearied, and she had lost herself while yet she was watching the Gypsy
+Queen worshipping the pearl necklace, and fearing that the man with the
+evil eyes was peering into the interior of the van.</p>
+
+<p>A hundred noises of the Gypsy camp awakened her when the sun was
+scarcely showing his face. Dogs barked and scampered about; horses
+neighed and stamped; roosters crowed and hens cackled. The children were
+crying, or laughing, and the women chattering as they went about the
+getting of breakfast at the fires.</p>
+
+<p>The fires crackled; the men sat upon the van tongues cleaning harness
+after the rain and mud of the afternoon before. The boys were polishing
+the coats of the beautiful horses, till they shone again.</p>
+
+<p>All these activities Ruth Fielding could see through the tiny windows of
+the queen's van, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_105" id="pg_105">105</a></span> which she and Helen Cameron were imprisoned. Her
+chum roused, too, but was half tempted to cry, when she remembered their
+circumstances. Queen Zelaya had gone out.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on!" exclaimed Ruth. "We've got to make the best of it. Get on
+your dress and shoes, and perhaps they will let us out, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's run away, Ruthie," whispered Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"The very first chance we get&mdash;sure we will!" agreed her chum.</p>
+
+<p>They found the door unlocked, and, as nobody stayed them, the two girls
+descended the steps to the ground. A cross-looking dog came and smelled
+of them, but the bold-looking girl who had brought the supper the night
+before drove him away.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth essayed to speak to her, but she shook her head and laughed.
+Perhaps she did not understand much English.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was looking around eagerly for Roberto. Had she seen the Gypsy boy,
+she would certainly have thrown herself&mdash;and Helen&mdash;upon him for
+protection. But although not many of the Gypsies looked unkindly toward
+the girls, none appeared really friendly.</p>
+
+<p>The woman who had aided in their capture the night before took them down
+to the water, where they might wash their faces and hands and comb their
+hair, using the toilet requisites from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_106" id="pg_106">106</a></span> their bags. Nobody had offered
+to interfere with them in any manner, or touch their belongings. The
+woman waited patiently until they were ready, and took them back to the
+camping ground for breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth had seen something. At first she dared not whisper it to her
+chum. After they had eaten (and a very good breakfast it was that the
+Gypsies gave them), she managed to get Helen out of earshot of the
+watchers.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody in the camp watched the prisoners. The girls were not driven
+back into the van again at once, but Ruth saw that even the children
+circled about her and Helen, at a little distance, so that the girls
+were continuously guarded.</p>
+
+<p>They sat down upon an old stump, in an open space, where nobody could
+creep near enough to hear what Ruth said to Helen without one or the
+other of the captives seeing the eavesdropper.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Helen, anxiously. "Oh, Ruth! where do you suppose
+Tom is? What can he think of us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope Tom won't come along here alone and fall into trouble,
+too," said the girl of the Red Mill, in return. "But I believe there is
+a chance for us to get away without his help, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how?" demanded her chum.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_107" id="pg_107">107</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you look along the shore when we were down there to the lake just
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. In both directions. There wasn't a soul in sight but you and
+myself and that woman," returned Helen, showing that she had been
+observant to a degree, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. It is a lonely spot. I saw nobody. But I saw a fishing
+punt."</p>
+
+<p>"A fishing punt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Pulled up on the shore a little way. There is a pole in it, too.
+It can be pushed off into the water easily, and I did not see another
+boat of any kind in either direction."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruth! Neither did I. I didn't even see the boat you speak of."</p>
+
+<p>"It is there just the same. We can reach it in one minute from here&mdash;by
+running."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's run, then!" whispered Helen, energetically.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll wait our chance. They are watching too closely now. By and by
+they must get more careless. Then we'll try it."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't just see what we can do in that boat," queried Helen, after
+a moment's thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Push out into the lake, so that they can't reach us. Then risk being
+seen by Tom or somebody else who will help us escape the Gypsies."</p>
+
+<p>"But these men will follow us," said Helen,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_108" id="pg_108">108</a></span> with a shudder. "They can
+swim&mdash;some of them&mdash;surely."</p>
+
+<p>"And if they try it, we'll beat them off with the push-pole," declared
+Ruth. "Keep up your pluck, Helen. They will not really dare hurt
+us&mdash;especially if they expect to get money for our release. And I'd like
+to know," added Ruth, with rather a bitter little laugh, "who will pay
+<i>my</i> ransom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make father pay whatever they ask," whispered Helen. "Oh, dear!
+won't he be just <i>mad</i> when he hears about it?"</p>
+
+<p>Soon the activities of the camp changed. It was plain to the two girls
+that their captors had no intention of spending the day in this dell by
+the lake side.</p>
+
+<p>A number of the men and boys had gone off with some of the horses early.
+Now they returned, and it was evident that the men were angry, if not a
+little frightened. They talked loudly with Zelaya, and the Queen of the
+Gypsies seemed to be scolding them soundly.</p>
+
+<p>It was surprising to the visitors at the camp that the old woman should
+have such influence over these black-browed ruffians. But she <i>did</i>
+possess a power; it was self-evident!</p>
+
+<p>Soon preparations were begun for shifting camp. The tents were struck
+and all the paraphernalia of the camp was returned to the three vans.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_109" id="pg_109">109</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Something has happened," whispered Ruth to Helen. "Perhaps Tom has
+raised the hue and cry for us, and they are afraid of being caught here
+with us in their possession."</p>
+
+<p>"Mean old things!" snapped Helen. "I wish they would all be caught and
+put into jail."</p>
+
+<p>"The little children, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"The little ones will grow up to be big ones&mdash;and they are all bad,"
+declared Helen, with confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't believe that Roberto is bad," said Ruth, thoughtfully. "I wish
+he was with them now. I believe he would help us get away."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe these are not his people."</p>
+
+<p>"I think they are," returned Ruth. But she did not say anything then to
+Helen about the pearl necklace, and the cashbox of Queen Zelaya.</p>
+
+<p>The necklace was never out of Ruth's thought, however, for she was sure
+it had been stolen. The girl of the Red Mill would know the necklace
+again; wherever she might see it.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen.
+But there was a peculiar pendant attached to it&mdash;in the shape of a
+fleur-de-lis&mdash;of larger pearls, that would distinguish it among any
+number of such articles of adornment.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth kept in mind the chance she hoped would arise for their escape.
+Helen was hopeless; but she had agreed to make the attempt, if Ruth
+did.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_110" id="pg_110">110</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The whole camp was busy in preparing for departure. There were not so
+many eyes now upon the girls. And&mdash;therefore&mdash;there being no regular
+guard set over them, the opportunity Ruth hoped for arose.</p>
+
+<p>In harnessing one of the horses to a van, something happened to call
+most of the excited crowd together. The horse kicked, and one of the men
+was hurt.</p>
+
+<p>The moment the shouting over this incident arose, Ruth pinched Helen and
+they both got up and slipped into the wood. They were out of sight in a
+moment, and having chosen the side toward the lake, they set off at top
+speed through the underbrush for the spot where Ruth had seen the
+fishing punt.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose it leaks?" gasped Helen, running hard beside her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! we'll know it when we're in deep water," grimly returned Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment they heard a great hullabaloo at the camp behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"They've discovered we're missing," gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, then!" cried Ruth. "Let's see if we can outwit them. We've got
+a chance for liberty, my dear. Don't lose heart."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_111" id="pg_111">111</a></span>
+<a name="RUTH_IN_THE_TOILS_3166" id="RUTH_IN_THE_TOILS_3166"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>RUTH IN THE TOILS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The lake shore was just ahead of the fugitives. Ruth had been but a few
+yards out of the way in her calculations. She and Helen came out upon
+the beach almost at the spot where the fishing punt lay.</p>
+
+<p>The boat appeared to be sound, and the pole lying in it was a straight,
+peeled ash sapling, not too heavy for either of the girls to handle.</p>
+
+<p>"Jump in, Helen!" commanded Ruth. "Take the pole and push off. I'll push
+here at the bow."</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll get all wet!" quavered her chum.</p>
+
+<p>"As though <i>that</i> mattered," returned the other, with a chuckle, as she
+leaned against the bow of the punt and braced her feet for the grand
+effort. "Now!"</p>
+
+<p>Helen had scrambled in and seized the pole. She thrust it against the
+shore, her own weight bearing down the stern, which was in the water,
+and thus raising the bow a trifle.</p>
+
+<p>"All-to-geth-er!" gasped Ruth, as though they were at "tug-of-war" in
+the Briarwood gymnasium.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_112" id="pg_112">112</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The boat moved. Ruth's feet slipped and she scrambled to get a fresh
+brace for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, again!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a great hound came rushing out of the wood upon their
+trail, raised his red eyes, saw them, and uttered a mournful bay.</p>
+
+<p>"We're caught!" wailed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"We're nothing of the kind!" returned her friend. "Push again, Helen!"</p>
+
+<p>One more effort and Ruth was ankle deep in the water. The boat floated
+free!</p>
+
+<p>But before the brave girl could scramble aboard, the hound leaped for
+her. Helen screamed. That shriek was enough, without the baying of the
+hound, to bring their enemies to the water's edge.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding was terrified&mdash;of course! But she gave a final push to the
+boat as the hound grabbed her. Fortunately the beast seized only her
+skirt. Perhaps he had been taught not to actually worry his prey.</p>
+
+<p>However, the girl was dragged to her knees, and she could not escape.
+The punt shot out into the lake, and Ruth shouted to her chum:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep on! keep on! Never mind me! Find Tom and bring help&mdash;&mdash; Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>The weight of the big dog had cast her into the shallow water. She
+immediately scrambled to her feet again. The hound held onto the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_113" id="pg_113">113</a></span> skirt.
+The material was too strong to easily tear, and she could not get away.</p>
+
+<p>There was a crashing in the brush and out upon the edge of the lake came
+half a dozen of the Gypsy men and one of the women. She was the one who
+had befooled Ruth and Helen into entering the green van the night
+before. When she saw Ruth's plight, standing in the water with the hound
+holding her, she laughed as though it were a great joke.</p>
+
+<p>But the men did not laugh. He with the squinting eye strode down to the
+girl and would have slapped her with his hard palm, had not the woman
+jumped in and put herself between the man and Ruth. She seemed to
+threaten him in her own language, and the ruffian desisted.</p>
+
+<p>One of the boys threw off his clothing&mdash;all his outer garments, at
+least&mdash;and plunged right into the lake after Helen. The boat had swung
+around, for there was considerable current in Long Lake.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let him come near you, Helen!" screamed Ruth. "Use your pole!"</p>
+
+<p>Her friend stood very bravely in the stern of the punt and raised the
+pole threateningly. The Gypsy boy could not easily overtake the boat,
+which was drifting farther and farther out toward the middle of the
+lake.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the others began running along the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_114" id="pg_114">114</a></span> shore as though to keep pace
+with the boat. But suddenly a long-drawn, eerie cry resounded from the
+direction of the camp. The men stopped and returned; the boy scrambled
+ashore and hastily grabbed his clothing. The woman and the squint-eyed
+man dragged Ruth into the bush.</p>
+
+<p>The cry was a signal of some kind, and one not to be disobeyed. The
+Gypsies hurried back to the vans, and Ruth did not see Helen again.</p>
+
+<p>All was confusion at the camp. The horses were ready to start, and the
+movables were packed. The children and women swarmed into two of the
+vans. Queen Zelaya stood at the door of the other, and the moment she
+saw that one of the prisoners had not been recovered, she began to
+harangue her people threateningly.</p>
+
+<p>The squint-eyed man pushed Ruth toward the old woman. Zelaya's claw-like
+hand seized the girl's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>She was jerked forward and up the steps into the van. Almost at once the
+caravan started, and Zelaya pulled the door to, and darkened the
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, now!" she commanded the girl. "Take off your hat. Gypsies have
+no use for hats."</p>
+
+<p>She seized it and thrust it into one of her boxes. Then she commanded
+Ruth to remove her frock, and that followed the hat into the same
+receptacle.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_115" id="pg_115">115</a></span> Afterward the girl was forced to take off her shoes and
+stockings.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down here!" commanded Zelaya, as the van rolled along. The queen
+had been mixing some kind of a lotion in a bowl. Now with a sponge she
+anointed Ruth's face and neck, far below the collar of any gown she
+would wear; likewise her arms and hands, and her limbs from the knees
+down. Then Zelaya threw some earth on Ruth's feet and streaked her limbs
+with the same. She gave her a torn and not over-clean frock to put on
+instead of her own clothing, and insisted that she don the ugly garment
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Gentile girl," hissed the old woman, "if they come to search for
+you, speak at your peril. We say you are ours&mdash;a wicked, orphan Gypsy,
+wicked through and through."</p>
+
+<p>She tore down Ruth's hair and rubbed some lotion into it that darkened
+its color, too. She really looked as wild and uncouth as the bold girl
+who waited upon the queen of the Gypsies.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let them find you!" cackled the old woman. "You are Belle, my
+great-granddaughter, and you are touched here&mdash;eh?" and she tapped her
+own wrinkled forehead with her finger.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_116" id="pg_116">116</a></span>
+<a name="ROBERTO_AGAIN_3304" id="ROBERTO_AGAIN_3304"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>ROBERTO AGAIN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth cried a little. But, after all, it was more because she was lonely
+than for any other reason. What would eventually happen to her in the
+Gypsy queen's toils she did not know. She had not begun to worry about
+that as yet.</p>
+
+<p>Helen had gotten clear away. She was confident of that, and was likewise
+sure that her chum would rouse the authorities and come in search of
+her. Tom, too, was faithful; he must already be stirring up the whole
+neighborhood to find his sister and Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>How far the caravan had traveled the night before, after the girls had
+joined the Gypsies, Ruth could not guess. But she realized that now they
+were making very good time up the road leading to Bois&eacute; Landing, along
+the edge of Long Lake.</p>
+
+<p>There might be some pursuit already. If Tom had telegraphed his father,
+Mr. Cameron would come looking for Helen "on the jump"! And had the
+searchers any idea the Gypsies had captured
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_117" id="pg_117">117</a></span> the two girls, Ruth was
+sure that the wanderers would get into trouble very quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, even Uncle Jabez would 'start something,' as Tom would say, if he
+learned of this. I believe, even if I am not 'as good as a boy,' that
+Uncle Jabez loves me and would not let a parcel of tramps carry me off
+like this."</p>
+
+<p>She wiped away the tears, therefore, and in looking into a cloudy little
+mirror screwed to the wall of the vehicle, she found that the tears did
+not wash off the walnut stain. She had been dyed with a "fast color,"
+sure enough!</p>
+
+<p>"If Heavy and The Fox, or Belle and Lluella could see me now!" thought
+Ruth Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the caravan halted. There were shouts and cries, and evidently
+the other vans were being emptied of their occupants in a hurry. Some of
+the men seemed to be arguing in English at the head of the queen's van.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth believed that a searching party had overtaken the Gypsies. She
+feared there would be a fight, and she was anxious to show herself, so
+that her unknown rescuers might see her.</p>
+
+<p>But she dared not scream. Old Zelaya scowled at her so savagely and
+threatened her so angrily with her clenched fist, that Ruth dared not
+speak. Finally the old woman opened the door of the van and flung her
+down the steps.</p>
+
+<p>The act was so unexpected that Ruth fell into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_118" id="pg_118">118</a></span> the arms of the crowd
+waiting for her. It was evidently ready for her appearance. The boys and
+girls, and some of the women, received her into their midst, and they
+made so much noise, chattering and shrieking, and dancing about her,
+that Ruth was both confused and frightened.</p>
+
+<p>Had she herself shrieked aloud, her voice would have been drowned in the
+general hullabaloo. This noise was all intentional on the part of the
+Gypsies, for up at the head of the caravan Ruth caught a glimpse of a
+big man standing with a stout oak club in his hand and a big shiny star
+pinned to his vest near the armhole.</p>
+
+<p>A constable! Whether he was there searching for her and Helen, or was
+merely making inquiries about a robbed hen-roost, the girl from the Red
+Mill could not guess. There was so much confusion about her, that she
+could not hear a word the constable said!</p>
+
+<p>She waved her hand to him and tried to attract his attention. The girls
+and boys laughed at her, and pulled her about, and the bold girl she had
+seen before almost tore the frock from her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ruth realized that, even did the constable look right at her,
+he would not discover that she was a white girl. She looked just as
+disreputable in every way as the Gypsy children themselves!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_119" id="pg_119">119</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The constable came toward the first van. Zelaya now sat upon the top
+step, smoking a cheroot, and nodding in the sun as though she were too
+old and too feeble to realize what was going on. Yet Ruth was sure that
+the sly old queen had planned this scene and told her tribesmen what to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was whisked away from the steps of the queen's van, and borne off
+by the shouting, dancing children. She tried to cry out so that the
+constable would hear her, but the crowd drowned her cries.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the constable search each of the three vans. Of course, he found
+no girls answering to the descriptions of Ruth and Helen&mdash;and it was the
+girls that he was searching for. He was Sim Peck, the
+blacksmith-constable from Severn Corners. It was a pity Tom Cameron had
+not been with him!</p>
+
+<p>Finally Ruth saw that the man had given up the search, and the Gypsies
+were going to depart. She determined to make a desperate attempt to
+attract his attention to herself.</p>
+
+<p>She suddenly sprang through the group of children, knocking the bold
+girl down in her effort, and started, yelling, for the constable.
+Instantly one of the men halted her, swung her about, clapped a palm
+over her mouth, and she saw him staring balefully down into her face.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_120" id="pg_120">120</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You do that ageen&mdash;I keel you!" he hissed.</p>
+
+<p>It was the evil-eyed man who had spied upon Queen Zelaya, as she had
+worshipped the pearl necklace in the van the evening before. Ruth was
+stricken dumb and motionless. The man looked wicked enough to do just
+what he said he would.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the constable depart. Then the Gypsies huddled into the wagons,
+and she was seized by Zelaya and put into the first van. The old witch
+was grinning broadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha!" she chuckled. "What does the Gentile girl think now? That she
+shall escape so easily Zelaya? Ha! she is already like one of our own
+kind. Her own parents would not know her&mdash;nor shall they see her again
+until they have paid, and paid in full!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are holding the wrong girl, Zelaya," murmured Ruth. "<i>My</i> parents
+are dead, and there is nobody to pay you a great ransom for me."</p>
+
+<p>"False!" croaked the hag, and struck her again.</p>
+
+<p>The caravan rolled on after that for a long way. It did not stop for
+dinner, and Ruth grew very hungry, for she and Helen had been too
+excited that morning to eat much breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Through the open door and the forward window Ruth saw considerable of
+the road. They were seldom out of sight of the lake. By and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_121" id="pg_121">121</a></span> by they
+turned right down to the water's edge and she heard the horses' feet
+splashing through the shallow water.</p>
+
+<p>She could not imagine where they were going. Out of the door she saw
+that they seemed to be leaving the land and striking right out into the
+lake. The water grew deeper slowly, rising first over one step and then
+another, while the shore of the lake receded behind them. The other vans
+and the boys driving the horses followed in their wake.</p>
+
+<p>Curious, Ruth arose and went to the forward end of the van. She could
+see out between the driver and his wife, and over the heads of the
+horses. The latter were almost shoulder deep now, and were advancing
+very slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Some rods ahead she saw that there was a wooded island. It was of good
+size and seemed to be densely covered with trees and brush. Yet, there
+was a patch of sandy shore toward which the horses were being urged.</p>
+
+<p>The lake was so low, that there was a fordable stretch of its bottom
+between the mainland and this island. These Gypsies seemed to know this
+bar perfectly, and the driver of the queen's van made no mistake in
+guiding his span.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour the horses were trotting through the shallows again.
+They rolled out upon the white beach, and then Ruth saw that a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_122" id="pg_122">122</a></span> faint
+wagon trail led into the interior of the island.</p>
+
+<p>The Gypsies had been there before. There, in the middle of the wooded
+isle, was a clearing. The moment the vans arrived, all the people jumped
+out, laughing and talking, and the usual preparations for an encampment
+were begun. Only, in this case, Queen Zelaya sent the squint-eyed man
+and the ruffian who had so frightened Ruth to either shore of the
+island to keep watch.</p>
+
+<p>Tents were set up, fires kindled, a great supper begun, and the poultry
+was set loose to roam at will. Somewhere the Gypsy children had picked
+up a kid and a little calf. Both of these were freed, and at once began
+to butt each other, to the vast delight of the little ones.</p>
+
+<p>All about, under-foot and growling if they were disturbed, were the ugly
+dogs. Ruth was afraid of them!</p>
+
+<p>Now that they were on the island, the Gypsies gave her slight attention.
+The children did not come near her, and she was glad of that. Of course,
+the adults knew she could not escape.</p>
+
+<p>Later she heard one of the men on the shore shout. Nobody was disturbed
+at the camp, but after a little, there was some loud conversation and
+then somebody broke through the bushes and appeared suddenly in the
+little clearing.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding gasped and sprang to her feet. Nobody noticed her.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_123" id="pg_123">123</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The newcomer was Roberto. He strode swiftly across the camp to the
+queen's van. Zelaya sat upon the steps and when he came before her, he
+bowed very respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman showed more emotion at his appearance than Ruth believed
+possible. She got up quickly and kissed the boy on both of his cheeks.
+Her eyes sparkled and she talked with him for some time in the Tzigane
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice Roberto glanced in Ruth's direction, as though he and the
+old woman had been speaking of the captive girl. But, to the latter's
+surprise, she saw no look of recognition in the Gypsy boy's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, when he parted from the queen, Roberto crossed the encampment
+directly toward Ruth. The girl, fearful, yet hoping he would see and
+know her, rose to her feet and took a single step toward him.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto turned upon her fiercely. He struck at her with his arm and
+pushed Ruth roughly back into her seat. But although the action was so
+cruel and his look so hateful, the girl heard him whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! Let the little lady have no fear!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he passed on to greet his friends about the nearest campfire.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_124" id="pg_124">124</a></span>
+<a name="HELENS_ESCAPE_3515" id="HELENS_ESCAPE_3515"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>HELEN'S ESCAPE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen Cameron was so fearful at first of the Gypsies overtaking her,
+that she had no thought of any peril which might lie ahead of the
+drifting punt, into which she had scrambled. She realized that Ruth had
+sacrificed herself in their attempt to escape, but she could render her
+chum no help now. Indeed, the current which had seized the boat was so
+strong that she could not have gotten back to the shore, had she tried.</p>
+
+<p>When the Gypsies disappeared into the wood, taking Ruth with them, Helen
+realized her helplessness and loneliness, and she wept. She sat in the
+stern of the punt and floated on and on, without regard to where she was
+going.</p>
+
+<p>She could not have changed the course of the punt, however. She was now
+in too deep water; the guiding pole was of no use to her, and there were
+no oars, of course. She was drifting toward the middle of the lake, it
+seemed, yet the general direction was eastward.</p>
+
+<p>There, at the lower end of the lake, a wide stream carried its waters
+toward the distant Minturn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_125" id="pg_125">125</a></span> Dam. But long before the stream came to that
+place, there was much of what the local guides called "white water."</p>
+
+<p>These swift rapids Helen thought little about at first. She had had no
+experience to warn her of her peril. At this moment she was fearful only
+of the wild Gypsy clan that had tried to keep her prisoner and that had,
+indeed, succeeded in carrying away her dear friend, Ruth Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>As she floated on, she saw nothing more of the Gypsies. She began to
+believe that they had not turned back to follow her along the edge of
+the lake. They were satisfied with their single prisoner!</p>
+
+<p>"But father will see to that!" sobbed Helen. "He won't let them run away
+with Ruth Fielding&mdash;I know he won't! Dear, dear! what would I ever do if
+Ruth disappeared and we shouldn't meet each other again&mdash;or not until we
+were quite grown up?</p>
+
+<p>"Such things <i>have</i> happened! I've read about it in books. And those
+dreadful Gypsies make the children they capture become Gypsies, too.
+Suppose, years and years hence, I should meet Ruth and she should ask to
+tell my fortune as Gypsy women do&mdash;and she shouldn't know me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Helen began to sob again. She was working herself up into a highly
+nervous state and her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_126" id="pg_126">126</a></span> imagination was "running away with her," as Ruth
+often said.</p>
+
+<p>Just then she almost lost the punt-pole, and this near-accident startled
+her. She might need that pole yet&mdash;especially if the boat drifted into
+shallow water.</p>
+
+<p>She looked all around. She stood up, so as to see farther. Not a moving
+object appeared along either shore of the lake. This was a veritable
+wilderness, and human habitations were far, far away.</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes to the chain of hills over which she and her brother
+and Ruth had ridden the day before. At one point she could see the road
+itself, and just then there flashed into view an auto, traveling
+eastward at a fast clip.</p>
+
+<p>"But, of course, they can't see <i>me</i> 'way down here," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "They wouldn't notice such a speck on the lake."</p>
+
+<p>So she did not even try to signal to the motor-car, and it was quickly
+out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>The current was now stronger, it seemed. The punt drifted straight down
+the lake toward the broad stream through which Long Lake was drained.
+Helen hoped the boat would drift in near one shore, or the other, but it
+entered the stream as near the middle as though it had been aimed for
+that point!</p>
+
+<p>Here the water gripped the heavy boat and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_127" id="pg_127">127</a></span> drew it onward, swifter and
+swifter. At first Helen was not afraid. She saw the banks slipping by on
+either hand, and was now so far from the Gypsies, that she would have
+been glad to get ashore. Yet she did not think herself in any increased
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, however, an eddy gripped the boat. To her amazement the craft
+swung around swiftly and she was floating down stream, stern foremost!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me! I wish I had a pair of oars. Then I could manage this
+thing," she told herself.</p>
+
+<p>Then the boat scraped upon a rock. The blow was a glancing one, but it
+drove the craft around again. She was glad, however, to see the bow
+aimed properly.</p>
+
+<p>From moment to moment the boat now moved more swiftly. It seemed that
+the foam-streaked water tore at its sides as though desiring to swamp
+it. Helen sat very quietly in the middle seat, and watched the dimpling,
+eddying stream with increasing anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the punt darted shoreward. It looked just as though it must be
+cast upon the beach. Helen raised herself stiffly, seized the pole more
+firmly, and prepared to leap ashore with its aid.</p>
+
+<p>And just as she was about to risk the feat, the bow of the boat whirled
+outward again, she was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_128" id="pg_128">128</a></span> almost cast into the water, and once more the
+boat whirled down the middle current.</p>
+
+<p>She dropped back into her seat with a gasp. This was terrible! She could
+not possibly control the craft in the rapids, and she was traveling
+faster and faster.</p>
+
+<p>The boat came to another eddy, and was whirled around and around, so
+swiftly, that Helen's poor head swam, too! She raised her voice in a cry
+for help, but it was likewise a cry of despair. She had no idea that
+there was a soul within the sound of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>Crash! the boat went against an outcropping rock. It spun around again
+and darted down the current. It was leaking now; the water poured into
+it between the sprung planks.</p>
+
+<p>The river widened suddenly into a great pool, fringed with trees. At one
+point a rock was out-thrust into the river and Helen saw&mdash;dimly enough
+at first&mdash;a figure spring into view upon this boulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! help!" shrieked the girl, as the boat spun about.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! catch that!"</p>
+
+<p>It was dear old Tom's voice! The shout brought hope to Helen's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Tom! Tom!" she cried. "Save me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bet you I will!" returned the boy. "Just grab this rope&mdash;&mdash;Now!"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_129" id="pg_129">129</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She saw the loop come hurtling through the air. Tom had learned how to
+properly throw a lariat the summer before, while in Montana, and he and
+his particular chums had practised the art assiduously ever since that
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at his second trial, he dropped the noose right across the punt.
+Helen seized upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"Hitch it to the ring in the bow&mdash;quick!" commanded her brother, and
+Helen obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>In five minutes he had her ashore, but the punt sunk in shallow water.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care! I don't care!" cried Helen, wading through the shallow
+water. "I really thought I was going to drown, Tommy boy."</p>
+
+<p>"But where's Ruth? Whatever have you girls been doing since last
+evening? Where did you go to?"</p>
+
+<p>He held her in his arms for a moment and hugged her tightly. Helen
+sobbed a little, with her face against his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it's so-o good to have you again, Tommy," she declared.</p>
+
+<p>Then she told him swiftly all that had happened. Tom was mighty glad to
+get his sister back, but he was vastly worried about her chum.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I feared. I had a feeling that you girls had fallen into
+the hands of those Gypsies. Those men in the old house were two of
+them&mdash;&mdash;"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_130" id="pg_130">130</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it. We saw them at the encampment."</p>
+
+<p>"But if Ruth is still with them," Tom said, "Peck will get her. He said
+he knew how to handle Gyps. He's been used to them all his life. And
+this tribe often come through this region, he told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Mr. Peck?" asked Helen, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>Tom told her of his adventures on the previous night. After returning to
+the spot where the auto had been stalled earlier in the evening, Tom and
+the constable had searched with the lanterns all about the place, and
+had followed the footsteps of the girls and the strange woman to the
+lower road.</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea then that the wagon you had evidently gotten into was a
+Gypsy cart," pursued Tom. "We saw you'd gone on toward Severn Corners,
+however, and we went back. But you come along with me, now, Helen, and
+we'll return to that very place. I expect Uncle Ike will be waiting for
+us. I telephoned him before daylight this morning&mdash;and it's now ten
+o'clock. The car is right back here on the road."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I am so glad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Soon after breakfast Peck and I separated! I came this way in the
+car, hoping to find some trace of you. Peck made inquiries and said he'd
+follow the Gyps. Ruth will be taken away
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_131" id="pg_131">131</a></span> from them," declared Tom, with
+conviction. "That big smith isn't afraid of anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope so," said Helen. "But that horrible old Gypsy&mdash;the queen,
+she calls herself&mdash;is very powerful."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much she isn't!" laughed Tom. "Peck fully feels the importance of
+that star he wears. I think he would tackle a herd of elephants, if they
+were breaking the law."</p>
+
+<p>So they sped on in the motor-car, feeling considerably better. The twins
+were very fond of each other, and were never really happy, when they
+were apart for long.</p>
+
+<p>But when they ran down into Severn Corners, expecting to find Ruth at
+the constable's house, they were gravely disappointed. The forge was
+open and Sim Peck was shoeing a horse. He stood up, hammer in hand, when
+the motor-car stopped before the smithy.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" he said to Tom. "Did you get her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I got my sister. She's had an awful time. Those Gypsies ought to be all
+shut up in jail," said Tom, vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Them 'Gyptians?" drawled Peck, in surprise. "What they got ter do with
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they had everything to do with it. Don't you know that they
+carried off both my sister here and Ruth Fielding?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_132" id="pg_132">132</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said the blacksmith-constable, slowly, "let me understand
+this. Your sister has been with the 'Gyptians?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Didn't you find Ruth with them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute. Was she with old Zelaya's tribe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," cried Helen. "That is the name of the Gypsy queen."</p>
+
+<p>"And the other gal?" demanded the man. "Where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I ask you," said Tom, anxiously. "My sister escaped from
+them, but they recaptured the other girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure o' that?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am!" cried Helen. "I saw them drag her back through the woods to
+the encampment."</p>
+
+<p>"When was this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not far from six o'clock this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"By gravey!" ejaculated the man. "She ain't with 'em now. I been all
+through them vans, and seen the whole tribe. There ain't a white gal
+with 'em," said Mr. Peck, with confidence.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_133" id="pg_133">133</a></span>
+<a name="THROUGH_THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_STORM_3763" id="THROUGH_THE_NIGHT_AND_THE_STORM_3763"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>THROUGH THE NIGHT AND THE STORM</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth did not really know what to think of Roberto, the Gypsy boy.</p>
+
+<p>His push, as he passed her, had been most rude, but his whispered words
+seemed a promise of friendship. He did not look at her again, as he went
+around the encampment. Roberto seemed a privileged character, and it was
+not hard to guess that he was Queen Zelaya's favorite grandchild.</p>
+
+<p>As for the prisoner, she was scarcely spoken to by anybody. She was not
+abused, but she felt her position keenly. Particularly was she ashamed
+of her appearance&mdash;barefooted, bareheaded, and stained until she seemed
+as dark as the Gypsy girls themselves. Ruth thought she looked
+altogether hateful!</p>
+
+<p>"I really would be ashamed to have Tom Cameron see me now," she thought.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she would have been delighted indeed to see Tom! It was in her
+chum's twin brother that she hoped, after all, for escape.</p>
+
+<p>For Roberto, the Gypsy, ignored her completely.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_134" id="pg_134">134</a></span> She feared that his
+whispered words to her, when he first entered the camp, had meant
+nothing after all. Why should she expect him to be different from his
+tribesmen?</p>
+
+<p>The Gypsies fed her well and allowed her to wander about the camp as she
+pleased. There were two sentinels set to watch the northern and southern
+shores of the lake. Nobody could approach the island without being
+observed and warning given to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had lost hope of anybody coming to the encampment in search of her,
+for the present. The constable had doubtless been sent by Tom Cameron,
+and he would report that there was nobody but Gypsies in the camp.
+Nobody but her immediate friends would distinguish Ruth from a Gypsy
+now.</p>
+
+<p>If Helen had found Tom, the situation could not be changed much for
+Ruth&mdash;and the latter realized that. Mr. Cameron and Uncle Jabez would
+have to be communicated with, before a general alarm could be sent out
+and detectives put on the case.</p>
+
+<p>By that time, where would the girl from the Red Mill be?</p>
+
+<p>This question was no easy one to answer. Ruth did not believe the
+Gypsies would remain on this island for any length of time. Queen Zelaya
+was doubtless shrewd enough to plan a long jump next time, and so throw
+off pursuit.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_135" id="pg_135">135</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Indeed, all the next day the girl could do little but worry about her
+own situation, and about Helen's fate. The last she had seen of her
+chum, she had been drifting out into the middle of this lake. Suppose
+the punt had sprung a leak, or capsized?</p>
+
+<p>Clouds gathered that day, and the second evening on the island closed
+with a steady, fine rain falling. The encampment was quiet early. Even
+the dogs found shelter from the wet, but Ruth had every reason to
+believe that the Gypsy men took turns in guarding the encampment.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was made to sleep in Queen Zelaya's van, and as soon as it had
+become real dark, the old woman made her enter. In her rags of clothing,
+Ruth was not afraid of a little rain&mdash;surely she had on nothing that
+would be spoiled by the wet; but she had to obey the old hag.</p>
+
+<p>At supper time Roberto brought the bowls of savory stew that usually
+made up that meal for the Gypsies. There were three bowls on the tray
+and the boy gave Ruth a sharp side glance and pointed to a certain bowl.
+She dared not refuse to take it.</p>
+
+<p>When he approached his grandmother at the other end of the van, he
+removed his own bowl before setting the tray upon the box beside her.
+Ruth hesitated to eat her own portion; she had been afraid of being
+drugged from the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, somehow, she could not help feeling confidence
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_136" id="pg_136">136</a></span> in Roberto. The
+latter ate his supper with gusto, talking all the while with the old
+woman. But he went away without a word or look at Ruth after the meal.</p>
+
+<p>Soon Zelaya made her go to bed. Ruth was not sleepy, but she appeared to
+go to sleep almost at once, as she had before. She lay down in all the
+clothing she wore, for she was apprehensive of something happening on
+this night. She saw that the old woman was very drowsy herself.</p>
+
+<p>Appearing to sleep, Ruth waited and watched. The storm whined in the
+trees of the island, but there was no other noise.</p>
+
+<p>Zelaya was at the locked box again, and she soon drew forth her
+treasure-casket. She fondled the collar of pearls as she had on the
+first night Ruth had slept in the van.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was watching for that evil face at the window again. For a
+moment she thought she saw it, but then she recognized that it was
+Roberto's handsome face against the wet pane.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Ruth realized that the old woman had fallen asleep over her box
+of valuables. The girl was confident that there had been a drugged bowl
+at supper time, but <i>she</i> had not eaten of it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little noise at the door&mdash;ever so slight. The handle turned,
+and Roberto's head was thrust in. He nodded at Ruth as though he were
+sure she was not asleep, and then creeping up the steps, he gazed at his
+grandmother.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_137" id="pg_137">137</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There could be no doubt that she was sound asleep! He slipped in and
+closed the door. At first he did not say a word to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Zelaya's side and shook her lightly. She did not awake. As
+though she were a child, the strong youth lifted her and placed her in
+the bed. Then he locked the small box, put the key again around Zelaya's
+neck, and lowered the treasure box into the chest. The padlock of this
+he snapped and then turned cheerfully to the watchful Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" he whispered. "Missy not afraid of Roberto? Come!"</p>
+
+<p>No. Ruth was <i>not</i> afraid of him. She rose quickly and preceded him, as
+he directed by a gesture, out of the door of the van. There was neither
+light nor sound in the whole camp.</p>
+
+<p>Once they were free, Roberto seized the girl's hand and led her through
+the darkness and the rain. Ruth's tender feet stumbled painfully over
+the rough ground, but the boy was not impatient.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed to know his way in the dark by instinct. Certainly, Ruth could
+scarcely see her hand before her face!</p>
+
+<p>However, it was not long before she realized that they had come out upon
+the shore of the island. There was a vast, empty-looking place before
+them, which Ruth knew must be the open lake.</p>
+
+<p>Where the sentinels had gone, she could not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_138" id="pg_138">138</a></span> guess, unless Roberto had
+managed to drug <i>them</i>, too!</p>
+
+<p>However, there was not a word said, save when Roberto led her down, to
+the water and she felt it lave her feet. Then he muttered, in a low
+tone:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fear, little Missy."</p>
+
+<p>As they waded deeper and deeper into the lake, following as she supposed
+the track by which the wagons had come to the island, Ruth <i>was</i> more
+than a little frightened. Yet she would not show Roberto it was so.</p>
+
+<p>Once she whispered to him: "I can swim, Roberto."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! But I will carry you," and he suddenly stooped, slung her across
+his shoulder as though she had been a feather-weight, and marched on
+through the water.</p>
+
+<p>It was plain that the Gypsy boy knew this ford better than the drivers
+of the vans, for he found no spot that he could not wade through and
+carry Ruth, as well. It was nearly an hour before they reached the land.</p>
+
+<p>The rain beat upon them and the wind soughed in the trees. It seemed to
+get darker and darker, yet Roberto never hesitated for direction, and
+setting Ruth down upon her own feet, helped her on till they came to a
+well-traveled road.</p>
+
+<p>Not far ahead was a light. Ruth knew at once
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_139" id="pg_139">139</a></span> that it was a lamp shining
+through the windows of some farmhouse kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"There they will take you in," Roberto said. "They are kind people. I am
+sorry I could not bring away your own clothes and your bag. But it could
+not be, Missy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you have been so good to me, Roberto!" she cried, seizing both of
+his hands. "However can I thank you&mdash;or repay you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be too hard on Gypsy&mdash;on my old grandmother. She is old and she
+is a miser. She thought she could make your friends pay her money. But
+now we will all leave here in the morning and you shall never be
+troubled by us again."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do nothing to punish her, Roberto," promised Ruth. "But I hope I
+shall see you at the Red Mill some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps&mdash;who knows?" returned the youth, with a smile that she could
+see in the dark, his teeth were so white. "Now run to the door and
+knock. When I see it opened and you go in, I will return."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding did as she was bidden. She entered the gate, mounted the
+porch, and rapped upon the kitchen door. The moment she looked into the
+motherly face of the woman who answered her knock, the girl knew that
+her troubles were over.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_140" id="pg_140">140</a></span>
+<a name="OFF_FOR_SCHOOL_AGAIN_3954" id="OFF_FOR_SCHOOL_AGAIN_3954"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>OFF FOR SCHOOL AGAIN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was much bustle about the old Red Mill. The first tang of frost
+was in the air, and September was lavishly painting the trees and bushes
+along the banks of the Lumano with crimson and yellow.</p>
+
+<p>A week had elapsed since Ruth and Helen had been prisoners in the
+Gypsies' encampment, up in the hills. That week had been crowded with
+excitement and adventure for the chums and Tom Cameron. They would all
+three have much to talk about regarding the Gypsies and their ways, for
+weeks to come.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Ike Cameron had roused up the County Sheriff and all his minions,
+before Ruth appeared at Severn Corners, driven by the kindly farmer to
+whose door Roberto had brought her through the darkness and rain.</p>
+
+<p>Constable Peck, having searched the Gypsy camp, believed that Ruth must
+have escaped from the Romany people at the same time as Helen.
+Therefore, it was not until Ruth's complete story was told, that actual
+pursuit of the Gypsies by the county authorities was begun.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_141" id="pg_141">141</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then Queen Zelaya and her band were not only out of the county, but out
+of the state, as well. They had hurried across the border, and it was
+understood that the tribe had gone south&mdash;as they usually did in the
+winter&mdash;and would be seen no more in New York State&mdash;at least not until
+the next spring.</p>
+
+<p>The three friends had much to tell wherever they went during this
+intervening week. They had had a fine time at "Uncle Ike's," but every
+adventure they had was tame in comparison to those they had experienced
+on the road overlooking Long Lake.</p>
+
+<p>They wondered what had become of Roberto&mdash;if he had returned to his
+people and risked being accused of letting Ruth escape. Ruth discussed
+this point with her friends; but one thing she had never mentioned to
+either Helen, or her brother Tom.</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak to them of the wonderful pearl necklace she had seen
+in the old Gypsy queen's possession. There was a mystery about that; she
+believed Zelaya must have stolen it. The man with the wicked face had
+intimated that it was part of some plunder the Gypsies had secured.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Ruth and Helen&mdash;and Tom as well&mdash;were ready to start for school
+again. This was the last morning for some time to come, that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_142" id="pg_142">142</a></span> Ruth would
+look out of her little bedroom window at the Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>She always left the beautiful place with regret. She had come to love
+old Aunt Alvirah so much, and have such a deep affection and pity for
+the miserly miller, that the joy of going back to Briarwood was well
+tempered with remorse.</p>
+
+<p>The night before, Uncle Jabez had come to Ruth, when she was alone, and
+thrust a roll of coin in her hand. "Ye'll want some ter fritter away as
+us'al, Niece Ruth," he had said in his most snarling tone.</p>
+
+<p>When she looked at it, her heart beat high. There were five ten-dollar
+gold pieces!</p>
+
+<p>It was given in an ungrateful way, yet the girl of the Red Mill believed
+her uncle meant to be kind after all. The very thought of giving up
+possession of so much money made him cranky. Perhaps he was determined
+to give her these fifty dollars on the very day they had been wrecked on
+the Lumano. No wonder he had been so cross all this time!</p>
+
+<p>It was Uncle Jabez's way. As Aunt Alvirah said, he could not help it. At
+least, he had never learned to make any effort to cure this unfortunate
+niggardliness that made him seem so unkind.</p>
+
+<p>"I do wish I had a lot of money," she told Aunt Alvirah, with a sigh. "I
+would never have to ask him to pay out a cent again. I could refuse
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_143" id="pg_143">143</a></span> to
+take this that he has given me and then I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, tut, my pretty! don't say that," said the little old woman,
+soothingly. "It does him good to put his hand in his pocket&mdash;it does,
+indeed. If it is a sad wrench for him ter git it out ag'in&mdash;all the
+better!" and she chuckled a little as she lowered herself into her
+rocker. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye don't understand yer uncle's nater like I do, Ruthie. You bein' his
+charge has been the salvation of him&mdash;yes, it has! Don't worry when he
+gives ye money; it's all thet keeps his old heart from freezin' right up
+solid."</p>
+
+<p>Now the Cameron automobile was at the gate, and Helen and Tom were
+calling to Ruth to hurry. Ben had taken her trunk to the Cheslow station
+the day before. Ruth appeared with her new handbag (the Gypsies had the
+old one), flung her arms about Aunt Alvirah's neck as she sat on the
+porch, and then ran swiftly to the door of the mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle! I'm going!" she called into the brown dusk of the place.</p>
+
+<p>He came slowly to the door. His gray, grim face was unlighted by even an
+attempt at a smile, as he shook hands with her.</p>
+
+<p>"I know ye'll be a good gal," he said, sourly. "Ye allus be. But be
+savin' with&mdash;with all thet
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_144" id="pg_144">144</a></span> money I gave ye. It's enough to be the
+ruination of a young gal to hev so much."</p>
+
+<p>He repented of his gift, she knew. Yet she remembered what Aunt Alvirah
+had said, and refrained from handing it back to him. She determined,
+however, if she could, to never touch the five gold pieces, and some
+time, when she was self-supporting, she would hand the very same coins
+back to him!</p>
+
+<p>This was in her thought as she moved away. So, on this occasion, Ruth
+Fielding did not leave the Red Mill with a very happy feeling at her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>The automobile sped away along the shady road into Cheslow. At the
+station Mercy Curtis, the lame girl, was awaiting them, although it was
+still some time before the train was due that would bear them away to
+Lake Osago.</p>
+
+<p>When it <i>did</i> steam into view and come to a slow stop beside the
+platform, there was Heavy Stone and The Fox with their hands out of the
+windows, shouting to them. They had secured two seats facing each other,
+and Ruth and Mercy joined them, while Tom and Helen took the seat
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Such a chattering as there was! The fleshy girl and Mary Cox had not
+seen Ruth and Helen and Mercy since they had all returned from the
+Steeles' summer home at Sunrise Farm, and you may believe there was
+plenty to talk about.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_145" id="pg_145">145</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who else is here?" demanded Ruth, standing up to search the length of
+the car for familiar faces.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out, Miss!" cried Heavy, producing her first joke of the fall
+term. "Remember Lot's wife!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness me! how ignorant you are&mdash;and you took chemistry last year,
+too," declared Jennie Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;don't&mdash;just&mdash;see," admitted Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say you don't know what two-fold chemical change Lot's wife
+underwent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give it up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," giggled Heavy, "first she turned to rubber, and then she turned
+to salt!"</p>
+
+<p>When the crowd had shown their appreciation, The Fox said:</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to pick up an Infant at Maxwell. Heard about her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Who is she?" asked Helen. "Not that Infants interest me much now.
