THE MYSTERIOUS VOICE
For a moment Bessie stared at the two gypsies, their eyes glowing with
malicious triumph, and delight at her shocked face, in such dazed
astonishment that she could not speak at all. She had been completely
outwitted and hoodwinked. She had trusted Lolla utterly; had made up her
mind that the girl's jealousy was not feigned.
Even now, for a wild moment, the thought flashed through her mind that
perhaps Lolla had been unable to help herself; that Peter might have
insisted on coming back, and that Lolla was forced, in order to be of
help later on, to seem to fall in with his plans.
But Lolla herself soon robbed her of the comfort that lay in such a
thought.
"You thought I would betray my people!" she cried, shrilly. "We do not
do that; no, no! Ah, but it was easy to deceive you! When I saw you I
knew you would be dangerous. I could not hold you by force until John
came, I had to trick you. I thought we would catch you when you went up
there. I did not think you would be brave enough to go down the rocks."
Bessie said not a word, but only clung to Dolly's hand and stared at the
treacherous gypsy.
"So then, when you had gone, I had to find you again, and send word to
Peter to do as I said, so that we could catch you, and stop you from
going to your friends and telling them where we had hidden your friend
who is there with you now. Now we have two, instead of one. Oh, I have
done well, have I not, Peter?"
Peter grinned, and grunted something in his own tongue that made Lolla
smile.
"Tie them up again, Peter," said Lolla, looking viciously at Bessie, and
obviously gloating over the way in which she had tricked the American
girl. And Peter, nothing loath, advanced to do so. But Bessie had stood
all she could.
Dolly, terribly cast down by this sudden upsetting of all the hopes of
rescue that the coming of Bessie and her release from the cords that
bound her had raised, was close beside her, shivering with fright and
despair.
And Bessie, with a sudden cry of anger, seized the knife Lolla had given
her, which had been lying at her feet. Furiously she brandished it.
"If either of you come a step nearer I'll use it!" she said, scarcely
able to recognize her own voice, so changed was it by the anger that
Lolla's treachery had aroused in her. "You'd better not think I'm
joking. I mean it!"
Peter hesitated, but Lolla, her eyes flashing, urged him on.
"Go on! Do you want me to tell all the women that you were frightened by
a little girl; a girl you could crush with one hand?" she cried,
angrily. "You coward! Tie them up, I tell you! Oh, if my man John were
here he'd show you! Here--"
Peter, stung by her taunts, made a quick rush forward. For a moment
Bessie did not know what to do. She wondered if, when it came to the
test, she would really be able to use the knife; to try to cut or stab
this man. He was getting nearer each moment, and, just as she was almost
within his grasp she darted back and aimed a blow at him with the knife.
There was no danger that it would strike him; Bessie thought that, if
she could only convince him that she had meant what she said, he would
hesitate. And she was right. He gave a cry of alarm as he saw the steel
flash toward him and drew back.
"She would stab me!" he exclaimed furiously, to Lolla. "I was not to be
struck with a knife. John said nothing about that. He told me only to
guard this girl--"
"She wouldn't really touch you with it," screamed Lolla, so furious that
she forgot the need of keeping her voice low. "John wouldn't let her
frighten him that way, he is too brave. Oh, how the women will laugh
when they hear how the brave Peter was frighted by a girl with a little
knife!"
But Bessie, in spite of her own indecision, had managed, somehow, to
convince the man that she was serious, and Lolla's taunts no longer
affected him. He drew back still farther, and stood looking stupidly at
the two girls.
"You're wiser than she," said Bessie approvingly. "I meant just what I
said. Keep as far as that from me, and you'll be safe. I'm not afraid of
you any more."
Nor was she. Her victory, brief though it might be, had encouraged her,
and revived her drooping spirits. Dolly, too, seemed to have gained new
life from the sight of the big gypsy quailing before her chum. She had
stopped trembling, and stood up bravely now, ready to face whatever
might come.
