CHAPTER IX
THE SPOONDRIFT BUNGALOW
"I don't think these are very nice looking men, do you, Tess?" Dotseriously asked her sister as the party halted before the Gypsy camp.
"Why, Dot!" gasped Tess. "That man _there_ is the very fellow whotried to steal Ruth's chickens!"
"Oh--o-o!"
"Yes, he is," whispered the amazed Tess. "He's the young man Tom Jonahchased up on to the henhouse roof."
"Well," said the philosophical Dot, "he can't steal our chickens_here_."
"Just the same I wish Tom Jonah was here with us. I--I'd feel betterabout meeting him," confessed Tess.
The other girls did not hear this conversation between the twoyoungest Kenways. Ruth and Agnes, however, were really troubled by themeeting with the Gypsies; the former was, in addition, suspicious ofthe woman who had been on the train with them.
This strange woman did not come out of the tent. Indeed, almost atonce she disappeared, dropping the curtain. She did not wish to beobserved by the girls from Milton.
"Oh, come on!" cried the reckless Pearl. "They'll only ask us a dimeeach. 'Cross their palms with silver,' you know. And they do tell the_queerest_ things sometimes."
"I don't believe we'd better stop this afternoon, Pearl," venturedRuth, as one of the rough fellows drew nearer to the girls.
"Let the little ladies wait but a short time," said this man. "Theywill have revealed to them all they wish to know."
He had an ugly leer, and had Pearl looked at him she would have beenfrightened by his expression. But she was searching her chain-pursefor dimes. It did not look to Ruth Kenway as though that purse wouldlast long in the company of these evil fellows.
Now the same tent flap was pushed aside again and into the openhobbled an old crone. She seemed to be a toothless creature, andleaned upon a crutch. Gray strands of coarse hair straggled over herwrinkled forehead. She had a hump on her back--or seemed to have, forshe wore a long cloak, the bedraggled tail of which touched theground.
She hobbled across the lawn toward the girls. Ruth watched her closelyfor, it seemed, she came more hurriedly than seemed necessary.
A dog--one of the mongrels that infested the camp--ran at her, and theold crone struck at the creature with her crutch; he ran away yelping.She was plainly more vigorous of arm than one would have believed fromher decrepit appearance.
The grinning fellows separated as the old hag came forward. She didnot speak to them, but she was muttering to herself.
"Incantations!" whispered Pearl. "Isn't she enough to give you thedelicious shudders? Oh!"
Pearl was evidently enjoying the adventure to the full, but some ofthe girls besides Ruth and Agnes, did not feel so very pleasant. Whenone of the fellows took hold of Carrie Poole's wrist-watch with agrimy finger and thumb, she screamed.
"Don't fear, little lady," said the tall, grim man, and he struck theofficious fellow with his elbow in the ribs. "He means nothingharmful. Here is Zaliska, the Queen of the Romany. She is very old andvery wise. She will tell you much for a silver shilling; but she willtell you more for two-bits."
"He means a quarter," said Pearl, explaining. "But a quarter's toomuch. Show her your palms, girls. This is my treat. I have ten dimes."
The tall man had motioned his fellows back, but they were arrangedaround the party of girls in such a way that, no matter which way theyturned, one of the ruffians was right before them!
"Oh, Ruth! I am frightened!" whispered Agnes in her sister's ear.
"Sh! don't scare the children," Ruth said, her first thought for Tessand Dot.
The old crone hobbled directly to Ruth and put out a brown claw. Ruthextended her own right hand tremblingly. The hag was mumblingsomething or other, but Ruth could not hear what she said at first,the other girls were chattering so.
Then she noticed that the grip of the old Gypsy was a firm one. Theback of her hand seemed wrinkled and puckered; but suddenly Ruth knewthat this was the effect of grease paint!
This was a made-up old woman--not a real old woman, at all!
The discovery frightened the Corner House girl almost as much as therough men frightened her. "Zaliska" was a disguised creature.
She clung to Ruth's hand firmly when the girl would have pulled itaway, and now Ruth heard her hiss:
"Get you away from this place. Get you away with your friends--quick.And do not come back at all."