+We can let the juniors take them in hand. Remember, girls, we are
+full-fledged seniors this year."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have an interest in this new girl," said Miss Cox, with
+assurance.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is Nettie Parsons. You know her father is the big sugar man. He has
+oodles of money!"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_146" id="pg_146">146</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lot's of sugar, eh?" chuckled Heavy. "Hope she'll bring some to school
+with her. I have a sweet tooth, I hope you know."</p>
+
+<p>"A tooth! a whole set of sweet teeth, you mean!" cried Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope she is nice. I don't care how much money she has," said
+Helen, smiling. "We won't hold her wealth up against her, if she's the
+right sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not fooling," said The Fox, rather sharply, for she had a short
+temper, "to match her red hair," as Heavy said. "She'll probably bring
+trunks full of nice dresses to school and loads of jewelry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Won't that be silly? For Mrs. Tellingham won't let her wear them."</p>
+
+<p>"Only on state and date occasions," put in Mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate, her folks have splendid things. Why! don't you remember
+about her aunt losing that be-a-utiful necklace last spring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Necklace?" repeated Ruth. "What sort of a necklace?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of the finest pearl collars in the world, they say. Worth maybe
+fifty thousand dollars. Wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>"A pearl necklace?" queried the girl from the Red Mill, her interest
+growing.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_147" id="pg_147">147</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How careless of her!" said Heavy, with a yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Silly!" exclaimed The Fox. "It was stolen, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom?" demanded Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if the police knew that, they'd get back the necklace, wouldn't
+they?" demanded Mary Cox, with scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"But I didn't know&mdash;they might suspect?" suggested Ruth, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"They do. Gypsies."</p>
+
+<p>"Gypsies!" cried Ruth and Helen together. And then the latter began:
+"Oh, girls! listen to what happened to Ruth and me only a week ago!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a bit, dear," broke in Ruth. "Let us know a little more about the
+lost necklace. Why do they think the Gypsies took it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you," said The Fox. "You see, this aunt of Nettie's is very,
+very rich. She comes from California, and she was on to visit the
+Parsons last spring.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a tribe of Gypsies camping near the Parsons estate. They all
+went over to have their fortunes told&mdash;just for a lark, you know. It was
+after dinner one evening, and there was company. Nettie's Aunt Rachel
+had dressed her best, and she wore the necklace to the Gypsy camp.</p>
+
+<p>"That very night the Parsons' house was robbed. Not much was taken
+except the aunt's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_148" id="pg_148">148</a></span> jewel-box and some money she had in her desk. The
+robbers were frightened away before they could go to any of the other
+suites.</p>
+
+<p>"The next day the Gypsies had left their encampment, too. Of course,
+there was nothing to connect the robbery with the Gyps., save
+circumstantial evidence. The police didn't find either the Gypsies or
+the necklace. But Aunt Rachel offered five thousand dollars' reward for
+the return of the pearls."</p>
+
+<p>"Just think of that!" gasped Helen. "Five thousand dollars. My, Ruthie!
+wouldn't you like to win <i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I would," returned her chum, with longing.</p>
+
+<p>"But I guess the Gypsies <i>we</i> were mixed up with never owned a pearl
+necklace like that. They didn't look as though they had anything but the
+gaily colored rags they stood in&mdash;and their horses."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about Gypsies?" asked The Fox.</p>
+
+<p>"A whole lot," cried Helen. "Let me tell you," and she proceeded to
+repeat the story of their adventure with Queen Zelaya and her tribe.
+Ruth said nothing during the story; her mind was busy with the mystery
+of the missing necklace.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_149" id="pg_149">149</a></span>
+<a name="GETTING_INTO_HARNESS_4208" id="GETTING_INTO_HARNESS_4208"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>GETTING INTO HARNESS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nettie Parsons proved to be a very sweet, quiet girl, when she came
+aboard the train at Maxwell. She was rather older than the majority of
+girls who entered Briarwood Hall as "Infants." It seemed that she had
+suffered considerable illness and that had made her backward in her
+books.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! She'll be company for Ann Hicks," said Helen. "Won't that
+be fine? Neither of them will feel so badly, then, because they are in
+the lower classes."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll get the Sweetbriars to make her feel at home," said Ruth, to her
+chum. "No hazing this term, girlie! Let's welcome the newcomers like
+friends and sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, my dear," agreed Helen. "We haven't forgotten what they did to
+<i>us</i>, when we first landed at Briarwood Hall."</p>
+
+<p>When the train ran down to the dock where they were to take the
+steamboat <i>Lanawaxa</i> for the other side of the lake, there was a crowd
+of a dozen or more girls in waiting. A welcoming shout greeted Ruth as
+she headed the party from the vestibule coach:
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_150" id="pg_150">150</a></span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;">"S. B.&mdash;Ah-h h!<br />
+S. B.&mdash;Ah-h-h!<br />
+Sound our battle-cry<br />
+Near and far!<br />
+S. B.&mdash;All!<br />
+Briarwood Hall!<br />
+Sweetbriars, do or die&mdash;<br />
+This be our battle-cry&mdash;<br />
+Briarwood Hall!<br />
+<i>That's All!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Every girl present belonged to the now famous school society, and Nettie
+Parsons was interested right away. She wished to know all about it, and
+how to join, and of course she was referred to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>In this way the girl of the Red Mill and the new pupil became better
+acquainted, and Ruth found opportunity very soon to ask Nettie about the
+pearl necklace that her Aunt Rachel had lost some months before.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the girls, with their hand luggage, trooped down the long
+dock to the <i>Lanawaxa's</i> boarding-plank. Heavy Stone turned suddenly in
+the hot sunshine (for it was a glowing noon) to find two of the smaller
+girls mincing along in her very footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>"I say! what are you two Infants following me so closely for?" she
+demanded.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_151" id="pg_151">151</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Please, Miss," giggled one of them, "mother told me to take Sadie for a
+nice long walk, but to be sure and keep her in the shade!"</p>
+
+<p>This delighted the other girls immensely, for it was not often that
+anybody got ahead of the plump girl. She was too good-natured to take
+offense, however, and only grinned at them.</p>
+
+<p>They all crowded aboard and sought seats on the upper deck of the
+steamer. Tom had met some of his friends who attended the Seven Oaks
+Military Academy, among them big Bob Steele and little Isadore Phelps.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the boys joined the girls, and necessary introductions were
+made. Before the <i>Lanawaxa</i> pulled out of the dock, they were all having
+great fun.</p>
+
+<p>"But how we will miss Madge!" was the general cry of the older girls,
+for Bobbins' sister no longer attended Briarwood Hall, and her absence
+would be felt indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Not being under the immediate eye of his sharp-tongued sister, Bobbins
+showed his preference for Mercy Curtis, and spent a good deal of time at
+the lame girl's side. He was so big and she was so slight and delicate,
+that they made rather an odd-looking pair.</p>
+
+<p>However, Bobbins enjoyed her sharp tongue and withstood her raillery.
+She called him "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" and made believe that she was very
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_152" id="pg_152">152</a></span> much
+afraid of him; yet it was noticeable that there was no venom in the
+sharp speeches the lame girl addressed to her big cavalier&mdash;and Mercy
+Curtis could be most unmerciful if she so desired!</p>
+
+<p>Soon they were on the train again, and a short run to the Seven Oaks
+station, where the red brick barracks of the Military School frowned
+down upon the railroad from the heights above.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't go to school in such an ugly place," declared the girls.</p>
+
+<p>Here is where they separated from their boy friends. A great, ramshackle
+bus, and another vehicle, were waiting at the end of the platform. An
+old man in a long duster stood beside the bus to help the girls in and
+see to their baggage. This was "Uncle Noah" Dolliver.</p>
+
+<p>At once The Fox formed the girls into line, and keeping step to the
+march, they tramped the length of the platform, singing:</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Uncle Noah, he built an ark&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And in it we have many a lark&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">One wide river!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">One wide river of Jordan!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">One wide river!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">One wide river to cross!</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_153" id="pg_153">153</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The Sweetbriars get in, one by one&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The last in line is Heavy Stone&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!"</span></p>
+
+<p>And the plump girl <i>was</i> the last one to pop into the ancient equipage,
+filling the very last seat&mdash;<i>tight</i>!</p>
+
+<p>"Lucky you brought along another wagon, Uncle Noah," said The Fox, as
+the remainder of the girls ran to the second vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>Both of the wagons soon started. It was a hot and dusty afternoon and
+the girls were really crowded.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm squeezed in so tight I can't think," moaned Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Ouch!" cried Belle Tingley. "That's my funny-bone you hit, Lluella,
+with your handbag. Oh! how funny it feels."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever know why they call that thing in your elbow the funny
+bone?" asked Heavy, mighty serious.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Belle, rubbing the elbow vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's what makes folks 'laugh in their sleeves,'" chuckled the
+plump girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me! isn't she smart?" groaned Lluella.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost as smart as my Cousin Bill," said The Fox, breaking into the
+conversation. "He won't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_154" id="pg_154">154</a></span> be called 'Willie' and he'll answer only to
+'Bill,' or 'William.'</p>
+
+<p>"'William,' said the teacher one day to him in school, 'spell "ibex."'</p>
+
+<p>"Bill jumps up and begins: 'I-b&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Stop! stop, William!' cries the teacher. 'Where did you learn such
+grammar? Always say, "I am."'</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know," chuckled Mary, "Bill sat down and gave up spelling
+the word&mdash;and he doesn't know how to spell 'ibex' yet!"</p>
+
+<p>The sun had set, when they got out at the end of the Cedar Walk. Ruth,
+who had sat beside Nettie Parsons, went with her to the principal's
+office and introduced her to Mrs. Grace Tellingham.</p>
+
+<p>Later Ruth joined her chums in the old West Dormitory. There were two
+quartette rooms side by side, in which were hatched most of the fun and
+good times that happened at Briarwood Hall. In one were Ruth, Helen,
+Mercy, and Ann Hicks, the girl from the west. The other had long been
+the room of The Fox, Heavy, Belle Tingley, and Lluella Fairfax.</p>
+
+<p>Ann Hicks, right from Silver Ranch, was on hand to greet Ruth and the
+others, she having arrived at Briarwood the day before. She brought
+greetings from her Uncle Bill, Bashful Ike and his Sally.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_155" id="pg_155">155</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The crowd quieted down at last. The last guilty shadows stole from room
+to room, and finally every girl sought her own bed. Ruth and Helen
+shared one of the big beds in their room, but they did not go to sleep
+at once. They could hear the quiet breathing of Mercy and Ann, but the
+chum's eyes were still wide open.</p>
+
+<p>"That Nettie Parsons is a much nicer girl than I expected," whispered
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"That is something I want to talk with you about," said Ruth, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nettie Parsons. At least, something about her Aunt Rachel."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! the necklace," laughed Helen. "Are you really interested in it,
+Ruth?"</p>
+
+<p>"She offered five thousand dollars' reward for it," continued Ruth,
+breathlessly. "She really did. And the reward still stands."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Ruthie!" exclaimed Helen, astonished. "Do you mean to say&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"This is what I mean to say," said Ruth, with energy. "I mean that I'd
+love to win that reward. I believe I know what has become of the pearl
+necklace. In fact, Helen, I am very sure that I have seen the
+necklace."</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_156" id="pg_156">156</a></span>
+<a name="CAN_IT_BE_POSSIBLE_4405" id="CAN_IT_BE_POSSIBLE_4405"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth was thinking a great deal&mdash;it must be confessed!&mdash;about money
+during the first days of this new term at Briarwood Hall, and yet she
+was not naturally of a mercenary nature. Nor was she alone in this, for
+the advent of Nettie Parsons into the school quite turned the heads of
+many.</p>
+
+<p>Nettie Parsons was the first multi-millionaire's daughter who had ever
+come to Briarwood Hall. Most of the girls' parents were well-to-do;
+otherwise they could not have afforded to pay the tuition fees, for Mrs.
+Grace Tellingham's institution was of considerable importance on the
+roster of boarding schools.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the girls' parents, like Helen Cameron's father, were really
+wealthy. But Mr. Parsons was way above that! And with a certain class
+the mere fact of money <i>as</i> money, is cause enough for them to kneel
+down and worship!</p>
+
+<p>After a time these "toadies" were disappointed in the daughter of the
+"sugar king." Nettie Parsons was a very commonplace, kindly girl, not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_157" id="pg_157">157</a></span>
+at all brilliant, and dressed more plainly than the majority of the
+girls at Briarwood Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth's thoughts about money were not in the same lines as the thoughts
+of those girls so much interested in Nettie Parsons' riches. She neither
+envied the wealthy girl her possessions, nor desired to be like her.</p>
+
+<p>What Ruth Fielding desired so keenly was independence. She wanted to
+control her own destiny, instead of being so beholden to Uncle Jabez
+Potter for everything. The sting of being an object of charity had
+gotten deeply into Ruth's heart. The old miller had an unfortunate way
+with him, which made the proud girl feel keenly her situation.</p>
+
+<p>There was really no reason at all why the miller should take care of,
+and educate, his niece's child. He was not legally bound to do it. The
+kinship was not close enough for people to really expect Uncle Jabez to
+do all that he had for Ruth Fielding!</p>
+
+<p>There had been times when the girl, through several fortunate
+circumstances, had been of real help to the miller. She had once helped
+recover some money he had lost when the freshet wrecked a part of the
+Red Mill. Again, it was through her that an investment in a mine in
+Montana had proved productive of gain for Uncle Jabez, instead of loss.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_158" id="pg_158">158</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And now, only this summer, she had actually saved the miller's life.</p>
+
+<p>Grudgingly, Uncle Jabez had paid these debts by keeping her at this
+expensive school and furnishing her with clothes and spending money. It
+was plain he had never approved of her being away from the mill during
+vacations, too.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez saw no reason for young people "junketing about" and
+spending so much time in pleasure, as Ruth's friends did. Boys and girls
+learned to work, in his day, between short terms at school. It was all
+so different now, that the old man could not be blamed for
+misunderstanding.</p>
+
+<p>For a girl to look forward to making a name for herself in the world&mdash;to
+have a career&mdash;to really be somebody&mdash;was something of which Uncle Jabez
+(and Aunt Alvirah as well) could not fail to disapprove.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth desired to prepare for college, and in time enter a higher
+institution of learning. She wished, too, to cultivate her voice, and to
+use it in supporting herself later. She knew she could sing; she loved
+it, and the instructors at Briarwood encouraged her in the belief that
+she had a more than ordinarily fine contralto voice.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez did not believe in such things. He would never be willing to
+invest money in making a singer of his niece. Useless to think of it!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_159" id="pg_159">159</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez had said that girls were of little use in the world,
+anyway&mdash;unless they settled down to housekeeping. The times Ruth had
+been of aid to him were, as he said, "just chancey."</p>
+
+<p>It was of the reward for the return of the missing pearl necklace to
+Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel, that the girl of the Red Mill was thinking
+so continually, while the first days of this term at Briarwood slipped
+by. But five thousand dollars would grant Ruth Fielding the independence
+she craved!</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen Cameron had discussed the mystery of the pearl necklace
+in all its bearings&mdash;over and over again. All the "pros" and "cons" in
+the case had "been before the house," as Helen said, and it all came to
+the same answer: Could it be possible that Queen Zelaya, Roberto's
+grandmother, now had in her possession the necklace rightfully the
+property of Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel?</p>
+
+<p>"That is, she had it," said Ruth, believing fully it was so, "if that
+awful man I saw spying on her, has not robbed the old woman and gotten
+away with the necklace. You know how he talked that day in the deserted
+house to the other Gypsy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I do!" exclaimed Helen. "Could I ever forget a single detail of
+that awful time?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_160" id="pg_160">160</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And where are the Gypsies now?" said Ruth, feelingly. "Ah! <i>that</i> is
+the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Ike wrote father that they had been traced some distance toward
+the south," Helen returned, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"The south is a big section of the country," and Ruth wagged her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Father was very angry," said Helen, "that the police did not find them,
+so that the whole tribe could be punished for what they did to us, I
+never saw father so angry before. He declared that the Gypsies should be
+taught a lesson, and that their escape was most inexcusable."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth said nothing, but shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You know the excuse the sheriff and that Constable Peck, at Severn
+Corners, gave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," nodded Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had come right up to the village that night, when Roberto
+brought you to the farmhouse, and told where the camp was, they'd have
+nabbed the whole crowd, before they could have gotten over the state
+line."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>She was remembering Roberto's words as he left her that stormy night in
+sight of her refuge. He had asked not to be too hard on the Gypsies;
+therefore, she had not hurried to lodge information against Queen Zelaya
+and her tribe.</p>
+
+<p>But if she had only known about this pearl
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_161" id="pg_161">161</a></span> necklace! Nettie Parsons had
+described the jewel so clearly that the girl of the Red Mill could not
+for a moment doubt that the necklace in Zelaya's possession was the one
+for which the reward was offered.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what I'll do, if you say the word," Helen said at last,
+seeing that her friend was really so much troubled about the affair.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll write to father. Let me tell him all about you seeing the old
+woman handling the pearls, and then about this necklace that was lost by
+Nettie's aunt. He can advise you, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>So it was agreed. Helen wrote that very day. Inside of a week an answer
+came, and it quite excited Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think?" she demanded of her chum. "Father has business that
+calls him to Lumberton in a few days. He will come here to see us. And
+he says for me to tell you to be sure and say nothing to anybody else
+about the missing necklace until he sees you."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I won't speak of it," replied Ruth. "I am not likely to. Oh,
+dear, Helen! if I could only win the reward that woman offers for the
+return of her necklace!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not many days before Helen received the telegram announcing her
+father's coming to Lumberton, which was the nearest town to Briarwood
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_162" id="pg_162">162</a></span>
+Hall. She showed it to Mrs. Tellingham, and asked that she and Ruth be
+excused from lessons, when Mr. Cameron came, as he wished to drive the
+girls over to see Tom at Seven Oaks.</p>
+
+<p>This was, of course, arranged. Mr. Cameron was a very busy man, and he
+could not spend much time in this visit. But he desired to speak to Ruth
+regarding the mystery of the pearl necklace.</p>
+
+<p>He had hired a pair of spirited horses at Lumberton, and he quite had
+his hands full, as they bowled over the hilly road toward the military
+academy. But he could talk to the girls.</p>
+
+<p>He had Ruth give him every particular of what she had seen at night in
+the Gypsy van, and when she had done so, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have taken the pains to get from the police the description of Mrs.
+Rachel Parsons' missing necklace. It fits your tale exactly, Ruth. Now,
+I tell you what I shall do.</p>
+
+<p>"I will set a detective agency at work. For my own part, I wish to
+overtake this Queen Zelaya, as she calls herself, and punish her for
+what she did to you two girls. If such people go free, it encourages
+them to do worse next time.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if she has the necklace, and we can secure it, all the better. I
+would be glad to see you get that reward, Ruthie. And Helen says you are
+very anxious to win it."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_163" id="pg_163">163</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't be?" gasped Ruth. "Just think of five thousand dollars!"</p>
+
+<p>They were driving through a fine piece of chestnut wood as she said
+this. The blight had not struck these beautiful trees and they hung full
+of the prickly burrs. The frost of the previous night had opened many of
+these, and the brown nuts smiled at once through the openings.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a boy knocking them down!" cried Helen. "Let's stop and get
+some, Father. See them rain down!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a shower of chestnuts fell and a prickly burr landed on
+the back of one of the team. The beast rose on his hind legs and pawed
+the air, snorting.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out!" exclaimed the boy in the tree.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cameron was a good horseman and he had the animals well in hand. The
+boy, however, was so anxious to see what went on below, that he strained
+forward too far. With a scream, and the snap of broken boughs, he
+plunged forward, shot through the leafy-canopy, and landed with a
+sickening thud upon the ground!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cameron had halted the horses dead. Ruth was out of the carriage
+like a flash and dropped on her knees by the boy's side. She was
+horror-stricken and speechless; yet she had made a great discovery as
+the boy fell.</p>
+
+<p>He was Roberto, the Gypsy!</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_164" id="pg_164">164</a></span>
+<a name="HE_CANNOT_TALK_4626" id="HE_CANNOT_TALK_4626"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>HE CANNOT TALK</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Is he badly hurt?" cried Mr. Cameron, who dared not get down and leave
+the horses just then.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell us he is killed, Ruthie!" wailed Helen, clasping her hands
+and unable to leave the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>The Gypsy boy lay very still. One arm was bent under him in such a queer
+position that the girl of the Red Mill knew it must be broken. His olive
+face was pallid, and there was a little blood on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>She dared not move him. She bent down and put her ear to his chest. His
+heart was beating&mdash;he breathed!</p>
+
+<p>"He's alive!" she said, turning to her friends in the carriage. "But I
+am afraid he is badly hurt. At least, one arm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The youth groaned. Ruth turned toward him with a tender little cry. She
+thought his eyelids quivered, but they were not opened.</p>
+
+<p>"What will we do with him? He ought to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_165" id="pg_165">165</a></span> be taken to a hospital. Where's
+the nearest doctor?" asked Mr. Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>"Lumberton," said Ruth, promptly. "And that is the only place where
+there is a hospital around here."</p>
+
+<p>"Back we must go, then," declared Mr. Cameron, promptly. "We sha'n't see
+Master Tom to-day, that's sure. You get out, Helen, and I'll turn
+around."</p>
+
+<p>Helen ran to her friend who still hovered over the boy. At once she
+recognized him.</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness me! Roberto! isn't that strange? Then he did not go south
+with the other Gypsies."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems not&mdash;poor fellow," returned Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose he knows all about the necklace&mdash;how his grandmother
+became possessed of it, and all?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I am sure Roberto is quite honest himself," returned
+Ruth. "He is not a thief like those wicked men who were talking that day
+in the old house, and who seem to have so much influence in the Gypsy
+camp."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care!" exclaimed Helen, warmly. "I am sorry for Roberto. But I
+hope father <i>does</i> send detectives after the Gyps., and that they catch
+and punish that horrid old woman. How mean she was to us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" warned Ruth.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_166" id="pg_166">166</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Roberto gave no sign of returning consciousness now. That puzzled the
+girl of the Red Mill, for she had thought he was just about to come to.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cameron turned the carriage and halted it beside the spot where the
+boy lay. "Of course you two girls can't lift him?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we can!" returned his daughter, promptly. "Oh! Ruth and I
+haven't been doing gym. work for two years for nothing. Just watch us."</p>
+
+<p>"Easy!" murmured Ruth, warningly, as Helen seized the youth's legs.
+"Perhaps he has more than a broken arm."</p>
+
+<p>"But he must be lifted," said Helen. "Come on, now! He isn't conscious,
+and perhaps we can get him into the carriage before he wakes up."</p>
+
+<p>And they did. Roberto did not seem to be conscious, and yet, to Ruth's
+surprise, the color came and went in the boy's cheeks, and his black
+brows knitted a little. It was just as though he <i>were</i> conscious and
+was endeavoring to endure the pain he felt without moaning.</p>
+
+<p>They got him into the carriage in as comfortable a position as possible.
+Ruth sat beside him, while Helen joined her father on the front seat.
+Then the gentleman let the spirited team go, and they dashed off over
+the road toward Lumberton.</p>
+
+<p>At once Helen told her father who the injured
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_167" id="pg_167">167</a></span> youth was. Having heard
+all the details of his young folks' adventures on the road to Bois&eacute;
+Landing, Mr. Cameron knew just who Roberto was, and he saw the
+importance of learning from him, if possible, where his clan had gone.</p>
+
+<p>"We want to know especially what has become of the old woman&mdash;the
+queen," Mr. Cameron said. "I can't help it, if she <i>is</i> the boy's
+grandmother, she is a wicked woman. Besides, we want to get back that
+necklace for Mrs. Parsons."</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it would be impossible for the dry goods merchant to
+remain in Lumberton to watch the case. He had to return that very
+evening, and could not spare the time now to see Tom.</p>
+
+<p>He arranged at the hospital for Roberto to be given every care, and left
+some money with Helen and Ruth for them to purchase little luxuries for
+the boy when he should become convalescent.</p>
+
+<p>He waited until after the doctors had made their examination and learned
+that Roberto not only suffered from a broken arm, but had two ribs
+broken and his right leg badly wrenched.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Cameron wrote a note to Mrs. Tellingham, asking that Helen and Ruth
+might visit the hospital every day or two to see how the patient fared.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," said Ruth, eagerly, "I may get him to talk. Perhaps he has
+deserted his tribe for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_168" id="pg_168">168</a></span> good, and he may help us learn about the
+necklace."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to be very careful in trying to pump the lad," said Mr.
+Cameron, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>He need not have feared on this point, however, as it turned out. The
+very next afternoon Ruth and Helen hurried in to Lumberton to make
+inquiries at the hospital. They saw the head physician and he was
+frankly puzzled about Roberto.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I had had every kind of a case in my experience," said the
+surgeon, "but there's something about this one that puzzles me."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he more hurt than you thought?" cried Ruth, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It seems that we have found all his injuries that are
+apparent. But there is one we cannot reach. Something is the matter with
+his speech."</p>
+
+<p>"His speech?" gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard him speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is not naturally dumb&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dumb?" repeated Helen, in wonderment. "You don't mean that he is dumb?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean just that. It appears that since his fall yesterday, he cannot
+talk at all," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_169" id="pg_169">169</a></span>
+<a name="RUTH_INTERCEDES_4771" id="RUTH_INTERCEDES_4771"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>RUTH INTERCEDES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The two girls did not see Roberto that day, nor for several days
+following. The hospital authorities did not think it best to allow him
+to be excited even in a mild way.</p>
+
+<p>They sent in such delicacies as the nurse said he could have, and Tony
+Foyle was bribed by Helen to get a report from the hospital every day
+about the young Gypsy.</p>
+
+<p>The girls kept very quiet about the patient in the hospital. Their mates
+knew only that Helen and Ruth had been driving with Mr. Cameron when the
+boy fell out of the tree. They did not dream that the victim of the
+accident had any possible connection with the pearl necklace that Nettie
+Parsons' aunt had lost!</p>
+
+<p>Helen kept her father informed of the progress of Roberto's case, and in
+return he wrote Helen that the detectives were confident of reaching old
+Queen Zelaya and her tribe.</p>
+
+<p>"But if we could only get Roberto to talk!" sighed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Ruth Fielding! if the poor fellow has
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_170" id="pg_170">170</a></span> been made speechless by
+that fall, how <i>can</i> he talk?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you believe it is <i>so</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes," admitted Ruth. "Of course, he would have no reason for
+refusing to speak. And they say he has a hard time making them
+understand what he wants, for he doesn't know how to write. Poor fellow!
+I suppose he never realized before, that the art of writing was of any
+use to <i>him</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In a week or so the girls were allowed to go to the ward where Roberto
+lay. Helen carried an armful of good things for the Gypsy lad to eat,
+but Ruth remembered that he had not cared much for delicacies, and she
+carried picture papers and a great armful of brilliant fall
+flowers&mdash;some picked by herself in the woods, and the others begged from
+Tony Foyle.</p>
+
+<p>"Taking flowers to a boy&mdash;pshaw!" scoffed Helen. "Why, that shows you
+have no brother, Ruthie. Tom wouldn't look at flowers when he's sick."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth believed she had made no mistake. When they approached the bed in
+which Roberto lay, he looked very pale indeed, and the expression of
+weariness on his face as he stared out of the distant window, made
+Ruth's heart ache for the captive wild-boy.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_171" id="pg_171">171</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here are visitors for you, Robert," said the kindly nurse.</p>
+
+<p>The big, black eyes of the Gypsy boy rolled toward the two girls. Then
+his face lit up and his eyes sparkled. They were fixed eagerly on the
+mass of brilliant blossoms Ruth carried. She scattered the flowers over
+the coverlet, and Roberto seized some of them, fairly pressing them to
+his lips. He nodded and smiled at the display of Helen's offerings, too,
+but he could not keep his eyes away from the flowers. He had been
+homesick for his beloved woodlands.</p>
+
+<p>He was still in plaster and could not move much. He did his best to make
+the girls understand how welcome they were, but not a sound came from
+his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"A very strange case, indeed," said the doctor in charge, when the girls
+came down from the ward. "There seems to be absolutely no reason why he
+does not speak. Apparently no paralysis of the vocal cords. But
+speechless he is. And as he cannot read or write, it is a nuisance."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't possible that for some reason he doesn't <i>wish</i> to speak?"
+queried Ruth, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Ruth! there you go again!" exclaimed Helen. "I never knew you to
+be so suspicious."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor laughed. "I think not," he said. "Of course, he might, but he
+must be a wonderfully
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_172" id="pg_172">172</a></span> good actor. The next time you come, we shall try
+him."</p>
+
+<p>So on a subsequent call of the two girls at the hospital, the doctor
+entered the ward at the same time they did and likewise approached
+Roberto's bed, only on the opposite side. Ruth had brought more flowers,
+and the boy was evidently delighted.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you can't speak to me, Roberto?" asked Ruth, softly, as he
+nodded and smiled and clasped the flowers to his breast with his one
+good hand.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto shook his head sadly, and his black eyes showed every indication
+of sorrow. But of a sudden he jumped, and a spasm of pain crossed his
+face. The doctor straightened up and Roberto scowled at him wrathfully.
+The boy had not uttered a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"I jabbed him with this needle," said the doctor, with disgust. "You
+see, either he has perfect control over himself; or he absolutely cannot
+speak. While I was setting his arm and fixing up his smashed ribs, he
+only moaned a little."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Helen had gasped, looking at the medical man in some wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do it again&mdash;not for <i>me</i>," urged Ruth. "I am sorry I said
+anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he isn't seriously injured by <i>that</i>," said the surgeon, holding up
+the needle. "But I do not think he is 'playing possum.'"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_173" id="pg_173">173</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It isn't possible!" exclaimed Helen, confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"And how long must he lie here?" Ruth asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, in a fortnight he'll be as fine as a fiddle. Of course, he won't be
+able to use his arm much for several weeks. But the ribs will knit all
+right. Maybe he can find some light job&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about <i>that</i>," Helen interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see you young ladies are much interested in him," chuckled the
+doctor. "And not entirely because he is a handsome, black-eyed rascal,
+eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth knew that old Tony Foyle, the gardener at Briarwood Hall, was
+interested in the lad. He had gone up to the ward to see Roberto several
+times, and came away enthusiastic in the Gypsy's praise.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," said Tony, to Ruth, "he's jist the bye after me hear-r-t.
+Herself would like him, he's that doomb!"</p>
+
+<p>"Herself" was Tony's wife, who was the cook at Briarwood Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"And the way that boy do be lovin' flowers! Sure, his bed in the
+horspital is jest covered wid 'em. He'd be a handy lad to have here ter
+give me aid, so he would. An' I been tellin' Mis' Tellingham that I need
+another helper."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll get him the job, Tony!" cried Ruth, in delight. "I believe he
+would like to help around your hothouse and the beds. I'll see."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_174" id="pg_174">174</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She interceded with the principal for Roberto, and obtained her promise
+that the Gypsy boy should have the job. Then she sounded Roberto
+himself, and by the way his eyes lit up and he smiled and nodded, Ruth
+knew he would be delighted to be Tony Foyle's assistant.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," thought Ruth, "I can keep in sight of him for a time.
+Perhaps he couldn't tell us, anyway, where Queen Zelaya has hidden
+herself. But I believe he knows, and I haven't much faith in the results
+those detectives get."</p>
+
+<p>Roberto mended rapidly. He was soon up and about the ward, when the
+girls called. He was less restless than Ruth expected him to be, and he
+still signified his intention of coming to help the little old Irish
+gardener at Briarwood Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"When he recovers his powers of speech," said the doctor, "it will be as
+suddenly as he lost them. No doubt of that. But it is a most puzzling
+case. I am glad he is not going far from Lumberton. I want to watch the
+progress of the affair."</p>
+
+<p>The next day Roberto came to Briarwood.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_175" id="pg_175">175</a></span>
+<a name="A_GREAT_TEMPTATION_4938" id="A_GREAT_TEMPTATION_4938"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>A GREAT TEMPTATION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>About this time Ruth suffered a great temptation. She was so little
+given to covetousness or envy, that other girls of her class might have
+dresses, jewelry, and many other things dear to girlish hearts, without
+Ruth's being at all disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Her one great, overmastering passion was for Independence! She envied
+none of her mates anything but <i>that</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now she fell under temptation, and this was the way of it: Ruth belonged
+to the picked class that the physical instructor had chosen for
+exhibition gymnasium work at the mid-winter entertainment. This year
+there were to be important visitors at the school, and Mrs. Tellingham
+wished to make the occasion a more than ordinarily successful
+entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>The class of twenty girls, selected from the best of the seniors and
+juniors, was to drill, dance, and go through other gymnastic exercises.
+And it was agreed among them that each girl should
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_176" id="pg_176">176</a></span> have a brand new
+costume, although this was no suggestion of either the teacher or Mrs.
+Tellingham.</p>
+
+<p>The class invented this idea itself. It was agreed&mdash;nineteen in favor,
+at least&mdash;to appear at the entertainment in a brand new outfit. And how
+could Ruth say "No?"</p>
+
+<p>Every girl in the class but herself had only to write home for money and
+order the uniform. As it chanced, Ruth had plenty of money to pay for a
+costume. Helen, who was one of the number, knew Ruth had that fifty
+dollars in gold that Uncle Jabez had given the girl of the Red Mill the
+day she left home.</p>
+
+<p>This was the temptation: Ruth had promised herself never to use that
+money. She had a small sum left from her vacation money, and she was
+making that do for incidentals, until she could earn more in some way.
+She was already tutoring both Nettie Parsons and Ann Hicks in their more
+advanced textbooks, and they were paying her small sums for this help.</p>
+
+<p>But she could not earn enough in this way&mdash;nor in any other&mdash;to buy the
+new gymnasium costume. And there were the five ten-dollar gold pieces
+lying in a little jeweler's box in the bottom of her trunk.</p>
+
+<p>She went with Helen to the dressmaker in Lumberton, when Helen ordered
+<i>her</i> new costume.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_177" id="pg_177">177</a></span> "Why don't you let her fit you now, too, Ruth?"
+demanded Miss Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is plenty of time. Let us see first how well she makes
+yours," Ruth returned, with a forced laugh.</p>
+
+<p>She knew she could not wear her usual costume with the picked class
+without looking odd. The girls had decided on crimson trimming on the
+blue skirt and blouse, instead of the regulation white. Nineteen girls
+with crimson bands and one with white&mdash;and that soiled!&mdash;would look odd
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>It would fairly spoil the picture, Ruth knew. She was worried because of
+this, for she did not want to make her mates look ridiculous. Never had
+Ruth Fielding been so uncertain about any question since she had been
+old enough to decide for herself.</p>
+
+<p>She was really so troubled that her recitation marks were not as high as
+they should have been. The teachers began to question her, for Ruth
+Fielding's course at Briarwood had been a triumphant one from the start!</p>
+
+<p>"You are not ill, Miss Fielding?" asked Miss Gould. "I am surprised to
+find that you are going below your past averages. What is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I do not know, Miss Gould," declared Ruth. Yet she feared
+that the reply was not strictly truthful. She <i>did</i> know; night and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_178" id="pg_178">178</a></span> day
+she was worrying about the new gymnasium costume.</p>
+
+<p>Should she order one, or should she not? Could she buy a little of the
+crimson ribbon and put it on her old uniform and thus pass muster? What
+would the girls say, if she did that?</p>
+
+<p>And what would they say if she appeared at the exhibition in her old
+costume? Was she purely selfish in trying to get out of buying the new
+dress? Was her reason for not wishing to break into that roll of coin a
+bad one, after all?</p>
+
+<p>Those questions kept coming to Ruth Fielding, and got between her and
+her books. Mrs. Tellingham called her into the office early in October
+and pointed out to her that, unless her averages increased, her standing
+in her class would be greatly changed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are doing no outside work, Miss Fielding?" inquired the principal.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you are helping two of the other girls&mdash;in a perfectly
+legitimate way, of course. It is not taking too much out of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, dear Mrs. Tellingham!" cried Ruth, fearful that her tutoring
+would be forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not working too hard in the gym.?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so," stammered Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>this</i> is ridiculous," said Mrs. Tellingham, with a smile. "I do
+not think there is a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_179" id="pg_179">179</a></span> more robust looking girl in my school. But, there
+must be something."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not know what it is? If you do, tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"I study just as hard, Mrs. Tellingham," said Ruth, non-committally. "I
+spend quite as much thought over my books. Really, I think I shall do
+better again."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so. I do not want to see any bright girl like you fall behind.
+There is always some reason for such changes, but sometimes we teachers
+have hard work to get at it. I want all my girls to have confidence in
+me and to tell me if anything goes wrong with them."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Ma'am," said Ruth, guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>But she could not take the principal of Briarwood Hall into her
+confidence&mdash;she positively could <i>not</i> do it! How ridiculous it would
+seem to the dignified Mrs. Grace Tellingham that she did not dip into
+the money her uncle had given her to buy that costume!</p>
+
+<p>And she was losing her standing, and worrying everybody who cared,
+because of this temptation. She knew she was doing wrong in falling
+behind in her studies.</p>
+
+<p>Surely <i>that</i> was not the way to give Uncle Jabez the best return
+possible for his investment. If she fell back in her books this year,
+Ruth knew
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_180" id="pg_180">180</a></span> she would never be able to make it up. She must either be
+prepared for college half a year later, or skip some work that would be
+found wanting at a later time&mdash;would be a thorn in her flesh, indeed,
+for the remainder of her school life.</p>
+
+<p>One hour Ruth told herself that she would be decisive&mdash;she would be
+brave&mdash;she would not move in her determination to keep the fifty dollars
+intact. And then, the next hour, her heart would sink, as she looked
+forward to what would be said and thought by her companions when the
+exhibition day came around and she appeared in her old suit.</p>
+
+<p>She thought seriously of trying to withdraw in season from the
+exhibition class. But unfortunately she could not easily do that. The
+instructor had selected the twenty girls herself, and what excuse&mdash;what
+honest excuse&mdash;could Ruth give for demanding her release?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me!" she thought, tossing on her pillow at night, "if I could
+only be the means of returning that necklace to Mrs. Parsons! My
+troubles would all be over for sure.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Cameron's detectives will <i>never</i> find that old Queen Zelaya, but I
+bet Roberto knows just where she has gone for the winter."</p>
+
+<p>With this in mind she tried again and again to get some information out
+of Tony Foyle's new helper. Roberto always had a smile for her, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_181" id="pg_181">181</a></span>
+seemed willing enough to try to make signs about anything and everything
+but his tribe and his grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>And so smart was he that his gestures were very understandable indeed,
+when he wished to give information about the new work that he loved, and
+about the fall flowers and bulbs which were being taken up for storage
+in the conservatory against the cold of winter.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed strange&mdash;indeed, it made Ruth suspicious&mdash;that Roberto could
+convey his meaning so easily by gesture when the subject was not one
+regarding the missing Gypsies!</p>
+
+<p>Again and again the thought came to the girl that the Gypsy boy was
+actually "playing possum." Knowing, perhaps, that he would be questioned
+about his grandmother, and not wishing to give information about her or
+her tribe, he had decided to become dumb.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, if this was so, how wonderfully well he did it! Even the doctor at
+the hospital could not understand the case.</p>
+
+<p>Roberto's condition certainly was puzzling. And Ruth believed that he
+held the clew to the whereabouts of Queen Zelaya and the pearl necklace.
+That being the case, he stood between Ruth and that great reward which
+the girl of the Red Mill was so anxious to win.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_182" id="pg_182">182</a></span>
+<a name="NETTIE_PARSONS_FEAST_5126" id="NETTIE_PARSONS_FEAST_5126"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>NETTIE PARSONS' FEAST</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Incidentally there was as much fun going on at Briarwood Hall as usual
+this fall, but Ruth Fielding did not entirely enjoy any of the frolics
+in which she necessarily had a part.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the Sweetbriar organization was all that really interested
+her in this line. Several new girls who entered the school in September
+who were old enough, joined the association, besides others who were
+advanced from the lower classes.</p>
+
+<p>It was an honor&mdash;and was so considered by all&mdash;to be invited to become a
+Sweetbriar. Within the association was much innocent entertainment.
+Picnics, musicals, evening parties approved by the school faculty&mdash;even
+little feasts after curfew&mdash;were hatched within the membership.</p>
+
+<p>Nettie Parsons, the daughter of the "sugar king," was destined never to
+be very popular in the school. Those girls who hoped to benefit by
+Nettie's wealth soon found that money meant as little to Nettie as to
+any girl at Briarwood.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, she was no brilliant scholar,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_183" id="pg_183">183</a></span> and she made friends
+slowly. Ruth and Helen determined to help the "poor little rich girl,"
+as they called her, and they egged her on to give a midnight reception
+in the room Nettie occupied with three other girls in the West
+Dormitory.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no way so sure to the hearts of these girls than through their
+stomachs," Mercy said, when she heard of the plan. "Let poor Net stuff
+them full of indigestible 'goodies,' and they will remember her for
+life!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why put it that way, Mercy?" drawled Heavy. "You know, you are fond of
+a bit of candy, or a pickle, yourself. The 'goodies' which we do not get
+at the school table are 'gifts of the gods.' They are unexpected
+pleasures. And when eaten after hours, with a blanket for a tablecloth
+and candles for lights, they become 'forbidden fruit,' which is known to
+be the sweetest of all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to Jen going into rhapsodies over eatables!" sniffed The Fox.
