CHAPTER IV
THE GOAT
"Can't we come, too?"
"We're not afraid of the gypsies--not in daytime."
Flossie and Freddie thus called after their father and Bert, as the twolatter started the next morning to go to find the gypsy camp. The nighthad passed quietly, Snap and Snoop were found safe when day dawned, andafter breakfast Mr. Bobbsey and his older son were to go to Lake Metokaand find where the gypsies had stopped with the gay red and yellowwagons. They were going to see if they could find any trace of Helen'sdoll, and also things belonging to other people in town, which it wasthought the dark-skinned visitors might have taken.
"Please let us go?" begged the little Bobbsey twins.
"Oh, my dears, no!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's too far; and besides----"
"Are you afraid the gypsies will carry us off?" asked Freddie. "'Causeif you are I'll take my fire engine, and some of the funny bugs that goaround and around and around that we got in New York, and I'll scare thegypsies with 'em and squirt water on 'em."
"No, I'm not afraid of you or Flossie's being carried off--especiallywhen your father is with you," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But there is notelling where the gypsies are camped, and it may be a long walk beforethey are found. So you stay with me, and I'll get Dinah to let you havea party."
"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Flossie.
"I'd rather play hunt gypsies," said her brother, but when he saw Dinahcome out of the kitchen with a tiny little cake she had baked especiallyfor him and his sister to have a play-party with, Freddie thought, afterall, there was some fun in staying at home.
"But take Snap with you," he said to Bert. "He'll growl at the gypsymen, and maybe he'll scare 'em so they'll give back Helen's doll."
"Well, Snap can growl hard when he wants to," said Bert with a laugh."But still I think it wouldn't be a good thing to take him to the gypsycamp. They nearly always have dogs in their camp--the gypsies do--andthose dogs might get into a fight with Snap."
"Snap could beat 'em!" declared Freddie.
"No, don't take him!" ordered Flossie. "I don't want Snap to get bit."
"I don't either," agreed Bert, "so I'll leave him at home I guess. Well,there's daddy calling me. I'll have to run. I'll tell you all about itwhen I come back."
So, while Flossie and Freddie, with the little cake Dinah had baked forthem, went to have a good time playing party, Mr. Bobbsey, with apoliceman and Bert, went to the gypsy camp. The policeman did not haveon his uniform with brass buttons--in fact, he was dressed almost likeMr. Bobbsey.
"For," said this policeman, whose name was Joseph Carr, "if the gypsymen were to see me coming along in my helmet, with my coat covered withbrass buttons, and a club in my hand, they would know right away who Iwas. They could see me a long way off, on account of the sun shining onthe brass buttons, and they would have time to hide away that littlegirl's doll, or anything else they may have taken. So I'll go in plainclothes."
"Like a detective," said Bert.
"Yes, something like a detective," agreed Mr. Carr. "Now let's stepalong lively."
Several persons had seen the gypsy caravan of gay yellow and red wagonsgoing through Lakeport, and had noticed them turn up along the farthershore of Lake Metoka. There was a patch of wood several miles away fromthe town, and in years past these same gypsies, or others like them, hadcamped there. It was to these woods that Bert and his father were going.
"Do you think we'll find Helen's doll?" asked the boy.
"Well, maybe, Bert," answered his father. "And yet it may be that thegypsies have it, but will not give it up. We'll just have to wait andsee what happens."
"If I get sight of it they'll give it up soon enough," said PolicemanCarr.
After about a two-hours' walk Bert, his father and Mr. Carr came to thewoods. Through the trees they looked and saw the red and yellow wagonsstanding in a circle. Near them were tied a number of horses, eatingwhat little grass grew under the trees, while dogs roamed about here andthere.
"I'm glad we didn't bring Snap," said Bert. "There'd have been a dogfight as sure as fate."
"Yes, I guess so," agreed his father.
By this time they had entered the gypsy camp, and some of the dark-facedmen, with dangling gold rings in their ears, came walking slowly forwardas if to ask the two visitors with the little boy what was wanted.
"We're after a big doll," said Mr. Bobbsey. "One was taken from a littlegirl in our town yesterday. Perhaps you gypsies took it by mistake; and,if so, we'd be glad to have it back."
"We haven't any doll," growled one big gypsy. "We have only what is ourown."
"I'm not so sure about that," said Mr. Carr. "We'll have a look aboutthe camp and see what we can find."
The gypsy growled and said something else, though what it was Bertcould not hear. The gypsies did not seem pleased to have visitors, nordid the dogs who sniffed about the feet of Bert, his father and thepoliceman. One dog growled, while others barked, and then the gypsy manwho had first spoken made them go away.