"Good for you, Bessie!" she exclaimed. She darted a vicious look at
Lolla. "I wish that treacherous little gypsy would come somewhere near
me," she went on, angrily. "I'd pull her hair and make her sorry she
ever tried to help those villains to keep us. When they put her in
prison I'm going to see her, and jeer at her!"
Lolla, looking helpless now in her anger, said nothing, but she glared
at the two girls.
"I think these people are very superstitious," whispered Dolly to
Bessie, when it became plain that, for the moment, the two gypsies
intended only to watch them, without making any further attempt to tie
them up.
"I think so too," returned Bessie, in the same tone. "But I don't see
what good that is going to do us, Dolly."
"Neither do I, just yet, Bessie. But I can't help thinking that there
must be some way that we could frighten them, if we could only think of
it; so that they would be frightened and run away."
"We might tell them--Oh, I've got an idea, Dolly."
She looked at Peter and Lolla. They were at the very edge of the little
clearing in which Dolly had been imprisoned.
"Listen, Lolla," said Bessie, calmly. "I believe that you are a good
girl, though you have lied to me, and tried to make me think you were my
friend, when all the time you were planning, you could betray me. This
place is dangerous."
Lolla looked at her scornfully and tossed head.
"Don't think you can frighten me with your stories," she said, with a
laugh. "It is dangerous--for you. When my man comes you will find that
he is not a coward, like Peter, to be frightened with your knife. He
will take it away from you and beat you, too, for trying to frighten
Peter with it."
"Yes, he is brave, Lolla. We saw that when he ran away from the fire
that he saw last night near the lake."
Bessie was taking a chance when she said that. She did not know whether
Lolla had heard of the mysterious flashlight explosion or not, but she
thought it more than probable that John had told her of it. And she was
reasonably sure that he was still wondering what had caused the light
that had so suddenly blinded him. Her swift look at Lolla showed her
that her blow had struck home.
"He is a brave man, indeed, to keep on with his wicked plan to steal my
friend after such a warning," Bessie went on sternly. "But his bravery
will do him no good. There is a spirit looking after us. It made the
fire that frightened him, and the next time he will not only see the
fire; he will feel it, too."
Now she looked not only at Lolla, who seemed shaken, but at Peter, who
was staring at her as if fascinated. Evidently he, too, had heard of the
strange fire. Bessie had reckoned on the probability, that seemed almost
a certainty, that John would not have been able to explain, even to
himself, the nature of the flashlight explosion. And evidently she was
right. Then she took another chance, guessing at what she thought John
would probably have said to explain the fire.
"I know what he told you," she said slowly. "He said that the fire came
from a spirit that was guiding him, and was trying to help him. But he
only said that because he did not understand. It meant just the
opposite; that it would be better for him to go home, and forget the
wicked plot he had thought of."
Peter seemed to be weakening, but Lolla tossed her head again.
"Are you a baby? Do you think that is true?" she said to him. "Don't you
see that she is only trying to frighten you, as she did with the knife?"
"Indeed I am not," said Bessie, earnestly. "I am not angry with you, any
more than I am afraid of you now. If you stay here something dreadful
will happen to you both. You would not like to go to prison, would you,
and stay there all through this summer, and the next winter, and the
summer of next year, when you might be traveling the road with your
brothers?"
"Make them keep quiet, Peter," cried Lolla, furiously. "She is quite
right There is danger here, but it comes from her friends. She thinks
that if she can fool us into letting her talk, they may pass by and hear
her voice."
"You keep quiet," said Peter, doggedly, evidently deciding that, this
time, he could safely obey Lolla's orders, and quite ready to do so. "If
you make any more noise I will--"
He left the sentence uncompleted, but a savage gesture showed what he
meant. He had a stout stick, and this he now swung with a threatening
air.
Bessie had hoped to work on the superstitious nature of the gypsy man,
and to frighten him, perhaps, if she had good luck, into letting her go
off with Dolly. But Lolla's interference had put that out of the
question. She turned sadly to Dolly, to see her companion's eyes
twinkling.