+"Give her her way, and every composition she handed in to Miss Gould
+would be a menu."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" scoffed Heavy. "You eat your share when you get a chance, I
+notice."</p>
+
+<p>"When Heavy is free from the scholastic yoke, and bosses her father's
+house for good," said Helen, "every dinner will make old Luculus turn in
+his grave and groan with envy&mdash;&mdash;"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_184" id="pg_184">184</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Or with indigestion," snapped Mercy. "The girl will positively <i>burst</i>
+some day!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care," mourned Heavy, shaking her head. "It isn't what I get to
+eat at Briarwood that makes me fat&mdash;that's sure."</p>
+
+<p>"No," chuckled Ruth. "You grow plump on the remembrance of what you have
+already eaten, dear. Who was it ate three plates of floating island last
+night for supper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" cried Heavy, with wide open eyes, "you wouldn't want me to leave
+them and let them go to waste, would you? Both you and Helen left your
+shares, and the cook would have been hurt, if the pudding had come back
+untouched."</p>
+
+<p>"Kind-hearted girl!" said The Fox, with a sniff.</p>
+
+<p>After-hour parties were frowned upon by Mrs. Tellingham and the
+teachers, of course; not for the mild breaking of the school rules
+entailed, but because the girls' stomachs were apt to suffer.</p>
+
+<p>In the West Dormitory, too, Miss Picolet was known to be very sharp-eyed
+and sharp-eared for such occasions. It took some wit to circumvent Miss
+Picolet; perhaps that is why the girls on Ruth's corridor so delighted
+in holding orgies unbeknown to the little French teacher.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Scrimp, the matron, was a heavy sleeper. The girls did not worry
+about her.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_185" id="pg_185">185</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nettie Parsons' room was at the very end of the cross-corridor, and
+farthest from the stairway. The stairway went up through the middle of
+the big brick dormitory building, and perhaps <i>that</i> was not the best
+arrangement in case of fire; but there were plenty of fire escapes on
+the outside.</p>
+
+<p>The question which at once arose, when the sixteen girls Nettie chose
+had been invited to the feast, was who should stand guard?</p>
+
+<p>This was always a matter for discussion&mdash;sometimes for heart burnings,
+too. It was no pleasant task to sit out upon the cold stairway and watch
+for the opening of Miss Picolet's door below.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes they decided by casting lots. Sometimes some girl who was very
+good-natured was inveigled into taking her plate of goodies out there in
+the dimly lit corridor. And sometimes one had to be bribed to stand
+watch for the others.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Picolet was always known to light her candle when she was disturbed
+by any sound, or suspicion; then she would come to her door and listen.
+She never moved about her room without a light, that was one good thing!
+The girl on watch had warning the instant the French teacher opened her
+door.</p>
+
+<p>But of the sixteen girls Nettie Parsons had chosen, not one wanted to
+play sentinel. Some of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_186" id="pg_186">186</a></span> them said they would rather not attend the
+jamboree at all!</p>
+
+<p>The season was far enough advanced for the nights to be cold, and the
+corridors were not warm after the steam went down. The party was called
+for ten o'clock. By that time frost would most likely be gathering on
+the window panes.</p>
+
+<p>"Catch <i>me</i> bundling up in a fur coat and mittens and stopping out there
+in that draughty place!" cried The Fox, "while the rest of you are
+stuffing yourself to repletion in a nice warm room."</p>
+
+<p>"Thought you didn't care for the goodies?" demanded Heavy, slily.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care for catching my death of cold, Miss!" snapped Mary Cox.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Lluella, nor Belle, would "be the goat." Of course, it was
+understood that Heavy herself could never be out of reach of the cake
+plates! Nettie would not hear of Ruth being on watch.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it!" said Ruth, at last. "Leave it to me. I'll find a new guard,
+and I know he will not fail us."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that?" demanded her chum.</p>
+
+<p>"Roberto."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness me!" exclaimed Nettie. "Not that boy who helps Foyle?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_187" id="pg_187">187</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's the one. And he'll do anything for Ruth," declared Helen,
+promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything but talk!" thought Ruth, to herself, but she did not say it
+aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how <i>he</i> can help us," Ann Hicks said. "He can't come into
+the dormitory."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;guess&mdash;not!" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"But he won't mind watching outside," Ruth explained. "At least, I'll
+ask him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But what good will <i>that</i> do?" demanded Heavy. "If Miss Picolet gets up
+out of her warm nest, <i>he</i> won't know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he will," said Ruth, nodding.</p>
+
+<p>The Fox began to laugh. "Don't let <i>her</i> hear you say that, Fielding.
+Picolet is an awful old maid. She would be horrified, if she thought a
+male person even imagined her in bed!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how will he know?" demanded Ann.</p>
+
+<p>"That's easy," laughed Ruth. "He will stand where he can watch her
+window. If he sees her candle lit, he will give the alarm."</p>
+
+<p>"How?" asked Nettie.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll rig a 'tick-tack'&mdash;you know what I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't I!" giggled Heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"Roberto can pull the string below, and that will make a tick-tack rap
+on Nettie's window."</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid!" cried the giver of the feast. "You just see if he will do
+it, Miss Fielding.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_188" id="pg_188">188</a></span> And I'll give him a dollar&mdash;or more, if he wants
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"A dollar will be a lot of money for Roberto," laughed Helen. "But he
+won't do it for that."</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. He'll only do it because Ruth asks him."</p>
+
+<p>Which was really the fact. Roberto understood well enough what was
+desired of him. Ruth pointed out the French teacher's window, and the
+windows of Nettie Parsons' quartette room. From one of them would hang a
+weighted string on that night. Everything was agreed, and the feast
+planned.</p>
+
+<p>It was a starlight night, when it arrived, but Roberto could find a
+place to hide in the shrubbery, where he could watch both windows, as
+agreed. He slept in a little back room of Tony Foyle's suite in the
+basement of the main building, and could get out and in without
+disturbing Mr. and Mrs. Foyle.</p>
+
+<p>If he were caught out of his room after hours, Ruth knew that Tony would
+be angry, but she had great influence with the little Irishman and
+promised Roberto that she would "make it all right" for him, if he were
+caught.</p>
+
+<p>The hour of the party came. The West Dormitory had apparently been "in
+the arms of Morpheus" for half an hour, at least.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_189" id="pg_189">189</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But Mr. Murphy didn't get a strangle hold on us to-night," giggled
+Heavy, as she led the procession from her room.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were all in their kimonas, and many brought plates, knives and
+forks, cups, and other paraphernalia for the feast. There was to be hot
+chocolate and there were two alcohol lamps and two pots.</p>
+
+<p>The Fox presided over one lamp and Heavy bossed the other one. There was
+something wrong with the plump girl's lamp; either it had been filled
+too full, or it leaked. From the start it kept flaring and frightening
+the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"I really wish you would not use that old contraption!" exclaimed Ann
+Hicks. "It's just as uncertain as a pinto pony."</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind," snapped Heavy. "I guess I know&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Pouf!</p>
+
+<p>The flames flared suddenly. Heavy leaped back, stumbled over another
+girl, and went sprawling. The flames did not touch her, but they <i>did</i>
+ignite the curtain at the window.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great squealing as the girls ran. Nobody dared tear down the
+blazing curtain, and the flames leaped higher and higher each instant.</p>
+
+<p>Then one of the most frightened of the company jerked open the door, put
+her head out into the corridor, and shrieked "Fire!"</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_190" id="pg_190">190</a></span>
+<a name="ROBERTO_FINDS_HIS_VOICE_5364" id="ROBERTO_FINDS_HIS_VOICE_5364"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3>ROBERTO FINDS HIS VOICE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>That settled it! There was a full-fledged panic in that quartette room
+in an instant. It bade fair, too, to spread to the whole building.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, who had been busy distributing cakes before the accident, sprang
+to the open door, seized the girl who had yelled, and literally "yanked"
+her back into the room. Then she banged the door to and placed her back
+against it.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" she cried, yet in a low voice. "Don't be foolish. It's only a
+little fire. We can put it out. Don't rouse the whole house and frighten
+everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruth! I can't reach it!" wailed Helen, who was really trying to
+pull down the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>Ann ran with a bowl of water and tried to splash it over the burning
+curtain. But the bowl tipped backwards and part of the water went over
+Heavy, who was just trying to struggle to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh! wow!" gasped the plump girl. "I'm drowning! Do you think I'm
+afire, Ann Hicks?"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_191" id="pg_191">191</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Some of the others were sane enough to laugh, but the more nervous girls
+were already in tears, and the fire <i>was</i> spreading from one curtain to
+the other. There was a smell of scorching varnish, too. The window frame
+was catching!</p>
+
+<p>In the very midst of the confusion, when it seemed positive that the
+whole school must be aroused, there came a commanding rap upon the
+window pane. It was not the gentle signal of the tick-tack&mdash;no, indeed!</p>
+
+<p>"Will you hear <i>that</i>?" gasped Belle Tingley. "Miss Picolet's up."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" cried Ruth, from the other end of the room. "Open that window,
+Ann! It's Roberto. He's climbed the fire-escape."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness me!" gasped The Fox. "I never was so glad to see a boy in
+all my life! Let him in&mdash;do!"</p>
+
+<p>No sooner said than done. The girl from Silver Ranch had her wits about
+her. She snapped open the catch and raised the sash.</p>
+
+<p>Into the room bounded the Gypsy lad. He had seen the flames from the
+ground and he immediately knew what to do when he got inside.</p>
+
+<p>He seized a chair, leaped up into it, and with his long arms was enabled
+to tear down the blazing hangings. These he thrust into the bowl of
+water.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Roberto! your hands are burned!" cried
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_192" id="pg_192">192</a></span> Ruth, darting to his side,
+as the fire was quenched.</p>
+
+<p>"Never you mind, little Missy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He halted, staring at her. Then his face flushed like fire and his eyes
+dropped before her accusing gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>can</i> speak!" exclaimed the girl from the Red Mill. "You <i>can</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"He's gotten back his tongue!" cried Helen, in surprise. "Isn't that
+wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth was sure, by the Gypsy boy's shamefaced look, that there was
+nothing wonderful about it at all. Roberto had been able to speak all
+the time, but he did not wish to. Now, in his excitement, he had
+betrayed the fact.</p>
+
+<p>There was too much confusion just then for the matter to be discussed or
+explained. The girls, seeing that the fire was out, scattered at once to
+their rooms. Roberto left instantly by the window, and Ruth helped
+Nettie and her roommates repair the damage as well as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll buy new curtains for the windows," said the "sugar king's"
+daughter. "And I'm only glad nothing worse happened."</p>
+
+<p>"The worst hasn't happened yet," giggled one of her roommates.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw Jennie Stone take a bag of pickles, some seed cakes, a citron
+bun, and about half a pound of candy with her, when she flew. If she
+absorbs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_193" id="pg_193">193</a></span> all that to-night, she will be sick to-morrow, that's all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Ruth advised, "the best we can do won't hide the damage. Miss
+Scrimp will find out about the fire, anyway. The best thing to do is to
+make a clean breast of it, Nettie. I'm sorry the feast was a failure,
+but we all know you did your best."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm thankful it was no worse," returned the new girl. "And how brave
+that Gypsy boy was, Ruth! I must thank him to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"You leave him to me," said the girl of the Red Mill, grimly. "I want to
+talk to Roberto myself."</p>
+
+<p>When she got back to her excited roommates, she said little about the
+wonderful recovery of the Gypsy boy's power of speech, until Mercy and
+Ann were asleep. Then she said to Helen Cameron:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to telegraph to your father the first thing in the morning.
+Roberto has been fooling us all. You can't tell me! I know he's been
+able to talk all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't really think so, dear?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I do. He must have been conscious when we picked him up that time and
+carried him to the carriage. And we mentioned his grandmother then and
+the necklace. He's just as sharp as a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_194" id="pg_194">194</a></span> knife, you know; he's been dumb
+for a purpose. He did not want to be questioned about Zelaya and the
+missing pearl necklace."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness me! Father will be <i>so</i> angry," cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Roberto will have to tell. I like him, and he was very brave to-night.
+But I do not believe the boy is a thief himself, and he would be better
+if he entirely left his thieving relatives."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe he'll run away," suggested Helen.</p>
+
+<p>But Roberto would have been obliged to start very early that next
+morning to have run away. Ruth Fielding was the first person up in the
+school, and she was standing outside Tony's door, when the little
+Irishman first appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Helen Cameron wants you to take this telegram down to the office at
+once, Tony," she said. "Mrs. Tellingham knows about it. We are in a
+dreadful hurry. Is Roberto inside?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure he is, Miss&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You take the message; don't let Roberto see it, and you keep your eye
+on that boy to-day, until Mr. Cameron arrives. He'll want to see him."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't be tellin' me th' bye has been inter mischief?" cried the
+warm-hearted Irishman.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much. Only he's suddenly recovered the use of his tongue, Tony, and
+Mr. Cameron wants to talk with him."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_195" id="pg_195">195</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gracious powers!" murmured Tony. "Recovered his spache, has he? The
+saints be praised!"</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed Ruth, however, in each particular. If Roberto had it in his
+mind to run away, he had no chance to do so that day. Tony watched him
+sharply, and in the evening Mr. Cameron arrived at Briarwood Hall.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman greeted his daughter and Ruth in Mrs. Tellingham's parlor,
+but when he interviewed Roberto, it was downstairs in Tony Foyle's
+rooms.</p>
+
+<p>The girls saw Mr. Cameron only for a moment after that. He was just
+starting for the train, and Roberto was going with him.</p>
+
+<p>"The young rascal has admitted just what Ruth suspected," said Mr.
+Cameron, chuckling a little. "He fooled us all&mdash;including the doctor.
+Though the Doc., I reckon, suspected strongly that the boy could talk,
+if he desired to.</p>
+
+<p>"Roberto did not want to be questioned. Now he has told me that his
+grandmother did not go south at all. He says she often spends the winter
+in New York City as do other Gypsies. She is really a great character
+among her people, and with the information I have gathered, I believe
+the New York police will be able to locate her.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall hang on to Master Roberto until the matter is closed up. He
+will say nothing about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_196" id="pg_196">196</a></span> the necklace. He'll not even own up that he ever
+saw it. But he tells me that his grandmother is a miser and hoards up
+valuables just like a magpie."</p>
+
+<p>Helen's father and the Gypsy boy went away then, and the chums had to
+possess their souls with patience, and attend strictly to their school
+work, until they could hear how the matter turned out.</p>
+
+<hr class="major" />
+<div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_197" id="pg_197">197</a></span>
+<a name="FIVE_THOUSAND_DOLLARS_5546" id="FIVE_THOUSAND_DOLLARS_5546"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3>FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was not likely that Ruth found it any easier, after this, to attend
+strictly to her school duties, but after her conversation with Mrs.
+Tellingham she <i>had</i> put forth a greater effort to recover her standing
+in her class.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Mrs. Parsons' necklace was found, or not; whether Ruth obtained
+a portion of the reward in pay for the information she had lodged, the
+girl realized that she had no right to neglect her studies.</p>
+
+<p>She had come to one conclusion at least: whether or no, she would not
+break into that fifty dollars Uncle Jabez had given her so unwillingly.
+And she would use no more of his money for vacation jaunts, or for
+luxuries.</p>
+
+<p>"I must accept his help in gaining my education," she told herself. "But
+beyond that, I need not go. I have gone about, and had good times, and
+bought many things just as though I really had a right to expect Uncle
+Jabez to supply every need.</p>
+
+<p>"No more of that, Ruth Fielding! You prate
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_198" id="pg_198">198</a></span> of wishing to be
+independent: be so in any event!"</p>
+
+<p>She was young to come to such a determination; yet Ruth's experiences
+since her parents had died were such as would naturally make her
+self-assertive. She knew what she wanted, <i>and she went after it</i>!</p>
+
+<p>As for the matter of the new gymnasium suit&mdash;why! that Ruth gave up
+entirely. She decided that she had no business to use Uncle Jabez's
+money for it, and of course she could not go into debt for a new
+costume.</p>
+
+<p>No matter what the other girls thought, or what they did, <i>she</i> would
+have to be content with her old uniform when it came to the exhibition
+games.</p>
+
+<p>She did not have the courage yet to tell even Helen of this decision;
+nevertheless she was determined to stick to it. At once she had begun to
+pick up in recitation marks, and Miss Gould no longer scowled over
+Ruth's reports.</p>
+
+<p>The strain of mind had been considerable, however; Ruth had much to make
+up in her studies; she wasted no time and began to forge ahead again.</p>
+
+<p>She would not even think of Roberto and Mr. Cameron's search for Queen
+Zelaya. Helen was full of the topic, and often tried to discuss it with
+Ruth, but the latter put it aside.</p>
+
+<p>She had done all she could (or so she thought)
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_199" id="pg_199">199</a></span> to help restore the
+missing pearl necklace to Nettie's aunt. Worrying about it any more was
+not going to help a bit.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed too ridiculous to think of <i>her</i> ever obtaining five thousand
+dollars&mdash;or any part of that generous reward!</p>
+
+<p>So the busy days passed. Helen heard from her father several times, but
+although she knew he was in New York, ostensibly buying goods, and that
+he had Roberto with him, the gentleman said very little about the other
+Gypsies and the missing necklace.</p>
+
+<p>Then one day Mrs. Tellingham sent for Ruth. To be sent for by the
+principal never frightened the girl of the Red Mill&mdash;much. She stood
+well on the principal's books, she knew.</p>
+
+<p>But the lady had called her to discuss nothing about the school work.
+She had a letter and a railroad ticket in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Tony has telephoned for Dolliver to come for you, Ruth," said Mrs.
+Tellingham. "You must go away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing has happened at home? Uncle Jabez&mdash;Aunt Alvirah&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is wrong with them at all, my dear," declared the lady, kindly.
+"It is Mr. Cameron. He wants you to come to New York at once. Here is
+transportation for you. He will meet your train at the Grand Central
+Station."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_200" id="pg_200">200</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Parsons' necklace!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"He says something about that&mdash;yes," said Mrs. Tellingham. "It is
+important for you to come and identify somebody, I believe. You must
+tell him that, at this time in the term, you can be spared only a short
+time."</p>
+
+<p>All was bustle and confusion for Ruth during the next two hours. Then
+she found herself on the train bound for New York. She had a section of
+the sleeper to herself, and arrived in the city the next morning at an
+early hour.</p>
+
+<p>She was making her toilette, as the electric engine whisked the long
+train through the upper reaches of the city, and she marveled at the
+awakening Bronx and Harlem streets.</p>
+
+<p>When she came out through the gateway of the trainshed, she saw a youth
+standing by, watching the on-coming passengers sharply. But she was
+almost upon him, and he had stepped forward, lifting his hat and putting
+out a hand to take her bag, before she recognized Roberto, the Gypsy
+boy.</p>
+
+<p>But how changed in appearance! Of course, he was still dark of skin, and
+his black eyes flashed. But he had removed the gold rings from his ears,
+his hair had been trimmed to a proper length, he was dressed smartly in
+a gray suit, and wore a nice hat and shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether Roberto was a very handsome youth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_201" id="pg_201">201</a></span> indeed&mdash;more so now than
+when he had been a wild boy!</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know me, Miss Fielding?" he said, his eyes twinkling and a
+warm blush rising in his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you are so changed!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Mr. Cameron is a fine man," said the boy, nodding. "I like him. He
+do all this for me," and he made a gesture that included his new outfit,
+and flashed her another brilliant smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how it does improve you, Roberto!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Robert</i>, if you please," he said, laughing. "<i>I</i> am going to be
+American boy&mdash;yes. I have left the Gypsy boy forever behind&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth fairly clapped her hands. "Do you mean all that, Robert?" she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!" he said proudly. "I like America. Yes! I have been here now ten
+years, and it suit me. And Mr. Cameron say I can go to school and learn
+to be American business man. That is better than trading horses&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't that fine!" cried the girl of the Red Mill. "Now, where are
+you going to take me?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the hotel. Mr. Cameron will wait breakfast for us," declared the
+lad, and in ten minutes Ruth was greeting her chum's father across the
+restaurant table.</p>
+
+<p>"And I suppose you are just about eaten up
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_202" id="pg_202">202</a></span> with curiosity as to why I
+sent for you?" Mr. Cameron asked her, smiling, when Robert had gone out
+on an errand.</p>
+
+<p>"Just about, sir," admitted the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I want to tell you, my dear, that you are likely to be a very
+lucky girl indeed. The five thousand dollars reward&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't found the necklace?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. That has been found and identified. What I want you for is
+so you can identify that old Gypsy, Queen Zelaya. I did not want to
+force her grandson to appear against her before the authorities. But you
+can do so with a clear conscience.</p>
+
+<p>"Queen Zelaya will be sent back to Bohemia. She has a bad record, and
+entered the country secretly some years ago. Your evidence will enable
+the Federal authorities to clinch their case, and return the old woman
+to the country of her birth.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not believed that she actually stole the pearl necklace, but it
+is plain she shared in the proceeds of all the Gypsies' plundering, and
+in this case she took the giant's portion.</p>
+
+<p>"We could not prove robbery upon her, but she can be transported, and
+she shall be," concluded Mr. Cameron, firmly.</p>
+
+<p>This was what finally happened to Queen Zelaya. Her clan was broken up,
+and not one of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_203" id="pg_203">203</a></span> them was ever seen in the neighborhood of the Red
+Mill&mdash;or elsewhere in that county&mdash;again.</p>
+
+<p>Robert Mazell, as is the Gypsy boy's Americanized name, promises to be
+all that he told Ruth he hoped to be&mdash;in time. He must begin at the
+bottom of the educational ladder, but he is so quick to learn that his
+patron, Mr. Cameron, tells Tom, laughingly, that <i>he</i>, Tom, will have to
+look to his laurels, or the boy from Bohemia will outstrip him.</p>
+
+<p>Having carried out the trailing of the Gypsy Queen at his own expense,
+and recovered the necklace privately, Mr. Cameron did not have to divide
+the reward offered by Mrs. Rachel Parsons with anybody.</p>
+
+<p>The entire five thousand dollars was deposited in Ruth's name in the
+Cheslow Savings Bank. And this happened in time so that Ruth could draw
+enough of her fortune to get a new gymnasium costume for the mid-winter
+exhibition!</p>
+
+<p>She did not have to use the money Uncle Jabez grudgingly gave her. Her
+tuition fees were paid in advance for this year at Briarwood Hall, but
+she determined thereafter to pay all her own expenses, at school and
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>At last she felt herself to be independent. By going to Mr. Cameron, she
+could get money when she wished, without annoying the miller, and for
+this situation she was very very thankful.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pg_204" id="pg_204">204</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Her life stretched before her over a much pleasanter path than ever
+before. There were kind friends whom she could help in the future, as
+they needed help&mdash;and that delighted Ruth Fielding.</p>
+
+<p>Her own future seemed secure. She could prepare herself for college and
+could gain the education she craved. It seemed that nothing could balk
+her ambition in that direction. And so&mdash;this seems to be a very good
+place indeed in which to bid good-bye for a time to Ruth Fielding of the
+Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:3em; text-align:center;'>THE END</p>
+
+<hr class='full' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Ruth Fielding Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By ALICE B. EMERSON</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-001" id="illus-001"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad1.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. By
+her sunny disposition she melted the old miller's heart. Her adventures
+and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every reader.
+The Ruth Fielding Series is the biggest and best selling series of books
+for girls ever published.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Jaspar Parloe's Secret</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Solving the Campus Mystery</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Lost in the Backwoods</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Nita, the Girl Castaway</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Old Hunter's Treasure Box</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or What Became of the Raby Orphans</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Missing Pearl Necklace</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures</span> (New)<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Helping the Dormitory Fund</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie</span> (New)<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Great Days in the Land of Cotton</i></p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By MARGARET PENROSE</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Author of the highly successful "Dorothy Dale Series"</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-002" id="illus-002"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad2.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Since the enormous success of our "Motor Boys Series," by Clarence
+Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No one
+is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,
+besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Mystery of the Road</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls on a Tour</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Keeping a Strange Promise</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or In Quest of the Runaways</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls Through New England</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Held by the Gypsies</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hermit of Fern Island</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls on the Coast</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Waif from the Sea</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Secret of the Red Oar</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls on Waters Blue</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise</span> (New)<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Cave in the Mountain</i></p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Dorothy Dale Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By MARGARET PENROSE</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Author of "The Motor Girls Series"</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-003" id="illus-003"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad3.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old Civil War veteran who is running
+a weekly newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her sunny disposition, her
+fun-loving ways and her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting and
+fascinating reading. The Dorothy Dale Series is one of the most popular
+series of books for girls ever published.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale: a Girl of To-day</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's Great Secret</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale and Her Chums</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's Camping Days</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's School Rivals</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the City</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's Promise</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale in the West</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dorothy Dale's Strange Discovery</span> (New)</p>
+
+<p><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By CAPTAIN JAMES CARSON</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<p>All lads who love life in the open air and a good steed, will want to
+peruse these books. Captain Carson knows his subject thoroughly, and his
+stories are as pleasing as they are healthful and instructive.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-004" id="illus-004"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad4.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys of the Rockies</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Lost on Thunder Mountain</i></p>
+
+<p>Telling how the lads started out to solve the mystery of a great noise
+in the mountains&mdash;how they got lost&mdash;and of the things they discovered.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hermit of the Cave</i></p>
+
+<p>A weird and wonderful story of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, told in
+a most absorbing manner. The Saddle Boys are to the front in a manner to
+please all young readers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys on the Plains</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or After a Treasure of Gold</i></p>
+
+<p>In this story the scene is shifted to the great plains of the southwest
+and then to the Mexican border. There is a stirring struggle for gold,
+told as only Captain Carson can tell it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or In at the Grand Round-up</i></p>
+
+<p>Here we have lively times at the ranch, and likewise the particulars of
+a grand round-up of cattle and encounters with wild animals and also
+cattle thieves. A story that breathes the very air of the plains.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or In the Hands of the Enemy</i></p>
+
+<p>The scene is shifted in this volume to Mexico. The boys go on an
+important errand, and are caught between the lines of the Mexican
+soldiers. They are captured and for a while things look black for them;
+but all ends happily.</p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>UP-TO-DATE BASEBALL STORIES</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:large;'><span class="smcap">The Baseball Joe Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By LESTER CHADWICK</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Author of "The College Sports Series"</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-005" id="illus-005"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad5.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe of the Silver Stars</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Rivals of Riverside</i></p>
+
+<p>In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is introduced as an
+everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and is particularly
+anxious to make his mark as a pitcher. A splendid picture of the great
+national game in the smaller towns of our country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe on the School Nine</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Pitching for the Blue Banner</i></p>
+
+<p>Joe's great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school
+team. He got to boarding school but found it harder making the team
+there than it was getting on the nine at home.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe at Yale</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Pitching for the College Championship</i></p>
+
+<p>From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University. He makes
+the freshman nine and in his second year becomes a varsity pitcher and
+pitches in several big games.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe in the Central League</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher</i></p>
+
+<p>In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale College to a
+baseball league of our central states. Baseball Joe's work in the box
+for Old Eli had been noted by one of the managers and Joe gets an offer
+he cannot resist.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe in the Big League</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggle</i></p>
+
+<p>From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. At
+first he has little to do in the pitcher's box, but gradually he wins
+favor. A corking baseball story that fans, both young and old, will
+enjoy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baseball Joe on the Giants</span> (New)<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis</i></p>
+
+<p>How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box
+makes an interesting baseball story.</p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Motor Boys</span> SECOND SERIES</p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)</i></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By CLARENCE YOUNG</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-006" id="illus-006"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad6.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>This, the Second Series of the now world famed Motor Boys virtually
+starts a new series, but retains all the favorite characters introduced
+in the previous books. The Motor Boys Series is the biggest and best
+selling series of books for boys ever published.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Motor Boys as Freshmen</i></p>
+
+<p>Fresh from their adventures in their automobile, their motor boat and
+their airship, the youths are sent to college to complete their
+interrupted education. Some boys at the institution of learning have
+heard much about our heroes, and so conclude that the Motor Boys will
+try to run everything to suit themselves.</p>
+
+<p>A plot is formed to keep our heroes entirely in the background and not
+let them participate in athletics and other contests. How the Motor Boys
+forged to the front and made warm friends of their rivals makes
+unusually interesting reading.</p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Y.M.C.A. Boys Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By BROOKS HENDERLEY</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-007" id="illus-007"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad7.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys' club of the Y.
+M. C. A., full of good times and everyday, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read by
+every boy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Y. M. C. A. Boys of Cliffwood</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize</i></p>
+
+<p>Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on
+Hallowe'en, they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an
+organization of a boys' department in the local Y. M. C. A. When the
+lads realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement
+with vigor and did all they could to help the good cause. To raise funds
+they gave a minstrel show and other entertainments, and a number of them
+did their best to win a gold medal offered by a local minister who was
+greatly interested in the work of upbuilding youthful character.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Y. M. C. A. Boys on Bass Island</span><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp</i></p>
+
+<p>Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y. M. C. A. of
+Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be
+instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and
+there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their
+heart's content. There were a great many surprises, but in the end the
+boys managed to clear up a mystery of long standing. Incidentally, the
+volume gives a clear insight into the workings of the now justly popular
+summer camps of the Y. M. C. A., throughout the United States.</p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='dashed35em' />
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'><span class="smcap">The Motor Boys Series</span></p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)</i></p>
+
+<p class='center'>By CLARENCE YOUNG</p>
+
+<p class='center'>12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.</p>
+
+<div style='width:25em; margin:auto;'>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-008" id="illus-008"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad8.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Chums Through Thick and Thin</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Overland<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Lone Trip for Fun and Fortune</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys in Mexico.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Secret of The Buried City</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Across the Plains<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hermit of Lost Lake</i></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-009" id="illus-009"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad9.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Afloat<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Stirring Cruise of the Dartaway</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys on the Atlantic<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Mystery of the Lighthouse</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys in Strange Waters<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Lost in a Floating Forest</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys on the Pacific<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Young Derelict Hunters</i></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-010" id="illus-010"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad10.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys in the Clouds<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Trip for Fame and Fortune</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Over the Rockies<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Mystery of the Air</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Over the Ocean<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Marvellous Rescue in Mid-Air</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys on the Wing<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Seeking the Airship Treasure</i></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style='width:90px'>
+<a name="illus-011" id="illus-011"></a>
+<img src="images/illus-ad11.jpg" alt="" title="" width="90" /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys After a Fortune<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hut on Snake Island</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys on the Border<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Sixty Nuggets of Gold</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys Under the Sea<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or From Airship to Submarine</i></p>
+
+<p>The Motor Boys on Road and River<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Racing to Save a Life</i></p>
+
+<hr class='mid45' />
+
+<table summary='cupples' style='font-size:smaller; width:100%'><tr>
+<td align='left'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON CO., Publishers</td>
+<td align='right'>NEW YORK</td>
+</tr></table>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 22743-h.htm or 22743-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/4/22743/
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+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies
+       The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: September 23, 2007 [EBook #22743]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HE PUSHED RUTH ROUGHLY BACK INTO HER SEAT. Page 123]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+RUTH FIELDING
+AND THE GYPSIES
+
+Or
+The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+By
+ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
+"Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch," etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+New York
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+Publishers
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Books for Girls
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+  Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+  Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+  Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+  Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+  Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+  Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+  Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+  Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+Copyright, 1915, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+         I. On the Lumano River                                1
+        II. Roberto, the Gypsy                                10
+       III. Evening at the Red Mill                           19
+        IV. The Auto Tour                                     27
+         V. A Prophecy Fulfilled                              37
+        VI. A Transaction in Mutton                           43
+       VII. Fellow Travelers                                  53
+      VIII. What Was It All About?                            61
+        IX. Queen Zelaya                                      69
+         X. In the Gypsy Camp                                 80
+        XI. Tom on the Trail                                  91
+       XII. A Break for Liberty                              104
+      XIII. Ruth in the Toils                                111
+       XIV. Roberto Again                                    116
+        XV. Helen's Escape                                   124
+       XVI. Through the Night and the Storm                  133
+      XVII. Off for School Again                             140
+     XVIII. Getting Into Harness                             149
+       XIX. Can It Be Possible?                              156
+        XX. He Cannot Talk                                   164
+       XXI. Ruth Intercedes                                  169
+      XXII. A Great Temptation                               175
+     XXIII. Nettie Parsons' Feast                            182
+      XXIV. Roberto Finds His Voice                          190
+       XXV. Five Thousand Dollars                            198
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON THE LUMANO RIVER
+
+
+The steady turning of the grinding-stones set the old Red Mill a-quiver
+in every board and beam. The air within was full of dust--dust of the
+grain, and fine, fine dust from the stones themselves.
+
+Uncle Jabez Potter, the miller, came to the door and looked across the
+grassy yard that separated the mill and the farmhouse attached from the
+highroad. Under a broad-spreading tree sat two girls, busy with their
+needles.
+
+One, a sharp-faced, light-haired girl, who somehow carried a look of
+endured pain in her eyes in spite of the smile she flung at the old man,
+cried:
+
+"Hello, Dusty Miller! come out and fly about a little. It will do you
+good."
+
+The grim face of the miller lightened perceptibly. "How do you reckon a
+man like me kin fly, Mercy child?" he croaked.
+
+"I'll lend you my aeroplanes, if you like," she returned, gaily, and
+held up the two ebony canes which had been hidden by the tall grass.
+_They_ told the story of Mercy Curtis' look of pain, but once she had
+had to hobble on crutches and, as she pluckily declared, canes were
+"miles better than crutches."
+
+"I ain't got no time, gals, an' that's a fac'," said the miller, his
+face clouding suddenly. "Ain't ye seen hide nor hair of Ben an' them
+mules?"
+
+"Why, Uncle," said the second girl, quietly, "you know how many errands
+Ben had to do in town. He couldn't do them all and get back in so short
+a time."
+
+"I dunno about that, Niece Ruth--I dunno about that," said the old man,
+sharply. "Seems ter me I could ha' gone an' been back by now. An' hi
+guy! there's four sacks o' flour to take acrost the river to Tim
+Lakeby--an' I kyan't do it by meself--Ben knows that. Takes two' on us
+ter handle thet punt 'ith the river runnin' like she is right now."
+
+The girl who had last spoken folded the work in her lap and got up
+agilely. Her movements were followed--perhaps a little enviously--by the
+gaze of the lame girl.
+
+"How quick you are, Ruthie," she said. When Ruth Fielding looked down
+upon Mercy Curtis, her smile started an answering one upon the lame
+girl's thin face.
+
+"Quick on my feet, dearie," said Ruth. "But you have so much quicker a
+mind."
+
+"Flatterer!" returned the other, yet the smile lingered upon the thin
+face and made it the sweeter.
+
+The miller was turning, grumblingly, back into the shadowy interior of
+the mill, when Ruth hailed him.
+
+"Oh, Uncle!" she cried. "Let me help you."
+
+"What's that?" he demanded, wheeling again to look at her from under his
+shaggy eyebrows.
+
+Now, Ruth Fielding was worth looking at. She was plump, but not too
+plump; and she was quick in her movements, while her lithe and graceful
+figure showed that she possessed not only health, but great vitality.
+Her hair was of a beautiful bright brown color, was thick, and curled
+just a little.
+
+In her tanned cheeks the blood flowed richly--the color came and went
+with every breath she drew, it seemed, at times. That was when she was
+excited. But ordinarily she was of a placid temperament, and her brown
+eyes were as deep as wells. She possessed the power of looking
+searchingly and calmly at one without making her glance either
+impertinent or bold.
+
+In her dark skirt, middy blouse, and black stockings and low shoes, she
+made a pretty picture as she stood under the tree, although her
+features were none of them perfect. Her cheeks were perhaps a little
+too round; her nose--well, it was not a dignified nose at all! And her
+mouth was generously large, but the teeth gleaming behind her red lips
+were even and white, and her smile lit up her whole face in a most
+engaging manner.
+
+"Do let me help you, Uncle. I know I can," she repeated, as the old
+miller scowled at her.
+
+"What's that?" he said again. "Go with me in that punt to Tim Lakeby's?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"'Tain't no job for a gal, Niece Ruth," grumbled the miller.
+
+"Any job is all right for a girl--if she can do it," said Ruth, happily.
+"And I can row, Uncle--you know I can."
+
+"Ha! rowing one o' them paper-shell skiffs of Cameron's _one_ thing; the
+ash oars to my punt ain't for baby's han's," growled the miller.
+
+"Do let me try, Uncle Jabez," said Ruth again, when the lame girl broke
+in with:
+
+"You are an awfully obstinate old Dusty Miller! Why don't you own up
+that Ruthie's more good to you than a dozen boys would be?"
+
+"She ain't!" snarled the old man.
+
+At that moment there appeared upon the farmhouse porch a little, bent
+old woman who hailed them in a shrill, sweet voice:
+
+"What's the matter, gals? What's the matter, Jabez? Ain't nothin' broke
+down, hez there?"
+
+"No, Aunt Alvirah," laughed Ruth. "I just want Uncle Jabez to let me
+help him----"
+
+The old woman had started down the steps, her hand upon her back as she
+came, and intoning in a low voice: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" She
+caught up the miller's remark, as he turned away again, very sharply,
+for he muttered something about "Silly gals' foolish idees."
+
+"What d'ye mean by that, Jabez Potter?" she demanded. "If Ruth says she
+kin help ye, she _kin_. You oughter know that by this time."
+
+"Help me row that punt across the river?" snarled the old man,
+wrathfully. "What nonsense!"
+
+"I dunno," said the old woman, slowly. "I see Tim's flag a-flyin'. I
+guess he wants his flour bad."
+
+"And I can pull an oar as good as _you_ can, Uncle Jabez," added Ruth.
+
+"Oh, all right! Come on, then. I see I shell hev no peace till I let ye
+try it. Ef we don't git back fer supper, don't blame _me_, Alviry."
+
+The miller disappeared in the gathering gloom of the mill. Soon the
+jarring of the structure and the hum of the stones grew
+slower--slower--slower, and finally the machinery was altogether still.
+
+Ruth had run for her hat. Then, waving her hand to Mercy and Aunt
+Alvirah, she ran around to the landing.
+
+The Lumano River was a wide stream, but at this season of the year it
+was pretty shallow. There was little navigation from Lake Osago at any
+time, but now the channel was dotted with dangerous rocks, and there
+were even more perilous reefs just under the surface.
+
+Uncle Jabez's boat was not really a "punt." It was a heavy rowboat, so
+stained and waterlogged in appearance that it might have been taken for
+a bit of drift-stuff that had been brought in to the Red Mill landing by
+the current.
+
+And truly, that is probably the means by which the miller had originally
+obtained the boat. He was of a miserly nature, was Uncle Jabez Potter,
+and the old boat--which its first owner had never considered worth
+coming after, following some spring freshet--served the miller well
+enough to transport his goods across the river.
+
+Tim Lakeby's store, on the north shore of the river, was in sight of the
+Red Mill. There were four sacks of flour to be transported, and already
+Uncle Jabez had placed two of them in the bottom of the boat, upon a
+clean tarpaulin.
+
+"Ef we go down the river an' swamp, I shell lose this flour," grumbled
+Uncle Jabez. "Drat that Ben! I tell ye, he'd ought to be hum by now."
+
+Ben was the hired man, and if the miller had not really been kindlier
+underneath than he appeared on the surface, Ben would never have
+remained as long with him as he had!
+
+Uncle Jabez balanced the weight in the boat with judgment. Although
+there seemed to be no real danger, he knew very well the nature of the
+treacherous current. Ruth slipped into the bow seat with her oar, and
+Uncle Jabez took stroke.
+
+The girl unknotted the painter, and the boat drifted out from the
+landing.
+
+"Now, set yer feet square, an' _pull_!" ejaculated her uncle, thrusting
+the blade of his own oar beneath the rippling surface.
+
+They were heavy ash oars--one was all the girl really could manage. But
+she was not afraid of a little hard work, her muscles were supple, and
+she had rowed one season in the first eight at Briarwood Hall, and so
+considered herself something of an oarswoman.
+
+The miller, by stretching to see over his shoulder, got the boat pointed
+in the right direction. "Pull, now!" he commanded, and set a long,
+forceful stroke for the girl to match. With the water slapping against
+the high side of the craft, sometimes sprinkling them with spray, they
+drove her forward for some minutes in silence.
+
+The boat lumbered heavily, and it was true that Ruth had all she could
+do to manage the oars. In some places, where the eddies tugged at the
+blade, it seemed as though a submerged giant seized it and tried to
+twist it from her grasp!
+
+"I guess you air gittin' yer fill-up of it, Niece Ruth," growled the
+miller, with a sound in his throat that might have been a chuckle. "Look
+out, now! ye'll hev us over."
+
+Ruth knew very well she had done nothing to give the boat that sudden
+jerk. It was the current; but she had no breath with which to argue the
+matter.
+
+On and on they pulled, while the sinking sun gilded the little wavelets,
+and bathed both river and the shores in golden glory. A homing bird
+shrieked a shrill "good-night," as it passed above them, flying from
+shore to shore.
+
+Now the northern shore was nearer than the landing they had left. Only
+occasionally Ruth turned her head, for she needed her full attention
+upon the oar which she managed with such difficulty.
+
+"We gotter p'int up-stream," growled Uncle Jabez, after wringing his
+neck around again to spy out the landing near Lakeby's store. "Pesky
+current's kerried us too fur down."
+
+He gave a mighty pull to his own oar to rehead the boat. It was a
+perilous move, and in a perilous place. Here the water ran, troubled and
+white-capped, over a hidden reef.
+
+"Oh! do be careful, Uncle!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Pull!" yelled the old man, in return.
+
+By chance he sunk his own oar-blade so deeply, that it rubbed against
+the reef. It lifted Uncle Jabez from his seat, and unbalanced the boat.
+
+Like a flash the heavy oar flew out of its socket, and the old man
+sprawled on his back in the bottom of the boat. The latter whirled
+around in the current, and before Ruth could scream, even, it crashed
+broadside upon the rock!
+
+The rotting planks of the boat could not stand such a blow. Ruth saw the
+plank cave in, and the water followed. Down the boat settled upon the
+submerged part of the rock--a hopeless wreck!
+
+This was not the worst of the accident. In seeking to recover his seat,
+Uncle Jabez went overboard, as the old boat tipped. He dove into the
+shallow water, and struck his head heavily on the reef.
+
+Blood-stained bubbles rose to the surface, and the old man struggled
+only feebly to rise.
+
+"He is hurt! he will be drowned!" gasped Ruth, and seeing him so
+helpless, she sprang nimbly over the canted side of the boat and sought
+to draw her uncle's head out of the water.
+
+Although she was a good swimmer, and was not afraid of the water, the
+current was so swift, and her own footing so unstable, it was doubtful
+if Ruth Fielding could save both the miller and herself from the peril
+that menaced them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ROBERTO, THE GYPSY
+
+
+Ruth Fielding, following the death of her parents and while she was
+still a small girl, had left Darrowtown and Miss True Pettis, and all
+her other old friends and acquaintances, to live with her mother's
+uncle, at the Red Mill. Her coming to the mill and her early adventures
+in and about that charming place were related in the first volume of
+this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."