"You are wasting your time here," said this gypsy, who seemed to be theleader, or "king," as he is sometimes called. "We have nothing but whatis our own. We have no little girl's doll."
"We'll have a look about," said Mr. Carr again.
But though the policeman and Mr. Bobbsey, to say nothing of Bert, whohad very sharp eyes, looked all about the gypsy camp, there was no signof the missing doll. If a gypsy man had taken it, of which Helen, atleast, was very sure, he had either hidden it well or, possibly, hadgone off by himself to some other camp in another part of the woods.
"If the doll would only talk now and tell us where she is, we could gether," said Bert with a laugh to his father, when they had walkedthrough the camp and come out on the other side.
"That's right," agreed Mr. Bobbsey; "but I'm afraid the doll isn't smartenough for that. Do you see anything else that the gypsies may havetaken?" asked the twins' father of the policeman.
"I'm not sure," answered Mr. Carr. "We had a report of two horsesmissing, and they may be here, but most horses look so much alike to methat I can't tell them apart. I guess I'll have to get the men who ownthem to come here and see if they can pick them out."
For half an hour Bert, his father and Mr. Carr roamed through the gypsycamp, the dark-faced men and women scowling at them, and the dogs nowand then barking. If there were any boys or girls in the camp Bert didnot see them, and he thought they might be hiding away in some of themany wagons.
"Well, we didn't find the doll," said Mr. Carr when they were on theirway back to Lakeport. "But I'm sure some of the horses the gypsies havedon't belong to them. The chief of police is going to make them moveaway from that camp anyhow, for the man who owns the land doesn't likethe gypsies there. He says they take his neighbors' chickens."
Flossie and Freddie, as well as Helen Porter, were much disappointedwhen Mr. Bobbsey and Bert came back without the doll. Helen was suresome gypsy had it, but as it could not be found, nothing could be doneabout it.
"We'll help you look for your doll this afternoon," said Freddie to thelittle girl, into whose eyes came tears whenever she thought of her lostpet. "Maybe you left Mollie under some bush in Grace's yard."
"I looked under all the bushes," said Helen.
"Well, we'll look again," promised Freddie, and they did, but no dollwas found.
The next day the gypsies were made to move on with their gaily coloredwagons, their horses and dogs, and though they went (for they had noright to camp on the land near the lake), they were very angry about it.
"They said they had camped there for many years," reported Mr. Carr,telling about the police having driven the dark-faced men and womenaway, "and that they would make whoever it was that drove them awaysorry that he had done such a thing."
"I suppose that means," said Mr. Bobbsey, "that they'll help themselvesfrom somebody's chicken coop."
"We haven't got any chickens," said Freddie.
"But we've got a dog and a cat," pu
t in Flossie. "If those gypsies takeSnap or Snoop I--I'll go after 'em, I will!"
"So'll I!" declared her little fat brother.
"What'll you do when you get to where the gypsies are?" asked Bert.
"Why, I--I'll----" began Freddie.
"Oh, I'll just pick Snoop up in my arms and tell Snap to come with meand we'll run home," answered Flossie.
"But maybe the gypsies----"
"Don't, Bert," admonished his father. "I do not believe that you littletwins need worry about your cat and your dog," he continued.
But for several days and nights after that Flossie and Freddie were verymuch worried lest their pets should be taken away. But the gypsies didnot come back again--at least for a time, and though the small Bobbseytwins again helped Helen hunt under many bushes for her talking doll itcould not be found.
"I just _know_ the gypsy man took my Mollie!" declared Helen.
"I'll help you get it back if ever I see those gypsies," declaredFreddie, but at that time neither he, Flossie nor Helen realized whatstrange things were going to happen about that same talking doll.
It was about a week after this (and summer seemed to have come all of asudden) that, when the mail came one morning, Mrs. Bobbsey saw a postalcard that made her smile as she read it.
"What's it about, Momsie?" asked Freddie, when he noticed his mother'shappy face. "Are we going back to New York?"
"No, but this postal has something to do with something that happened inNew York," was Mrs. Bobbsey's answer. "It is from the express company toyour father, and it says there is, at the express office, a----"
Just then Mrs. Bobbsey dropped the postal, and as Nan picked it up tohand to her mother the little girl saw one word.
"Oh!" cried Nan, "it's a postal about a goat!"
"A--a goat?" gasped Flossie.
"A goat!" shouted Freddie. "A live goat?"
"Why--er--yes--I guess so," and Nan looked at the postal again.
"Oh, I know!" cried Freddie. "It's that goat I almost bought in NewYork--Mike's goat! Oh, did daddy get a goat for us as he promised?"asked the little boy of his mother.