CHAPTER V
A PROPHECY FULFILLED
This queer youth interested Ruth Fielding and her friends, the Camerontwins, very much. Roberto was not naturally talkative, it seemed, for hesoon 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 thema great deal of his life with the tribe and along the pleasant countryroads.
The cities Roberto could not bear. "There is no breath left in them--itis used up by so many," he explained. He did not eschew work because hewas lazy, it seemed; but he saw no use in it.
Clothing? Money? Rich food? Other things that people strive for in themain? They were nothing to Roberto. He could sleep under a haystack,crunch a crust of bread, and wear his garments until they fell off himin rags.
But he knew the woods and fields as nobody but a wild boy could. Everywhistle and note of every bird was as familiar to him as his ownTzigane speech; and he could imitate them with exactness.
He delighted his new friends, as the car rumbled along. He soon stoppedtalking much, as I have said, but he answered their multitude ofquestions, and did not seem to mind being cross-questioned about thelife of the Gypsies.
The auto party stopped soon after noon to lunch. It was Roberto whopointed out the spring of clear, cold water for which they searched. Hehad been over this road before and, it seemed, once along a trail wasenough for the young Gypsy. He never forgot.
He went away down the little stream, and made himself very clean beforeappearing for his share of the food. To the surprise of Ruth and Helenhe ate daintily and showed breeding of a kind. Nor was he enamored ofthe cakes and other dainties that Babette, the Camerons' cook, had putinto the lunch hamper, but enjoyed, instead, the more simple viands.
Roberto grew restless of riding in the car soon after luncheon. Hethanked them for giving him the lift, but explained that there werepaths through the woods leading to the present camp of his tribe that hepreferred 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 herhis hostess. He realized that, had it not been for her, the Cameronswould have been chary of taking him aboard.
"If you are ever near the Red Mill again," Ruth told him, "be sure tocome 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 anact. Do you?"
And that set Ruth Fielding to thinking a bit. Perhaps she _had_ expectedpayment--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 smallreturn. "Virtue is its own reward" is a moral hard to understand!
After Roberto had left them, the trio of friends were occupied inexchanging views regarding the Gypsy boy, and in discussing theirseveral 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, andcamp where you please, and all that," said Helen, reflectively. "Ibelieve I'd like it."
"About twenty miles on a fast day, eh?" chuckled Tom, with scorn. "Notfor 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 'speedfiend.' Ruth and I will be scared to drive with you."
"It's great to go fast," exclaimed Master Tom. "Here's a straight pieceof road ahead, girls. Hold on!"
As he spoke, he manipulated the levers and the car leaped ahead. Ruth'sstartled "Oh!" was left a quarter of a mile behind. The girls clung tothe hand-holds, and Tom crouched behind the windshield and "let herout."
It was a straight piece of road, as he had said. But before they reachedthe first turn there was another house beside the road--a smallfarmhouse. Beyond it was a field, with a stone wall, and it chanced thatjust as the Camerons' car roared down the road, clearing at least thirtymiles an hour, the leader of a flock of sheep in that pasture, buttedthrough 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 tododge just one object. But here came a string of the woollycreatures--and greater fools than sheep have not been discovered in theanimal world!
The old black-faced ram trotted across the road and through a gap in afence on the river side. After him crowded the ewes and youngsters.
The roaring auto frightened the creatures, but they would not give waybefore it. They knew no better than to follow that old ram through thegap, one after the other.
Tom had shut off the engine and applied the brakes, as the girlsshrieked. But he had been going too fast to stop short of the placewhere 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 apitiful "baa-a-a!" it was knocked a dozen feet.
In a moment the car stopped. It had scarcely run its entire length pastthe 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 almostbefore the wheels ceased to roll. The mother ewe had crowded through thefence. Now she put her foolish face out, and called to the lamb tofollow.
"He can't!" almost sobbed Ruth. "He has a broken leg. Oh! what a foolishmother you were to lead him right into danger."
Tom was silent and looked pretty solemn, while Helen was scolding himnervously--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 onrubbing it in."
The lamb had tried to scramble up, but one of its forelegs certainly wasbroken. It tumbled over on its side again, and Ruth held it downtenderly and tried to soothe its fear.
"Oh, dear! whatever shall we do?" she murmured. "The poor, poor littlething."
"Guess we'll know pretty soon what we'll do," quoth Master Tom, standingbeside the machine and looking back along the road. "Here comes the manthat owns him."
"Oh, dear me!" whispered Helen. "Doesn't he look savage?"
"Worse than the old ram there," agreed her brother, for the black-facedleader of the flock was eyeing them through the fence.