+
+Ruth made many friends in her new home, among them Helen and Tom
+Cameron, the twin, motherless children of a wealthy dry-goods merchant
+who had a beautiful home, called "the Outlook," near the mill, and Mercy
+Curtis, the daughter of the railroad station agent at Cheslow, the
+nearest important town to Ruth's new home. Ruth, Helen, and Mercy all
+went to Briarwood Hall, a girls' school some distance from Cheslow,
+while Master Tom attended a military academy at Seven Oaks, near the
+girls' institution of learning. The incidents of their first term at
+school are related in the second volume of the series, while in the
+mid-winter vacation Ruth and her friends go to Snow Camp in the
+Adirondacks.
+
+Later, our friends spent part of a summer vacation at Lighthouse Point
+on the Atlantic Coast, after which they visited Silver Ranch in Montana.
+The sixth volume tells of another mid-winter camping adventure on Cliff
+Island, while the volume previous to our present story--number seven, in
+fact--was entitled "Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm."
+
+This story narrated Ruth's particular interest in Sadie Raby, a strange,
+wild girl who ran away from cruel people who had taken her "to raise."
+Her reunion with her twin brothers, Willie and Dickie, and how they all
+three became the special care of Mr. Steele, the wealthy owner of
+Sunrise Farm, is told. It is through Ruth's efforts that the Rabys are
+settled in life and win friends.
+
+Now Ruth and her schoolmates had returned to the Red Mill and Cheslow,
+and but a brief space would elapse before the girls would begin their
+third year at Briarwood Hall; they were all looking toward the beginning
+of the fall term with great eagerness.
+
+Had Ruth Fielding been able to think at this moment of the boat's
+overturn, or of anything but her uncle's peril, she might have
+considered that the possibility of her ever seeing Briarwood Hall again
+was somewhat doubtful!
+
+The hurrying water tugged at her as though a hundred hands had laid hold
+of her person. She was nearly arm-pit deep in the flood, and her uncle's
+body was so heavy that she had all she could do to hold his head above
+the surface.
+
+She could not get him back into the boat, even, and perhaps that would
+not have been a wise move. For the old skiff, shaking and rocking, was
+likely to be torn free by the battling current. If it should swing into
+deep water, it must sink almost at once, for the water was pouring in
+through the hole that had been battered in its side.
+
+The flour was fast becoming saturated with the river-water, and its
+increased weight would bear the boat to the bottom, if it slipped from
+the reef.
+
+Unable to see any good of boarding the boat again, Ruth tried to work
+her way along the reef until she stood upon a higher part of it. Uncle
+Jabez was unconscious, blood flowed from a deep cut on his head, and he
+lay a dead weight in her arms.
+
+Never had Ruth Fielding been in greater peril. She was frightened, but
+mostly for the old man who seemed so seriously hurt.
+
+Tossing her loosened hair out of her eyes, she stared longingly at the
+landing near Lakeby's store. It was some distance up-stream, and not a
+person was in sight. She feared, too, that it was too far away for her
+voice to carry.
+
+Yet she must scream for help. She shouted again and again, endeavoring
+to put all the strength of her voice into the cries. Was that an answer?
+The girl held her uncle high in her arms and looked all about.
+
+Nobody was at the store landing. Nobody was behind on the other shore of
+the river--and she was glad that Aunt Alvirah and Mercy had not seen the
+accident, for neither of them could have helped in this predicament.
+
+Yes! there was the repeated shout--and nearer. Ruth's eyes turned to the
+north shore of the Lumano again. There was somebody running down the
+bank--not near the store kept by Timothy Lakeby, but directly opposite
+the rock on which the old boat had stranded.
+
+"Oh! oh! Help! help!" shrieked the girl of the Red Mill.
+
+"Hold on! I'm coming!"
+
+The voice came to her more strongly than before. She could not see who
+the person was, but she knew he was alone. She could not imagine how he
+was to aid them.
+
+Why did he not run to the store and bring other men to help? There! he
+seemed to have leaped right into the river!
+
+"Oh, dear me! the strongest swimmer could not reach us, let alone help
+Uncle Jabez ashore," was Ruth's thought.
+
+But up came the figure into sight again. Dripping, of course, now he
+stood firmly on a peak of rock that was thrust above the tide, and shook
+back the long black hair from his eyes.
+
+He was a wild looking person. His feet were bare and his ragged trousers
+were rolled to his knees. He wore neither vest nor coat, and his shirt
+was open at his throat. To Ruth he seemed very bronzed and rough
+looking.
+
+But whoever, or whatever, he might be, the girl prayed that he would
+prove able to rescue Uncle Jabez. She felt that she could save herself,
+but she was having all she could do to bear up the unconscious miller.
+
+"Hold on!" shouted the rescuer again.
+
+Once more he plunged forward. He disappeared off the rock. Was he
+swimming again? The half-overturned boat hid him from Ruth's gaze.
+
+Suddenly he shouted close at hand. Up he bobbed on the higher point of
+rock just beyond the boat.
+
+"What's the matter, Missy?" he demanded. "Is the old man hurt?"
+
+"He hit his head. See! he is unconscious," explained Ruth.
+
+"I'll get him! Look out, now; I've got to push off this old boat, Missy.
+She ain't no good, anyway."
+
+Ruth saw that he was a big, black-haired, strong looking boy. His
+complexion was very dark and his eyes sparkling--like cut jet beads. He
+might have been seventeen or eighteen years old, but he was fully as
+tall, and apparently as strong, as an ordinary man.
+
+His long hair curled and was tangled like a wild man's. His beard had
+begun to grow on his lip and chin. In his ears Ruth saw small gold rings
+and his wrists and forearms--which were bared--were covered with an
+intricate pattern of tattooing in red and blue ink.
+
+Altogether, she had never seen so strange a boy in all her life--and
+certainly none so strong. He leaped into the broken boat, seized Ruth's
+oar that had not been lost in the overset, and bracing it against the
+rock, pushed the trembling boat free in a moment.
+
+Ruth could not repress a scream. It looked as though he, too, must be
+thrown into the river, as the boat was caught by the current and jerked
+free.
+
+But the wild boy laughed and leaped upon the higher part of the rock. As
+the miller's old boat drifted down stream, he sprang into the water
+again and reached the girl and her burden.
+
+"Give him to me!" commanded the boy. "I can bear him up better than you,
+Missy. We'll get him ashore--and you can't be any wetter than you are
+now."
+
+"Oh, never mind me!" cried Ruth. "I am not afraid of a ducking. And I
+can swim."
+
+"You don't want to try swimming in _this_ place, Missy," he returned.
+"You follow right behind me--so."
+
+He turned, carrying the heavy figure of the miller in his arms as though
+he weighed but a hundred pounds instead of nearer two, and set off
+toward the shore along the ledge of rock by which he had come.
+
+Ruth saw, now, that beyond where the boat had been wrecked, the rock
+joined the shore, with only here and there a place where it was deep
+under water.
+
+She saw, too, that the boat was now sinking. It had not sailed ten yards
+in the fierce current before its gunwales disappeared. It sank in a
+deeper channel below--flour and all! Ruth realized that Uncle Jabez
+would be sorely troubled over the loss of those bags of flour.
+
+Ruth paddled to the shore behind the strong boy, but before they really
+reached terra firma, she knew that Uncle Jabez was struggling back to
+consciousness. The boy lowered the miller easily to the ground.
+
+"He's coming 'round, Missy," he said. His smile was broad, and the
+little gold rings twinkled in his ears.
+
+Ruth, wet and bedrabbled as she was, did not think of her own
+discomfort. She knelt beside Uncle Jabez and spoke to him. For some
+seconds he was so dazed that he did not seem to recognize her. Then he
+stammered:
+
+"Ha--ha----I knowed we couldn't do it. No--no gal kin do a man's work.
+Ha!"
+
+This seemed rather hard on Ruth, after she had done her best, and it had
+not been her fault that the boat was wrecked, but she was too excited
+just then to trouble about the miller's grumbling.
+
+"Oh, Uncle! you're not badly hurt, are you?"
+
+"Ha--hum! I dunno," stuttered the miller, and sat up. He rubbed his
+forehead and brought his hand, with a little blood upon it, back to the
+level of his eyes. "I vum!" he ejaculated, with more interest than
+before. "I must ha' cracked my head some. Why was it I didn't drown?"
+
+"This little missy, here," said the black-eyed youth, quickly. "_She_
+saved you, Mister. She held your head above water till I come."
+
+"Why--why----Niece Ruth! you did _that_?"
+
+"Oh, it was nothing, Uncle Jabez! I am so glad you are not hurt worse.
+This boy really saved you. He brought you ashore."
+
+"Who be ye, young man?" asked the miller. "I'm obleeged to ye--if what
+my niece says is true."
+
+"Oh, I am named Roberto. You need not to thank--no!" exclaimed the
+stranger, suddenly getting up and looking all about.
+
+"But it was very brave of him," declared Ruth, and she seized the boy's
+hand. "I--I am so glad you were near."
+
+"Here's Tim and Joe Bascom coming," said Uncle Jabez, who was facing the
+store.
+
+Instantly Roberto, as he called himself, jerked his hand from Ruth's
+grasp. He had seen the men coming, too, and without a word he turned and
+fled back into the woods.
+
+"Why--why----" began Ruth, in utter surprise.
+
+"What's the matter with that feller?" demanded Uncle Jabez, just as the
+storekeeper and Farmer Bascom arrived.
+
+"I seen the feller, Jabe," said the latter, eagerly. "He's one o' them
+blamed Gypsies. I run him out o' my orchard only yisterday."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+EVENING AT THE RED MILL
+
+
+About this time Uncle Jabez began to wake up to the fact that his boat
+and the flour were gone.
+
+"It's a dumbed shame, Jabez! an' I needed that flour like tunket," said
+Timothy Lakeby, the storekeeper.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the miller. "'Tain't nothin' out o' your pocket, Tim."
+
+"But my customers air wantin' it."
+
+"You lemme hev your boat, an' a boy to bring it back, an' we'll go right
+hum an' load ye up some more flour," groaned the miller. "That dratted
+Ben will be back by thet time, I fancy. Ef he'd been ter the mill I
+wouldn't hev been dependent upon my niece ter help row that old boat."
+
+"Too heavy for her--too heavy for her, Jabe," declared Joe Bascom.
+
+"Huh! is thet so?" snapped the miller. He could grumble to Ruth himself,
+but he would not stand for any other person's criticism of her. "Lemme
+tell ye, she worked her passage all right. An' I vum! I b'lieve thet
+'twas me, myself, thet run the old tub on the rock."
+
+"Aside from the flour, Jabez," said the storekeeper, "'tain't much of a
+loss. But you an' Ruthie might ha' both been drowned."
+
+"I would, if it hadn't been for her," declared the miller, with more
+enthusiasm than he usually showed. "She held my head up when I was
+knocked out--kinder. Ye see this cut in my head?"
+
+"Ye got out of it lucky arter all, then," said Bascom.
+
+"Ya-as," drawled the miller. "But I ain't feelin' so pert erbout losin'
+thet boat an' the flour."
+
+"But see how much worse it might have been, Uncle," suggested Ruth,
+timidly. "If it hadn't been for that boy----"
+
+"What did he say his name was?" interrupted Timothy.
+
+"Roberto."
+
+"Yah!" said Bascom. "Thet's a Gypsy name, all right! I'd like ter got
+holt on him."
+
+"I wish I could have thanked him," sighed Ruth.
+
+"If you see him ag'in, Joe," said the miller, "don't you bother about a
+peck o' summer apples. I'll pay for them," he added, with a sudden
+burst of generosity. "Of course--in trade," he added.
+
+He could move about now, and the gash in his head had ceased bleeding.
+It was a warm evening, and neither Ruth nor her uncle were likely to
+take cold from their ducking. But her clothing clung to her in an
+uncomfortable manner, and the girl was anxious to get back to the mill.
+
+Timothy Lakeby routed out a clerk and sent him with them in the lighter
+boat that was moored at the store landing. Ruth begged to pull an oar
+again, and her uncle did not forbid her. Perhaps he still felt a little
+weak and dazed.
+
+He kept speaking of Roberto, the Gypsy boy. "Strong as an ox, that
+feller," he said. "Wisht I had a man like him at the mill. Ben ain't
+wuth his salt."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure, Uncle Jabez, Ben is very faithful and good," urged Ruth.
+
+"Wal, a feller that could carry me like that young man done--he's jest
+another Sandow, _he_ is," said Uncle Jabez.
+
+They easily got across the river in the storekeeper's lighter boat, and
+Ruth displayed her oarsmanship to better advantage, for the oars were
+lighter. The miller noted her work and grunted his approval.
+
+"I vum! they _did_ teach ye suthin' at thet school 'sides folderrols,
+didn't they?" he said.
+
+Ruth asked the store clerk if he knew anything about the Gypsies.
+
+"Why, yes, Miss. I hear they are camping 'way up the river--up near the
+lakes, beyond Minturn's Dam. You know that's a wild country up there."
+
+Ruth remembered. She had been a little way in that direction with her
+friends, Tom and Helen Cameron, in their auto. Minturn Dam had burst two
+years before, and done much damage, but was now repaired.
+
+"That is a long way from here," she suggested to the clerk.
+
+"Yes'm. But Romany folks is gret roamers--thet's why they're called
+'Romany,' mebbe," was the reply. "And I guess that black-eyed rascal is
+a wild one."
+
+"Never mind. He got me out o' the river," mumbled Uncle Jabez.
+
+They brought the boat to the mill landing in safety, and Ben appeared,
+having returned from town and put up the mules. He gazed in blank
+amazement at the condition of his employer and Ruth.
+
+"For the good land!" exclaimed Ben; but he got no farther. He was not a
+talkative young man, and it took considerable to wake him up to as
+exciting an expression as the above.
+
+"You kin talk!" snarled Uncle Jabez. "If you'd been here to help me, I
+wouldn't ha' lost our boat and the flour."
+
+The miller fairly _ached_ when he thought of his losses, and he had to
+lay the blame on somebody.
+
+"Now you help me git four more sacks over to Tim Lakeby's----"
+
+Ruth would not hear of his going back before he changed his clothing and
+had something put upon the cut in his head. After a little arguing, it
+was agreed that Ben and the clerk should ferry the flour across to the
+store, and then the clerk would bring Ben back.
+
+"Goodness sakes alive!" shrieked Aunt Alvirah, when she saw them come
+onto the porch, still dripping. "What you been doing to my pretty, Jabez
+Potter?"
+
+"Huh!" sniffed the miller. "Mebbe it's what she's been doing to _me_?"
+and he wreathed his thin lips into a wry grin.
+
+Aunt Alvirah and Mercy must hear it all. The lame girl was delighted.
+She pointed her finger at the old man, who had now gotten into his
+Sunday suit and had a bandage on his head.
+
+"Now, tell me, Dusty Miller, what do you think about girls being of some
+use? Isn't Ruth as good as any boy?"
+
+"She sartainly kep' me from drownin' as good as any boy goin'," admitted
+the old man. "But that was only chancey, as ye might say. When it comes
+to bein' of main use in the world----Wal, it ain't gals thet makes the
+wheels go 'round!'
+
+"And don't you really think, Uncle, that girls are any use in the
+world?" asked Ruth, quietly. She had come out upon the dimly lit porch
+(this was after their supper) in season to hear the miller's final
+observation.
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Jabez. Perhaps he had not intended Ruth to hear just
+that. "They're like flowers, I reckon--mighty purty an' ornamental; but
+they ain't no manner o' re'l use!"
+
+Mercy fairly snorted, but she was too wise to say anything farther.
+Ruth, however, continued:
+
+"That seems very unfair, Uncle. Many girls are 'worth their salt,' as
+you call it, to their families. Why can't _I_ be of use to you--in time,
+of course?"
+
+"Ha! everyone to his job," said Uncle Jabez, brusquely. "You kin be of
+gre't help to your Aunt Alviry, no doubt. But ye can't take a sack of
+flour on your shoulders an' throw it inter a waggin--like Ben there. Or
+like that Roberto thet lugged me ashore to-night. An' I'm some weight, I
+be."
+
+"And is that all the kind of help you think you'll ever need, Uncle?"
+demanded Ruth, with rising emotion.
+
+"I ain't expectin' ter be helpless an' want nussin' by no gal--not yet
+awhile," said Uncle Jabez, with a chuckle. "Gals is a gre't expense--a
+gre't expense."
+
+"Now, Jabez! ye don't mean thet air," exclaimed the little old woman,
+coming from the kitchen. She lowered herself into the little rocker
+nearby, with her usual moan of, "Oh, my back! an' oh, my bones! Ye don't
+mean ter hurt my pretty's feelin's, I know."
+
+"She axed me!" exclaimed the miller, angrily. "I vum! ain't I spendin' a
+fortun' on her schoolin' at that Briarwood Hall?"
+
+"And didn't she save ye a tidy fortun' when she straightened out that
+Tintacker Mine trouble for ye, Jabez Potter?" demanded the old woman,
+vigorously. "An' the good Lord knows she's been a comfort an' help to
+ye, right an' left, in season an' out, ever since she fust stepped foot
+inter this Red Mill----What's she done for ye this very day, Jabez, as
+ye said yourself?"
+
+Aunt Alvirah was one of the very few people who dared to talk plainly to
+the miller, when he was in one of his tempers. Now he growled out some
+rough reply, and strode into the house.
+
+"You've driven him away, Auntie!" cried Ruth, under her breath.
+
+"He'd oughter be driv' away," said the old woman, "when he's in thet
+mind."
+
+"But what he says is true. I _am_ a great expense to him. I--I wish I
+could earn my own way through school."
+
+"Don't ye worry, my pretty. Jabez Potter's bark is wuss than his bite."
+
+"But the bark hurts, just the same."
+
+"He ought to be whipped!" hissed Mercy, in her most unmerciful tone.
+"I'd like to whip him, till all the dust flew out of his Dusty Miller
+clothes--so I would!"
+
+"Sh!" commanded Ruth, recovering her self-command again and fighting
+back the tears. "Just as Aunt Alvirah observes, he doesn't mean half of
+what he says."
+
+"It hurts just the same--you said it yourself," declared the lame girl,
+with a snap.
+
+"I want to be independent, anyway," said Ruth, with some excitement. "I
+want an education so I can _do_ something. I'd like to cultivate my
+voice--the teacher says it has possibilities. Mr. Cameron is going to
+let Helen go as far as she likes with the violin, and she doesn't _have_
+to think about making her way in the world."
+
+"Gals ain't content now to sit down after gittin' some schoolin'--I kin
+see thet," sighed Aunt Alvirah. "It warn't so in my day. I never see the
+beat of 'em for wantin' ter go out inter the worl' an' make a
+livin'--jes' like men."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE AUTO TOUR
+
+
+"Hi, Ruth!"
+
+"Hey, Ruth!"
+
+"Straw, Ruth!--why don't you say?" cried the owner of the name, running
+to the porch and smiling out upon the Cameron twins, who had stopped
+their automobile at the Red Mill gate on a morning soon following that
+day on which Uncle Jabez and Ruth had undergone their involuntary
+ducking in the Lumano.
+
+"Aren't you ready, Ruthie?" cried Helen from the back seat of the car.
+
+"Do hurry up, Ruth--the horses don't want to stand," laughed Tom, who
+was slim and black haired and black eyed, like his twin. Indeed, the two
+were so much alike that, dressed in each other's clothing, it is
+doubtful if they could have been suspected in such disguise.
+
+"But my bag isn't packed yet," cried Ruth. "I didn't know you'd be here
+so soon."
+
+"Take your toothbrush and powder puff--that's all you girls really
+need," declared the irrepressible Tom.
+
+"I like that! And on a two days' trip into the hills," said his sister,
+beating him soundly with an energetic fist.
+
+"Give him one or two good ones for me, Helen," said Ruth, and ran in to
+finish her preparations for the journey she was to take with her
+friends.
+
+"Pshaw!" grumbled the impatient Tom, "going to Uncle Ike's isn't like
+going to a fancy hotel. And we'll stop over to-night with Fred Larkin's
+folks--the girls there would lend you and Ruth all you need."
+
+"Hold on!" exclaimed his sister. "Just what have you in _your_ bag? I
+know it's heavy. You have all you want----"
+
+"Sure. Pair of socks, two collars, fishing tackle, some books I borrowed
+of Fred last year, my bicycle wrench--you never know when you are going
+to need it,--a string of wampum I promised to take to Nealy
+Larkin--she's a Campfire girl, you know--and an Indian tomahawk for
+Fred----"
+
+"But, clothes! clothes!" gasped Helen. "Where are your shirts?"
+
+"Oh, I'll borrow a shirt, if I need one," declared Master Tom, grinning.
+"Uncle Ike's Benjy is about my size, you know. What's the use of carting
+around so much stuff?"
+
+"I notice you have your bag full of trash," sniffed Helen. "It can
+plainly be seen that Mrs. Murchiston was called away so suddenly that
+she could not oversee our packing."
+
+"Come on, Ruth!" shouted Tom again, turning toward the farmhouse.
+
+"Now, don't get her in a flurry," admonished Helen. "She hasn't had but
+two hours' notice to get ready for this two days' trip. It's a wonder
+Uncle Jabez would let her go with us at all."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Jabe isn't such a bad old fellow after all," said Tom.
+
+"He's been just as cross and cranky as he can be, ever since he lost his
+boat in the river the other evening--you know that. And they say he
+would have been drowned, too, if it hadn't been for Ruthie. What a brave
+girl she is, Tom!"
+
+"Bravest in seven states!" acknowledged Master Tom, promptly. He had
+always thought there was nobody just like Ruth, and his sister smiled
+upon him approvingly.
+
+"I guess she is!" she agreed. "There isn't a girl at Briarwood Hall that
+will be her match in anything--now that Madge Steele has gotten through.
+Ruth is going to be head of the senior class before we graduate--you
+see."
+
+"She'll have to hustle some to beat little Mercy Curtis," grinned Tom.
+"_There's_ a sharp suffragette for you!"
+
+Helen laughed. "That's right. But, unfortunately for Mercy, Mrs.
+Tellingham considers other work beside our books in grading us. Oh,
+Tommy! we're going to have a dandy time this coming year at school."
+
+"You have my best wishes," returned her brother, with a slightly clouded
+face. "Bobbins and Busy Izzy and I expect to be drilled like everything,
+when we get back to Seven Oaks. Professor Darly is a terror."
+
+Ruth came out with her bag then, and in the doorway behind her appeared
+the little, stooped figure of Aunt Alvirah. The Camerons waved their
+hands and shouted greetings to her.
+
+"Take good keer of my pretty, Master Tom," shrilled the old lady,
+hobbling out into the yard. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"We'll handle her as if she were made of glass," declared Tom, laughing.
+"Hop in, Ruthie!"
+
+"Good-bye, Aunt Alvirah!" cried the girl of the Red Mill, clasping the
+little old lady around the neck and kissing her. Then she waved her hand
+to Uncle Jabez, who appeared in the mill doorway, and he nodded grimly,
+as the car started.
+
+Ben appeared at a window and bashfully nodded to the departing pleasure
+party. The car quickly passed the end of the Cheslow road and sped up
+the riverside. These lowlands beyond the Red Mill had once been covered
+by a great flood, and the three friends would never forget their race
+with the freshet from Culm Falls, at the time the Minturn Dam burst.
+
+"But we're bound far, far above the dam this time," said Tom. "Fred
+Larkin lives farther than that--beyond the gorge between the hills, and
+at the foot of the first pond. We'll get there long before dark unless
+something happens to this old mill I'm driving."
+
+"There! Tommy's harping on his pet trouble," laughed Helen. "Father
+won't let us use the new car to go scooting about the country alone in,
+and Tommy thinks he is abused."
+
+"Well! that 'six' is just eating its head off in the garage," grumbled
+the boy.
+
+"Just as though it were a horse!" chuckled Ruth.
+
+"You wait! I bet something happens on this trip, because of this old
+heap of scrap iron that pa calls a car."
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with some exasperation. "Don't you dare
+have a breakdown in the hills, Tom! I should be frightened. It's so wild
+up there beyond Loon Lake."
+
+"You needn't blame me," returned her twin. "I shall do my best."
+
+"And so will the auto--I have no doubt," added Ruth, laughingly. "Cheer
+up, Helen, dear----"
+
+"I know the rest of it!" interrupted her chum. "'The worst is yet to
+come!' I--hope--not!"
+
+Ruth Fielding would allow no worrying or criticism in this event. They
+were out for a good time, and she at once proceeded to cheer up the
+twins, and laugh at their fears, and interest them in other things.
+
+They crossed the river at Culm Falls--a beautiful spot--and it was
+beyond the bridge, as the car was mounting the first long rise, that the
+party of adventurers found their first incident of moment.
+
+Here and there were clearings in the forest upon the right side of the
+road (on the other side the hill fell abruptly to the river), and little
+farms. As the party came in sight of one of these farms, a great cry
+arose from the dooryard. The poultry was soundly disturbed--squawking,
+cackling, shrieking their protests noisily--while the deep baying of a
+dog rose savagely above the general turmoil.
+
+"Something doing there!" quoth Tom Cameron, slowing down.
+
+"A chicken hawk, perhaps?" suggested Ruth.
+
+A woman was screaming admonition or advice; occasionally the gruffer
+voice of a man added to the turmoil. But the dog's barking was the
+loudest sound.
+
+Suddenly, from around the corner of the barn, appeared a figure wildly
+running. It was neither the farmer, nor his wife--that was sure.
+
+"Tramp!" exclaimed Tom, reaching for the starting lever again.
+
+At that moment Helen shrieked. After the running man appeared a hound.
+He had broken his leash, and a more savage brute it would be difficult
+to imagine. He was following the runner with great leaps, and when the
+fugitive vaulted the roadside fence, the dog crashed through the rails,
+tearing down a length of them, and scrambling in the dusty road in an
+endeavor to get on the trail of the man again.
+
+Only, it was not a man; it was a boy! He was big and strong looking, but
+his face was boyish. Ruth Fielding stood up suddenly in the car and
+shrieked to him:
+
+"Come here! This way! Roberto!"
+
+"My goodness! is he a friend of yours, Ruthie?" gasped Tom Cameron.
+
+"He's the Gypsy boy that saved Uncle Jabez," returned Ruth, in a breath.
+
+"Take him aboard--_do_!" urged Helen. "That awful dog----"
+
+Roberto had heard and leaped for the running-board of the car. Tom
+switched on the power. Just as the huge hound leaped, and his fore-paws
+touched the step, the car darted away and the brute was left sprawling.
+
+The car was a left-hand drive, and Tom motioned the panting youth to get
+in beside him. The dark-faced fellow did so. At first he was too
+breathless to speak, but his black eyes snapped like beads, and his lips
+smiled. He seemed to have enjoyed the race with the savage dog, instead
+of having been frightened by it.
+
+"You save me, Missy, like I save your old man--eh?" he panted, at last,
+turning his brilliant smile upon Ruth. "Me! that dog mos' have me, eh?"
+
+"What was the matter? How came you to start all that riot?" demanded
+Tom, looking at the Gypsy youth askance.
+
+Roberto's grin became expansive. The little gold rings in his ears
+twinkled as well as his eyes.
+
+"I did them no wrong. I slept in the man's haymow. He found me a little
+while ago. He say I haf to _pay_ for my sleep--eh? How poor Gypsy pay?"
+and he opened his hands and shrugged his shoulders to show that his
+pockets were empty.
+
+"Me, no money have got. Can I work? Of course I work--only the farmers
+do not trust me. They call all Gypsies thieves. Isn't it so, Missy?" and
+he flashed a glance at Ruth.
+
+"I know, Mr. Joe Bascom drove you out of his orchard," agreed the girl
+of the Red Mill. "But you should have come across the river to _us_.
+Uncle Jabez is really grateful to you."
+
+"Oh, _that_?" and the boy shrugged his shoulders again. "I do not want
+pay for what I do--no. I want no money. I would not work a day for all
+my grandmother's wealth--and she is a miser," and Roberto laughed again,
+showing all his white, strong teeth.
+
+"But these people back here--this man and his woman--they want me to
+churn. It is a dog's work--no? I see where the dog haf to churn, but
+that dog die and they get this new, savage one--and it will not. Me, I
+think this dog very wise!" and Roberto's merriment broke out again, and
+he shook with it.
+
+"So I tell them I will not do dog's work, and then he, the man, chases
+me with his pitchfork, and the woman unloose the dog. Oh, yes! I make a
+great noise in the henyard. That dog chase me hard. So--I got away as
+you see," he concluded.
+
+"Say! you're a cool one," declared Tom, with growing admiration.
+
+"But you ought not to be loafing about, sleeping anywhere, and without
+employment," said Helen, primly.
+
+Roberto's black eyes sparkled. "Why does the little missy say I should
+work?" he demanded. "There is no need. I return to my people, perhaps.
+There I curry horses and fill the water pails for the women, and go with
+my uncle to the horse-fairs where he trades, or be under my
+grandmother's beck and call--the grandmother whom I tell you is a miser.
+But I never have money with them, and why should I work for it
+elsewhere?"
+
+"To get good clothes, and good food, and pay your way everywhere,"
+suggested Tom.
+
+Roberto laughed again. He spread out his strong hands. "These keep me
+from day to day," he said. "But money burns a hole in my pocket. Or,
+would you have me like my grandmother? She hoards every penny-piece, and
+then gloats over her money-box, by the firelight, when the rest of the
+camp is asleep. Oh, I see her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PROPHECY FULFILLED
+
+
+This queer youth interested Ruth Fielding and her friends, the Cameron
+twins, very much. Roberto was not naturally talkative, it seemed, for he
+soon dropped into silence and it was hard to get aught out of him but
+"Yes" and "No." At first, however, he had been excited, and he told them
+a great deal of his life with the tribe and along the pleasant country
+roads.
+
+The cities Roberto could not bear. "There is no breath left in them--it
+is used up by so many," he explained. He did not eschew work because he
+was lazy, it seemed; but he saw no use in it.
+
+Clothing? Money? Rich food? Other things that people strive for in the
+main? They were nothing to Roberto. He could sleep under a haystack,
+crunch a crust of bread, and wear his garments until they fell off him
+in rags.
+
+But he knew the woods and fields as nobody but a wild boy could. Every
+whistle and note of every bird was as familiar to him as his own
+Tzigane speech; and he could imitate them with exactness.
+
+He delighted his new friends, as the car rumbled along. He soon stopped
+talking much, as I have said, but he answered their multitude of
+questions, and did not seem to mind being cross-questioned about the
+life of the Gypsies.
+
+The auto party stopped soon after noon to lunch. It was Roberto who
+pointed out the spring of clear, cold water for which they searched. He
+had been over this road before and, it seemed, once along a trail was
+enough for the young Gypsy. He never forgot.
+
+He went away down the little stream, and made himself very clean before
+appearing for his share of the food. To the surprise of Ruth and Helen
+he ate daintily and showed breeding of a kind. Nor was he enamored of
+the cakes and other dainties that Babette, the Camerons' cook, had put
+into the lunch hamper, but enjoyed, instead, the more simple viands.
+
+Roberto grew restless of riding in the car soon after luncheon. He
+thanked them for giving him the lift, but explained that there were
+paths through the woods leading to the present camp of his tribe that he
+preferred to follow.
+
+"It is a mark of kindness for you to have brought me this way," he said,
+softly, bending over Ruth's hand, for he insisted upon considering her
+his hostess. He realized that, had it not been for her, the Camerons
+would have been chary of taking him aboard.
+
+"If you are ever near the Red Mill again," Ruth told him, "be sure to
+come and speak with Uncle Jabez. He will not forget you, I am sure."
+
+"Of that--pooh!" exclaimed the Gypsy. "I do not want pay for such an
+act. Do you?"
+
+And that set Ruth Fielding to thinking a bit. Perhaps she _had_ expected
+payment--of a kind--for her action in helping Uncle Jabez in the river.
+She had hoped he would more freely respond to her affection than he did.
+Ah! it is hard to do a good act and not secretly hope for some small
+return. "Virtue is its own reward" is a moral hard to understand!
+
+After Roberto had left them, the trio of friends were occupied in
+exchanging views regarding the Gypsy boy, and in discussing their
+several opinions as to what kind of people his folk really were.
+
+"It must be loads of fun to jog along the roads in those caravans, and
+camp where you please, and all that," said Helen, reflectively. "I
+believe I'd like it."
+
+"About twenty miles on a fast day, eh?" chuckled Tom, with scorn. "Not
+for me! When Gypsies get to riding in autos--and six-cylinder,
+up-to-date ones, too--I'll join the first tribe that comes along."
+
+"I declare, Tommy!" laughed his sister, "you are getting to be a 'speed
+fiend.' Ruth and I will be scared to drive with you."
+
+"It's great to go fast," exclaimed Master Tom. "Here's a straight piece
+of road ahead, girls. Hold on!"
+
+As he spoke, he manipulated the levers and the car leaped ahead. Ruth's
+startled "Oh!" was left a quarter of a mile behind. The girls clung to
+the hand-holds, and Tom crouched behind the windshield and "let her
+out."
+
+It was a straight piece of road, as he had said. But before they reached
+the first turn there was another house beside the road--a small
+farmhouse. Beyond it was a field, with a stone wall, and it chanced that
+just as the Camerons' car roared down the road, clearing at least thirty
+miles an hour, the leader of a flock of sheep in that pasture, butted
+through a place in the stone-fence and started to cross the highway.
+
+One sheep would not have made much trouble; it would have been easy to
+dodge just one object. But here came a string of the woolly
+creatures--and greater fools than sheep have not been discovered in the
+animal world!
+
+The old black-faced ram trotted across the road and through a gap in a
+fence on the river side. After him crowded the ewes and youngsters.
+
+The roaring auto frightened the creatures, but they would not give way
+before it. They knew no better than to follow that old ram through the
+gap, one after the other.
+
+Tom had shut off the engine and applied the brakes, as the girls
+shrieked. But he had been going too fast to stop short of the place
+where the sheep were passing. At the end of the flock came a lamb,
+bleating and trying to keep up with its mother.
+
+"Oh, the lamb!" shrieked Helen.
+
+"Look out, Tom!" added Ruth.
+
+The lamb did not get across the road. The car struck it, and with a
+pitiful "baa-a-a!" it was knocked a dozen feet.
+
+In a moment the car stopped. It had scarcely run its entire length past
+the spot where the lamb was struck. The poor creature lay panting,
+"baa-aing" feebly, beside the road.
+
+Ruth was out of the tonneau and kneeling beside the creature almost
+before the wheels ceased to roll. The mother ewe had crowded through the
+fence. Now she put her foolish face out, and called to the lamb to
+follow.
+
+"He can't!" almost sobbed Ruth. "He has a broken leg. Oh! what a foolish
+mother you were to lead him right into danger."
+
+Tom was silent and looked pretty solemn, while Helen was scolding him
+nervously--although she knew that he was not really at fault.
+
+"If you hadn't been speeding, this wouldn't have happened, Tom Cameron!"
+she said. "I told you so."
+
+"Oh, all right. You're a fine prophetess," grunted her brother. "Keep on
+rubbing it in."
+
+The lamb had tried to scramble up, but one of its forelegs certainly was
+broken. It tumbled over on its side again, and Ruth held it down
+tenderly and tried to soothe its fear.
+
+"Oh, dear! whatever shall we do?" she murmured. "The poor, poor little
+thing."
+
+"Guess we'll know pretty soon what we'll do," quoth Master Tom, standing
+beside the machine and looking back along the road. "Here comes the man
+that owns him."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" whispered Helen. "Doesn't he look savage?"
+
+"Worse than the old ram there," agreed her brother, for the black-faced
+leader of the flock was eyeing them through the fence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A TRANSACTION IN MUTTON
+
+
+The man who approached was a fierce, red-faced individual, with long
+legs encased to the knees in cowhide boots, overalls, a checked shirt,
+and a whisp of yellow whisker under his chin that parted and waved, as
+he strode toward the auto party.
+
+His pale blue eyes were ablaze, and he had worked himself up into a
+towering rage. Like many farmers (and sometimes for cause), he had
+evidently sworn eternal feud against all automobilists!
+
+"What d'ye mean, runnin' inter my sheep?" he bawled. "I'll have the law
+on ye! I'll make ye pay for ev'ry sheep ye killed! I'll attach yer
+machine, by glory! I'll put ye all in jail! I'll----"
+
+"You're going to have your hands full with all _that_, Mister,"
+interrupted Tom Cameron. "And you're excited more than is necessary.
+I'll pay for all the damage I've done--although there would have been
+none at all, had your sheep remained in their pasture. This is a county
+road, I take it."
+
+"By glory!" exclaimed the farmer, arriving at the spot at last. "This
+road was built for folks ter drive over decent. Nobody reckoned on
+locomotives, an' sich comin' this way, when 'twas built--no, sir-ree!"
+
+"I'm sorry," began Tom, but the man broke in:
+
+"Thet don't pay me none for havin' all my sheep made into mutton b'fore
+their time. By glory! I got an attic home full o' 'sorries.' Ye can't
+git out o' it thet way."
+
+"I am not trying to. I'll pay for any sheep I have hurt or killed," Tom
+said, unable to keep from grinning at the excited farmer.
+
+"And don't ye git sassy none, neither!" commanded the man. "I'm one o'
+the school trustees in this deestrict, an' the church clerk. I got some
+influence. I guess if I arrested ye right naow--an' these gals, too--the
+jestice of the peace would consider I done jest right."
+
+"Oh!" murmured Helen, clinging to Ruth's hand.
+
+"He can't do it," whispered the latter.
+
+"I feel sure, sir," said Tom, politely, "that it will be unnecessary for
+you to go to such lengths. I will pay satisfactory damages. There is the
+lamb we struck--and the only beast that is hurt."
+
+The man had given but one glance to the lamb that lay on the grass
+beside the girls. He did not look to be any too tender-hearted, and the
+little creature's accident did not touch him at all--save in the region
+of his pocketbook.
+
+He stepped to the gap in the fence, kicked the bleating ewe out of the
+way in a most brutal manner, and proceeded to count his flock. He had to
+do this twice before he was assured that none but the lamb was missing.
+
+"You see," Tom said, quietly, "I have turned only one of your sheep into
+mutton--for I suppose this lamb must be killed."
+
+"Oh, no, Tom!" cried Ruth, who was bending over the little creature
+again. "I am sure its leg will mend."
+
+The farmer snorted. "Don't want no crippled critters erbout. Ye'll
+hafter pay me full price for that lamb, boy--then I'll give it to the
+dogs. 'Tain't no good the way it is."
+
+Ruth had tied the leg firmly with her own handkerchief--which was of
+practical size. "If we could put it in splints, and keep the lamb still,
+it would mend," she declared to Helen.
+
+"What do you consider the thing worth, sir?" asked Tom.
+
+"Four dollars," declared the farmer, promptly. It was not worth two,
+even at the present price of lamb, for the creature was neither big nor
+fat.
+
+"Here you are," said Tom, and thrust four one-dollar notes into his
+hand.
+
+The man stared at them, and from them to Tom. He really seemed
+disappointed. Perhaps he wished he had said more, when Tom did not
+haggle over the price.
+
+"Wal, I'll take it along to the house then," said the farmer. "An' when
+ye come this road ag'in, young man, ye better go a leetle slow--yaas, a
+leetle slow!"
+
+"I certainly shall--as long as you have gaps in your sheep pasture
+fence," returned Tom, promptly.
+
+"Git out'n the way, leetle gal," said the man, brushing Ruth aside.
+"I'll take him----"
+
+The lamb struggled to get on its feet. The sudden appearance of the man
+frightened the animal.
+
+"Stop that!" cried Ruth. "You'll hurt the poor thing."
+
+"I'll knock him in the head, when I git to the chopping block," said the
+farmer, roughly. "Shucks! it's only a lamb."
+
+"Don't you dare!" Ruth cried, standing in front of the quivering
+creature. "You are cruel."
+
+"Hoity-toity!" cried the farmer. "I guess I kin do as I please with my
+own."
+
+Helen clung to Ruth's hand and tried to draw her away from the rough
+man. Even Tom hesitated to arouse the farmer's wrath further. But the
+girl from the Red Mill stamped her foot and refused to move.
+
+"Don't you dare touch it!" she exclaimed. "It isn't your lamb."
+
+"What's that?" he demanded, and then broke into a hoarse laugh. "Thet
+thar's a good one! I raised thet lamb----"
+
+"And we have just bought it--paid you your own price for it," cried
+Ruth.
+
+"Crickey! that's so, Ruthie," Tom Cameron interposed. "Of course he
+doesn't own it. If you want the poor thing, we'll take it along to Fred
+Larkin's place."
+
+"Say!" exclaimed the farmer. "What does this mean? I didn't sell ye the
+carcass of thet thar lamb; I only got damages----"
+
+"You sold it. You know you did," Ruth declared, firmly. "I dare you to
+touch the poor little thing. It is ours--and I know its life can be
+saved."
+
+"Pick it right up, girls, and come on," advised Tom, starting his
+engine. "We have the rights of it, and if he interferes, we'll just run
+on to the next town and bring a constable back with us. I guess we can
+call upon the authorities, too. What's sauce for the goose, ought to be
+sauce for the gander."
+
+The man was stammering some very impolite words, and Tom was anxious to
+get his sister and Ruth away. The girls lifted the lamb in upon the back
+seat and laid it tenderly upon some wraps. Then the boy leaped into the
+front seat and prepared to start.
+
+"I tell ye what it is!" exclaimed the farmer, coming close to the car.
+"This ain't no better than highway robbery. I never expected ter have ye
+take the carcass away, when I told ye sich a low price----"
+
+"I have paid its full value, and you don't own a thread of its wool,
+Mister," said Tom, feeling the engine throb under him now. "I'm going to
+start----"
+
+"You wait! I ain't got through with you----"
+
+Just then the car started. The man had been holding to the end of the
+seat. He foolishly tried to continue his hold.
+
+The car sprang ahead suddenly, the farmer was swung around like a top,
+and the last they saw of him he was sitting in the middle of the dusty
+road, shaking both fists after the car, and yelling at the top of his
+voice. Just what he said, it was perhaps better that they did not hear!
+
+"Wasn't he a mean old thing?" cried Tom, when the car was purring along
+steadily.
+
+"And wasn't Ruth smart to see that he had no right to this poor little
+sheep?" said Helen, admiringly.
+
+"What you going to do with it, Ruthie?" demanded Tom, glancing back at
+the lamb. "Going to sell it to a butcher in Littletop? That's where
+Fred Larkin's folk live, you know."
+
+"Sell it to a butcher!" exclaimed Ruth, in scorn. "That's what the
+farmer would have done--butchered it."
+
+"It is the fate of most sheep to be turned into mutton," returned Tom,
+his eyes twinkling.
+
+"And then the mutton is turned into boys and girls," laughed Ruth. "But
+if I have my way, this little fellow will never become either a Cameron,
+or a Fielding."
+
+"Oh! I wouldn't want to eat him--after seeing him hurt," cried Helen.
+"Isn't he cunning? See! he knows we are going to be good to him."
+
+"I hope he knows it," her chum replied. "After all, it doesn't take much
+to assure domestic animals of our good intentions toward them."
+
+"Well," said Tom, grinning, "I promise not to eat this lamb, if you make
+a point of it, but if I don't get something to eat pretty soon, I assure
+you he'll be in grave danger!"
