ROBERTO FINDS HIS VOICE
That settled it! There was a full-fledged panic in that quartette room
in an instant. It bade fair, too, to spread to the whole building.
Ruth, who had been busy distributing cakes before the accident, sprang
to the open door, seized the girl who had yelled, and literally "yanked"
her back into the room. Then she banged the door to and placed her back
against it.
"Stop!" she cried, yet in a low voice. "Don't be foolish. It's only a
little fire. We can put it out. Don't rouse the whole house and frighten
everybody."
"Oh, Ruth! I can't reach it!" wailed Helen, who was really trying to
pull down the curtain.
Ann ran with a bowl of water and tried to splash it over the burning
curtain. But the bowl tipped backwards and part of the water went over
Heavy, who was just trying to struggle to her feet.
"Oh! oh! wow!" gasped the plump girl. "I'm drowning! Do you think I'm
afire, Ann Hicks?"
Some of the others were sane enough to laugh, but the more nervous girls
were already in tears, and the fire _was_ spreading from one curtain to
the other. There was a smell of scorching varnish, too. The window frame
was catching!
In the very midst of the confusion, when it seemed positive that the
whole school must be aroused, there came a commanding rap upon the
window pane. It was not the gentle signal of the tick-tack--no, indeed!
"Will you hear _that_?" gasped Belle Tingley. "Miss Picolet's up."
"No!" cried Ruth, from the other end of the room. "Open that window,
Ann! It's Roberto. He's climbed the fire-escape."
"My goodness me!" gasped The Fox. "I never was so glad to see a boy in
all my life! Let him in--do!"
No sooner said than done. The girl from Silver Ranch had her wits about
her. She snapped open the catch and raised the sash.
Into the room bounded the Gypsy lad. He had seen the flames from the
ground and he immediately knew what to do when he got inside.
He seized a chair, leaped up into it, and with his long arms was enabled
to tear down the blazing hangings. These he thrust into the bowl of
water.
"Oh, Roberto! your hands are burned!" cried Ruth, darting to his side,
as the fire was quenched.
"Never you mind, little Missy----"
He halted, staring at her. Then his face flushed like fire and his eyes
dropped before her accusing gaze.
"You _can_ speak!" exclaimed the girl from the Red Mill. "You _can_!"
"He's gotten back his tongue!" cried Helen, in surprise. "Isn't that
wonderful?"
But Ruth was sure, by the Gypsy boy's shamefaced look, that there was
nothing wonderful about it at all. Roberto had been able to speak all
the time, but he did not wish to. Now, in his excitement, he had
betrayed the fact.
There was too much confusion just then for the matter to be discussed or
explained. The girls, seeing that the fire was out, scattered at once to
their rooms. Roberto left instantly by the window, and Ruth helped
Nettie and her roommates repair the damage as well as possible.
"I'll buy new curtains for the windows," said the "sugar king's"
daughter. "And I'm only glad nothing worse happened."
"The worst hasn't happened yet," giggled one of her roommates.
"What do you mean?"
"I saw Jennie Stone take a bag of pickles, some seed cakes, a citron
bun, and about half a pound of candy with her, when she flew. If she
absorbs all that to-night, she will be sick to-morrow, that's all!"
"Well," Ruth advised, "the best we can do won't hide the damage. Miss
Scrimp will find out about the fire, anyway. The best thing to do is to
make a clean breast of it, Nettie. I'm sorry the feast was a failure,
but we all know you did your best."
"I'm thankful it was no worse," returned the new girl. "And how brave
that Gypsy boy was, Ruth! I must thank him to-morrow."
"You leave him to me," said the girl of the Red Mill, grimly. "I want to
talk to Roberto myself."
When she got back to her excited roommates, she said little about the
wonderful recovery of the Gypsy boy's power of speech, until Mercy and
Ann were asleep. Then she said to Helen Cameron:
"I am going to telegraph to your father the first thing in the morning.
Roberto has been fooling us all. You can't tell me! I know he's been
able to talk all the time."
"You don't really think so, dear?" asked Helen.
"I do. He must have been conscious when we picked him up that time and
carried him to the carriage. And we mentioned his grandmother then and
the necklace. He's just as sharp as a knife, you know; he's been dumb
for a purpose. He did not want to be questioned about Zelaya and the
missing pearl necklace."
"My goodness me! Father will be _so_ angry," cried Helen.
"Roberto will have to tell. I like him, and he was very brave to-night.
But I do not believe the boy is a thief himself, and he would be better
if he entirely left his thieving relatives."
"Maybe he'll run away," suggested Helen.
But Roberto would have been obliged to start very early that next
morning to have run away. Ruth Fielding was the first person up in the
school, and she was standing outside Tony's door, when the little
Irishman first appeared.
"Helen Cameron wants you to take this telegram down to the office at
once, Tony," she said. "Mrs. Tellingham knows about it. We are in a
dreadful hurry. Is Roberto inside?"
"Sure he is, Miss----"
"You take the message; don't let Roberto see it, and you keep your eye
on that boy to-day, until Mr. Cameron arrives. He'll want to see him."
"Now, don't be tellin' me th' bye has been inter mischief?" cried the
warm-hearted Irishman.
"Not much. Only he's suddenly recovered the use of his tongue, Tony, and
Mr. Cameron wants to talk with him."
"Gracious powers!" murmured Tony. "Recovered his spache, has he? The
saints be praised!"
He obeyed Ruth, however, in each particular. If Roberto had it in his
mind to run away, he had no chance to do so that day. Tony watched him
sharply, and in the evening Mr. Cameron arrived at Briarwood Hall.
The gentleman greeted his daughter and Ruth in Mrs. Tellingham's parlor,
but when he interviewed Roberto, it was downstairs in Tony Foyle's
rooms.
The girls saw Mr. Cameron only for a moment after that. He was just
starting for the train, and Roberto was going with him.
"The young rascal has admitted just what Ruth suspected," said Mr.
Cameron, chuckling a little. "He fooled us all--including the doctor.
Though the Doc., I reckon, suspected strongly that the boy could talk,
if he desired to.
"Roberto did not want to be questioned. Now he has told me that his
grandmother did not go south at all. He says she often spends the winter
in New York City as do other Gypsies. She is really a great character
among her people, and with the information I have gathered, I believe
the New York police will be able to locate her.
"I shall hang on to Master Roberto until the matter is closed up. He
will say nothing about the necklace. He'll not even own up that he ever
saw it. But he tells me that his grandmother is a miser and hoards up
valuables just like a magpie."
Helen's father and the Gypsy boy went away then, and the chums had to
possess their souls with patience, and attend strictly to their school
work, until they could hear how the matter turned out.