CHAPTER IV
THE AUTO TOUR
"Hi, Ruth!"
"Hey, Ruth!"
"Straw, Ruth!--why don't you say?" cried the owner of the name, runningto the porch and smiling out upon the Cameron twins, who had stoppedtheir automobile at the Red Mill gate on a morning soon following thatday on which Uncle Jabez and Ruth had undergone their involuntaryducking 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, whowas slim and black haired and black eyed, like his twin. Indeed, the twowere so much alike that, dressed in each other's clothing, it isdoubtful 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 hereso soon."
"Take your toothbrush and powder puff--that's all you girls reallyneed," 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 tofinish her preparations for the journey she was to take with herfriends.
"Pshaw!" grumbled the impatient Tom, "going to Uncle Ike's isn't likegoing to a fancy hotel. And we'll stop over to-night with Fred Larkin'sfolks--the girls there would lend you and Ruth all you need."
"Hold on!" exclaimed his sister. "Just what have you in _your_ bag? Iknow it's heavy. You have all you want----"
"Sure. Pair of socks, two collars, fishing tackle, some books I borrowedof Fred last year, my bicycle wrench--you never know when you are goingto need it,--a string of wampum I promised to take to NealyLarkin--she's a Campfire girl, you know--and an Indian tomahawk forFred----"
"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 cartingaround so much stuff?"
"I notice you have your bag full of trash," sniffed Helen. "It canplainly be seen that Mrs. Murchiston was called away so suddenly thatshe 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 buttwo hours' notice to get ready for this two days' trip. It's a wonderUncle 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 hisboat in the river the other evening--you know that. And they say hewould have been drowned, too, if it hadn't been for Ruthie. What a bravegirl she is, Tom!"
"Bravest in seven states!" acknowledged Master Tom, promptly. He hadalways thought there was nobody just like Ruth, and his sister smiledupon him approvingly.
"I guess she is!" she agreed. "There isn't a girl at Briarwood Hall thatwill 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--yousee."
"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 cloudedface. "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 appearedthe little, stooped figure of Aunt Alvirah. The Camerons waved theirhands 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 thelittle old lady around the neck and kissing her. Then she waved her handto 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 pleasureparty. The car quickly passed the end of the Cheslow road and sped upthe riverside. These lowlands beyond the Red Mill had once been coveredby a great flood, and the three friends would never forget their racewith 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. "FredLarkin lives farther than that--beyond the gorge between the hills, andat the foot of the first pond. We'll get there long before dark unlesssomething happens to this old mill I'm driving."
"There! Tommy's harping on his pet trouble," laughed Helen. "Fatherwon'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," grumbledthe boy.
"Just as though it were a horse!" chuckled Ruth.
"You wait! I bet something happens on this trip, because of this oldheap of scrap iron that pa calls a car."
"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with some exasperation. "Don't you darehave a breakdown in the hills, Tom! I should be frightened. It's so wildup 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. "Cheerup, Helen, dear----"
"I know the rest of it!" interrupted her chum. "'The worst is yet tocome!' I--hope--not!"
Ruth Fielding would allow no worrying or criticism in this event. Theywere out for a good time, and she at once proceeded to cheer up thetwins, and laugh at their fears, and interest them in other things.
They crossed the river at Culm Falls--a beautiful spot--and it wasbeyond the bridge, as the car was mounting the first long rise, that theparty of adventurers found their first incident of moment.
Here and there were clearings in the forest upon the right side of theroad (on the other side the hill fell abruptly to the river), and littlefarms. As the party came in sight of one of these farms, a great cryarose from the dooryard. The poultry was soundly disturbed--squawking,cackling, shrieking their protests noisily--while the deep baying of adog 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 gruffervoice of a man added to the turmoil. But the dog's barking was theloudest sound.
Suddenly, from around the corner of the barn, appeared a figure wildlyrunning. 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 difficultto imagine. He was following the runner with great leaps, and when thefugitive vaulted the roadside fence, the dog crashed through the rails,tearing down a length of them, and scrambling in the dusty road in anendeavor 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, buthis face was boyish. Ruth Fielding stood up suddenly in the car andshrieked 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. Tomswitched on the power. Just as the huge hound leaped, and his fore-pawstouched 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 getin
beside him. The dark-faced fellow did so. At first he was toobreathless to speak, but his black eyes snapped like beads, and his lipssmiled. He seemed to have enjoyed the race with the savage dog, insteadof 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?" demandedTom, looking at the Gypsy youth askance.
Roberto's grin became expansive. The little gold rings in his earstwinkled as well as his eyes.
"I did them no wrong. I slept in the man's haymow. He found me a littlewhile 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 hispockets were empty.
"Me, no money have got. Can I work? Of course I work--only the farmersdo not trust me. They call all Gypsies thieves. Isn't it so, Missy?" andhe flashed a glance at Ruth.
"I know, Mr. Joe Bascom drove you out of his orchard," agreed the girlof 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 wantpay for what I do--no. I want no money. I would not work a day for allmy 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 tochurn. It is a dog's work--no? I see where the dog haf to churn, butthat dog die and they get this new, savage one--and it will not. Me, Ithink this dog very wise!" and Roberto's merriment broke out again, andhe shook with it.
"So I tell them I will not do dog's work, and then he, the man, chasesme with his pitchfork, and the woman unloose the dog. Oh, yes! I make agreat noise in the henyard. That dog chase me hard. So--I got away asyou 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 withoutemployment," said Helen, primly.
Roberto's black eyes sparkled. "Why does the little missy say I shouldwork?" 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 withmy uncle to the horse-fairs where he trades, or be under mygrandmother'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 itelsewhere?"
"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 mefrom 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, andthen gloats over her money-box, by the firelight, when the rest of thecamp is asleep. Oh, I see her!"