+
+They made Littletop and the Larkins' residence before Tom became too
+ravenous, however; and the younger members of the Larkin family welcomed
+the adventurers--including the lamb--with enthusiasm.
+
+Fred Larkin had some little aptitude for medicine and surgery--so they
+all said, at least--and he set the broken leg and put splints upon it.
+Then they put the little creature in one of the calf pens, fed it
+liberally, and Fred declared that in ten days it would be well enough to
+hop around.
+
+The little Larkin folk were delighted with the lamb for a pet, so Ruth
+knew that she could safely trust her protege to them.
+
+There was great fun that night, for the neighboring young folk were
+invited to meet the trio from Cheslow and the Red Mill, and it was
+midnight before the girls and boys were still. Therefore, there was no
+early start made for the second day's run.
+
+Breakfast was late, and it was half-past nine before Tom started the
+car, and they left Littletop amid the cheers and good wishes of their
+friends.
+
+"We must hustle, if we want to get to Uncle Ike's before dark," Tom
+declared. "So you will have to stand for some scorching, girls."
+
+"See that you don't kill anything--or even maim it," advised his sister.
+"You are out four dollars for damages already."
+
+"Never you mind. I reckon you girls won't care to be marooned along some
+of these wild roads all night."
+
+"Nor to travel over them by night, either," advised Ruth. "My! we
+haven't seen a house for ten miles."
+
+"It's somewhere up this way that those Gypsy friends of Roberto are
+encamped--as near as I could make out," Tom remarked.
+
+"My! I wouldn't like to meet them," his sister said.
+
+"They wouldn't hurt us--at least, Roberto didn't," laughed Ruth.
+
+"That's all right. But Gypsies _do_ carry off people----"
+
+"And eat them?" scoffed Tom. "How silly, Nell!"
+
+"Well, Mr. Smartie! they might hold us for ransom."
+
+"Like regular brigands, eh?" returned Tom, lightly. "That _would_ be an
+adventure worth chronicling."
+
+"You can laugh----Oh!"
+
+As she was speaking, Helen saw a head thrust out of the bushes not far
+along the road they traveled.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Ruth, seizing her arm.
+
+"Look there!" But the car was past the spot in a moment. "Somebody was
+watching us, and dodged back," declared Helen, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" laughed her brother.
+
+But before they took the next turn they looked back and saw two men
+standing in the road, talking. They were rough-looking fellows.
+
+"Gypsies!" cried Helen.
+
+However, they saw nobody else for a few miles. Now they were skirting
+one of the lakes in the upper chain, some miles above the gorge where
+the dam was built, and the scenery was both beautiful and rugged. There
+were few farms.
+
+On a rising stretch of road, the engine began to miss, and something
+rattled painfully in the "internal arrangements" of the car. Tom looked
+serious, stopped several times, and just coaxed her slowly to the summit
+of the hill.
+
+"Now don't tell us that we're going to have a breakdown!" cried Helen.
+
+"Do you think those are thunder-heads hanging over the mountain?" asked
+Ruth, seriously.
+
+"Sure of it!" responded Helen.
+
+"You are a regular 'calamity howler'!" exclaimed Tom. "By Jove! this old
+mill _is_ going to kick up rusty."
+
+"There's a house!" cried Ruth, gaily, standing up in the back to look
+ahead. "Now we're all right if the machine has to be repaired, or a
+storm bursts upon us."
+
+But when the car limped up and stopped in the sandy road before the
+sagging gate, the trio saw that their refuge was a windowless and
+abandoned structure that looked as gaunt and ghostly as a
+lightning-riven tree!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FELLOW TRAVELERS
+
+
+"Well! this is a pretty pickle!" groaned Tom, at last as much disturbed
+as Helen had been. "It's no use, girls. We'll have to stop here till the
+storm is over. It is coming."
+
+"Well, that will be fun!" cried Ruth, cheerfully. "Of course we ought to
+be storm-bound in a deserted house. That is according to all romantic
+precedent."
+
+"Humph! you and your precedent!" grumbled her chum. "I'd rather it was a
+nice roadside hotel, or tearoom. That would be something like."
+
+"Come on! we'll take in the hamper, and make tea on the deserted
+hearthstone," said Ruth. "Tom can stay out here and repair his old
+auto."
+
+"Tom will find a shelter for the machine first, I reckon. There! hear
+the thunder? We are going to get it, and I must raise the hood of the
+tonneau, too," proclaimed the lad. "Go on with your hamper and wraps. I
+see sheds back there, and I'll try to coax the old Juggernaut into that
+lane and so to the sheds."
+
+He did as he proposed during the next few minutes, while the girls
+approached the deserted dwelling, with the hamper. The lower front
+windows were boarded, and the door closed. But the door giving entrance
+from the side porch was ajar.
+
+"'Leave all hope behind, ye who enter here,'" quoted Helen, peering into
+the dusky interior. "It looks powerful ghostly, Ruthie."
+
+"There are plenty of windows out, so we'll have light enough," returned
+the girl of the Red Mill. "Don't be a 'fraid cat,' Helen."
+
+"That's all right," grumbled her chum. "You're only making a bluff
+yourself."
+
+Ruth laughed. She was not bothered by fears of the supernatural, no
+matter what the old house was, or had been. Now, a good-sized rat might
+have made her shriek and run!
+
+Into the house stepped Ruth Fielding, in her very bravest manner. The
+hall was dark, but the door into a room at the left--toward the back of
+the house--was open and through this doorway she ventured, the old,
+rough boards of the floor creaking beneath her feet.
+
+This apartment must have been the dining-room. There was a high, ornate,
+altogether ugly mantle and open fireplace at one end of the room. At the
+other, there stood, fastened to the wall, or built into it, a china
+closet, the doors of which had been removed. These ugly, shallow
+caverns gaped at them and promised refuge to spiders and mice. On the
+hearth was a heap of crusted gray ashes.
+
+"What a lonesome, eerie sort of a place," shivered Helen. "Wish the old
+car had kept running----"
+
+"Through the rain?" suggested Ruth, pointing outside, where the air was
+already gray with approaching moisture.
+
+Down from the higher hills the storm was sweeping. They could smell it,
+for the wind leaped in at the broken windows and rustled the shreds of
+paper still clinging to the walls of the dining-room.
+
+"This isn't a fit place to eat in," grumbled Helen.
+
+"Let's go above stairs. Carry that alcohol stove carefully, dear. We'll
+have a nice cup of tea, even if it does----"
+
+"Oh!" shrieked Helen, as a long streak of lightning flew across their
+line of vision.
+
+"Yes. Even in spite of _that_," repeated Ruth, smiling, and raising her
+voice that she might be heard above the cannonade of thunder.
+
+"I don't like it, I tell you!" declared her chum.
+
+"I can't say that I do myself, but I do not see how we are to help it."
+
+"I wish Tom was inside here, too."
+
+Ruth had glanced through the window and seen that Master Tom had managed
+to get the auto under a shed at the back. He was industriously putting
+up the curtains to the car, and making all snug against the rain, before
+he began to tinker with the machinery.
+
+There was a faint drumming in the air--the sound of rain coming down the
+mountain side, beating its "charge" upon the leaves as it came. There
+were no other sounds, for the birds and insects had sought shelter
+before the wrathful face of the storm.
+
+Yes! there was one other. The girls had not heard it until they began
+climbing the stairs out of the side entry. Helen clutched Ruth suddenly
+by the skirt.
+
+"Hear that!" she whispered.
+
+"Say it out loud, dear, do!" exclaimed the girl of the Red Mill. "There
+is never anything so nerve-shaking as a stage whisper."
+
+"There! you heard it?"
+
+"The wind rustling something," said Ruth, attempting to go on.
+
+"No."
+
+"Something squeaks--mice, I do believe."
+
+"Mice would starve to death here," declared Helen.
+
+"How smart of you! That is right," agreed Ruth. "Come on. Let us see
+what it is--if it's upstairs."
+
+Helen clung close to her and trembled. There was the rustling, squeaking
+sound again. Ruth pushed on (secretly feeling rather staggered by the
+strange noise), and they entered one of the larger upper chambers.
+
+Immediately she saw an open stovepipe hole in the chimney. "The noise
+comes from that," she declared, setting down the basket and pointing.
+
+"But what is it?" wailed her frightened chum.
+
+"The wind?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+The lightning flashed again, and the thunder rolled nearer. Helen
+screamed, crouched down upon the floor, and covered her ears, squeezing
+her eyelids tight shut too.
+
+"Dreadful! dreadful!" she gasped.
+
+Still the silence outside between the reports of thunder; but the
+rustling in the chimney continued. Ruth looked around, found a piece of
+broken window-sash on the floor, and approached the open pipe-hole.
+
+"Here's for stirring up Mr. Ghost," she said, in a much braver tone than
+she secretly felt.
+
+She always felt her responsibility with Helen. The latter was of a
+nervous, imaginary temperament, and it was never well for her to get
+herself worked up in this way.
+
+"Oh, Ruth! Don't! Suppose it bites you!" gasped Helen.
+
+At that Ruth _did_ laugh. "Whoever heard of a ghost with teeth?" she
+demanded, and instantly thrust the stick into the gaping hole.
+
+There was a stir--a flutter--a squeaking--and out flopped a brown object
+about the size of a mouse. Helen shrieked again, and even Ruth darted
+back.
+
+"A mouse!" cried Helen.
+
+"Right--_a flittermouse_!" agreed Ruth, suddenly bursting into a laugh.
+"The chimney's full of them."
+
+"Oh, let's get out!"
+
+"In this rain?" and Ruth pointed to the window, where now the drops were
+falling, big and fast--the vanguard of the storm.
+
+"But if a bat gets into your hair!" moaned Helen, rocking herself on her
+knees.
+
+Ruth opened the big hamper, seized a newspaper, and swooped down upon
+the blind, fluttering brown bat. Seizing it as she would a spider, she
+ran to the window and flung it out, just as the water burst into the
+room in a flood.
+
+Then she ran to the pipe-hole and thrust the paper into it, making a
+"stopper" which would not easily fall out. She dragged Helen to the
+other side of the room, where the floor was dry and they were out of the
+draught.
+
+There the two girls cowered for some moments, hugged close together,
+Helen hiding her eyes from the intermittent lightning against Ruth's
+jacket. The thunder roared overhead, and the rain dashed down in
+torrents. For ten minutes it was as hard a storm as the girl of the Red
+Mill ever remembered seeing. Such tempests in the hills are not
+infrequent.
+
+When the thunder began to roll away into the distance, and the lightning
+was less brilliant, the girls could take some notice of what else went
+on. The fierce drumming of the rain continued, but there seemed to be a
+noise in the lower part of the building.
+
+"Tom has come in," said Helen, with satisfaction.
+
+"He must have gotten awfully wet, then, getting here from that shed,"
+Ruth returned. "Hush!"
+
+Somebody sneezed heavily. Helen opened her mouth to cry out, but Ruth
+put her palm upon her lips, effectually smothing the cry.
+
+"Sh!" the girl of the Red Mill admonished. "Let him find us."
+
+"Oh! that will be fun," agreed Helen.
+
+Ruth did not look at her. She listened intently. There was a heavy,
+scraping foot upon the floor below. To _her_ mind, it did not sound like
+Tom at all.
+
+She held Helen warningly by the wrist and they continued to strain their
+ears for some minutes. Then an odor reached them which Ruth was sure did
+not denote Tom's presence in the room below. It was the smell of strong
+tobacco smoked in an ancient pipe!
+
+"What's that?" sniffed Helen, whisperingly.
+
+Uncle Jabez smoked a strong pipe and Ruth could not be mistaken as to
+the nature of this one. She remembered the two men who had hidden in the
+bushes as the car rolled by, not many miles back on this road.
+
+"Let's shout for Tom and bring him in here," Helen suggested.
+
+"Perhaps get him into trouble? Let's try and find out, first, what sort
+of people they are," objected Ruth, for they now heard talking and knew
+that there were at least two visitors below.
+
+Rising quietly, Ruth crept on tiptoe to the head of the stair. The
+drumming rain helped smother any sound she might have made.
+
+Slowly, stair by stair, Ruth Fielding let herself down until she could
+see into the open doorway of the dining room. Two men were squatting on
+the hearth, both smoking assiduously.
+
+They were rough looking, unlovely fellows, and the growl of their voices
+did not impress Ruth as being of a quality to inspire confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?
+
+
+The two men were mumbling together--Ruth could not catch the words at
+first. When she did, they meant nothing to her, and she was puzzled.
+
+But suddenly one said in clear, if peculiar, English:
+
+"The old hag bags the best of the loot--always, my Carlo."
+
+The other replied, still gruffly, yet in a musical language that Ruth
+could not identify; yet somehow she was reminded of Roberto. He, the
+Gypsy lad, had formed his English sentences much as this ruffian had
+formed his phrase. Were these two of Roberto's tribesmen?
+
+"I like it not--I like it not!" the other burst out again, in anger.
+"Why should she govern? It is an iron rod in a trembling hand."
+
+"Psst!" snapped the other. "You respect neither age nor wisdom." He now
+spoke in English, but later he relapsed into the Tzigane tongue. Helen
+crept down to Ruth's side and listened, too; but it was little the girls
+understood.
+
+The angry ruffian--the complaining one--dropped more words in English
+now and then, like: "We risk all--she nothing." "There were the pearls,
+my Carlo--ah! beautiful! beautiful! Does she not seize them as her own?"
+"I put my neck in a noose no longer for any man but myself--surely not
+for a woman!"
+
+Then it was that the man Carlo burst into a tirade in his native speech,
+and under cover of his loud talk Ruth motioned her chum to creep back up
+the stairway, and she followed.
+
+A sudden disquieting thought came to her. The rain was growing less.
+Suppose Tom should come abruptly into the house? He might get into
+trouble with these ruffians.
+
+She whispered this thought to Helen, and her friend was panic-stricken
+again. "We must warn Tom--oh, we _must_ warn him somehow!" she gasped.
+
+"Surely we will," declared the girl from the Red Mill. "Now, careful how
+you step. A creaking board might give us away."
+
+They crept across the upper chamber to the rear of the house. Through
+another room they went, until they could look out of a broken window
+upon the sheds. There was Master Tom standing before the shed (the
+machine was hidden), wiping his hands upon a piece of waste, and looking
+out upon the falling rain.
+
+He saw the girls almost instantly, and opened his mouth to shout to
+them, but Ruth clapped her own hand to her lips and motioned with the
+other for him to be silent. Tom understood.
+
+He looked more than surprised--not a little startled, in fact.
+
+"What will he think?" murmured Helen. "He's so reckless!"
+
+"Leave it to me," declared Ruth, leaning out of the window into the
+still falling rain.
+
+She caught the boy's eye. He watched her motions. There was built at
+this end of the house an outside stairway, and although it was in bad
+repair, she saw that an agile fellow like Tom could mount the steps
+without any difficulty.
+
+Pointing to this flight, she motioned him to come by that means to their
+level, still warning him by gesture to make no sound. The boy understood
+and immediately darted across the intervening space to the house.
+
+Ruth knew there was no dining-room window from which the ruffians
+downstairs could see him. And they had made no move as far as she had
+heard.
+
+She left Helen to meet Tom when he came in through the sagging door at
+the top of the outside flight of stairs, and tiptoed back into that room
+where they had been frightened by the bat.
+
+It was directly over the dining-room. The same chimney was built into
+each room. This thought gave Ruth's active mind food for further
+reflection.
+
+The rumble of the men's voices continued from below. Tom and Helen
+followed her so softly into the room that Ruth did not hear them until
+they stood beside her. Tom touched her arm and pointed downward:
+
+"Tramps?" he asked.
+
+"Those Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth, in return.
+
+Helen was just as scared as she could be, and clung tightly to Tom's
+hand. "Wish we could scare them away," suggested the boy, with knitted
+brow.
+
+"Perhaps we can!" uttered Ruth, suddenly eager, and her brown eyes
+dancing. "Sh! Wait! Let me try."
+
+She went to the paper-stuffed stovepipe hole, out of which the bat had
+fallen. Helen would have exclaimed aloud, had not Tom seen her lips open
+and squeezed her hand warningly.
+
+"What is it?" he hissed.
+
+"Don't! don't!" begged Helen. "You'll let those bats all out here----"
+
+"Bats?" queried Tom, in wonder.
+
+"In the chimney," whispered Ruth. "Listen!"
+
+The stir and squeaking of the bats were audible. Enough rain had come in
+at the top of the broken chimney to disturb the nocturnal creatures.
+
+"Just the thing!" giggled Tom, seeing what Ruth would do. "Frighten them
+to pieces!"
+
+The girl of the Red Mill had secured the stick she used before. She
+pulled aside the "stopper" of newspaper and thrust in the stick. At once
+the rustling and squeaking increased.
+
+She worked the stick up and down insistently. Scale from the inside of
+the chimney began to rattle down to the hearth below. The voices ceased.
+Then the men were heard to scramble up.
+
+The bats were dislodged--perhaps many of them! There was a scuffling and
+scratching inside the flue.
+
+Below, the men broke out into loud cries. They shouted their alarm in
+the strange language the girls had heard before. Then their feet stamped
+over the floor.
+
+Tom ran lightly to the window. He saw a bat wheel out of the window
+below, and disappear. The rain had almost stopped.
+
+It was evident that many of the creatures were flapping about that
+deserted dining-room. The two ruffians scrambled to the door, through
+the entry, and out upon the porch.
+
+The sound of their feet did not hold upon the porch. They leaped down
+the steps, and Tom beckoned the girls eagerly to join him at the window.
+The two men were racing down the lane toward the muddy highroad, paying
+little attention to their steps or to the last of the rainstorm.
+
+"Panic-stricken, sure enough! Smart girl, Ruthie," was Master Tom's
+comment. "Now tell a fellow all about it."
+
+The girls did so, while Ruth lit the alcohol lamp and made the tea. Tom
+was ravenous--nothing could spoil that boy's appetite.
+
+"Gyps., sure enough," was his comment. "But what you heard them say
+wasn't much."
+
+"They'd been robbing somebody--or were going to rob," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "What frightful men they are!"
+
+"Pooh! they've gone now, and the old machine is fixed. We'll plow on
+through the mud as soon as you like."
+
+"I shall be glad, when we get to civilization again," said his sister.
+
+"And I'd like very much to understand what those men were talking
+about," Ruth observed. "Do you suppose Roberto knows about it?
+Pearls--beautiful pearls, that fellow spoke of."
+
+"I tell you they are thieves!" declared Helen.
+
+"We'll probably never know," Tom said, confidently. "So let's not
+worry!"
+
+Master Tom did not prove a good prophet on this point, although he had
+foreseen the breaking down of the automobile before they started from
+the Red Mill. They went back to the car and started from the old house
+in a much more cheerful mood, neither of the girls supposing that they
+were likely to run across the Gypsy men again.
+
+"We must hustle to make Uncle Ike's to-night, sure enough," Tom said, as
+the car rolled out into the muddy highway.
+
+"Is it very far yet?" asked Ruth.
+
+"More than sixty miles, and a bad road, and it is now half-past five,"
+replied the boy.
+
+"Oh, my! I hope we'll not be delayed after dark," said his sister.
+
+"I never knew you to be such a 'fraid-cat before, Helen," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Everything's gone wrong to-day. And those awful men scared me. Let's
+stop at the hotel at Boise Landing, if it grows dark. Uncle Ike's is a
+long way beyond the town, Tom."
+
+"Sure--if you say so," agreed her brother, cheerfully. "I can send word
+up to the folks that we are all right. Of course, they will be expecting
+us this evening. I telegraphed them this morning that we were on the
+way."
+
+The car plowed on through the mud. These roads were in very bad shape,
+and even while it had been dry, the traveling was bad enough. Now the
+wheels skidded and slipped, and the engine panted as though it were
+tired.
+
+It missed explosions frequently, too, and Tom sat under the wheel with
+a very serious face indeed. It was not far to a small settlement called,
+on the map, Severn Corners. Tom knew he could get gas there, if he
+needed it, but he was not sure that there was a repair shop at the
+place. If the old machine played a trick on them again----
+
+And it did! Right at the foot of a hill, and not far from the shore of
+Long Lake, the engine "died."
+
+"Whatever shall we do?" cried Helen.
+
+"No use wrangling about it," said Ruth, with a laugh. "Will we have to
+walk?"
+
+"Walk! and carry the ropes and everything else of value?" demanded
+Helen.
+
+"We can't leave the machine unprotected," said Tom, seriously. "No
+knowing what would happen to it. But it's not far to Severn Corners.
+Only two miles, or so."
+
+"Now, I tell you," said Ruth, briskly. "You walk on, Tom, and get help.
+Bring back a team to drag the auto into town. Perhaps you'll find a farm
+before you go far. We'll remain here till you come back."
+
+"That's what you'll have to do, Tommy," agreed his sister, as the boy
+hesitated. "Of course, I'm only fooling. I won't be afraid."
+
+"I'll do my best, girls," Tom assured them. "I am sure you'll be
+perfectly safe," and Master Tom started off along the road at a quick
+trot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+QUEEN ZELAYA
+
+
+Ruth and her chum were both a little troubled by Tom Cameron's
+departure, but even Helen had braced up and was determined not to show
+her fear. The situation of the girls in the auto on this lonely road was
+enough to trouble the mind of any person unfamiliar with the wilderness.
+
+The shore of Long Lake (which they could see from their seats in the
+car) was as wild as any stretch of country through which they had
+traveled during the two days of the tour.
+
+The stalled auto was on the main-traveled road, however, and there was a
+chance of somebody coming along. Ruth and Helen hoped that if this
+happened, it would be somebody who would remain with them until Tom's
+return.
+
+Both kept this wish a secret, for each tried to cheer the other.
+Perhaps, had it not been for that adventure at the old house shortly
+before, neither girl would have felt so nervous.
+
+The outlook from the stalled auto was very attractive, if wild. They
+could overlook a considerable part of Long Lake, a stretch of its
+distant southern shore, and several islands.
+
+The edge of the water was perhaps half a mile away, and the ground
+sloped abruptly from this road toward the lake. Following the very edge
+of the water was another road, but one which the girls knew nothing
+about and could scarcely see from the auto.
+
+It was merely a brown ribbon of cart-path through the second-growth
+timber, and it wound along the hillside, sometimes approaching very
+close to the main highway. Before the county had built the better road,
+this path had been the trail to Boise Landing.
+
+Had the girls been looking that way, they might have seen, through a
+small break in the trees, some minutes after Tom left them, a string of
+odd-looking wagons moving slowly along this lower trail.
+
+First two men walked ahead, smoking their pipes and plowing through the
+mud and water without regard to where they stepped. Then followed three
+freshly painted green wagons--vehicles something like old-fashioned
+omnibuses, but with windows in the sides and front, and a door and steps
+behind. Through the roof of one a stovepipe was thrust.
+
+Behind followed a troop of horses, with two bare-legged, wild-looking
+youngsters astride each a barebacked steed, and holding the others with
+leading-reins. These horses, as well as those drawing the wagons, were
+sleek and well curried.
+
+A multitude of dogs ran in the mud and water, too, but there were no
+women and children about, save upon the front seats of each van with the
+drivers. Sounds from within the green vehicles, however, proclaimed the
+presence of a number of others.
+
+They were a strange-looking people--all swarthy, dark-haired,
+red-lipped, men and women alike having their ears pierced. The rings in
+the lobes of the women's ears were much larger than the ornaments in
+those of the men.
+
+At a certain opening in the shrubbery, the men ahead, looking upward,
+beheld the stalled auto and the two girls in it. One man held up his
+hand and the first wagon stopped. So did the remainder of the caravan.
+
+The two spoke together, and then strode back to the first green van. The
+window behind the driver's seat was already open and a strange face
+appeared at it.
+
+The man driving this van was young and rather handsome--in the same wild
+way that Roberto was handsome. Beside him sat a comely young woman,
+buxom of figure, with a child in her lap. Her head was encircled with a
+yellow silk kerchief, she wore a green, tight-fitting bodice, and her
+short skirt was of a peculiar purple. She wore black stockings and neat
+black pumps on her feet.
+
+Between these two on the seat, from the open window, was thrust the
+wicked, haggard head of a woman who might have been a hundred from the
+network of wrinkles in her face, and her generally aged appearance. But
+her eyes--black as sloes--were as sharp as a bird's. Her lips were gray,
+thin, and drew back when she spoke, displaying several strong, yellow
+fangs rather than teeth!
+
+When she spoke, it was with a hissing sound. She used the speech of the
+Gypsy folk, and the others--even the rough men in the road--were very
+respectful to her. They explained the stoppage of the caravan, and
+pointed out the auto and the girls above.
+
+It was evident that one of the men had suggested something which pleased
+the hag, in regard to the strangers in the motor-car. She grinned
+suddenly, displaying gums and fangs in a most horrible grimace.
+
+Nodding vigorously, she gave them some commands, and then spoke to the
+comely woman beside the driver. The latter passed the sleeping infant
+back to the old woman, who disappeared into the interior of the van. The
+younger woman leaped down into the road, and waiting beside the two
+rough men, allowed the entire caravan to pass on, leaving them behind.
+
+It was fast growing dark. The sun had disappeared behind the hills in
+the west, and long shadows were stretching their gaunt hands out for the
+girls in the auto. The chill wind which came after the tempest made them
+shiver, although they were somewhat sheltered by the curtains which Tom
+had arranged.
+
+"I suppose we _could_ snuggle down here with the robes, in the tonneau,
+and spend the night in some comfort," suggested Ruth Fielding.
+
+"Oh! don't mention it!" exclaimed her friend. "If Tom doesn't come back
+with a team, or with another auto, I'll never forgive him."
+
+"Of course he will return. But he may be delayed, Helen."
+
+"This auto-touring isn't as much fun as I thought it would be," groaned
+Helen Cameron. "Oh! what's that?"
+
+She peered out of the automobile. There was a handsome, smiling, dark
+young woman standing in the road beside the car.
+
+"Young ladies," said the stranger, in a pleasant voice, "are you in
+trouble? Can I help you at all?"
+
+"My goodness me! do you live near here? Can we go home with you?" cried
+Helen, in excitement.
+
+"Wait!" breathed Ruth, seizing her chum's arm, but Helen was too anxious
+to escape from her present situation to listen to Ruth.
+
+"For if you'll take us in till my brother gets back from Severn
+Corners----"
+
+"We are going to Severn Corners--my husband and I," said the woman,
+smiling.
+
+"Oh! then you do not live near here?" cried Helen, in disappointment.
+
+"Nobody lives near here, little lady," explained the stranger. "Nobody
+lives nearer than Severn Corners. But it is lonesome here. We will take
+you both on in our wagon--nobody shall hurt you. There is only my
+husband and baby and the old grandmother."
+
+"Where is your wagon?" demanded Ruth, suddenly hopping out into the road
+and looking all about.
+
+"Down yonder," said the woman, pointing below. "We follow the lower
+road. Just there. You can see the top of it."
+
+"Oh! A bus! It's like Uncle Noah's," declared Helen, referring to the
+ancient vehicle much patronized by the girls at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Ruth, again, with keen suspicion.
+
+"We are pedlars. We are good folks," laughed the woman. She did, indeed,
+seem very pleasant, and even Ruth's suspicions were allayed. Besides,
+it was fast growing dark, and there was no sign of Tom on the hilltop
+ahead.
+
+"Let's go on with them," begged Helen, seizing her chum's hand. "I am
+afraid to stay here any longer."
+
+"But Tom will not know where we have gone," objected Ruth, feebly.
+
+"I'll write him a note and leave it pinned to the seat."
+
+She proceeded to do this, while Ruth lit the auto lamps so that neither
+Tom, on his return, or anybody else, would run into the car in the dark.
+Then they were ready to go with the woman, removing only their personal
+wraps and bags. They would have to risk having the touring car stripped
+by thieves before Tom Cameron came back.
+
+"I don't believe there are any thieves around here," whispered Helen.
+"They would be scared to death in such a lonesome place!" she added,
+with a giggle.
+
+Ruth felt some doubt about going with the woman. She was so dark and
+foreign looking. Yet she seemed desirous of doing the girls a service.
+And even she, Ruth, did not wish to stay longer on the lonely road.
+Something surely had happened to detain Tom.
+
+In the south, too, "heat lightning" played sharply--and almost
+continuously. Ruth knew that this meant the tempest was raging at a
+distance and that it might return to this side of the lake.
+
+The thought of being marooned on this mountain road, at night, in such a
+storm as that which they had experienced two or three hours before, was
+more than Ruth Fielding could endure with calmness.
+
+So she agreed to go with the woman. Tom would know where they had gone
+when he returned, for he could not miss the note his sister had left.
+
+At least, that is what both girls believed. Only, they were scarcely out
+of sight of the car with the woman, when one of the rough-looking men,
+who had walked ahead of the Gypsy caravan, appeared from the bushes,
+stepped into the auto, tore the note from where it had been pinned, and
+at once slipped back into the shadows, with the crumpled paper in his
+pocket!
+
+Now the girls and their guide were down on the lower road. There was a
+twinkling light that showed the green van, horses, and the handsome
+driver--and the man looked like Roberto.
+
+"They are Gypsies, I believe," whispered Ruth.
+
+"Oh! you have Gypsies on the brain," flung back her chum. "At least, we
+shall be dry in that bus, if it rains. And we can find somebody at
+Severn Corners to put us up, even if there is no hotel."
+
+Ruth sighed, and agreed. The woman had been speaking to the man on the
+seat. Now she took the lantern and went around to the back of the van.
+
+"This way, little ladies," she said, in her most winning tone. "You may
+rest in comfort inside here. Nobody but the good old grandmother and my
+bebe."
+
+"Come on!" said Helen to Ruth, leading the way.
+
+There was a light in the interior and it dazzled the girls' eyes, as
+they climbed in. The door snapped to behind them, and the horses started
+along the road before either Ruth or Helen were able to see much of
+their surroundings.
+
+And strange enough their surroundings were; berths on either side of the
+strange cart, made up for sleeping and covered with gay quilts. There
+were chests and boxes, some of them padlocked, and all with cushions on
+them for seats.
+
+There was a table, and a hanging lamp, and a stove. A child was asleep
+in one of the bunks; a white-haired poodle lay crouched at the child's
+feet, and showed its teeth and snarled at the two visitors.
+
+But the appearance that amazed--and really startled--the girls most was
+the figure that sat facing them, as they entered the van. It was that
+of an old, old crone, sitting on a stool, bent forward with her sharp
+chin resting on her clenched fists, and her elbows on her knees, while
+iron-gray elf-locks hung about her wrinkled, nut-brown face, half
+screening it.
+
+Her bead-like eyes held the girls entranced from the first. Ruth and
+Helen looked at each other, startled and amazed, but they could not
+speak. Nor could they keep their gaze for long off the strange old
+woman.
+
+"Who are you, little ladies?" croaked the hag at last.
+
+Ruth became the spokesman. "We are two girls who have been motoring over
+the hills. Our motor-car broke down, and we were left alone while my
+friend's brother went for help. We grew fearful when it became dark----"
+
+The gray lips opened again: "You own the motor-car, little ladies?"
+
+"My friend's father owns it," said Ruth.
+
+"Then your parents are wealthy," and the fangs suddenly displayed
+themselves in a dreadful smile. "It is fine to be rich. The poor Gypsy
+scarcely knows where to lay her head, but you little ladies have great
+houses and much money--eh?"
+
+"Gypsy!" gasped Helen, seizing Ruth's hand.
+
+Ruth felt a sinking at her own heart. All the stories she had ever
+heard of these strange, wandering tribes rushed in upon her mind again.
+She had not been afraid of Roberto, and the woman who had brought them
+to the van seemed kind enough. But this old hag----!
+
+"Do not shrink from the old Romany woman," advised the hag, her eyes
+sparkling again. "She would not hurt the little ladies. She is a queen
+among her people--what she says is law to them. Do not fear."
+
+"Oh, I see no reason why we should be afraid of you," Ruth said, trying
+to speak in an unshaken voice. "I think you all mean us kindly, and we
+are thankful for this lift to Severn Corners."
+
+Something like a cackle broke from the hag's throat. "Queen Zelaya will
+let nothing befall you, little ladies," she declared. "Fear not. Her
+word is law among the Romany folk, poor as she may be. And now tell me,
+my little birds,--tell me of your riches, and your great houses, and all
+the wealth your parents have. I love to hear of such things--even I,
+poor Zelaya, who have nothing after a long, long life of toil."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+IN THE GYPSY CAMP
+
+
+Ruth remembered what Roberto had said about his miserly grandmother. She
+believed these people who had offered her and Helen a ride were of the
+same tribe as Roberto, and the way Queen Zelaya spoke, caused the girl
+to believe that this old woman and Roberto's grandmother were one and
+the same person.
+
+She could say nothing to Helen at the moment. Personally she felt more
+afraid of this Gypsy Queen than she had of the two rough men in the
+abandoned house that afternoon!
+
+"Come!" repeated Zelaya. "Tell me of all the riches and jewels--the gold
+and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich
+silks--all of it! I love to hear of such things," exclaimed the woman,
+grinning again in her terrible way.
+
+Helen opened her lips to speak, but Ruth pinched her. "Tell her
+nothing," the girl of the Red Mill whispered. "I am afraid we have said
+too much already."
+
+"Why?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
+
+"Pshaw! this old woman can't hurt us. Isn't she funny?"
+
+"Speak up, my little ladies!" commanded Queen Zelaya. "My will is law
+here. Do not forget that."
+
+"I guess your will isn't much law to _us_," replied Helen, laughing and
+tossing her head. "You see, we do not know you----"
+
+"You shall!" hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forth
+one of her claw-like hands. "Come here!"
+
+Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly she
+stopped. The queen's terrible eyes seemed to hold the girl in a spell.
+Involuntarily Helen's limbs bore her toward the far end of the van.
+
+The girl's face became pale; her own eyes protruded from their sockets;
+the Gypsy Queen charmed her, just as a snake is said to charm a young
+bird in its nest.
+
+But Ruth sprang after her, seized Helen's arm again, and shook her.
+
+"You stop that!" she cried, to the old woman. "Don't you mind her,
+Helen. She has some wicked power in her eyes, my dear!"
+
+Her cry broke the hypnotic spell the woman had cast over Helen Cameron.
+The latter sank down, trembling and sobbing, with her hands over her
+face.
+
+"Oh, dear, Ruthie! I wish we hadn't gotten into this wagon," she moaned.
+
+"I am sure I wish so, too," returned her chum, in a low voice, while the
+old woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horrid
+laughter.
+
+"Aren't we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only two
+miles or a little over."
+
+"I wish we could speak to that other woman," muttered Ruth.
+
+"Do you suppose this old thing is crazy?" whispered Helen.
+
+"Worse than that," returned Ruth. "I am afraid of them all. I don't
+believe they mean us well. Let's get out, Helen."
+
+"Oh! where shall we go?" returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft as
+Ruth's own.
+
+"We must be somewhere near the town."
+
+"It is pitch dark outside the windows," complained Helen.
+
+"Let's try it. Pitch dark is not as bad as this wicked old creature----"
+
+The hag laughed again, although she was not looking at them. Surely she
+could not hear the girls' whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a shiver
+over both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she called
+herself, could read what was in their minds.
+
+"Yes, yes!" whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. "You
+are right. We will go."
+
+"We'll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us----Then
+we'll run!"
+
+Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.
+She turned the knob and tried to open it. _The door was fastened upon
+the outside!_
+
+Again the old woman broke into her cackling laugh. "Oh, no! oh, no!" she
+cried. "The pretty, rich little ladies cannot go yet. They must be the
+guests of the poor old Gypsy a little longer--they must eat of her salt.
+Then they will be her friends--and maybe they will help to make her
+rich."
+
+The girls stood close together, panting, afraid. Helen put her lips to
+Ruth's ear, and whispered:
+
+"Does _that_ mean she is going to hold us for ransom? Oh, dear! what did
+I say this very day? I _knew_ Gypsies were like this."
+
+"Hush!" warned Ruth. "Try and not let her see you are so afraid. Perhaps
+she means only to frighten us."
+
+"But--but when she looks at me, I seem to lose everything--speech, power
+to move, even power to think," gasped Helen.
+
+Just then the van turned suddenly from the road and came to a halt. They
+had been traveling much faster than Ruth and Helen had supposed.
+
+Lights flashed outside, and dogs barked, while the voices of men, women
+and children rose in a chorus of shouts and cries.
+
+"Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "They have gotten into town at
+last."
+
+Ruth feared this was not so. She tried to peer out of one of the
+windows. There was a bonfire at one side, and she thought she saw a
+tent. There were other wagons like the one in which they seemed to be
+imprisoned.
+
+"Now they'll _have_ to let us out," repeated Helen.
+
+"I am afraid not," returned the girl of the Red Mill. "This is the Gypsy
+camp, I am sure, dear. Do try to be brave! I think they never meant to
+take us after Tom, at all. We are prisoners, dear."
+
+At once Helen's spirits sank, but she grew angry.
+
+"You'd better not keep us here," she cried, looking again at the old
+woman. "My father has plenty of money and he will spend it all to get me
+back--and to punish you."
+
+"We will not take all his money from him, my pretty little lady,"
+returned Zelaya. "Only a part of it. And the poor Gypsy has nothing,"
+and once more she cackled.
+
+The door of the van was unlocked and opened. In the lamplight appeared a
+rough-looking man, with an evil face and a squint in one eye. He said
+something to the queen in their own tongue, but he spoke with great
+respect, and removed his hat and bowed to her, when she replied.
+
+Ruth and Helen started for the door, but the man motioned them back and
+scowled at them in an evil manner. They could see a crowd of curious
+faces without, and behind this man were children, women both old and
+young, and a few men.
+
+Zelaya lifted the child from its bed, and passed her into the arms of
+the woman who had guided Ruth and Helen to the van. She smiled upon the
+girls just as pleasantly as before, but now they knew that she was false
+and cruel.
+
+Then the queen waved her hand and the door was closed. "You remain with
+me to-night, little ladies. Oh! Zelaya would let nothing trouble
+you--no, no!"
+
+Helen burst into wild sobs at this, and threw herself upon the floor of
+the van. Ruth faced the old woman with wrathful sparks in her brown
+eyes.
+
+"You are acting very foolishly, indeed, whoever you are. You Gypsies
+cannot carry things with such a high hand in this State of New York.
+You'll find out----"
+
+"I am Zelaya, the Queen," interrupted the old hag, hoarsely. "Have a
+care! I will put a spell upon you, little lady----"
+
+"Pooh! you can't frighten me that way," declared Ruth Fielding. "I am
+not afraid of your spells, or your fortune telling, or any of your
+foolish magic. If you believe in any of it yourself, you have not gained
+much wisdom all the years you have lived."
+
+"You do not fear the arts of my people?" repeated Zelaya, trying to hold
+Ruth with her eye as she had Helen.
+
+"No, I do not. I fear your wickedness. And I know you must be very
+dishonest and cruel. But you have no more supernatural power than I have
+myself!"
+
+Zelaya's wrinkled face suddenly reddened with passion. She raised her
+claw-like hand and struck the bold girl sharply upon the cheek.
+
+"Impudence!" she muttered.
+
+"And _that_ is nothing supernatural," said Ruth, with continued
+boldness, although the blow had hurt her--leaving its mark. "You are
+breaking the laws of the land, which are far more powerful than any
+Gypsy law----"
+
+"Wait!" commanded the woman, threateningly. "You will learn yet, bold
+girl, how strong our laws are."
+
+She went back to her stool, mumbling to herself. Ruth lifted Helen into
+one of the berths, and sat down beside her. By and by the door of the
+van opened again and a bold-looking young woman--not the one that had
+brought them to the van--came in with three wooden bowls of a savory
+stew. She offered the tray to the visitors at a motion from old Zelaya,
+so that they had their choice before the queen received her own supper.
+
+"Let's eat it," whispered Ruth to Helen, when she saw that Zelaya
+plunged her own tin spoon into the stew. "It surely isn't drugged, or
+_she_ wouldn't touch it."
+
+They ate greedily, for both were hungry. It takes more than fear to
+spoil the healthy appetite of youth!
+
+"Do you suppose," whispered Helen, "that we could climb out of one of
+these windows after she falls asleep?"
+
+"I am sure I couldn't get through one," returned Ruth. "And I doubt if
+you could. Besides, there will be guards, and the dogs are awake. We've
+got to wait for help from outside, my dear."
+
+"Do you suppose Tom will find us?"
+
+"I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not while he is alone. But he certainly
+will give the alarm, and the whole countryside will be aroused."
+
+"Oh, dear, me! this old woman seems so sure that she can hold us
+captive."
+
+"I think she is crazy," Ruth declared. "And the other Gypsies must lack
+good sense, too, or they would not be governed by her."
+
+The queen gobbled down her supper and then prepared to retire to her own
+bunk. She told the girls to do the same, and they removed their shoes
+and outer garments and lay down--one on one side of the wagon, and one
+on the other.
+
+Ruth's head was toward the door. She could watch the movements of the
+old Gypsy woman. Zelaya did not go to sleep at all, but seemed to be
+waiting for the camp to get quiet and for her two visitors to fall into
+slumber.
+
+She kept raising her head and looking first at Helen, then at Ruth. The
+latter knew by her chum's breathing that, despite her fears, Helen had
+fallen asleep almost instantly.
+
+So Ruth began to breathe deeply and regularly, too. She closed her
+eyes--almost entirely. This was what Zelaya had been waiting for.
+
+Silently the old woman arose and turned up the lampwick a little. She
+knelt down before one of the padlocked boxes and unlocked it softly.
+Then she rummaged in the box--seemingly beneath a lot of rubbish that
+filled it, and drew forth a japanned box--like a cashbox. This was
+locked, too, and Zelaya wore the key of it on a string about her neck.
+
+Silently, with a glance at the two girls now and then, she unlocked
+this box and opened it on the top of the chest, before which she knelt.
+
+Ruth could see the old woman's face. It changed very much as she gazed
+upon what was in the japanned box. Her black eyes glowed, and her gray,
+thin lips were wreathed in a smile of delight.
+
+Again Ruth remembered Roberto's account of his grandmother. She was a
+miser, and he had mentioned that he had seen her at night gloating over
+her hoarded wealth.
+
+Surely Zelaya had all the signs of a miser. The next moment Ruth saw
+that the old woman verily possessed something worth gloating over.
+
+She lifted from the interior of the box a string of flashing gems--a
+broad band, or necklace, of them, in fact--and let them flow through her
+fingers in a stream of sparkling light. They were beautiful, beautiful
+pearls--a really wonderful necklace of them!
+
+Ruth held her breath for a moment. The queen turned suddenly and shot a
+keen, suspicious glance at her. The girl knew enough to cough, turn
+slightly, and recommence her steady breathing.
+
+The old woman had dropped the pearls in haste. Now she picked them up
+again, and went on with her silent worship of the gems.
+
+Ruth did not startle her again; but she saw something that made her own
+heart beat faster and brought the perspiration out upon her limbs.
+
+Above the old woman's head, and behind her, was a window. Pressed close
+to the pane of the window Ruth saw a face--dark, evil, be-mustached. It
+was one of the Gypsy men.
+
+She remembered now what she had overheard between the two supposed
+tramps who had taken shelter in the deserted house during the tempest.
+Was _this_ one of those two ruffians? And was he the one who had railed
+at the division of some stolen treasure, and had spoken with
+covetousness of the beautiful pearls?