Ruth was shaking with hysterical terror. The creature clung to herhand and mumbled this warning over and over again.
"What's she telling you, Ruth?" demanded the hilarious Pearl.
"Trouble! trouble!" mumbled the supposed fortune-teller, shaking herhead, but accepting the next girl's dime.
Ruth whispered swiftly to Pearl: "Oh! let us get out of here. Thesemen mean to rob us--I am sure."
"They would not dare," began the startled Pearl.
Just then there was a creaking of heavy wheels, and a voice shoutingto oxen. The Gypsies glanced swiftly and covertly at one another,falling back farther from the vicinity of the girls.
Indeed, several of them returned to the card game. The fortune-tellermumbled her foolish prophecies quickly. Into the glade, along awood-path from the thicker timber, came two spans of oxen draggingthree great logs. A pleasant-faced young man swung the ox-goad andspoke cheerily to the slow-moving, ponderous animals.
"Let's go at once, Pearl!" begged Ruth. "We'll keep close to thislumberman. Dot and Tess can ride on the logs."
"Come on, girls! I think this old woman is a faker," cried Pearl. "Shecan't even tell me whether I'm going to marry a blond man, or abrunette!"
"Don't go yet, little ladies," said the tall man, suavely. "Zaliskacan tell you much----"
"Let's go, girls!" cried Carrie Poole, snatching her hand away fromthe supposed old woman.
Ruth and Agnes had already seized their sisters and were hurrying themtoward the lumberman.
"Whoa, Buck! Whoa, Bright!" shouted the teamster, cracking thewhiplash before the leading span of oxen. "Sh-h! Steady. What's thematter, girls?"
"Won't you take us to the main road where we can get the stage forPleasant Cove?" cried Ruth.
"Sure, Miss. Going right there. Want to ride?"
"Oh, yes, sir!" cried the Corner House girls.
"That will be great fun!" shouted some of the others. "Come on!"
They clambered all over the logs, that were chained together and swungfrom the axle of the rear pair of wheels. The Gypsies began gatheringaround and some of them muttered threateningly, but the lumbermancracked his whip and the oxen started easily.
"Cling on, girls!" advised the driver. "No skylarking up there. Soonhave you out to the pike road. And you want to keep away from thatGypsy camp. They are a tough lot--very different from the crowd thatcamped there last year and the year before. We farmers are gettingabout ready to run them out, now I tell ye!"
Ruth said nothing--not even to Agnes--about what she had discovered.She had penetrated "Queen Zaliska's" disguise. She believed that thesupposed old crone was the handsome, dark girl whom she had observedso narrowly on the train.
Perhaps nobody but Ruth, of the party of ten girls, really understoodthat they had been in peril from the Gypsies. _She_ believed that, hadthey not gotten away from the camp as they had, the men would haverobbed them.
The Gypsies were afraid of the husky lumberman, and they did notfollow the girls. Once on the highway, Pearl declared the auto-stagewould be along in ten minutes or so, and they bade the lumbermangood-bye with a feeling of perfect safety.
The Gypsies had not dared follow the party. Soon the stage came along,and for ten cents each the girls rode into Pleasant Cove. There wereonly a few other passengers, and the party from Milton sat on top andhad a lot of fun.
Pearl pointed out the byroad that led down to the river beach wherethe tent colony was set up, but the stage went right past Spoondriftbungalow, and the girls got down and charged that dwelling "like ahorde of Huns," Agnes declared.
Uncle Phillip Harrod was at home, and welcomed them kindly. "Helpyourselves, girls, and go as far as you like," he said, waving bothhands, and retired to a corner of the piazza with his book and a pipe.
The girls took him at his word. They were very busy till nightfall.Then, however, everything was ready for their occupancy of thebungalow, and supper was cooking on the kerosene range.
They had forgotten the Gypsies--all but Ruth. She was bound to bepuzzled by the disguised "queen" and wondered secretly what themasquerade meant, and who the beautiful girl was who posed as"Zaliska"?