"Never you mind, Bessie," she said. "They're stupid, anyhow. And as long
as they don't tie us up we're all right. I'd just as soon be here as
anywhere. Someone will go along that trail presently looking for us, and
when they do we can shout. They'll probably make a noise themselves, so
as to let us know they are near. And I'm not frightened any more; really
I'm not."
But Bessie, tired and disappointed, was nearer to giving in than she had
been since the moment when she had awakened and found that Dolly was
missing. She felt that she ought to have distrusted Lolla; that she had
made a great mistake in thinking, even for a moment, that the gypsy girl
meant to betray her own people.
Then suddenly a strange thing happened. A new voice, that belonged to
none of the four who were in the clearing, suddenly broke the silence.
It seemed to come from a tree directly over the heads of Lolla and
Peter, and, as it spoke, they stared upward with one accord, listening
intently to what it said.
"Will you make me come down and punish you?" said the voice. It was that
of an old, old man, feeble with age, but still clear.
Bessie stared too, as surprised as the gypsy, and the voice went on:
"I gave your companion a sign last night that should have warned him. I
speak to you now, to warn you again. The next time I shall not give a
warning; I shall act, and your punishment will be swift and terrible.
Take heed; go, while there is time."
For a moment the two gypsies were speechless, looking at one another in
wonder, and Bessie was not disposed to blame them. Her own head was in a
whirl.
"Quick; it is in that tree!" said Lolla, easily the braver of the two of
them. "Climb up there, and see who it is that is trying to frighten us,
Peter."
But Peter was not prepared to do anything of the sort. He was trembling,
and casting nervous glances behind him, as if he were more minded to
make a break and run down the trail.
"Climb yourself! I shall stay here," he retorted.
And Lolla, without further hesitation, sprang into the branches of the
tree and began to climb.
As she did so the mysterious voice sounded again.
"You cannot see me, yet," it said. "You can only hear me. See, my voice
is in your ears, but you cannot see as much as my little finger. Beware;
go before you _do_ see me. For when you do, you will regret it; regret
it as long as you live!"
When Lolla, a moment later, reached firm ground again, she was
trembling, and Bessie saw that her courage was beginning to fail. She
looked about her nervously, as Peter was doing. And suddenly the voice
spoke again, but this time it shouted, and it was in a stronger, more
vigorous tone, and one of great anger.
"Must I show myself! Must I punish you?" it said, furiously. "Fear me;
you will do well! Go--GO!"
With a yell of terror Peter turned suddenly, and ran through the thick
bushes toward the trail, crying out as he went, and stumbling.
"Come; it is the devil! I saw his horns and his tail then," he
screamed. "Come, Lolla, this is an accursed place. I told John it was
wrong to try to do this; that he would get into trouble."
"He is wise; he is safe!" said the mysterious voice. "Go too, Lolla; I
am growing impatient. Go, if you want to see John, your lover, and the
brothers that you love, again. The time is growing short. I come; I
come; and when I come--"
And then at last Lolla's nerves, too, gave way, and she followed Peter,
screaming, as he had done, while she ran. Bessie, as astonished and
almost as frightened as the two gypsies had been, turned then to see how
Dolly was bearing this extraordinary affair, to see her chum rolling
about on the ground, with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, that was funny!" Dolly exclaimed. "They were easy, after all,
Bessie."
"They've gone! It's all right now," said Bessie. "But who was it, Dolly?
Who could it have been?"
"It was me!" exclaimed Dolly, weakly, between gasps of laughter,
forgetting her grammar altogether. "I learned that trick last summer.
They call it ventriloquism. It just means throwing your voice out so
that it doesn't seem to come from you at all, and changing it, so that
people won't recognize it."
Bessie stared at her, in wonder and admiration. "Why, Dolly Ransom!" she
said. "However do you do it? I never heard of such a thing!"
"I don't know how I do it," said Dolly, recovering her breath. "No one
who can does, I guess. It's just something you happen to be able to do."
"You certainly frightened them," said Bessie. "And you saved us with
your trick, Dolly. I think they've run clear away. We can follow them
down the trail; they won't stick to it, and I think we can go right back
to Long Lake, now, without being afraid any more. Come on, we'd better
start. I don't want to stay here."