+
+The thought made Ruth tremble. His wicked face withdrew, but all the
+time the Gypsy queen was admiring the necklace, Ruth felt that the evil
+eyes of the man were also gloating over the pearls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TOM ON THE TRAIL
+
+
+In spite of the fact that his sister thought it hard that Tom Cameron
+had not returned to the stalled auto by dark, the lad was having no easy
+time.
+
+In the first place, he had not run a mile on the road to Severn Corners
+when he stepped on a pebble, turned his ankle sharply, and had to hobble
+the rest of the way at a much slower pace than he had expected.
+
+All the time, too, Tom was troubled about the uncertainty of there being
+at the Corners any repair shop. He knew it was a small settlement. At
+most, the repair garage would be very small, and perhaps the mechanic a
+mere country "jack-of-all-trades," who would fumble the job.
+
+To obtain a car to drag his own into the town was beyond the boy's
+hopes, and when he came at last to a comfortable looking farmhouse some
+half a mile that side of the settlement, he determined to see if he
+could not obtain a pair of horses from the farmer, to get the car to
+the hamlet.
+
+He approached the back door of the house without seeing anybody about.
+It was already growing dark, he had hobbled so slowly on the road. As he
+stepped upon the porch, Tom heard a sudden furious barking inside the
+house.
+
+"Welcome to our city!" he muttered. "If nobody's at home but _that_
+savage beast, I'm likely to fare about as Roberto did at that farmhouse
+'way back on the road by Culm Falls."
+
+But he ventured to rap upon the door. It was one of those old-fashioned
+doors which opens in two parts. The upper half swung outward, but the
+lower remained bolted.
+
+Lucky for Tom Cameron this was so. A great, shaggy beast, with gleaming
+fangs and slobbering jaws, appeared over the ledge, scratching with his
+strong claws to get out at the intruder.
+
+"What do you want?" demanded a shrill voice from somewhere behind the
+excited brute. "We ain't got nothin' for tramps."
+
+"I should say you most certainly _had_ something for tramps, Madam,"
+said Tom, when he could make himself heard. "Any tramp would run from
+that fellow."
+
+"I don't see _you_ running. But you better," advised the woman, who was
+thin-faced, scant of hair, and had a voice about as pleasant as a
+whip-saw going through a knot.
+
+"But _I_ am not a tramp, I assure you, Madam," said Tom, politely.
+
+"Huh! ye look it," declared the woman, without any politeness at all.
+
+And the boy _did_ look rather dilapidated. He had gotten more than a
+little wet in the first of the shower, and he had pawed around among the
+"internal arrangements" of the balky auto to such purpose, that he was
+disheveled and oil-streaked from head to foot.
+
+"I'm in disguise just now, Ma'am," laughed Tom, cheerfully. "But really,
+I have not come begging either food or lodging. Is your husband at
+home?"
+
+"Yes, he is. And he'll be here in a minute and chase ye off the
+place--ef ye don't scat at once," said the woman, sourly. "_He_ wouldn't
+hold back this dog, now, I tell ye."
+
+"Please believe me, Madam," urged Tom, "that I am better than I appear.
+Our car broke down on the road yonder, and I have come to see if I can
+hire a team of horses to drag it into the Corners."
+
+"Car? What kind of a car? Ain't no railroad here," she said,
+suspiciously.
+
+The dog had barked himself breathless by now and they could talk a
+little easier. Tom smiled, as he replied:
+
+"Our motor car--automobile."
+
+"Huh! why didn't ye say so?" she demanded. "Tryin' to fool me. It's bad
+enough ter drive one o' them abominations over people's roads, but
+tryin' to make out ye air on a train--though, land o' Goshen! some of ye
+make 'em go as fast as airy express I ever see. Wal! what about your
+ortermobile?"
+
+"It's broken down," said Tom, feeling that he had struck the wrong
+house, after all, if he expected help.
+
+"I'm 'tarnal glad of it!" snapped the farmer's wife. "Nuthin' could
+please me better. Las' time I went to town one o' them plagued nuisances
+come hootin' erlong an' made the old mare back us clean inter the
+ditch--an' I broke a dozen an' a ha'f of aigs right in the lap of my new
+bombazeen dress. Drat 'em all, I say!"
+
+"I am very sorry, Ma'am, that the accident occurred. But I can assure
+you I was not the cause of it," Tom said, quietly, and stifling a great
+desire to laugh. "I wish only to get your husband to help me with his
+team--and I will pay him well."
+
+"Huh! what d'ye call well?" she demanded. "A boy like you ain't likely
+to have much money."
+
+Thus brought to a "show down," Tom promptly pulled out his billcase and
+opened it in the light that streamed out of the doorway. The woman could
+see that he carried quite a bundle of notes--and that they were not all
+single dollar bills!
+
+"Land o' Goshen!" she ejaculated. "Where'd you steal all that money, ye
+young ruffian? I thought there was suthin' mighty bad about you when I
+fust set eyes on ye."
+
+This was a compliment that Tom Cameron had not been looking for! He was
+certainly taken aback at the woman's words, and before he could make any
+response, she raised her voice and began to shout for "Sam!"
+
+"Crickey!" thought the boy, "I hope Sam will have a better opinion of me
+than she does, or I'm likely to get into trouble."
+
+He began to back off the porch, and had his ankle not pained him so, he
+certainly would have set off on a run. Perhaps it is well he did not try
+this, however, for the woman cried:
+
+"You move a step off'n thet platform before Sam Blodgett comes an' I'll
+open the lower ha'f of this door and let the dawg loose on ye!"
+
+Then she bawled for her husband again, and pretty soon a shouted
+response came from the direction of the barns. Then a lantern flickered
+and swung, and Tom knew the man was coming toward the house.
+
+He appeared--a short, heavy-set man, barefooted, and with a pail of milk
+in one hand and the lantern in the other.
+
+"What's the matter, Sairy?" he demanded.
+
+"Who's this?"
+
+"Thet's what _I_ wanter know," snapped the woman. "It 'pears like he's
+one o' these runaway boys ye read about in the papers--an' he's stole
+some money."
+
+"I haven't either!" cried Tom, in some exasperation. "I don't have to
+steal money--or anything else, I hope. I showed her that I had some
+money, so that she would believe I could pay you for some work I wanted
+done----"
+
+"What work?" interposed the farmer.
+
+Tom told him about the stalled auto and what he wanted.
+
+"How much'll ye give?" shot in the farmer, right to the point.
+
+"What do you ask to drag the machine to town--to the Corners, I mean?"
+
+"If it's where ye say it is, ten dollars!"
+
+"All right," agreed the boy. "Your wife knows I have the money. I'll pay
+you when we get to the Corners."
+
+"I know ye got the money," said the woman. "But I don't know _how_ ye
+got it. And if you've got an ortermobile, too, I bet ye stole _that_!"
+
+"You hesh up, Sairy," advised Mr. Blodgett. "No need of your sp'ilin' a
+trade. Gimme my supper. I'll hafter eat b'fore I go with ye, young
+man."
+
+"Oh, all right," sighed Tom, remembering how the girls must be very much
+frightened by this time.
+
+The man tramped into the house with the milk and the lantern. Neither he
+nor his wife asked Tom inside--or mentioned supper to him. The woman put
+it steaming on the table and Tom--like the dog--might stand and look on.
+
+At last the farmer was finished. "Guess the team's eat by now," he
+remarked, and came out with the lantern hung on his arm. All this time
+the dog had had "fits and starts" of wanting to get at Tom and eat him
+up. Now he slipped past his master and ran at the visitor with a savage
+growl.
+
+The boy had no idea of being made the supper of the brute, no matter how
+hungry Fido might be. So he kicked out and barely touched him. Instantly
+the brute set up a terrible "ki-yi-ing!" and shot off the porch and
+disappeared into the darkness. Evidently the Blodgetts kept the animal
+for its bark, for it did not have the pluck of a woodchuck!
+
+"Come on," advised Sam, as the woman began to rail again. "She's wound
+up an' ain't likely to run down again for a week. You sure you wanter
+pay ten dollars for this job?"
+
+"I'm sure I _will_ pay that for it, whether I want to or not," declared
+Tom, with confidence.
+
+"Aw right. We'll be movin'. Maybe another shower by'm'by, an' I sha'n't
+wanter be out in it."
+
+"We'll go just as fast as you want to," said Tom, hobbling along to the
+stables. "I won't keep you back, Mr. Blodgett."
+
+"You're lame, I see," said the man, not unkindly. "You kin straddle one
+of the hosses if you like."
+
+Tom was glad enough to do this, and in a few minutes they were going
+back over the dark track Tom had come, the harness jingling from the
+horses' hames, and Mr. Blodgett trudging sturdily along by the animals'
+heads.
+
+They came to the top of the ridge from which the stalled car had last
+been seen by Tom. "There are the lights!" he cried.
+
+He was glad to see them. They shone cheerfully in the dark, and he had
+no idea that the girls were in any trouble.
+
+But when they got down to the bottom of the hill there was neither sign
+nor sound of the two girls. Tom shouted at the top of his voice. He
+searched the car all over for some written word. He saw that the girls
+had carried off only their own personal belongings and nothing else.
+
+What could it mean? Surely no thieves had come this way, or the car
+would have been stripped of everything portable, and of value. At
+least, so it seemed to Master Tom. He was not wise enough to suspect
+that the goods in the car had been left alone to mislead him. The
+Gypsies had been after bigger game than a few dollars' worth of auto
+furnishings.
+
+"Come now!" exclaimed Sam Blodgett. "I can't wait here all night. I only
+agreed to drag the car ter town."
+
+"But where could those girls have gone? My sister and Ruth Fielding?"
+
+"Ye ain't payin' me ter be no detectif," drawled the man. "Come! Shell I
+hitch on?"
+
+"Oh, yes! I don't know what else to do," groaned the boy. "I've got to
+get the car fixed first of all. Then I will find help and follow the
+girls."
+
+The farmer was as unsympathetic as a man possibly could be. He started
+the car and let Tom ride in it. But he had no word of advice to give
+about the absent girls.
+
+Perhaps, like his wife, he believed that Tom was not honest, that the
+car was stolen, and that Tom's companions were mythical!
+
+They rolled into Severn Corners at ten o'clock. Of course, in a hamlet
+of that kind, there was scarcely a light burning. Tom had learned from
+Blodgett that the local blacksmith sometimes "monkeyed with ortermobiles
+that come erlong busted."
+
+So he had the farmer draw the car to the door of the blacksmith shop.
+
+"Sim lives right next door, there," said Blodgett, preparing to depart.
+"Mebbe ye kin wake him up an' convince him he'd oughter mend yer
+contraption in the middle of the night. But Sim Peck is constable, too,
+so mebbe ye won't keer ter trouble him," and the farmer drove away with
+a chuckle.
+
+This news was, however, important to Tom. A constable was just about the
+man he most wanted to see. It had dawned on the boy's mind that his
+sister and Ruth had gotten into trouble, and he must find help for them.
+
+The street of the village was dark. This was one of the nights when the
+moon was booked to shine, but forgot to! The town fathers evidently lit
+the street lights only when the almanac said there was to be no moon.
+
+Tom removed one of the headlights and found his way to the door of the
+cottage next to the smithy. There was neither bell nor knocker, but he
+thundered at the panel with right good will, until he heard a stir in a
+chamber above. Finally a blind opened a little way and a sleepy voice
+inquired what he wanted.
+
+"Are you the blacksmith, sir?" asked Tom.
+
+"Huh? Wal! I should say I was. But I ain't no doctor," snarled the man
+above, "and I ain't in the habit of answering night calls. Don't ye see
+I ain't got no night bell? Go away! you're actin' foolish. I don't shoe
+hosses this time o' night."
+
+"It's not a horse," explained Tom, near laughter despite his serious
+feelings. "It's a motor-car."
+
+"Naw, I don't shoe no ortermobile, neither!" declared the man, and
+prepared to close the blind.
+
+"Say, Mister!" shouted Tom. "Do come down. I need you----"
+
+"If I come down thar, I won't come as no blacksmith, nor no mechanic.
+I'll come as the constable and run ye in--ye plaguey whipper-snapper!"
+
+"All right," cried Tom, fearing he would shut the blind. "Come down as
+constable. I reckon I need you in that character more than any other."
+
+"I believe ye do!" exclaimed the man, angrily. "If you air there when I
+git on my pants, you'll take a walk to the callaboose. None o' you young
+city sports air goin' to disturb the neighborhood like this--not if I
+know it!"
+
+Meanwhile, Tom could hear him stirring around, tumbling over the chairs
+in the dark, and growling at his boots, and otherwise showing his anger.
+But the boy was desperate, and he stood still until the man
+appeared--tin star pinned to his vest.
+
+"Wal, by gravey!" exclaimed the blacksmith-constable. "Ain't you a
+reckless youngster ter face up the majesty of the law in this here way?"
+
+Tom saw that, after all, the constable was grinning, and was not such an
+ill-natured fellow, now that he was really awake. The boy plunged into
+his story and told it with brevity, but in detail.
+
+"Why, I see how it is, youngster," said the man. "You're some scart
+about your sister and that other girl. But mebbe nothing's happened 'em
+at all."
+
+"But where have they gone?"
+
+"I couldn't tell you. We'll make search. But we've got to have something
+to travel in, and if it don't take too long to fix your auto, we'll
+travel in _that_."
+
+Of course, this was good sense, and Tom saw it, impatient as he was. The
+constable laid aside the vest with the badge of office upon it, and the
+blacksmith proceeded to open his forge and light a fire and a lantern.
+Then he listened to Tom's explanation of what had happened to the car,
+and went to work.
+
+Fortunately the damage was not serious, and the blacksmith was not a bad
+mechanic. Therefore, in an hour and a half he closed the smithy again,
+removing his apron, and the constable donned his vest and got into the
+car beside the troubled Tom.
+
+"Now let her out, son!" advised the official. "You've got all the law
+with ye that there is in this section, and ye kin go as fast as ye
+please."
+
+Tom needed no urging. He shot the repaired car over the road at a pace
+that would have made his sister and her chum scream indeed!
+
+Once at the bottom of the hill where the car had been stalled, they
+stopped and got out, each taking a lantern by the constable's advice.
+Blodgett and his horses had done their best to trample out the girls'
+footsteps, but there had been no other vehicle along the road, and the
+searchers managed to find footprints of the girls at one side.
+
+"Sure them's them?" asked Mr. Peck.
+
+"You can see they are not the prints of men's shoes," said Tom,
+confidently.
+
+"Right ye air! And here's another woman's shoe--only larger. They went
+away with some woman, that's sure."
+
+"A woman?" muttered Tom, greatly amazed. "Whoever could she be--and
+where have they gone with her?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A BREAK FOR LIBERTY
+
+
+Ruth finally slept in the Gypsy van as sweetly as though she were in her
+own little bed in the gable room at the Red Mill. She was bodily
+wearied, and she had lost herself while yet she was watching the Gypsy
+Queen worshipping the pearl necklace, and fearing that the man with the
+evil eyes was peering into the interior of the van.
+
+A hundred noises of the Gypsy camp awakened her when the sun was
+scarcely showing his face. Dogs barked and scampered about; horses
+neighed and stamped; roosters crowed and hens cackled. The children were
+crying, or laughing, and the women chattering as they went about the
+getting of breakfast at the fires.
+
+The fires crackled; the men sat upon the van tongues cleaning harness
+after the rain and mud of the afternoon before. The boys were polishing
+the coats of the beautiful horses, till they shone again.
+
+All these activities Ruth Fielding could see through the tiny windows of
+the queen's van, in which she and Helen Cameron were imprisoned. Her
+chum roused, too, but was half tempted to cry, when she remembered their
+circumstances. Queen Zelaya had gone out.
+
+"Come on!" exclaimed Ruth. "We've got to make the best of it. Get on
+your dress and shoes, and perhaps they will let us out, too."
+
+"Let's run away, Ruthie," whispered Helen.
+
+"The very first chance we get--sure we will!" agreed her chum.
+
+They found the door unlocked, and, as nobody stayed them, the two girls
+descended the steps to the ground. A cross-looking dog came and smelled
+of them, but the bold-looking girl who had brought the supper the night
+before drove him away.
+
+Ruth essayed to speak to her, but she shook her head and laughed.
+Perhaps she did not understand much English.
+
+Ruth was looking around eagerly for Roberto. Had she seen the Gypsy boy,
+she would certainly have thrown herself--and Helen--upon him for
+protection. But although not many of the Gypsies looked unkindly toward
+the girls, none appeared really friendly.
+
+The woman who had aided in their capture the night before took them down
+to the water, where they might wash their faces and hands and comb their
+hair, using the toilet requisites from their bags. Nobody had offered
+to interfere with them in any manner, or touch their belongings. The
+woman waited patiently until they were ready, and took them back to the
+camping ground for breakfast.
+
+But Ruth had seen something. At first she dared not whisper it to her
+chum. After they had eaten (and a very good breakfast it was that the
+Gypsies gave them), she managed to get Helen out of earshot of the
+watchers.
+
+Everybody in the camp watched the prisoners. The girls were not driven
+back into the van again at once, but Ruth saw that even the children
+circled about her and Helen, at a little distance, so that the girls
+were continuously guarded.
+
+They sat down upon an old stump, in an open space, where nobody could
+creep near enough to hear what Ruth said to Helen without one or the
+other of the captives seeing the eavesdropper.
+
+"What is it?" asked Helen, anxiously. "Oh, Ruth! where do you suppose
+Tom is? What can he think of us?"
+
+"I only hope Tom won't come along here alone and fall into trouble,
+too," said the girl of the Red Mill, in return. "But I believe there is
+a chance for us to get away without his help, dear."
+
+"Oh, how?" demanded her chum.
+
+"Did you look along the shore when we were down there to the lake just
+now?"
+
+"Yes. In both directions. There wasn't a soul in sight but you and
+myself and that woman," returned Helen, showing that she had been
+observant to a degree, at least.
+
+"You are right. It is a lonely spot. I saw nobody. But I saw a fishing
+punt."
+
+"A fishing punt?"
+
+"Yes. Pulled up on the shore a little way. There is a pole in it, too.
+It can be pushed off into the water easily, and I did not see another
+boat of any kind in either direction."
+
+"Oh, Ruth! Neither did I. I didn't even see the boat you speak of."
+
+"It is there just the same. We can reach it in one minute from here--by
+running."
+
+"Let's run, then!" whispered Helen, energetically.
+
+"We'll wait our chance. They are watching too closely now. By and by
+they must get more careless. Then we'll try it."
+
+"But I don't just see what we can do in that boat," queried Helen, after
+a moment's thought.
+
+"Push out into the lake, so that they can't reach us. Then risk being
+seen by Tom or somebody else who will help us escape the Gypsies."
+
+"But these men will follow us," said Helen, with a shudder. "They can
+swim--some of them--surely."
+
+"And if they try it, we'll beat them off with the push-pole," declared
+Ruth. "Keep up your pluck, Helen. They will not really dare hurt
+us--especially if they expect to get money for our release. And I'd like
+to know," added Ruth, with rather a bitter little laugh, "who will pay
+_my_ ransom?"
+
+"I'll make father pay whatever they ask," whispered Helen. "Oh, dear!
+won't he be just _mad_ when he hears about it?"
+
+Soon the activities of the camp changed. It was plain to the two girls
+that their captors had no intention of spending the day in this dell by
+the lake side.
+
+A number of the men and boys had gone off with some of the horses early.
+Now they returned, and it was evident that the men were angry, if not a
+little frightened. They talked loudly with Zelaya, and the Queen of the
+Gypsies seemed to be scolding them soundly.
+
+It was surprising to the visitors at the camp that the old woman should
+have such influence over these black-browed ruffians. But she _did_
+possess a power; it was self-evident!
+
+Soon preparations were begun for shifting camp. The tents were struck
+and all the paraphernalia of the camp was returned to the three vans.
+
+"Something has happened," whispered Ruth to Helen. "Perhaps Tom has
+raised the hue and cry for us, and they are afraid of being caught here
+with us in their possession."
+
+"Mean old things!" snapped Helen. "I wish they would all be caught and
+put into jail."
+
+"The little children, too?"
+
+"The little ones will grow up to be big ones--and they are all bad,"
+declared Helen, with confidence.
+
+"I can't believe that Roberto is bad," said Ruth, thoughtfully. "I wish
+he was with them now. I believe he would help us get away."
+
+"Maybe these are not his people."
+
+"I think they are," returned Ruth. But she did not say anything then to
+Helen about the pearl necklace, and the cashbox of Queen Zelaya.
+
+The necklace was never out of Ruth's thought, however, for she was sure
+it had been stolen. The girl of the Red Mill would know the necklace
+again; wherever she might see it.
+
+In the first place it was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen.
+But there was a peculiar pendant attached to it--in the shape of a
+fleur-de-lis--of larger pearls, that would distinguish it among any
+number of such articles of adornment.
+
+Ruth kept in mind the chance she hoped would arise for their escape.
+Helen was hopeless; but she had agreed to make the attempt, if Ruth
+did.
+
+The whole camp was busy in preparing for departure. There were not so
+many eyes now upon the girls. And--therefore--there being no regular
+guard set over them, the opportunity Ruth hoped for arose.
+
+In harnessing one of the horses to a van, something happened to call
+most of the excited crowd together. The horse kicked, and one of the men
+was hurt.
+
+The moment the shouting over this incident arose, Ruth pinched Helen and
+they both got up and slipped into the wood. They were out of sight in a
+moment, and having chosen the side toward the lake, they set off at top
+speed through the underbrush for the spot where Ruth had seen the
+fishing punt.
+
+"Suppose it leaks?" gasped Helen, running hard beside her friend.
+
+"Well! we'll know it when we're in deep water," grimly returned Ruth.
+
+At that moment they heard a great hullabaloo at the camp behind them.
+
+"They've discovered we're missing," gasped Helen.
+
+"Come on, then!" cried Ruth. "Let's see if we can outwit them. We've got
+a chance for liberty, my dear. Don't lose heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+RUTH IN THE TOILS
+
+
+The lake shore was just ahead of the fugitives. Ruth had been but a few
+yards out of the way in her calculations. She and Helen came out upon
+the beach almost at the spot where the fishing punt lay.
+
+The boat appeared to be sound, and the pole lying in it was a straight,
+peeled ash sapling, not too heavy for either of the girls to handle.
+
+"Jump in, Helen!" commanded Ruth. "Take the pole and push off. I'll push
+here at the bow."
+
+"But you'll get all wet!" quavered her chum.
+
+"As though _that_ mattered," returned the other, with a chuckle, as she
+leaned against the bow of the punt and braced her feet for the grand
+effort. "Now!"
+
+Helen had scrambled in and seized the pole. She thrust it against the
+shore, her own weight bearing down the stern, which was in the water,
+and thus raising the bow a trifle.
+
+"All-to-geth-er!" gasped Ruth, as though they were at "tug-of-war" in
+the Briarwood gymnasium.
+
+The boat moved. Ruth's feet slipped and she scrambled to get a fresh
+brace for them.
+
+"Now, again!" she cried.
+
+At that moment a great hound came rushing out of the wood upon their
+trail, raised his red eyes, saw them, and uttered a mournful bay.
+
+"We're caught!" wailed Helen.
+
+"We're nothing of the kind!" returned her friend. "Push again, Helen!"
+
+One more effort and Ruth was ankle deep in the water. The boat floated
+free!
+
+But before the brave girl could scramble aboard, the hound leaped for
+her. Helen screamed. That shriek was enough, without the baying of the
+hound, to bring their enemies to the water's edge.
+
+Ruth Fielding was terrified--of course! But she gave a final push to the
+boat as the hound grabbed her. Fortunately the beast seized only her
+skirt. Perhaps he had been taught not to actually worry his prey.
+
+However, the girl was dragged to her knees, and she could not escape.
+The punt shot out into the lake, and Ruth shouted to her chum:
+
+"Keep on! keep on! Never mind me! Find Tom and bring help----Oh!"
+
+The weight of the big dog had cast her into the shallow water. She
+immediately scrambled to her feet again. The hound held onto the skirt.
+The material was too strong to easily tear, and she could not get away.
+
+There was a crashing in the brush and out upon the edge of the lake came
+half a dozen of the Gypsy men and one of the women. She was the one who
+had befooled Ruth and Helen into entering the green van the night
+before. When she saw Ruth's plight, standing in the water with the hound
+holding her, she laughed as though it were a great joke.
+
+But the men did not laugh. He with the squinting eye strode down to the
+girl and would have slapped her with his hard palm, had not the woman
+jumped in and put herself between the man and Ruth. She seemed to
+threaten him in her own language, and the ruffian desisted.
+
+One of the boys threw off his clothing--all his outer garments, at
+least--and plunged right into the lake after Helen. The boat had swung
+around, for there was considerable current in Long Lake.
+
+"Don't let him come near you, Helen!" screamed Ruth. "Use your pole!"
+
+Her friend stood very bravely in the stern of the punt and raised the
+pole threateningly. The Gypsy boy could not easily overtake the boat,
+which was drifting farther and farther out toward the middle of the
+lake.
+
+Some of the others began running along the shore as though to keep pace
+with the boat. But suddenly a long-drawn, eerie cry resounded from the
+direction of the camp. The men stopped and returned; the boy scrambled
+ashore and hastily grabbed his clothing. The woman and the squint-eyed
+man dragged Ruth into the bush.
+
+The cry was a signal of some kind, and one not to be disobeyed. The
+Gypsies hurried back to the vans, and Ruth did not see Helen again.
+
+All was confusion at the camp. The horses were ready to start, and the
+movables were packed. The children and women swarmed into two of the
+vans. Queen Zelaya stood at the door of the other, and the moment she
+saw that one of the prisoners had not been recovered, she began to
+harangue her people threateningly.
+
+The squint-eyed man pushed Ruth toward the old woman. Zelaya's claw-like
+hand seized the girl's shoulder.
+
+She was jerked forward and up the steps into the van. Almost at once the
+caravan started, and Zelaya pulled the door to, and darkened the
+windows.
+
+"Quick, now!" she commanded the girl. "Take off your hat. Gypsies have
+no use for hats."
+
+She seized it and thrust it into one of her boxes. Then she commanded
+Ruth to remove her frock, and that followed the hat into the same
+receptacle. Afterward the girl was forced to take off her shoes and
+stockings.
+
+"Sit down here!" commanded Zelaya, as the van rolled along. The queen
+had been mixing some kind of a lotion in a bowl. Now with a sponge she
+anointed Ruth's face and neck, far below the collar of any gown she
+would wear; likewise her arms and hands, and her limbs from the knees
+down. Then Zelaya threw some earth on Ruth's feet and streaked her limbs
+with the same. She gave her a torn and not over-clean frock to put on
+instead of her own clothing, and insisted that she don the ugly garment
+at once.
+
+"Now, Gentile girl," hissed the old woman, "if they come to search for
+you, speak at your peril. We say you are ours--a wicked, orphan Gypsy,
+wicked through and through."
+
+She tore down Ruth's hair and rubbed some lotion into it that darkened
+its color, too. She really looked as wild and uncouth as the bold girl
+who waited upon the queen of the Gypsies.
+
+"Now let them find you!" cackled the old woman. "You are Belle, my
+great-granddaughter, and you are touched here--eh?" and she tapped her
+own wrinkled forehead with her finger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ROBERTO AGAIN
+
+
+Ruth cried a little. But, after all, it was more because she was lonely
+than for any other reason. What would eventually happen to her in the
+Gypsy queen's toils she did not know. She had not begun to worry about
+that as yet.
+
+Helen had gotten clear away. She was confident of that, and was likewise
+sure that her chum would rouse the authorities and come in search of
+her. Tom, too, was faithful; he must already be stirring up the whole
+neighborhood to find his sister and Ruth.
+
+How far the caravan had traveled the night before, after the girls had
+joined the Gypsies, Ruth could not guess. But she realized that now they
+were making very good time up the road leading to Boise Landing, along
+the edge of Long Lake.
+
+There might be some pursuit already. If Tom had telegraphed his father,
+Mr. Cameron would come looking for Helen "on the jump"! And had the
+searchers any idea the Gypsies had captured the two girls, Ruth was
+sure that the wanderers would get into trouble very quickly.
+
+"Why, even Uncle Jabez would 'start something,' as Tom would say, if he
+learned of this. I believe, even if I am not 'as good as a boy,' that
+Uncle Jabez loves me and would not let a parcel of tramps carry me off
+like this."
+
+She wiped away the tears, therefore, and in looking into a cloudy little
+mirror screwed to the wall of the vehicle, she found that the tears did
+not wash off the walnut stain. She had been dyed with a "fast color,"
+sure enough!
+
+"If Heavy and The Fox, or Belle and Lluella could see me now!" thought
+Ruth Fielding.
+
+Suddenly the caravan halted. There were shouts and cries, and evidently
+the other vans were being emptied of their occupants in a hurry. Some of
+the men seemed to be arguing in English at the head of the queen's van.
+
+Ruth believed that a searching party had overtaken the Gypsies. She
+feared there would be a fight, and she was anxious to show herself, so
+that her unknown rescuers might see her.
+
+But she dared not scream. Old Zelaya scowled at her so savagely and
+threatened her so angrily with her clenched fist, that Ruth dared not
+speak. Finally the old woman opened the door of the van and flung her
+down the steps.
+
+The act was so unexpected that Ruth fell into the arms of the crowd
+waiting for her. It was evidently ready for her appearance. The boys and
+girls, and some of the women, received her into their midst, and they
+made so much noise, chattering and shrieking, and dancing about her,
+that Ruth was both confused and frightened.
+
+Had she herself shrieked aloud, her voice would have been drowned in the
+general hullabaloo. This noise was all intentional on the part of the
+Gypsies, for up at the head of the caravan Ruth caught a glimpse of a
+big man standing with a stout oak club in his hand and a big shiny star
+pinned to his vest near the armhole.
+
+A constable! Whether he was there searching for her and Helen, or was
+merely making inquiries about a robbed hen-roost, the girl from the Red
+Mill could not guess. There was so much confusion about her, that she
+could not hear a word the constable said!
+
+She waved her hand to him and tried to attract his attention. The girls
+and boys laughed at her, and pulled her about, and the bold girl she had
+seen before almost tore the frock from her shoulders.
+
+Suddenly Ruth realized that, even did the constable look right at her,
+he would not discover that she was a white girl. She looked just as
+disreputable in every way as the Gypsy children themselves!
+
+The constable came toward the first van. Zelaya now sat upon the top
+step, smoking a cheroot, and nodding in the sun as though she were too
+old and too feeble to realize what was going on. Yet Ruth was sure that
+the sly old queen had planned this scene and told her tribesmen what to
+do.
+
+Ruth was whisked away from the steps of the queen's van, and borne off
+by the shouting, dancing children. She tried to cry out so that the
+constable would hear her, but the crowd drowned her cries.
+
+She saw the constable search each of the three vans. Of course, he found
+no girls answering to the descriptions of Ruth and Helen--and it was the
+girls that he was searching for. He was Sim Peck, the
+blacksmith-constable from Severn Corners. It was a pity Tom Cameron had
+not been with him!
+
+Finally Ruth saw that the man had given up the search, and the Gypsies
+were going to depart. She determined to make a desperate attempt to
+attract his attention to herself.
+
+She suddenly sprang through the group of children, knocking the bold
+girl down in her effort, and started, yelling, for the constable.
+Instantly one of the men halted her, swung her about, clapped a palm
+over her mouth, and she saw him staring balefully down into her face.
+
+"You do that ageen--I keel you!" he hissed.
+
+It was the evil-eyed man who had spied upon Queen Zelaya, as she had
+worshipped the pearl necklace in the van the evening before. Ruth was
+stricken dumb and motionless. The man looked wicked enough to do just
+what he said he would.
+
+She saw the constable depart. Then the Gypsies huddled into the wagons,
+and she was seized by Zelaya and put into the first van. The old witch
+was grinning broadly.
+
+"Ah, ha!" she chuckled. "What does the Gentile girl think now? That she
+shall escape so easily Zelaya? Ha! she is already like one of our own
+kind. Her own parents would not know her--nor shall they see her again
+until they have paid, and paid in full!"
+
+"You are holding the wrong girl, Zelaya," murmured Ruth. "_My_ parents
+are dead, and there is nobody to pay you a great ransom for me."
+
+"False!" croaked the hag, and struck her again.
+
+The caravan rolled on after that for a long way. It did not stop for
+dinner, and Ruth grew very hungry, for she and Helen had been too
+excited that morning to eat much breakfast.
+
+Through the open door and the forward window Ruth saw considerable of
+the road. They were seldom out of sight of the lake. By and by they
+turned right down to the water's edge and she heard the horses' feet
+splashing through the shallow water.
+
+She could not imagine where they were going. Out of the door she saw
+that they seemed to be leaving the land and striking right out into the
+lake. The water grew deeper slowly, rising first over one step and then
+another, while the shore of the lake receded behind them. The other vans
+and the boys driving the horses followed in their wake.
+
+Curious, Ruth arose and went to the forward end of the van. She could
+see out between the driver and his wife, and over the heads of the
+horses. The latter were almost shoulder deep now, and were advancing
+very slowly.
+
+Some rods ahead she saw that there was a wooded island. It was of good
+size and seemed to be densely covered with trees and brush. Yet, there
+was a patch of sandy shore toward which the horses were being urged.
+
+The lake was so low, that there was a fordable stretch of its bottom
+between the mainland and this island. These Gypsies seemed to know this
+bar perfectly, and the driver of the queen's van made no mistake in
+guiding his span.
+
+In half an hour the horses were trotting through the shallows again.
+They rolled out upon the white beach, and then Ruth saw that a faint
+wagon trail led into the interior of the island.
+
+The Gypsies had been there before. There, in the middle of the wooded
+isle, was a clearing. The moment the vans arrived, all the people jumped
+out, laughing and talking, and the usual preparations for an encampment
+were begun. Only, in this case, Queen Zelaya sent the squint-eyed man
+and the ruffian who had so frightened Ruth to either shore of the
+island to keep watch.
+
+Tents were set up, fires kindled, a great supper begun, and the poultry
+was set loose to roam at will. Somewhere the Gypsy children had picked
+up a kid and a little calf. Both of these were freed, and at once began
+to butt each other, to the vast delight of the little ones.
+
+All about, under-foot and growling if they were disturbed, were the ugly
+dogs. Ruth was afraid of them!
+
+Now that they were on the island, the Gypsies gave her slight attention.
+The children did not come near her, and she was glad of that. Of course,
+the adults knew she could not escape.
+
+Later she heard one of the men on the shore shout. Nobody was disturbed
+at the camp, but after a little, there was some loud conversation and
+then somebody broke through the bushes and appeared suddenly in the
+little clearing.
+
+Ruth Fielding gasped and sprang to her feet. Nobody noticed her.
+
+The newcomer was Roberto. He strode swiftly across the camp to the
+queen's van. Zelaya sat upon the steps and when he came before her, he
+bowed very respectfully.
+
+The old woman showed more emotion at his appearance than Ruth believed
+possible. She got up quickly and kissed the boy on both of his cheeks.
+Her eyes sparkled and she talked with him for some time in the Tzigane
+tongue.
+
+Once or twice Roberto glanced in Ruth's direction, as though he and the
+old woman had been speaking of the captive girl. But, to the latter's
+surprise, she saw no look of recognition in the Gypsy boy's eyes.
+
+Finally, when he parted from the queen, Roberto crossed the encampment
+directly toward Ruth. The girl, fearful, yet hoping he would see and
+know her, rose to her feet and took a single step toward him.
+
+Roberto turned upon her fiercely. He struck at her with his arm and
+pushed Ruth roughly back into her seat. But although the action was so
+cruel and his look so hateful, the girl heard him whisper:
+
+"Wait! Let the little lady have no fear!"
+
+Then he passed on to greet his friends about the nearest campfire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HELEN'S ESCAPE
+
+
+Helen Cameron was so fearful at first of the Gypsies overtaking her,
+that she had no thought of any peril which might lie ahead of the
+drifting punt, into which she had scrambled. She realized that Ruth had
+sacrificed herself in their attempt to escape, but she could render her
+chum no help now. Indeed, the current which had seized the boat was so
+strong that she could not have gotten back to the shore, had she tried.
+
+When the Gypsies disappeared into the wood, taking Ruth with them, Helen
+realized her helplessness and loneliness, and she wept. She sat in the
+stern of the punt and floated on and on, without regard to where she was
+going.
+
+She could not have changed the course of the punt, however. She was now
+in too deep water; the guiding pole was of no use to her, and there were
+no oars, of course. She was drifting toward the middle of the lake, it
+seemed, yet the general direction was eastward.
+
+There, at the lower end of the lake, a wide stream carried its waters
+toward the distant Minturn Dam. But long before the stream came to that
+place, there was much of what the local guides called "white water."
+
+These swift rapids Helen thought little about at first. She had had no
+experience to warn her of her peril. At this moment she was fearful only
+of the wild Gypsy clan that had tried to keep her prisoner and that had,
+indeed, succeeded in carrying away her dear friend, Ruth Fielding.
+
+As she floated on, she saw nothing more of the Gypsies. She began to
+believe that they had not turned back to follow her along the edge of
+the lake. They were satisfied with their single prisoner!
+
+"But father will see to that!" sobbed Helen. "He won't let them run away
+with Ruth Fielding--I know he won't! Dear, dear! what would I ever do if
+Ruth disappeared and we shouldn't meet each other again--or not until we
+were quite grown up?
+
+"Such things _have_ happened! I've read about it in books. And those
+dreadful Gypsies make the children they capture become Gypsies, too.
+Suppose, years and years hence, I should meet Ruth and she should ask to
+tell my fortune as Gypsy women do--and she shouldn't know me----"
+
+Helen began to sob again. She was working herself up into a highly
+nervous state and her imagination was "running away with her," as Ruth
+often said.
+
+Just then she almost lost the punt-pole, and this near-accident startled
+her. She might need that pole yet--especially if the boat drifted into
+shallow water.
+
+She looked all around. She stood up, so as to see farther. Not a moving
+object appeared along either shore of the lake. This was a veritable
+wilderness, and human habitations were far, far away.
+
+She raised her eyes to the chain of hills over which she and her brother
+and Ruth had ridden the day before. At one point she could see the road
+itself, and just then there flashed into view an auto, traveling
+eastward at a fast clip.
+
+"But, of course, they can't see _me_ 'way down here," said Helen,
+shaking her head. "They wouldn't notice such a speck on the lake."
+
+So she did not even try to signal to the motor-car, and it was quickly
+out of sight.
+
+The current was now stronger, it seemed. The punt drifted straight down
+the lake toward the broad stream through which Long Lake was drained.
+Helen hoped the boat would drift in near one shore, or the other, but it
+entered the stream as near the middle as though it had been aimed for
+that point!
+
+Here the water gripped the heavy boat and drew it onward, swifter and
+swifter. At first Helen was not afraid. She saw the banks slipping by on
+either hand, and was now so far from the Gypsies, that she would have
+been glad to get ashore. Yet she did not think herself in any increased
+danger.
+
+Suddenly, however, an eddy gripped the boat. To her amazement the craft
+swung around swiftly and she was floating down stream, stern foremost!
+
+"Oh, dear me! I wish I had a pair of oars. Then I could manage this
+thing," she told herself.
+
+Then the boat scraped upon a rock. The blow was a glancing one, but it
+drove the craft around again. She was glad, however, to see the bow
+aimed properly.
+
+From moment to moment the boat now moved more swiftly. It seemed that
+the foam-streaked water tore at its sides as though desiring to swamp
+it. Helen sat very quietly in the middle seat, and watched the dimpling,
+eddying stream with increasing anxiety.
+
+Suddenly the punt darted shoreward. It looked just as though it must be
+cast upon the beach. Helen raised herself stiffly, seized the pole more
+firmly, and prepared to leap ashore with its aid.
+
+And just as she was about to risk the feat, the bow of the boat whirled
+outward again, she was almost cast into the water, and once more the
+boat whirled down the middle current.
+
+She dropped back into her seat with a gasp. This was terrible! She could
+not possibly control the craft in the rapids, and she was traveling
+faster and faster.
+
+The boat came to another eddy, and was whirled around and around, so
+swiftly, that Helen's poor head swam, too! She raised her voice in a cry
+for help, but it was likewise a cry of despair. She had no idea that
+there was a soul within the sound of her voice.
+
+Crash! the boat went against an outcropping rock. It spun around again
+and darted down the current. It was leaking now; the water poured into
+it between the sprung planks.
+
+The river widened suddenly into a great pool, fringed with trees. At one
+point a rock was out-thrust into the river and Helen saw--dimly enough
+at first--a figure spring into view upon this boulder.
+
+"Help! help!" shrieked the girl, as the boat spun about.
+
+"Hi! catch that!"
+
+It was dear old Tom's voice! The shout brought hope to Helen's heart.
+
+"Oh, Tom! Tom!" she cried. "Save me!"
+
+"Bet you I will!" returned the boy. "Just grab this rope----Now!"
+
+She saw the loop come hurtling through the air. Tom had learned how to
+properly throw a lariat the summer before, while in Montana, and he and
+his particular chums had practised the art assiduously ever since that
+time.
+
+Now, at his second trial, he dropped the noose right across the punt.
+Helen seized upon it.
+
+"Hitch it to the ring in the bow--quick!" commanded her brother, and
+Helen obeyed.
+
+In five minutes he had her ashore, but the punt sunk in shallow water.
+
+"I don't care! I don't care!" cried Helen, wading through the shallow
+water. "I really thought I was going to drown, Tommy boy."
+
+"But where's Ruth? Whatever have you girls been doing since last
+evening? Where did you go to?"
+
+He held her in his arms for a moment and hugged her tightly. Helen
+sobbed a little, with her face against his shoulder.
+
+"Oh! it's so-o good to have you again, Tommy," she declared.
+
+Then she told him swiftly all that had happened. Tom was mighty glad to
+get his sister back, but he was vastly worried about her chum.
+
+"That's what I feared. I had a feeling that you girls had fallen into
+the hands of those Gypsies. Those men in the old house were two of
+them----"
+
+"I know it. We saw them at the encampment."
+
+"But if Ruth is still with them," Tom said, "Peck will get her. He said
+he knew how to handle Gyps. He's been used to them all his life. And
+this tribe often come through this region, he told me."
+
+"Who is Mr. Peck?" asked Helen, puzzled.
+
+Tom told her of his adventures on the previous night. After returning to
+the spot where the auto had been stalled earlier in the evening, Tom and
+the constable had searched with the lanterns all about the place, and
+had followed the footsteps of the girls and the strange woman to the
+lower road.
+
+"I had no idea then that the wagon you had evidently gotten into was a
+Gypsy cart," pursued Tom. "We saw you'd gone on toward Severn Corners,
+however, and we went back. But you come along with me, now, Helen, and
+we'll return to that very place. I expect Uncle Ike will be waiting for
+us. I telephoned him before daylight this morning--and it's now ten
+o'clock. The car is right back here on the road."
+
+"Oh! I am so glad!"
+
+"Yes. Soon after breakfast Peck and I separated! I came this way in the
+car, hoping to find some trace of you. Peck made inquiries and said he'd
+follow the Gyps. Ruth will be taken away from them," declared Tom, with
+conviction. "That big smith isn't afraid of anybody."
+
+"Oh, I hope so," said Helen. "But that horrible old Gypsy--the queen,
+she calls herself--is very powerful."
+
+"Not much she isn't!" laughed Tom. "Peck fully feels the importance of
+that star he wears. I think he would tackle a herd of elephants, if they
+were breaking the law."
+
+So they sped on in the motor-car, feeling considerably better. The twins
+were very fond of each other, and were never really happy, when they
+were apart for long.
+
+But when they ran down into Severn Corners, expecting to find Ruth at
+the constable's house, they were gravely disappointed. The forge was
+open and Sim Peck was shoeing a horse. He stood up, hammer in hand, when
+the motor-car stopped before the smithy.
+
+"Hello!" he said to Tom. "Did you get her?"
+
+"I got my sister. She's had an awful time. Those Gypsies ought to be all
+shut up in jail," said Tom, vigorously.
+
+"Them 'Gyptians?" drawled Peck, in surprise. "What they got ter do with
+it?"
+
+"Why, they had everything to do with it. Don't you know that they
+carried off both my sister here and Ruth Fielding?"
+
+"Look here," said the blacksmith-constable, slowly, "let me understand
+this. Your sister has been with the 'Gyptians?"
+
+"Yes. Didn't you find Ruth with them?"
+
+"Wait a minute. Was she with old Zelaya's tribe?"
+
+"Yes," cried Helen. "That is the name of the Gypsy queen."
+
+"And the other gal?" demanded the man. "Where is she?"
+
+"That's what I ask you," said Tom, anxiously. "My sister escaped from
+them, but they recaptured the other girl."
+
+"Sure o' that?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, I am!" cried Helen. "I saw them drag her back through the woods to
+the encampment."
+
+"When was this?"
+
+"Not far from six o'clock this morning."
+
+"By gravey!" ejaculated the man. "She ain't with 'em now. I been all
+through them vans, and seen the whole tribe. There ain't a white gal
+with 'em," said Mr. Peck, with confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THROUGH THE NIGHT AND THE STORM
+
+
+Ruth did not really know what to think of Roberto, the Gypsy boy.
+
+His push, as he passed her, had been most rude, but his whispered words
+seemed a promise of friendship. He did not look at her again, as he went
+around the encampment. Roberto seemed a privileged character, and it was
+not hard to guess that he was Queen Zelaya's favorite grandchild.
+
+As for the prisoner, she was scarcely spoken to by anybody. She was not
+abused, but she felt her position keenly. Particularly was she ashamed
+of her appearance--barefooted, bareheaded, and stained until she seemed
+as dark as the Gypsy girls themselves. Ruth thought she looked
+altogether hateful!
+
+"I really would be ashamed to have Tom Cameron see me now," she thought.
+
+Yet she would have been delighted indeed to see Tom! It was in her
+chum's twin brother that she hoped, after all, for escape.
+
+For Roberto, the Gypsy, ignored her completely. She feared that his
+whispered words to her, when he first entered the camp, had meant
+nothing after all. Why should she expect him to be different from his
+tribesmen?
+
+The Gypsies fed her well and allowed her to wander about the camp as she
+pleased. There were two sentinels set to watch the northern and southern
+shores of the lake. Nobody could approach the island without being
+observed and warning given to the camp.
+
+Ruth had lost hope of anybody coming to the encampment in search of her,
+for the present. The constable had doubtless been sent by Tom Cameron,
+and he would report that there was nobody but Gypsies in the camp.
+Nobody but her immediate friends would distinguish Ruth from a Gypsy
+now.
+
+If Helen had found Tom, the situation could not be changed much for
+Ruth--and the latter realized that. Mr. Cameron and Uncle Jabez would
+have to be communicated with, before a general alarm could be sent out
+and detectives put on the case.
+
+By that time, where would the girl from the Red Mill be?
+
+This question was no easy one to answer. Ruth did not believe the
+Gypsies would remain on this island for any length of time. Queen Zelaya
+was doubtless shrewd enough to plan a long jump next time, and so throw
+off pursuit.
+
+Indeed, all the next day the girl could do little but worry about her
+own situation, and about Helen's fate. The last she had seen of her
+chum, she had been drifting out into the middle of this lake. Suppose
+the punt had sprung a leak, or capsized?
+
+Clouds gathered that day, and the second evening on the island closed
+with a steady, fine rain falling. The encampment was quiet early. Even
+the dogs found shelter from the wet, but Ruth had every reason to
+believe that the Gypsy men took turns in guarding the encampment.
+
+Ruth was made to sleep in Queen Zelaya's van, and as soon as it had
+become real dark, the old woman made her enter. In her rags of clothing,
+Ruth was not afraid of a little rain--surely she had on nothing that
+would be spoiled by the wet; but she had to obey the old hag.
+
+At supper time Roberto brought the bowls of savory stew that usually
+made up that meal for the Gypsies. There were three bowls on the tray
+and the boy gave Ruth a sharp side glance and pointed to a certain bowl.
+She dared not refuse to take it.
+
+When he approached his grandmother at the other end of the van, he
+removed his own bowl before setting the tray upon the box beside her.
+Ruth hesitated to eat her own portion; she had been afraid of being
+drugged from the beginning.
+
+Yet, somehow, she could not help feeling confidence in Roberto. The
+latter ate his supper with gusto, talking all the while with the old
+woman. But he went away without a word or look at Ruth after the meal.
+
+Soon Zelaya made her go to bed. Ruth was not sleepy, but she appeared to
+go to sleep almost at once, as she had before. She lay down in all the
+clothing she wore, for she was apprehensive of something happening on
+this night. She saw that the old woman was very drowsy herself.
+
+Appearing to sleep, Ruth waited and watched. The storm whined in the
+trees of the island, but there was no other noise.
+
+Zelaya was at the locked box again, and she soon drew forth her
+treasure-casket. She fondled the collar of pearls as she had on the
+first night Ruth had slept in the van.
+
+The girl was watching for that evil face at the window again. For a
+moment she thought she saw it, but then she recognized that it was
+Roberto's handsome face against the wet pane.
+
+Suddenly Ruth realized that the old woman had fallen asleep over her box
+of valuables. The girl was confident that there had been a drugged bowl
+at supper time, but _she_ had not eaten of it.
+
+There was a little noise at the door--ever so slight. The handle turned,
+and Roberto's head was thrust in. He nodded at Ruth as though he were
+sure she was not asleep, and then creeping up the steps, he gazed at his
+grandmother.
+
+There could be no doubt that she was sound asleep! He slipped in and
+closed the door. At first he did not say a word to Ruth.
+
+He went to Zelaya's side and shook her lightly. She did not awake. As
+though she were a child, the strong youth lifted her and placed her in
+the bed. Then he locked the small box, put the key again around Zelaya's
+neck, and lowered the treasure box into the chest. The padlock of this
+he snapped and then turned cheerfully to the watchful Ruth.
+
+"Come!" he whispered. "Missy not afraid of Roberto? Come!"
+
+No. Ruth was _not_ afraid of him. She rose quickly and preceded him, as
+he directed by a gesture, out of the door of the van. There was neither
+light nor sound in the whole camp.
+
+Once they were free, Roberto seized the girl's hand and led her through
+the darkness and the rain. Ruth's tender feet stumbled painfully over
+the rough ground, but the boy was not impatient.
+
+He seemed to know his way in the dark by instinct. Certainly, Ruth could
+scarcely see her hand before her face!
+
+However, it was not long before she realized that they had come out upon
+the shore of the island. There was a vast, empty-looking place before
+them, which Ruth knew must be the open lake.
+
+Where the sentinels had gone, she could not guess, unless Roberto had
+managed to drug _them_, too!
+
+However, there was not a word said, save when Roberto led her down, to
+the water and she felt it lave her feet. Then he muttered, in a low
+tone:
+
+"Don't fear, little Missy."
+
+As they waded deeper and deeper into the lake, following as she supposed
+the track by which the wagons had come to the island, Ruth _was_ more
+than a little frightened. Yet she would not show Roberto it was so.
+
+Once she whispered to him: "I can swim, Roberto."
+
+"Good! But I will carry you," and he suddenly stooped, slung her across
+his shoulder as though she had been a feather-weight, and marched on
+through the water.
+
+It was plain that the Gypsy boy knew this ford better than the drivers
+of the vans, for he found no spot that he could not wade through and
+carry Ruth, as well. It was nearly an hour before they reached the land.
+
+The rain beat upon them and the wind soughed in the trees. It seemed to
+get darker and darker, yet Roberto never hesitated for direction, and
+setting Ruth down upon her own feet, helped her on till they came to a
+well-traveled road.
+
+Not far ahead was a light. Ruth knew at once that it was a lamp shining
+through the windows of some farmhouse kitchen.
+
+"There they will take you in," Roberto said. "They are kind people. I am
+sorry I could not bring away your own clothes and your bag. But it could
+not be, Missy."
+
+"Oh! you have been so good to me, Roberto!" she cried, seizing both of
+his hands. "However can I thank you--or repay you?"
+
+"Don't be too hard on Gypsy--on my old grandmother. She is old and she
+is a miser. She thought she could make your friends pay her money. But
+now we will all leave here in the morning and you shall never be
+troubled by us again."
+
+"I will do nothing to punish her, Roberto," promised Ruth. "But I hope I
+shall see you at the Red Mill some time."
+
+"Perhaps--who knows?" returned the youth, with a smile that she could
+see in the dark, his teeth were so white. "Now run to the door and
+knock. When I see it opened and you go in, I will return."
+
+Ruth Fielding did as she was bidden. She entered the gate, mounted the
+porch, and rapped upon the kitchen door. The moment she looked into the
+motherly face of the woman who answered her knock, the girl knew that
+her troubles were over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+OFF FOR SCHOOL AGAIN
+
+
+There was much bustle about the old Red Mill. The first tang of frost
+was in the air, and September was lavishly painting the trees and bushes
+along the banks of the Lumano with crimson and yellow.
+
+A week had elapsed since Ruth and Helen had been prisoners in the
+Gypsies' encampment, up in the hills. That week had been crowded with
+excitement and adventure for the chums and Tom Cameron. They would all
+three have much to talk about regarding the Gypsies and their ways, for
+weeks to come.
+
+Uncle Ike Cameron had roused up the County Sheriff and all his minions,
+before Ruth appeared at Severn Corners, driven by the kindly farmer to
+whose door Roberto had brought her through the darkness and rain.
+
+Constable Peck, having searched the Gypsy camp, believed that Ruth must
+have escaped from the Romany people at the same time as Helen.
+Therefore, it was not until Ruth's complete story was told, that actual
+pursuit of the Gypsies by the county authorities was begun.
+
+Then Queen Zelaya and her band were not only out of the county, but out
+of the state, as well. They had hurried across the border, and it was
+understood that the tribe had gone south--as they usually did in the
+winter--and would be seen no more in New York State--at least not until
+the next spring.
+
+The three friends had much to tell wherever they went during this
+intervening week. They had had a fine time at "Uncle Ike's," but every
+adventure they had was tame in comparison to those they had experienced
+on the road overlooking Long Lake.
+
+They wondered what had become of Roberto--if he had returned to his
+people and risked being accused of letting Ruth escape. Ruth discussed
+this point with her friends; but one thing she had never mentioned to
+either Helen, or her brother Tom.
+
+She did not speak to them of the wonderful pearl necklace she had seen
+in the old Gypsy queen's possession. There was a mystery about that; she
+believed Zelaya must have stolen it. The man with the wicked face had
+intimated that it was part of some plunder the Gypsies had secured.
+
+Now, Ruth and Helen--and Tom as well--were ready to start for school
+again. This was the last morning for some time to come, that Ruth would
+look out of her little bedroom window at the Red Mill.
+
+She always left the beautiful place with regret. She had come to love
+old Aunt Alvirah so much, and have such a deep affection and pity for
+the miserly miller, that the joy of going back to Briarwood was well
+tempered with remorse.
+
+The night before, Uncle Jabez had come to Ruth, when she was alone, and
+thrust a roll of coin in her hand. "Ye'll want some ter fritter away as
+us'al, Niece Ruth," he had said in his most snarling tone.
+
+When she looked at it, her heart beat high. There were five ten-dollar
+gold pieces!
+
+It was given in an ungrateful way, yet the girl of the Red Mill believed
+her uncle meant to be kind after all. The very thought of giving up
+possession of so much money made him cranky. Perhaps he was determined
+to give her these fifty dollars on the very day they had been wrecked on
+the Lumano. No wonder he had been so cross all this time!
+
+It was Uncle Jabez's way. As Aunt Alvirah said, he could not help it. At
+least, he had never learned to make any effort to cure this unfortunate
+niggardliness that made him seem so unkind.
+
+"I do wish I had a lot of money," she told Aunt Alvirah, with a sigh. "I
+would never have to ask him to pay out a cent again. I could refuse to
+take this that he has given me and then I----"
+
+"Tut, tut, my pretty! don't say that," said the little old woman,
+soothingly. "It does him good to put his hand in his pocket--it does,
+indeed. If it is a sad wrench for him ter git it out ag'in--all the
+better!" and she chuckled a little as she lowered herself into her
+rocker. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"Ye don't understand yer uncle's nater like I do, Ruthie. You bein' his
+charge has been the salvation of him--yes, it has! Don't worry when he
+gives ye money; it's all thet keeps his old heart from freezin' right up
+solid."
+
+Now the Cameron automobile was at the gate, and Helen and Tom were
+calling to Ruth to hurry. Ben had taken her trunk to the Cheslow station
+the day before. Ruth appeared with her new handbag (the Gypsies had the
+old one), flung her arms about Aunt Alvirah's neck as she sat on the
+porch, and then ran swiftly to the door of the mill.
+
+"Uncle! I'm going!" she called into the brown dusk of the place.
+
+He came slowly to the door. His gray, grim face was unlighted by even an
+attempt at a smile, as he shook hands with her.
+
+"I know ye'll be a good gal," he said, sourly. "Ye allus be. But be
+savin' with--with all thet money I gave ye. It's enough to be the
+ruination of a young gal to hev so much."
+
+He repented of his gift, she knew. Yet she remembered what Aunt Alvirah
+had said, and refrained from handing it back to him. She determined,
+however, if she could, to never touch the five gold pieces, and some
+time, when she was self-supporting, she would hand the very same coins
+back to him!
+
+This was in her thought as she moved away. So, on this occasion, Ruth
+Fielding did not leave the Red Mill with a very happy feeling at her
+heart.
+
+The automobile sped away along the shady road into Cheslow. At the
+station Mercy Curtis, the lame girl, was awaiting them, although it was
+still some time before the train was due that would bear them away to
+Lake Osago.
+
+When it _did_ steam into view and come to a slow stop beside the
+platform, there was Heavy Stone and The Fox with their hands out of the
+windows, shouting to them. They had secured two seats facing each other,
+and Ruth and Mercy joined them, while Tom and Helen took the seat
+behind.
+
+Such a chattering as there was! The fleshy girl and Mary Cox had not
+seen Ruth and Helen and Mercy since they had all returned from the
+Steeles' summer home at Sunrise Farm, and you may believe there was
+plenty to talk about.
+
+"Who else is here?" demanded Ruth, standing up to search the length of
+the car for familiar faces.
+
+"Look out, Miss!" cried Heavy, producing her first joke of the fall
+term. "Remember Lot's wife!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Helen.
+
+"Goodness me! how ignorant you are--and you took chemistry last year,
+too," declared Jennie Stone.
+
+"I--don't--just--see," admitted Helen.
+
+"You mean to say you don't know what two-fold chemical change Lot's wife
+underwent?"
+
+"Give it up!"
+
+"Why," giggled Heavy, "first she turned to rubber, and then she turned
+to salt!"
+
+When the crowd had shown their appreciation, The Fox said:
+
+"We're going to pick up an Infant at Maxwell. Heard about her?"
+
+"No. Who is she?" asked Helen. "Not that Infants interest me much now.
+We can let the juniors take them in hand. Remember, girls, we are
+full-fledged seniors this year."
+
+"You'll have an interest in this new girl," said Miss Cox, with
+assurance.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"She is Nettie Parsons. You know her father is the big sugar man. He has
+oodles of money!"
+
+"Lot's of sugar, eh?" chuckled Heavy. "Hope she'll bring some to school
+with her. I have a sweet tooth, I hope you know."
+
+"A tooth! a whole set of sweet teeth, you mean!" cried Ruth.
+
+"I only hope she is nice. I don't care how much money she has," said
+Helen, smiling. "We won't hold her wealth up against her, if she's the
+right sort."
+
+"Oh, I'm not fooling," said The Fox, rather sharply, for she had a short
+temper, "to match her red hair," as Heavy said. "She'll probably bring
+trunks full of nice dresses to school and loads of jewelry----"
+
+"Won't that be silly? For Mrs. Tellingham won't let her wear them."
+
+"Only on state and date occasions," put in Mercy.
+
+"At any rate, her folks have splendid things. Why! don't you remember
+about her aunt losing that be-a-utiful necklace last spring?"
+
+"Necklace?" repeated Ruth. "What sort of a necklace?"
+
+"One of the finest pearl collars in the world, they say. Worth maybe
+fifty thousand dollars. Wonderful!"
+
+"A pearl necklace?" queried the girl from the Red Mill, her interest
+growing.
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"How careless of her!" said Heavy, with a yawn.
+
+"Silly!" exclaimed The Fox. "It was stolen, of course."
+
+"By whom?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Why, if the police knew that, they'd get back the necklace, wouldn't
+they?" demanded Mary Cox, with scorn.
+
+"But I didn't know--they might suspect?" suggested Ruth, meekly.
+
+"They do. Gypsies."
+
+"Gypsies!" cried Ruth and Helen together. And then the latter began:
+"Oh, girls! listen to what happened to Ruth and me only a week ago!"
+
+"Wait a bit, dear," broke in Ruth. "Let us know a little more about the
+lost necklace. Why do they think the Gypsies took it?"
+
+"I'll tell you," said The Fox. "You see, this aunt of Nettie's is very,
+very rich. She comes from California, and she was on to visit the
+Parsons last spring.
+
+"There was a tribe of Gypsies camping near the Parsons estate. They all
+went over to have their fortunes told--just for a lark, you know. It was
+after dinner one evening, and there was company. Nettie's Aunt Rachel
+had dressed her best, and she wore the necklace to the Gypsy camp.
+
+"That very night the Parsons' house was robbed. Not much was taken
+except the aunt's jewel-box and some money she had in her desk. The
+robbers were frightened away before they could go to any of the other
+suites.
+
+"The next day the Gypsies had left their encampment, too. Of course,
+there was nothing to connect the robbery with the Gyps., save
+circumstantial evidence. The police didn't find either the Gypsies or
+the necklace. But Aunt Rachel offered five thousand dollars' reward for
+the return of the pearls."
+
+"Just think of that!" gasped Helen. "Five thousand dollars. My, Ruthie!
+wouldn't you like to win _that_?"
+
+"Indeed I would," returned her chum, with longing.
+
+"But I guess the Gypsies _we_ were mixed up with never owned a pearl
+necklace like that. They didn't look as though they had anything but the
+gaily colored rags they stood in--and their horses."
+
+"What do you know about Gypsies?" asked The Fox.
+
+"A whole lot," cried Helen. "Let me tell you," and she proceeded to
+repeat the story of their adventure with Queen Zelaya and her tribe.
+Ruth said nothing during the story; her mind was busy with the mystery
+of the missing necklace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+GETTING INTO HARNESS
+
+
+Nettie Parsons proved to be a very sweet, quiet girl, when she came
+aboard the train at Maxwell. She was rather older than the majority of
+girls who entered Briarwood Hall as "Infants." It seemed that she had
+suffered considerable illness and that had made her backward in her
+books.
+
+"Never mind! She'll be company for Ann Hicks," said Helen. "Won't that
+be fine? Neither of them will feel so badly, then, because they are in
+the lower classes."
+
+"We'll get the Sweetbriars to make her feel at home," said Ruth, to her
+chum. "No hazing this term, girlie! Let's welcome the newcomers like
+friends and sisters."
+
+"Sure, my dear," agreed Helen. "We haven't forgotten what they did to
+_us_, when we first landed at Briarwood Hall."
+
+When the train ran down to the dock where they were to take the
+steamboat _Lanawaxa_ for the other side of the lake, there was a crowd
+of a dozen or more girls in waiting. A welcoming shout greeted Ruth as
+she headed the party from the vestibule coach:
+
+    "S. B.--Ah-h h!
+    S. B.--Ah-h-h!
+    Sound our battle-cry
+    Near and far!
+    S. B.--All!
+    Briarwood Hall!
+    Sweetbriars, do or die--
+    This be our battle-cry--
+    Briarwood Hall!
+    _That's All!_"
+
+Every girl present belonged to the now famous school society, and Nettie
+Parsons was interested right away. She wished to know all about it, and
+how to join, and of course she was referred to Ruth.
+
+In this way the girl of the Red Mill and the new pupil became better
+acquainted, and Ruth found opportunity very soon to ask Nettie about the
+pearl necklace that her Aunt Rachel had lost some months before.
+
+Meanwhile, the girls, with their hand luggage, trooped down the long
+dock to the _Lanawaxa's_ boarding-plank. Heavy Stone turned suddenly in
+the hot sunshine (for it was a glowing noon) to find two of the smaller
+girls mincing along in her very footsteps.
+
+"I say! what are you two Infants following me so closely for?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Please, Miss," giggled one of them, "mother told me to take Sadie for a
+nice long walk, but to be sure and keep her in the shade!"
+
+This delighted the other girls immensely, for it was not often that
+anybody got ahead of the plump girl. She was too good-natured to take
+offense, however, and only grinned at them.
+
+They all crowded aboard and sought seats on the upper deck of the
+steamer. Tom had met some of his friends who attended the Seven Oaks
+Military Academy, among them big Bob Steele and little Isadore Phelps.
+
+Of course the boys joined the girls, and necessary introductions were
+made. Before the _Lanawaxa_ pulled out of the dock, they were all having
+great fun.
+
+"But how we will miss Madge!" was the general cry of the older girls,
+for Bobbins' sister no longer attended Briarwood Hall, and her absence
+would be felt indeed.
+
+Not being under the immediate eye of his sharp-tongued sister, Bobbins
+showed his preference for Mercy Curtis, and spent a good deal of time at
+the lame girl's side. He was so big and she was so slight and delicate,
+that they made rather an odd-looking pair.
+
+However, Bobbins enjoyed her sharp tongue and withstood her raillery.
+She called him "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" and made believe that she was very much
+afraid of him; yet it was noticeable that there was no venom in the
+sharp speeches the lame girl addressed to her big cavalier--and Mercy
+Curtis could be most unmerciful if she so desired!
+
+Soon they were on the train again, and a short run to the Seven Oaks
+station, where the red brick barracks of the Military School frowned
+down upon the railroad from the heights above.
+
+"I wouldn't go to school in such an ugly place," declared the girls.
+
+Here is where they separated from their boy friends. A great, ramshackle
+bus, and another vehicle, were waiting at the end of the platform. An
+old man in a long duster stood beside the bus to help the girls in and
+see to their baggage. This was "Uncle Noah" Dolliver.
+
+At once The Fox formed the girls into line, and keeping step to the
+march, they tramped the length of the platform, singing:
+
+    "Uncle Noah, he built an ark--
+      One wide river to cross!
+    And in it we have many a lark--
+      One wide river to cross!
+          One wide river!
+          One wide river of Jordan!
+          One wide river!
+          One wide river to cross!
+
+    "The Sweetbriars get in, one by one--
+      One wide river to cross!
+    The last in line is Heavy Stone--
+      One wide river to cross!"
+
+And the plump girl _was_ the last one to pop into the ancient equipage,
+filling the very last seat--_tight_!
+
+"Lucky you brought along another wagon, Uncle Noah," said The Fox, as
+the remainder of the girls ran to the second vehicle.
+
+Both of the wagons soon started. It was a hot and dusty afternoon and
+the girls were really crowded.
+
+"I'm squeezed in so tight I can't think," moaned Helen.
+
+"Ouch!" cried Belle Tingley. "That's my funny-bone you hit, Lluella,
+with your handbag. Oh! how funny it feels."
+
+"Did you ever know why they call that thing in your elbow the funny
+bone?" asked Heavy, mighty serious.
+
+"No," said Belle, rubbing the elbow vigorously.
+
+"Why, it's what makes folks 'laugh in their sleeves,'" chuckled the
+plump girl.
+
+"Oh, dear me! isn't she smart?" groaned Lluella.
+
+"Almost as smart as my Cousin Bill," said The Fox, breaking into the
+conversation. "He won't be called 'Willie' and he'll answer only to
+'Bill,' or 'William.'
+
+"'William,' said the teacher one day to him in school, 'spell "ibex."'
+
+"Bill jumps up and begins: 'I-b----'
+
+"'Stop! stop, William!' cries the teacher. 'Where did you learn such
+grammar? Always say, "I am."'
+
+"And do you know," chuckled Mary, "Bill sat down and gave up spelling
+the word--and he doesn't know how to spell 'ibex' yet!"
+
+The sun had set, when they got out at the end of the Cedar Walk. Ruth,
+who had sat beside Nettie Parsons, went with her to the principal's
+office and introduced her to Mrs. Grace Tellingham.
+
+Later Ruth joined her chums in the old West Dormitory. There were two
+quartette rooms side by side, in which were hatched most of the fun and
+good times that happened at Briarwood Hall. In one were Ruth, Helen,
+Mercy, and Ann Hicks, the girl from the west. The other had long been
+the room of The Fox, Heavy, Belle Tingley, and Lluella Fairfax.
+
+Ann Hicks, right from Silver Ranch, was on hand to greet Ruth and the
+others, she having arrived at Briarwood the day before. She brought
+greetings from her Uncle Bill, Bashful Ike and his Sally.
+
+The crowd quieted down at last. The last guilty shadows stole from room
+to room, and finally every girl sought her own bed. Ruth and Helen
+shared one of the big beds in their room, but they did not go to sleep
+at once. They could hear the quiet breathing of Mercy and Ann, but the
+chum's eyes were still wide open.
+
+"That Nettie Parsons is a much nicer girl than I expected," whispered
+Helen.
+
+"That is something I want to talk with you about," said Ruth, quickly.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Nettie Parsons. At least, something about her Aunt Rachel."
+
+"Oh! the necklace," laughed Helen. "Are you really interested in it,
+Ruth?"
+
+"She offered five thousand dollars' reward for it," continued Ruth,
+breathlessly. "She really did. And the reward still stands."
+
+"Why, Ruthie!" exclaimed Helen, astonished. "Do you mean to say----"
+
+"This is what I mean to say," said Ruth, with energy. "I mean that I'd
+love to win that reward. I believe I know what has become of the pearl
+necklace. In fact, Helen, I am very sure that I have seen the
+necklace."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?
+
+
+Ruth was thinking a great deal--it must be confessed!--about money
+during the first days of this new term at Briarwood Hall, and yet she
+was not naturally of a mercenary nature. Nor was she alone in this, for
+the advent of Nettie Parsons into the school quite turned the heads of
+many.
+
+Nettie Parsons was the first multi-millionaire's daughter who had ever
+come to Briarwood Hall. Most of the girls' parents were well-to-do;
+otherwise they could not have afforded to pay the tuition fees, for Mrs.
+Grace Tellingham's institution was of considerable importance on the
+roster of boarding schools.
+
+Many of the girls' parents, like Helen Cameron's father, were really
+wealthy. But Mr. Parsons was way above that! And with a certain class
+the mere fact of money _as_ money, is cause enough for them to kneel
+down and worship!
+
+After a time these "toadies" were disappointed in the daughter of the
+"sugar king." Nettie Parsons was a very commonplace, kindly girl, not
+at all brilliant, and dressed more plainly than the majority of the
+girls at Briarwood Hall.
+
+Ruth's thoughts about money were not in the same lines as the thoughts
+of those girls so much interested in Nettie Parsons' riches. She neither
+envied the wealthy girl her possessions, nor desired to be like her.
+
+What Ruth Fielding desired so keenly was independence. She wanted to
+control her own destiny, instead of being so beholden to Uncle Jabez
+Potter for everything. The sting of being an object of charity had
+gotten deeply into Ruth's heart. The old miller had an unfortunate way
+with him, which made the proud girl feel keenly her situation.
+
+There was really no reason at all why the miller should take care of,
+and educate, his niece's child. He was not legally bound to do it. The
+kinship was not close enough for people to really expect Uncle Jabez to
+do all that he had for Ruth Fielding!
+
+There had been times when the girl, through several fortunate
+circumstances, had been of real help to the miller. She had once helped
+recover some money he had lost when the freshet wrecked a part of the
+Red Mill. Again, it was through her that an investment in a mine in
+Montana had proved productive of gain for Uncle Jabez, instead of loss.
+
+And now, only this summer, she had actually saved the miller's life.
+
+Grudgingly, Uncle Jabez had paid these debts by keeping her at this
+expensive school and furnishing her with clothes and spending money. It
+was plain he had never approved of her being away from the mill during
+vacations, too.
+
+Uncle Jabez saw no reason for young people "junketing about" and
+spending so much time in pleasure, as Ruth's friends did. Boys and girls
+learned to work, in his day, between short terms at school. It was all
+so different now, that the old man could not be blamed for
+misunderstanding.
+
+For a girl to look forward to making a name for herself in the world--to
+have a career--to really be somebody--was something of which Uncle Jabez
+(and Aunt Alvirah as well) could not fail to disapprove.
+
+Ruth desired to prepare for college, and in time enter a higher
+institution of learning. She wished, too, to cultivate her voice, and to
+use it in supporting herself later. She knew she could sing; she loved
+it, and the instructors at Briarwood encouraged her in the belief that
+she had a more than ordinarily fine contralto voice.
+
+Uncle Jabez did not believe in such things. He would never be willing to
+invest money in making a singer of his niece. Useless to think of it!
+
+Uncle Jabez had said that girls were of little use in the world,
+anyway--unless they settled down to housekeeping. The times Ruth had
+been of aid to him were, as he said, "just chancey."
+
+It was of the reward for the return of the missing pearl necklace to
+Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel, that the girl of the Red Mill was thinking
+so continually, while the first days of this term at Briarwood slipped
+by. But five thousand dollars would grant Ruth Fielding the independence
+she craved!
+
+Ruth and Helen Cameron had discussed the mystery of the pearl necklace
+in all its bearings--over and over again. All the "pros" and "cons" in
+the case had "been before the house," as Helen said, and it all came to
+the same answer: Could it be possible that Queen Zelaya, Roberto's
+grandmother, now had in her possession the necklace rightfully the
+property of Nettie Parsons' Aunt Rachel?
+
+"That is, she had it," said Ruth, believing fully it was so, "if that
+awful man I saw spying on her, has not robbed the old woman and gotten
+away with the necklace. You know how he talked that day in the deserted
+house to the other Gypsy?"
+
+"I guess I do!" exclaimed Helen. "Could I ever forget a single detail of
+that awful time?"
+
+"And where are the Gypsies now?" said Ruth, feelingly. "Ah! _that_ is
+the question."
+
+"Uncle Ike wrote father that they had been traced some distance toward
+the south," Helen returned, doubtfully.
+
+"The south is a big section of the country," and Ruth wagged her head.
+
+"Father was very angry," said Helen, "that the police did not find them,
+so that the whole tribe could be punished for what they did to us, I
+never saw father so angry before. He declared that the Gypsies should be
+taught a lesson, and that their escape was most inexcusable."
+
+Ruth said nothing, but shook her head.
+
+"You know the excuse the sheriff and that Constable Peck, at Severn
+Corners, gave?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Ruth.
+
+"If you had come right up to the village that night, when Roberto
+brought you to the farmhouse, and told where the camp was, they'd have
+nabbed the whole crowd, before they could have gotten over the state
+line."
+
+"I know," murmured Ruth.
+
+She was remembering Roberto's words as he left her that stormy night in
+sight of her refuge. He had asked not to be too hard on the Gypsies;
+therefore, she had not hurried to lodge information against Queen Zelaya
+and her tribe.
+
+But if she had only known about this pearl necklace! Nettie Parsons had
+described the jewel so clearly that the girl of the Red Mill could not
+for a moment doubt that the necklace in Zelaya's possession was the one
+for which the reward was offered.
+
+"I tell you what I'll do, if you say the word," Helen said at last,
+seeing that her friend was really so much troubled about the affair.
+
+"What's that, dear?"
+
+"I'll write to father. Let me tell him all about you seeing the old
+woman handling the pearls, and then about this necklace that was lost by
+Nettie's aunt. He can advise you, at any rate."
+
+So it was agreed. Helen wrote that very day. Inside of a week an answer
+came, and it quite excited Helen.
+
+"What do you think?" she demanded of her chum. "Father has business that
+calls him to Lumberton in a few days. He will come here to see us. And
+he says for me to tell you to be sure and say nothing to anybody else
+about the missing necklace until he sees you."
+
+"Of course I won't speak of it," replied Ruth. "I am not likely to. Oh,
+dear, Helen! if I could only win the reward that woman offers for the
+return of her necklace!"
+
+It was not many days before Helen received the telegram announcing her
+father's coming to Lumberton, which was the nearest town to Briarwood
+Hall. She showed it to Mrs. Tellingham, and asked that she and Ruth be
+excused from lessons, when Mr. Cameron came, as he wished to drive the
+girls over to see Tom at Seven Oaks.
+
+This was, of course, arranged. Mr. Cameron was a very busy man, and he
+could not spend much time in this visit. But he desired to speak to Ruth
+regarding the mystery of the pearl necklace.
+
+He had hired a pair of spirited horses at Lumberton, and he quite had
+his hands full, as they bowled over the hilly road toward the military
+academy. But he could talk to the girls.
+
+He had Ruth give him every particular of what she had seen at night in
+the Gypsy van, and when she had done so, he said:
+
+"I have taken the pains to get from the police the description of Mrs.
+Rachel Parsons' missing necklace. It fits your tale exactly, Ruth. Now,
+I tell you what I shall do.
+
+"I will set a detective agency at work. For my own part, I wish to
+overtake this Queen Zelaya, as she calls herself, and punish her for
+what she did to you two girls. If such people go free, it encourages
+them to do worse next time.
+
+"Now, if she has the necklace, and we can secure it, all the better. I
+would be glad to see you get that reward, Ruthie. And Helen says you are
+very anxious to win it."
+
+"Who wouldn't be?" gasped Ruth. "Just think of five thousand dollars!"
+
+They were driving through a fine piece of chestnut wood as she said
+this. The blight had not struck these beautiful trees and they hung full
+of the prickly burrs. The frost of the previous night had opened many of
+these, and the brown nuts smiled at once through the openings.
+
+"There's a boy knocking them down!" cried Helen. "Let's stop and get
+some, Father. See them rain down!"
+
+At that moment a shower of chestnuts fell and a prickly burr landed on
+the back of one of the team. The beast rose on his hind legs and pawed
+the air, snorting.
+
+"Look out!" exclaimed the boy in the tree.
+
+Mr. Cameron was a good horseman and he had the animals well in hand. The
+boy, however, was so anxious to see what went on below, that he strained
+forward too far. With a scream, and the snap of broken boughs, he
+plunged forward, shot through the leafy-canopy, and landed with a
+sickening thud upon the ground!
+
+Mr. Cameron had halted the horses dead. Ruth was out of the carriage
+like a flash and dropped on her knees by the boy's side. She was
+horror-stricken and speechless; yet she had made a great discovery as
+the boy fell.
+
+He was Roberto, the Gypsy!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+HE CANNOT TALK
+
+
+"Is he badly hurt?" cried Mr. Cameron, who dared not get down and leave
+the horses just then.
+
+"Don't tell us he is killed, Ruthie!" wailed Helen, clasping her hands
+and unable to leave the carriage.
+
+The Gypsy boy lay very still. One arm was bent under him in such a queer
+position that the girl of the Red Mill knew it must be broken. His olive
+face was pallid, and there was a little blood on his lips.
+
+She dared not move him. She bent down and put her ear to his chest. His
+heart was beating--he breathed!
+
+"He's alive!" she said, turning to her friends in the carriage. "But I
+am afraid he is badly hurt. At least, one arm----"
+
+The youth groaned. Ruth turned toward him with a tender little cry. She
+thought his eyelids quivered, but they were not opened.
+
+"What will we do with him? He ought to be taken to a hospital. Where's
+the nearest doctor?" asked Mr. Cameron.
+
+"Lumberton," said Ruth, promptly. "And that is the only place where
+there is a hospital around here."
+
+"Back we must go, then," declared Mr. Cameron, promptly. "We sha'n't see
+Master Tom to-day, that's sure. You get out, Helen, and I'll turn
+around."
+
+Helen ran to her friend who still hovered over the boy. At once she
+recognized him.
+
+"My goodness me! Roberto! isn't that strange? Then he did not go south
+with the other Gypsies."
+
+"It seems not--poor fellow," returned Ruth.
+
+"Do you suppose he knows all about the necklace--how his grandmother
+became possessed of it, and all?"
+
+"I don't know. I am sure Roberto is quite honest himself," returned
+Ruth. "He is not a thief like those wicked men who were talking that day
+in the old house, and who seem to have so much influence in the Gypsy
+camp."
+
+"I don't care!" exclaimed Helen, warmly. "I am sorry for Roberto. But I
+hope father _does_ send detectives after the Gyps., and that they catch
+and punish that horrid old woman. How mean she was to us!"
+
+"Sh!" warned Ruth.
+
+Roberto gave no sign of returning consciousness now. That puzzled the
+girl of the Red Mill, for she had thought he was just about to come to.
+
+Mr. Cameron turned the carriage and halted it beside the spot where the
+boy lay. "Of course you two girls can't lift him?" he said.
+
+"Of course we can!" returned his daughter, promptly. "Oh! Ruth and I
+haven't been doing gym. work for two years for nothing. Just watch us."
+
+"Easy!" murmured Ruth, warningly, as Helen seized the youth's legs.
+"Perhaps he has more than a broken arm."
+
+"But he must be lifted," said Helen. "Come on, now! He isn't conscious,
+and perhaps we can get him into the carriage before he wakes up."
+
+And they did. Roberto did not seem to be conscious, and yet, to Ruth's
+surprise, the color came and went in the boy's cheeks, and his black
+brows knitted a little. It was just as though he _were_ conscious and
+was endeavoring to endure the pain he felt without moaning.
+
+They got him into the carriage in as comfortable a position as possible.
+Ruth sat beside him, while Helen joined her father on the front seat.
+Then the gentleman let the spirited team go, and they dashed off over
+the road toward Lumberton.
+
+At once Helen told her father who the injured youth was. Having heard
+all the details of his young folks' adventures on the road to Boise
+Landing, Mr. Cameron knew just who Roberto was, and he saw the
+importance of learning from him, if possible, where his clan had gone.
+
+"We want to know especially what has become of the old woman--the
+queen," Mr. Cameron said. "I can't help it, if she _is_ the boy's
+grandmother, she is a wicked woman. Besides, we want to get back that
+necklace for Mrs. Parsons."
+
+Unfortunately, it would be impossible for the dry goods merchant to
+remain in Lumberton to watch the case. He had to return that very
+evening, and could not spare the time now to see Tom.
+
+He arranged at the hospital for Roberto to be given every care, and left
+some money with Helen and Ruth for them to purchase little luxuries for
+the boy when he should become convalescent.
+
+He waited until after the doctors had made their examination and learned
+that Roberto not only suffered from a broken arm, but had two ribs
+broken and his right leg badly wrenched.
+
+Mr. Cameron wrote a note to Mrs. Tellingham, asking that Helen and Ruth
+might visit the hospital every day or two to see how the patient fared.
+
+"Besides," said Ruth, eagerly, "I may get him to talk. Perhaps he has
+deserted his tribe for good, and he may help us learn about the
+necklace."
+
+"You want to be very careful in trying to pump the lad," said Mr.
+Cameron, with a smile.
+
+He need not have feared on this point, however, as it turned out. The
+very next afternoon Ruth and Helen hurried in to Lumberton to make
+inquiries at the hospital. They saw the head physician and he was
+frankly puzzled about Roberto.
+
+"I thought I had had every kind of a case in my experience," said the
+surgeon, "but there's something about this one that puzzles me."
+
+"Is he more hurt than you thought?" cried Ruth, anxiously.
+
+"I don't know. It seems that we have found all his injuries that are
+apparent. But there is one we cannot reach. Something is the matter with
+his speech."
+
+"His speech?" gasped Helen.
+
+"You have heard him speak?"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+"Then he is not naturally dumb----"
+
+"Dumb?" repeated Helen, in wonderment. "You don't mean that he is dumb?"
+
+"I mean just that. It appears that since his fall yesterday, he cannot
+talk at all," said the doctor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+RUTH INTERCEDES
+
+
+The two girls did not see Roberto that day, nor for several days
+following. The hospital authorities did not think it best to allow him
+to be excited even in a mild way.
+
+They sent in such delicacies as the nurse said he could have, and Tony
+Foyle was bribed by Helen to get a report from the hospital every day
+about the young Gypsy.
+
+The girls kept very quiet about the patient in the hospital. Their mates
+knew only that Helen and Ruth had been driving with Mr. Cameron when the
+boy fell out of the tree. They did not dream that the victim of the
+accident had any possible connection with the pearl necklace that Nettie
+Parsons' aunt had lost!
+
+Helen kept her father informed of the progress of Roberto's case, and in
+return he wrote Helen that the detectives were confident of reaching old
+Queen Zelaya and her tribe.
+
+"But if we could only get Roberto to talk!" sighed Ruth.
+
+"Why, Ruth Fielding! if the poor fellow has been made speechless by
+that fall, how _can_ he talk?"
+
+"I know, but----"
+
+"Don't you believe it is _so_?"
+
+"Why--yes," admitted Ruth. "Of course, he would have no reason for
+refusing to speak. And they say he has a hard time making them
+understand what he wants, for he doesn't know how to write. Poor fellow!
+I suppose he never realized before, that the art of writing was of any
+use to _him_."
+
+In a week or so the girls were allowed to go to the ward where Roberto
+lay. Helen carried an armful of good things for the Gypsy lad to eat,
+but Ruth remembered that he had not cared much for delicacies, and she
+carried picture papers and a great armful of brilliant fall
+flowers--some picked by herself in the woods, and the others begged from
+Tony Foyle.
+
+"Taking flowers to a boy--pshaw!" scoffed Helen. "Why, that shows you
+have no brother, Ruthie. Tom wouldn't look at flowers when he's sick."
+
+Ruth believed she had made no mistake. When they approached the bed in
+which Roberto lay, he looked very pale indeed, and the expression of
+weariness on his face as he stared out of the distant window, made
+Ruth's heart ache for the captive wild-boy.
+
+"Here are visitors for you, Robert," said the kindly nurse.
+
+The big, black eyes of the Gypsy boy rolled toward the two girls. Then
+his face lit up and his eyes sparkled. They were fixed eagerly on the
+mass of brilliant blossoms Ruth carried. She scattered the flowers over
+the coverlet, and Roberto seized some of them, fairly pressing them to
+his lips. He nodded and smiled at the display of Helen's offerings, too,
+but he could not keep his eyes away from the flowers. He had been
+homesick for his beloved woodlands.
+
+He was still in plaster and could not move much. He did his best to make
+the girls understand how welcome they were, but not a sound came from
+his lips.
+
+"A very strange case, indeed," said the doctor in charge, when the girls
+came down from the ward. "There seems to be absolutely no reason why he
+does not speak. Apparently no paralysis of the vocal cords. But
+speechless he is. And as he cannot read or write, it is a nuisance."
+
+"It isn't possible that for some reason he doesn't _wish_ to speak?"
+queried Ruth, doubtfully.
+
+"Why, Ruth! there you go again!" exclaimed Helen. "I never knew you to
+be so suspicious."
+
+The doctor laughed. "I think not," he said. "Of course, he might, but he
+must be a wonderfully good actor. The next time you come, we shall try
+him."
+
+So on a subsequent call of the two girls at the hospital, the doctor
+entered the ward at the same time they did and likewise approached
+Roberto's bed, only on the opposite side. Ruth had brought more flowers,
+and the boy was evidently delighted.
+
+"Are you sure you can't speak to me, Roberto?" asked Ruth, softly, as he
+nodded and smiled and clasped the flowers to his breast with his one
+good hand.
+
+Roberto shook his head sadly, and his black eyes showed every indication
+of sorrow. But of a sudden he jumped, and a spasm of pain crossed his
+face. The doctor straightened up and Roberto scowled at him wrathfully.
+The boy had not uttered a sound.
+
+"I jabbed him with this needle," said the doctor, with disgust. "You
+see, either he has perfect control over himself; or he absolutely cannot
+speak. While I was setting his arm and fixing up his smashed ribs, he
+only moaned a little."
+
+"Oh!" Helen had gasped, looking at the medical man in some wrath.
+
+"Don't do it again--not for _me_," urged Ruth. "I am sorry I said
+anything about it."
+
+"Oh, he isn't seriously injured by _that_," said the surgeon, holding up
+the needle. "But I do not think he is 'playing possum.'"
+
+"It isn't possible!" exclaimed Helen, confidently.
+
+"And how long must he lie here?" Ruth asked.
+
+"Oh, in a fortnight he'll be as fine as a fiddle. Of course, he won't be
+able to use his arm much for several weeks. But the ribs will knit all
+right. Maybe he can find some light job----"
+
+"We'll see about _that_," Helen interrupted.
+
+"I can see you young ladies are much interested in him," chuckled the
+doctor. "And not entirely because he is a handsome, black-eyed rascal,
+eh?"
+
+Ruth knew that old Tony Foyle, the gardener at Briarwood Hall, was
+interested in the lad. He had gone up to the ward to see Roberto several
+times, and came away enthusiastic in the Gypsy's praise.
+
+"Sure," said Tony, to Ruth, "he's jist the bye after me hear-r-t.
+Herself would like him, he's that doomb!"
+
+"Herself" was Tony's wife, who was the cook at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"And the way that boy do be lovin' flowers! Sure, his bed in the
+horspital is jest covered wid 'em. He'd be a handy lad to have here ter
+give me aid, so he would. An' I been tellin' Mis' Tellingham that I need
+another helper."
+
+"We'll get him the job, Tony!" cried Ruth, in delight. "I believe he
+would like to help around your hothouse and the beds. I'll see."
+
+She interceded with the principal for Roberto, and obtained her promise
+that the Gypsy boy should have the job. Then she sounded Roberto
+himself, and by the way his eyes lit up and he smiled and nodded, Ruth
+knew he would be delighted to be Tony Foyle's assistant.
+
+"At least," thought Ruth, "I can keep in sight of him for a time.
+Perhaps he couldn't tell us, anyway, where Queen Zelaya has hidden
+herself. But I believe he knows, and I haven't much faith in the results
+those detectives get."
+
+Roberto mended rapidly. He was soon up and about the ward, when the
+girls called. He was less restless than Ruth expected him to be, and he
+still signified his intention of coming to help the little old Irish
+gardener at Briarwood Hall.
+
+"When he recovers his powers of speech," said the doctor, "it will be as
+suddenly as he lost them. No doubt of that. But it is a most puzzling
+case. I am glad he is not going far from Lumberton. I want to watch the
+progress of the affair."
+
+The next day Roberto came to Briarwood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A GREAT TEMPTATION
+
+
+About this time Ruth suffered a great temptation. She was so little
+given to covetousness or envy, that other girls of her class might have
+dresses, jewelry, and many other things dear to girlish hearts, without
+Ruth's being at all disturbed.
+
+Her one great, overmastering passion was for Independence! She envied
+none of her mates anything but _that_.
+
+Now she fell under temptation, and this was the way of it: Ruth belonged
+to the picked class that the physical instructor had chosen for
+exhibition gymnasium work at the mid-winter entertainment. This year
+there were to be important visitors at the school, and Mrs. Tellingham
+wished to make the occasion a more than ordinarily successful
+entertainment.
+
+The class of twenty girls, selected from the best of the seniors and
+juniors, was to drill, dance, and go through other gymnastic exercises.
+And it was agreed among them that each girl should have a brand new
+costume, although this was no suggestion of either the teacher or Mrs.
+Tellingham.
+
+The class invented this idea itself. It was agreed--nineteen in favor,
+at least--to appear at the entertainment in a brand new outfit. And how
+could Ruth say "No?"
+
+Every girl in the class but herself had only to write home for money and
+order the uniform. As it chanced, Ruth had plenty of money to pay for a
+costume. Helen, who was one of the number, knew Ruth had that fifty
+dollars in gold that Uncle Jabez had given the girl of the Red Mill the
+day she left home.
+
+This was the temptation: Ruth had promised herself never to use that
+money. She had a small sum left from her vacation money, and she was
+making that do for incidentals, until she could earn more in some way.
+She was already tutoring both Nettie Parsons and Ann Hicks in their more
+advanced textbooks, and they were paying her small sums for this help.
+
+But she could not earn enough in this way--nor in any other--to buy the
+new gymnasium costume. And there were the five ten-dollar gold pieces
+lying in a little jeweler's box in the bottom of her trunk.
+
+She went with Helen to the dressmaker in Lumberton, when Helen ordered
+_her_ new costume. "Why don't you let her fit you now, too, Ruth?"
+demanded Miss Cameron.
+
+"Oh, there is plenty of time. Let us see first how well she makes
+yours," Ruth returned, with a forced laugh.
+
+She knew she could not wear her usual costume with the picked class
+without looking odd. The girls had decided on crimson trimming on the
+blue skirt and blouse, instead of the regulation white. Nineteen girls
+with crimson bands and one with white--and that soiled!--would look odd
+enough.
+
+It would fairly spoil the picture, Ruth knew. She was worried because of
+this, for she did not want to make her mates look ridiculous. Never had
+Ruth Fielding been so uncertain about any question since she had been
+old enough to decide for herself.
+
+She was really so troubled that her recitation marks were not as high as
+they should have been. The teachers began to question her, for Ruth
+Fielding's course at Briarwood had been a triumphant one from the start!
+
+"You are not ill, Miss Fielding?" asked Miss Gould. "I am surprised to
+find that you are going below your past averages. What is the matter?"
+
+"I am sure I do not know, Miss Gould," declared Ruth. Yet she feared
+that the reply was not strictly truthful. She _did_ know; night and day
+she was worrying about the new gymnasium costume.
+
+Should she order one, or should she not? Could she buy a little of the
+crimson ribbon and put it on her old uniform and thus pass muster? What
+would the girls say, if she did that?
+
+And what would they say if she appeared at the exhibition in her old
+costume? Was she purely selfish in trying to get out of buying the new
+dress? Was her reason for not wishing to break into that roll of coin a
+bad one, after all?
+
+Those questions kept coming to Ruth Fielding, and got between her and
+her books. Mrs. Tellingham called her into the office early in October
+and pointed out to her that, unless her averages increased, her standing
+in her class would be greatly changed.
+
+"You are doing no outside work, Miss Fielding?" inquired the principal.
+
+"No, Ma'am."
+
+"I hear you are helping two of the other girls--in a perfectly
+legitimate way, of course. It is not taking too much out of you?"
+
+"Oh, no, dear Mrs. Tellingham!" cried Ruth, fearful that her tutoring
+would be forbidden.
+
+"You are not working too hard in the gym.?"
+
+"I do not think so," stammered Ruth.
+
+"And _this_ is ridiculous," said Mrs. Tellingham, with a smile. "I do
+not think there is a more robust looking girl in my school. But, there
+must be something."
+
+"I suppose so," murmured Ruth.
+
+"But you do not know what it is? If you do, tell me."
+
+"I study just as hard, Mrs. Tellingham," said Ruth, non-committally. "I
+spend quite as much thought over my books. Really, I think I shall do
+better again."
+
+"I hope so. I do not want to see any bright girl like you fall behind.
+There is always some reason for such changes, but sometimes we teachers
+have hard work to get at it. I want all my girls to have confidence in
+me and to tell me if anything goes wrong with them."
+
+"Yes, Ma'am," said Ruth, guiltily.
+
+But she could not take the principal of Briarwood Hall into her
+confidence--she positively could _not_ do it! How ridiculous it would
+seem to the dignified Mrs. Grace Tellingham that she did not dip into
+the money her uncle had given her to buy that costume!
+
+And she was losing her standing, and worrying everybody who cared,
+because of this temptation. She knew she was doing wrong in falling
+behind in her studies.
+
+Surely _that_ was not the way to give Uncle Jabez the best return
+possible for his investment. If she fell back in her books this year,
+Ruth knew she would never be able to make it up. She must either be
+prepared for college half a year later, or skip some work that would be
+found wanting at a later time--would be a thorn in her flesh, indeed,
+for the remainder of her school life.
+
+One hour Ruth told herself that she would be decisive--she would be
+brave--she would not move in her determination to keep the fifty dollars
+intact. And then, the next hour, her heart would sink, as she looked
+forward to what would be said and thought by her companions when the
+exhibition day came around and she appeared in her old suit.
+
+She thought seriously of trying to withdraw in season from the
+exhibition class. But unfortunately she could not easily do that. The
+instructor had selected the twenty girls herself, and what excuse--what
+honest excuse--could Ruth give for demanding her release?
+
+"Oh, dear me!" she thought, tossing on her pillow at night, "if I could
+only be the means of returning that necklace to Mrs. Parsons! My
+troubles would all be over for sure.
+
+"Mr. Cameron's detectives will _never_ find that old Queen Zelaya, but I
+bet Roberto knows just where she has gone for the winter."
+
+With this in mind she tried again and again to get some information out
+of Tony Foyle's new helper. Roberto always had a smile for her, and
+seemed willing enough to try to make signs about anything and everything
+but his tribe and his grandmother.
+
+And so smart was he that his gestures were very understandable indeed,
+when he wished to give information about the new work that he loved, and
+about the fall flowers and bulbs which were being taken up for storage
+in the conservatory against the cold of winter.
+
+It seemed strange--indeed, it made Ruth suspicious--that Roberto could
+convey his meaning so easily by gesture when the subject was not one
+regarding the missing Gypsies!
+
+Again and again the thought came to the girl that the Gypsy boy was
+actually "playing possum." Knowing, perhaps, that he would be questioned
+about his grandmother, and not wishing to give information about her or
+her tribe, he had decided to become dumb.
+
+Yet, if this was so, how wonderfully well he did it! Even the doctor at
+the hospital could not understand the case.
+
+Roberto's condition certainly was puzzling. And Ruth believed that he
+held the clew to the whereabouts of Queen Zelaya and the pearl necklace.
+That being the case, he stood between Ruth and that great reward which
+the girl of the Red Mill was so anxious to win.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+NETTIE PARSONS' FEAST
+
+
+Incidentally there was as much fun going on at Briarwood Hall as usual
+this fall, but Ruth Fielding did not entirely enjoy any of the frolics
+in which she necessarily had a part.
+
+The work of the Sweetbriar organization was all that really interested
+her in this line. Several new girls who entered the school in September
+who were old enough, joined the association, besides others who were
+advanced from the lower classes.
+
+It was an honor--and was so considered by all--to be invited to become a
+Sweetbriar. Within the association was much innocent entertainment.
+Picnics, musicals, evening parties approved by the school faculty--even
+little feasts after curfew--were hatched within the membership.
+
+Nettie Parsons, the daughter of the "sugar king," was destined never to
+be very popular in the school. Those girls who hoped to benefit by
+Nettie's wealth soon found that money meant as little to Nettie as to
+any girl at Briarwood.
+
+On the other hand, she was no brilliant scholar, and she made friends
+slowly. Ruth and Helen determined to help the "poor little rich girl,"
+as they called her, and they egged her on to give a midnight reception
+in the room Nettie occupied with three other girls in the West
+Dormitory.
+
+"There's no way so sure to the hearts of these girls than through their
+stomachs," Mercy said, when she heard of the plan. "Let poor Net stuff
+them full of indigestible 'goodies,' and they will remember her for
+life!"
+
+"Why put it that way, Mercy?" drawled Heavy. "You know, you are fond of
+a bit of candy, or a pickle, yourself. The 'goodies' which we do not get
+at the school table are 'gifts of the gods.' They are unexpected
+pleasures. And when eaten after hours, with a blanket for a tablecloth
+and candles for lights, they become 'forbidden fruit,' which is known to
+be the sweetest of all!"
+
+"Listen to Jen going into rhapsodies over eatables!" sniffed The Fox.
+"Give her her way, and every composition she handed in to Miss Gould
+would be a menu."
+
+"Bah!" scoffed Heavy. "You eat your share when you get a chance, I
+notice."
+
+"When Heavy is free from the scholastic yoke, and bosses her father's
+house for good," said Helen, "every dinner will make old Luculus turn in
+his grave and groan with envy----"
+
+"Or with indigestion," snapped Mercy. "The girl will positively _burst_
+some day!"
+
+"I don't care," mourned Heavy, shaking her head. "It isn't what I get to
+eat at Briarwood that makes me fat--that's sure."
+
+"No," chuckled Ruth. "You grow plump on the remembrance of what you have
+already eaten, dear. Who was it ate three plates of floating island last
+night for supper?"
+
+"Well!" cried Heavy, with wide open eyes, "you wouldn't want me to leave
+them and let them go to waste, would you? Both you and Helen left your
+shares, and the cook would have been hurt, if the pudding had come back
+untouched."
+
+"Kind-hearted girl!" said The Fox, with a sniff.
+
+After-hour parties were frowned upon by Mrs. Tellingham and the
+teachers, of course; not for the mild breaking of the school rules
+entailed, but because the girls' stomachs were apt to suffer.
+
+In the West Dormitory, too, Miss Picolet was known to be very sharp-eyed
+and sharp-eared for such occasions. It took some wit to circumvent Miss
+Picolet; perhaps that is why the girls on Ruth's corridor so delighted
+in holding orgies unbeknown to the little French teacher.
+
+Miss Scrimp, the matron, was a heavy sleeper. The girls did not worry
+about her.
+
+Nettie Parsons' room was at the very end of the cross-corridor, and
+farthest from the stairway. The stairway went up through the middle of
+the big brick dormitory building, and perhaps _that_ was not the best
+arrangement in case of fire; but there were plenty of fire escapes on
+the outside.
+
+The question which at once arose, when the sixteen girls Nettie chose
+had been invited to the feast, was who should stand guard?
+
+This was always a matter for discussion--sometimes for heart burnings,
+too. It was no pleasant task to sit out upon the cold stairway and watch
+for the opening of Miss Picolet's door below.
+
+Sometimes they decided by casting lots. Sometimes some girl who was very
+good-natured was inveigled into taking her plate of goodies out there in
+the dimly lit corridor. And sometimes one had to be bribed to stand
+watch for the others.
+
+Miss Picolet was always known to light her candle when she was disturbed
+by any sound, or suspicion; then she would come to her door and listen.
+She never moved about her room without a light, that was one good thing!
+The girl on watch had warning the instant the French teacher opened her
+door.
+
+But of the sixteen girls Nettie Parsons had chosen, not one wanted to
+play sentinel. Some of them said they would rather not attend the
+jamboree at all!
+
+The season was far enough advanced for the nights to be cold, and the
+corridors were not warm after the steam went down. The party was called
+for ten o'clock. By that time frost would most likely be gathering on
+the window panes.
+
+"Catch _me_ bundling up in a fur coat and mittens and stopping out there
+in that draughty place!" cried The Fox, "while the rest of you are
+stuffing yourself to repletion in a nice warm room."
+
+"Thought you didn't care for the goodies?" demanded Heavy, slily.
+
+"I don't care for catching my death of cold, Miss!" snapped Mary Cox.
+
+Neither Lluella, nor Belle, would "be the goat." Of course, it was
+understood that Heavy herself could never be out of reach of the cake
+plates! Nettie would not hear of Ruth being on watch.
+
+"I have it!" said Ruth, at last. "Leave it to me. I'll find a new guard,
+and I know he will not fail us."
+
+"Who is that?" demanded her chum.
+
+"Roberto."
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Nettie. "Not that boy who helps Foyle?"
+
+"That's the one. And he'll do anything for Ruth," declared Helen,
+promptly.
+
+"Anything but talk!" thought Ruth, to herself, but she did not say it
+aloud.
+
+"I don't see how _he_ can help us," Ann Hicks said. "He can't come into
+the dormitory."
+
+"I--guess--not!" cried Helen.
+
+"But he won't mind watching outside," Ruth explained. "At least, I'll
+ask him----"
+
+"But what good will _that_ do?" demanded Heavy. "If Miss Picolet gets up
+out of her warm nest, _he_ won't know it."
+
+"Yes, he will," said Ruth, nodding.
+
+The Fox began to laugh. "Don't let _her_ hear you say that, Fielding.
+Picolet is an awful old maid. She would be horrified, if she thought a
+male person even imagined her in bed!"
+
+"But how will he know?" demanded Ann.
+
+"That's easy," laughed Ruth. "He will stand where he can watch her
+window. If he sees her candle lit, he will give the alarm."
+
+"How?" asked Nettie.
+
+"We'll rig a 'tick-tack'--you know what I mean?"
+
+"Oh, don't I!" giggled Heavy.
+
+"Roberto can pull the string below, and that will make a tick-tack rap
+on Nettie's window."
+
+"Splendid!" cried the giver of the feast. "You just see if he will do
+it, Miss Fielding. And I'll give him a dollar--or more, if he wants
+it."
+
+"A dollar will be a lot of money for Roberto," laughed Helen. "But he
+won't do it for that."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Of course not. He'll only do it because Ruth asks him."
+
+Which was really the fact. Roberto understood well enough what was
+desired of him. Ruth pointed out the French teacher's window, and the
+windows of Nettie Parsons' quartette room. From one of them would hang a
+weighted string on that night. Everything was agreed, and the feast
+planned.
+
+It was a starlight night, when it arrived, but Roberto could find a
+place to hide in the shrubbery, where he could watch both windows, as
+agreed. He slept in a little back room of Tony Foyle's suite in the
+basement of the main building, and could get out and in without
+disturbing Mr. and Mrs. Foyle.
+
+If he were caught out of his room after hours, Ruth knew that Tony would
+be angry, but she had great influence with the little Irishman and
+promised Roberto that she would "make it all right" for him, if he were
+caught.
+
+The hour of the party came. The West Dormitory had apparently been "in
+the arms of Morpheus" for half an hour, at least.
+
+"But Mr. Murphy didn't get a strangle hold on us to-night," giggled
+Heavy, as she led the procession from her room.
+
+The girls were all in their kimonas, and many brought plates, knives and
+forks, cups, and other paraphernalia for the feast. There was to be hot
+chocolate and there were two alcohol lamps and two pots.
+
+The Fox presided over one lamp and Heavy bossed the other one. There was
+something wrong with the plump girl's lamp; either it had been filled
+too full, or it leaked. From the start it kept flaring and frightening
+the girls.
+
+"I really wish you would not use that old contraption!" exclaimed Ann
+Hicks. "It's just as uncertain as a pinto pony."
+
+"Never you mind," snapped Heavy. "I guess I know----"
+
+Pouf!
+
+The flames flared suddenly. Heavy leaped back, stumbled over another
+girl, and went sprawling. The flames did not touch her, but they _did_
+ignite the curtain at the window.
+
+There was a great squealing as the girls ran. Nobody dared tear down the
+blazing curtain, and the flames leaped higher and higher each instant.
+
+Then one of the most frightened of the company jerked open the door, put
+her head out into the corridor, and shrieked "Fire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ROBERTO FINDS HIS VOICE
+
+
+That settled it! There was a full-fledged panic in that quartette room
+in an instant. It bade fair, too, to spread to the whole building.
+
+Ruth, who had been busy distributing cakes before the accident, sprang
+to the open door, seized the girl who had yelled, and literally "yanked"
+her back into the room. Then she banged the door to and placed her back
+against it.
+
+"Stop!" she cried, yet in a low voice. "Don't be foolish. It's only a
+little fire. We can put it out. Don't rouse the whole house and frighten
+everybody."
+
+"Oh, Ruth! I can't reach it!" wailed Helen, who was really trying to
+pull down the curtain.
+
+Ann ran with a bowl of water and tried to splash it over the burning
+curtain. But the bowl tipped backwards and part of the water went over
+Heavy, who was just trying to struggle to her feet.
+
+"Oh! oh! wow!" gasped the plump girl. "I'm drowning! Do you think I'm
+afire, Ann Hicks?"
+
+Some of the others were sane enough to laugh, but the more nervous girls
+were already in tears, and the fire _was_ spreading from one curtain to
+the other. There was a smell of scorching varnish, too. The window frame
+was catching!
+
+In the very midst of the confusion, when it seemed positive that the
+whole school must be aroused, there came a commanding rap upon the
+window pane. It was not the gentle signal of the tick-tack--no, indeed!
+
+"Will you hear _that_?" gasped Belle Tingley. "Miss Picolet's up."
+
+"No!" cried Ruth, from the other end of the room. "Open that window,
+Ann! It's Roberto. He's climbed the fire-escape."
+
+"My goodness me!" gasped The Fox. "I never was so glad to see a boy in
+all my life! Let him in--do!"
+
+No sooner said than done. The girl from Silver Ranch had her wits about
+her. She snapped open the catch and raised the sash.
+
+Into the room bounded the Gypsy lad. He had seen the flames from the
+ground and he immediately knew what to do when he got inside.
+
+He seized a chair, leaped up into it, and with his long arms was enabled
+to tear down the blazing hangings. These he thrust into the bowl of
+water.
+
+"Oh, Roberto! your hands are burned!" cried Ruth, darting to his side,
+as the fire was quenched.
+
+"Never you mind, little Missy----"
+
+He halted, staring at her. Then his face flushed like fire and his eyes
+dropped before her accusing gaze.
+
+"You _can_ speak!" exclaimed the girl from the Red Mill. "You _can_!"
+
+"He's gotten back his tongue!" cried Helen, in surprise. "Isn't that
+wonderful?"
+
+But Ruth was sure, by the Gypsy boy's shamefaced look, that there was
+nothing wonderful about it at all. Roberto had been able to speak all
+the time, but he did not wish to. Now, in his excitement, he had
+betrayed the fact.
+
+There was too much confusion just then for the matter to be discussed or
+explained. The girls, seeing that the fire was out, scattered at once to
+their rooms. Roberto left instantly by the window, and Ruth helped
+Nettie and her roommates repair the damage as well as possible.
+
+"I'll buy new curtains for the windows," said the "sugar king's"
+daughter. "And I'm only glad nothing worse happened."
+
+"The worst hasn't happened yet," giggled one of her roommates.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I saw Jennie Stone take a bag of pickles, some seed cakes, a citron
+bun, and about half a pound of candy with her, when she flew. If she
+absorbs all that to-night, she will be sick to-morrow, that's all!"
+
+"Well," Ruth advised, "the best we can do won't hide the damage. Miss
+Scrimp will find out about the fire, anyway. The best thing to do is to
+make a clean breast of it, Nettie. I'm sorry the feast was a failure,
+but we all know you did your best."
+
+"I'm thankful it was no worse," returned the new girl. "And how brave
+that Gypsy boy was, Ruth! I must thank him to-morrow."
+
+"You leave him to me," said the girl of the Red Mill, grimly. "I want to
+talk to Roberto myself."
+
+When she got back to her excited roommates, she said little about the
+wonderful recovery of the Gypsy boy's power of speech, until Mercy and
+Ann were asleep. Then she said to Helen Cameron:
+
+"I am going to telegraph to your father the first thing in the morning.
+Roberto has been fooling us all. You can't tell me! I know he's been
+able to talk all the time."
+
+"You don't really think so, dear?" asked Helen.
+
+"I do. He must have been conscious when we picked him up that time and
+carried him to the carriage. And we mentioned his grandmother then and
+the necklace. He's just as sharp as a knife, you know; he's been dumb
+for a purpose. He did not want to be questioned about Zelaya and the
+missing pearl necklace."
+
+"My goodness me! Father will be _so_ angry," cried Helen.
+
+"Roberto will have to tell. I like him, and he was very brave to-night.
+But I do not believe the boy is a thief himself, and he would be better
+if he entirely left his thieving relatives."
+
+"Maybe he'll run away," suggested Helen.
+
+But Roberto would have been obliged to start very early that next
+morning to have run away. Ruth Fielding was the first person up in the
+school, and she was standing outside Tony's door, when the little
+Irishman first appeared.
+
+"Helen Cameron wants you to take this telegram down to the office at
+once, Tony," she said. "Mrs. Tellingham knows about it. We are in a
+dreadful hurry. Is Roberto inside?"
+
+"Sure he is, Miss----"
+
+"You take the message; don't let Roberto see it, and you keep your eye
+on that boy to-day, until Mr. Cameron arrives. He'll want to see him."
+
+"Now, don't be tellin' me th' bye has been inter mischief?" cried the
+warm-hearted Irishman.
+
+"Not much. Only he's suddenly recovered the use of his tongue, Tony, and
+Mr. Cameron wants to talk with him."
+
+"Gracious powers!" murmured Tony. "Recovered his spache, has he? The
+saints be praised!"
+
+He obeyed Ruth, however, in each particular. If Roberto had it in his
+mind to run away, he had no chance to do so that day. Tony watched him
+sharply, and in the evening Mr. Cameron arrived at Briarwood Hall.
+
+The gentleman greeted his daughter and Ruth in Mrs. Tellingham's parlor,
+but when he interviewed Roberto, it was downstairs in Tony Foyle's
+rooms.
+
+The girls saw Mr. Cameron only for a moment after that. He was just
+starting for the train, and Roberto was going with him.
+
+"The young rascal has admitted just what Ruth suspected," said Mr.
+Cameron, chuckling a little. "He fooled us all--including the doctor.
+Though the Doc., I reckon, suspected strongly that the boy could talk,
+if he desired to.
+
+"Roberto did not want to be questioned. Now he has told me that his
+grandmother did not go south at all. He says she often spends the winter
+in New York City as do other Gypsies. She is really a great character
+among her people, and with the information I have gathered, I believe
+the New York police will be able to locate her.
+
+"I shall hang on to Master Roberto until the matter is closed up. He
+will say nothing about the necklace. He'll not even own up that he ever
+saw it. But he tells me that his grandmother is a miser and hoards up
+valuables just like a magpie."
+
+Helen's father and the Gypsy boy went away then, and the chums had to
+possess their souls with patience, and attend strictly to their school
+work, until they could hear how the matter turned out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS
+
+
+It was not likely that Ruth found it any easier, after this, to attend
+strictly to her school duties, but after her conversation with Mrs.
+Tellingham she _had_ put forth a greater effort to recover her standing
+in her class.
+
+Whether Mrs. Parsons' necklace was found, or not; whether Ruth obtained
+a portion of the reward in pay for the information she had lodged, the
+girl realized that she had no right to neglect her studies.
+
+She had come to one conclusion at least: whether or no, she would not
+break into that fifty dollars Uncle Jabez had given her so unwillingly.
+And she would use no more of his money for vacation jaunts, or for
+luxuries.
+
+"I must accept his help in gaining my education," she told herself. "But
+beyond that, I need not go. I have gone about, and had good times, and
+bought many things just as though I really had a right to expect Uncle
+Jabez to supply every need.
+
+"No more of that, Ruth Fielding! You prate of wishing to be
+independent: be so in any event!"
+
+She was young to come to such a determination; yet Ruth's experiences
+since her parents had died were such as would naturally make her
+self-assertive. She knew what she wanted, _and she went after it_!
+
+As for the matter of the new gymnasium suit--why! that Ruth gave up
+entirely. She decided that she had no business to use Uncle Jabez's
+money for it, and of course she could not go into debt for a new
+costume.
+
+No matter what the other girls thought, or what they did, _she_ would
+have to be content with her old uniform when it came to the exhibition
+games.
+
+She did not have the courage yet to tell even Helen of this decision;
+nevertheless she was determined to stick to it. At once she had begun to
+pick up in recitation marks, and Miss Gould no longer scowled over
+Ruth's reports.
+
+The strain of mind had been considerable, however; Ruth had much to make
+up in her studies; she wasted no time and began to forge ahead again.
+
+She would not even think of Roberto and Mr. Cameron's search for Queen
+Zelaya. Helen was full of the topic, and often tried to discuss it with
+Ruth, but the latter put it aside.
+
+She had done all she could (or so she thought) to help restore the
+missing pearl necklace to Nettie's aunt. Worrying about it any more was
+not going to help a bit.
+
+It seemed too ridiculous to think of _her_ ever obtaining five thousand
+dollars--or any part of that generous reward!
+
+So the busy days passed. Helen heard from her father several times, but
+although she knew he was in New York, ostensibly buying goods, and that
+he had Roberto with him, the gentleman said very little about the other
+Gypsies and the missing necklace.
+
+Then one day Mrs. Tellingham sent for Ruth. To be sent for by the
+principal never frightened the girl of the Red Mill--much. She stood
+well on the principal's books, she knew.
+
+But the lady had called her to discuss nothing about the school work.
+She had a letter and a railroad ticket in her hand.
+
+"Tony has telephoned for Dolliver to come for you, Ruth," said Mrs.
+Tellingham. "You must go away----"
+
+"Nothing has happened at home? Uncle Jabez--Aunt Alvirah----?"
+
+"Nothing is wrong with them at all, my dear," declared the lady, kindly.
+"It is Mr. Cameron. He wants you to come to New York at once. Here is
+transportation for you. He will meet your train at the Grand Central
+Station."
+
+"Mrs. Parsons' necklace!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"He says something about that--yes," said Mrs. Tellingham. "It is
+important for you to come and identify somebody, I believe. You must
+tell him that, at this time in the term, you can be spared only a short
+time."
+
+All was bustle and confusion for Ruth during the next two hours. Then
+she found herself on the train bound for New York. She had a section of
+the sleeper to herself, and arrived in the city the next morning at an
+early hour.
+
+She was making her toilette, as the electric engine whisked the long
+train through the upper reaches of the city, and she marveled at the
+awakening Bronx and Harlem streets.
+
+When she came out through the gateway of the trainshed, she saw a youth
+standing by, watching the on-coming passengers sharply. But she was
+almost upon him, and he had stepped forward, lifting his hat and putting
+out a hand to take her bag, before she recognized Roberto, the Gypsy
+boy.
+
+But how changed in appearance! Of course, he was still dark of skin, and
+his black eyes flashed. But he had removed the gold rings from his ears,
+his hair had been trimmed to a proper length, he was dressed smartly in
+a gray suit, and wore a nice hat and shoes.
+
+Altogether Roberto was a very handsome youth indeed--more so now than
+when he had been a wild boy!
+
+"You do not know me, Miss Fielding?" he said, his eyes twinkling and a
+warm blush rising in his cheeks.
+
+"You--you are so changed!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Yes. Mr. Cameron is a fine man," said the boy, nodding. "I like him. He
+do all this for me," and he made a gesture that included his new outfit,
+and flashed her another brilliant smile.
+
+"Oh! how it does improve you, Roberto!" she cried.
+
+"_Robert_, if you please," he said, laughing. "_I_ am going to be
+American boy--yes. I have left the Gypsy boy forever behind--eh?"
+
+Ruth fairly clapped her hands. "Do you mean all that, Robert?" she
+cried.
+
+"Sure!" he said proudly. "I like America. Yes! I have been here now ten
+years, and it suit me. And Mr. Cameron say I can go to school and learn
+to be American business man. That is better than trading horses--eh?"
+
+"Oh, isn't that fine!" cried the girl of the Red Mill. "Now, where are
+you going to take me?"
+
+"To the hotel. Mr. Cameron will wait breakfast for us," declared the
+lad, and in ten minutes Ruth was greeting her chum's father across the
+restaurant table.
+
+"And I suppose you are just about eaten up with curiosity as to why I
+sent for you?" Mr. Cameron asked her, smiling, when Robert had gone out
+on an errand.
+
+"Just about, sir," admitted the girl.
+
+"Why, I want to tell you, my dear, that you are likely to be a very
+lucky girl indeed. The five thousand dollars reward----"
+
+"You haven't found the necklace?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. That has been found and identified. What I want you for is
+so you can identify that old Gypsy, Queen Zelaya. I did not want to
+force her grandson to appear against her before the authorities. But you
+can do so with a clear conscience.
+
+"Queen Zelaya will be sent back to Bohemia. She has a bad record, and
+entered the country secretly some years ago. Your evidence will enable
+the Federal authorities to clinch their case, and return the old woman
+to the country of her birth.
+
+"It is not believed that she actually stole the pearl necklace, but it
+is plain she shared in the proceeds of all the Gypsies' plundering, and
+in this case she took the giant's portion.
+
+"We could not prove robbery upon her, but she can be transported, and
+she shall be," concluded Mr. Cameron, firmly.
+
+This was what finally happened to Queen Zelaya. Her clan was broken up,
+and not one of them was ever seen in the neighborhood of the Red
+Mill--or elsewhere in that county--again.
+
+Robert Mazell, as is the Gypsy boy's Americanized name, promises to be
+all that he told Ruth he hoped to be--in time. He must begin at the
+bottom of the educational ladder, but he is so quick to learn that his
+patron, Mr. Cameron, tells Tom, laughingly, that _he_, Tom, will have to
+look to his laurels, or the boy from Bohemia will outstrip him.
+
+Having carried out the trailing of the Gypsy Queen at his own expense,
+and recovered the necklace privately, Mr. Cameron did not have to divide
+the reward offered by Mrs. Rachel Parsons with anybody.
+
+The entire five thousand dollars was deposited in Ruth's name in the
+Cheslow Savings Bank. And this happened in time so that Ruth could draw
+enough of her fortune to get a new gymnasium costume for the mid-winter
+exhibition!
+
+She did not have to use the money Uncle Jabez grudgingly gave her. Her
+tuition fees were paid in advance for this year at Briarwood Hall, but
+she determined thereafter to pay all her own expenses, at school and
+elsewhere.
+
+At last she felt herself to be independent. By going to Mr. Cameron, she
+could get money when she wished, without annoying the miller, and for
+this situation she was very very thankful.
+
+Her life stretched before her over a much pleasanter path than ever
+before. There were kind friends whom she could help in the future, as
+they needed help--and that delighted Ruth Fielding.
+
+Her own future seemed secure. She could prepare herself for college and
+could gain the education she craved. It seemed that nothing could balk
+her ambition in that direction. And so--this seems to be a very good
+place indeed in which to bid good-bye for a time to Ruth Fielding of the
+Red Mill.
+
+THE END
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. By
+her sunny disposition she melted the old miller's heart. Her adventures
+and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every reader.
+The Ruth Fielding Series is the biggest and best selling series of books
+for girls ever published.
+
+Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill
+    or Jaspar Parloe's Secret
+
+Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall
+    or Solving the Campus Mystery
+
+Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp
+    or Lost in the Backwoods
+
+Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point
+    or Nita, the Girl Castaway
+
+Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch
+    or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys
+
+Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island
+    or The Old Hunter's Treasure Box
+
+Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm
+    or What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies
+    or The Missing Pearl Necklace
+
+Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures (New)
+    or Helping the Dormitory Fund
+
+Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie (New)
+    or Great Days in the Land of Cotton
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of the highly successful "Dorothy Dale Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Since the enormous success of our "Motor Boys Series," by Clarence
+Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No one
+is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,
+besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.
+
+The Motor Girls
+    or A Mystery of the Road
+
+The Motor Girls on a Tour
+    or Keeping a Strange Promise
+
+The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach
+    or In Quest of the Runaways
+
+The Motor Girls Through New England
+    or Held by the Gypsies
+
+The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake
+    or The Hermit of Fern Island
+
+The Motor Girls on the Coast
+    or The Waif from the Sea
+
+The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay
+    or The Secret of the Red Oar
+
+The Motor Girls on Waters Blue
+    or The Strange Cruise of the Tartar
+
+The Motor Girls at Camp Surprise
+    or The Cave in the Mountain
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE DOROTHY DALE SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+Author of "The Motor Girls Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Dorothy Dale is the daughter of an old Civil War veteran who is running
+a weekly newspaper in a small Eastern town. Her sunny disposition, her
+fun-loving ways and her trials and triumphs make clean, interesting and
+fascinating reading. The Dorothy Dale Series is one of the most popular
+series of books for girls ever published.
+
+Dorothy Dale: a Girl of To-day
+Dorothy Dale at Glenwood School
+Dorothy Dale's Great Secret
+Dorothy Dale and Her Chums
+Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays
+Dorothy Dale's Camping Days
+Dorothy Dale's School Rivals
+Dorothy Dale in the City
+Dorothy Dale's Promise
+Dorothy Dale in the West
+Dorothy Dale's Strange Discovery (New)
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE SADDLE BOYS SERIES
+
+By CAPTAIN JAMES CARSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
+
+All lads who love life in the open air and a good steed, will want to
+peruse these books. Captain Carson knows his subject thoroughly, and his
+stories are as pleasing as they are healthful and instructive.
+
+The Saddle Boys of the Rockies
+    or Lost on Thunder Mountain
+
+Telling how the lads started out to solve the mystery of a great noise
+in the mountains--how they got lost--and of the things they discovered.
+
+The Saddle Boys in the Grand Canyon
+    or The Hermit of the Cave
+
+A weird and wonderful story of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, told in
+a most absorbing manner. The Saddle Boys are to the front in a manner to
+please all young readers.
+
+The Saddle Boys on the Plains
+    or After a Treasure of Gold
+
+In this story the scene is shifted to the great plains of the southwest
+and then to the Mexican border. There is a stirring struggle for gold,
+told as only Captain Carson can tell it.
+
+The Saddle Boys at Circle Ranch
+    or In at the Grand Round-up
+
+Here we have lively times at the ranch, and likewise the particulars of
+a grand round-up of cattle and encounters with wild animals and also
+cattle thieves. A story that breathes the very air of the plains.
+
+The Saddle Boys on Mexican Trails
+    or In the Hands of the Enemy
+
+The scene is shifted in this volume to Mexico. The boys go on an
+important errand, and are caught between the lines of the Mexican
+soldiers. They are captured and for a while things look black for them;
+but all ends happily.
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+UP-TO-DATE BASEBALL STORIES
+
+THE BASEBALL JOE SERIES
+
+By LESTER CHADWICK
+
+Author of "The College Sports Series"
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+Baseball Joe of the Silver Stars
+    or The Rivals of Riverside
+
+In this volume, the first of the series, Joe is introduced as an
+everyday country boy who loves to play baseball and is particularly
+anxious to make his mark as a pitcher. A splendid picture of the great
+national game in the smaller towns of our country.
+
+Baseball Joe on the School Nine
+    or Pitching for the Blue Banner
+
+Joe's great ambition was to go to boarding school and play on the school
+team. He got to boarding school but found it harder making the team
+there than it was getting on the nine at home.
+
+Baseball Joe at Yale
+    or Pitching for the College Championship
+
+From a preparatory school Baseball Joe goes to Yale University. He makes
+the freshman nine and in his second year becomes a varsity pitcher and
+pitches in several big games.
+
+Baseball Joe in the Central League
+    or Making Good as a Professional Pitcher
+
+In this volume the scene of action is shifted from Yale College to a
+baseball league of our central states. Baseball Joe's work in the box
+for Old Eli had been noted by one of the managers and Joe gets an offer
+he cannot resist.
+
+Baseball Joe in the Big League
+    or A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggle
+
+From the Central League Joe is drafted into the St. Louis Nationals. At
+first he has little to do in the pitcher's box, but gradually he wins
+favor. A corking baseball story that fans, both young and old, will
+enjoy.
+
+Baseball Joe on the Giants
+    or Making Good as a Twirler in the Metropolis
+
+How Joe was traded to the Giants and became their mainstay in the box
+makes an interesting baseball story.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR BOYS SECOND SERIES
+(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)
+
+By CLARENCE YOUNG
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+This, the Second Series of the now world famed Motor Boys virtually
+starts a new series, but retains all the favorite characters introduced
+in the previous books. The Motor Boys Series is the biggest and best
+selling series of books for boys ever published.
+
+Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall
+    or The Motor Boys as Freshmen
+
+Fresh from their adventures in their automobile, their motor boat and
+their airship, the youths are sent to college to complete their
+interrupted education. Some boys at the institution of learning have
+heard much about our heroes, and so conclude that the Motor Boys will
+try to run everything to suit themselves.
+
+A plot is formed to keep our heroes entirely in the background and not
+let them participate in athletics and other contests. How the Motor Boys
+forged to the front and made warm friends of their rivals makes
+unusually interesting reading.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE Y.M.C.A. BOYS SERIES
+
+By BROOKS HENDERLEY
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+This new series relates the doings of a wide-awake boys' club of the Y.
+M. C. A., full of good times and everyday, practical Christianity.
+Clean, elevating and full of fun and vigor, books that should be read by
+every boy.
+
+The Y. M. C. A. Boys of Cliffwood
+    or The Struggle for the Holwell Prize
+
+Telling how the boys of Cliffwood were a wild set and how, on
+Hallowe'en, they turned the home town topsy-turvy. This led to an
+organization of a boys' department in the local Y. M. C. A. When the
+lads realized what was being done for them, they joined in the movement
+with vigor and did all they could to help the good cause. To raise funds
+they gave a minstrel show and other entertainments, and a number of them
+did their best to win a gold medal offered by a local minister who was
+greatly interested in the work of upbuilding youthful character.
+
+The Y. M. C. A. Boys on Bass Island
+    or The Mystery of Russabaga Camp
+
+Summer was at hand, and at a meeting of the boys of the Y. M. C. A. of
+Cliffwood, it was decided that a regular summer camp should be
+instituted. This was located at a beautiful spot on Bass Island, and
+there the lads went boating, swimming, fishing and tramping to their
+heart's content. There were a great many surprises, but in the end the
+boys managed to clear up a mystery of long standing. Incidentally, the
+volume gives a clear insight into the workings of the now justly popular
+summer camps of the Y. M. C. A., throughout the United States.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES
+(Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of.)
+
+By CLARENCE YOUNG
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.
+
+The Motor Boys
+    or Chums Through Thick and Thin
+
+The Motor Boys Overland
+    or A Lone Trip for Fun and Fortune
+
+The Motor Boys in Mexico.
+    or The Secret of The Buried City
+
+The Motor Boys Across the Plains
+    or The Hermit of Lost Lake
+
+The Motor Boys Afloat
+    or The Stirring Cruise of the Dartaway
+
+The Motor Boys on the Atlantic
+    or The Mystery of the Lighthouse
+
+The Motor Boys in Strange Waters
+    or Lost in a Floating Forest
+
+The Motor Boys on the Pacific
+    or The Young Derelict Hunters
+
+The Motor Boys in the Clouds
+    or A Trip for Fame and Fortune
+
+The Motor Boys Over the Rockies
+    or A Mystery of the Air
+
+The Motor Boys Over the Ocean
+    or A Marvellous Rescue in Mid-Air
+
+The Motor Boys on the Wing
+    or Seeking the Airship Treasure
+
+The Motor Boys After a Fortune
+    or The Hut on Snake Island
+
+The Motor Boys on the Border
+    or Sixty Nuggets of Gold
+
+The Motor Boys Under the Sea
+    or From Airship to Submarine
+
+The Motor Boys on Road and River
+    or Racing to Save a Life
+
+CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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