A long conversation was held between Harriet and the Gipsy queen, the
latter drawing a map on the ground with a willow wand to show the girl
the route that she was to travel after the Meadow-Brook Girls had gone
on for another day.
Harriet's eyes were sparkling. She thought she saw a way to outwit the
Tramp Club. Harriet was chuckling gleefully when she joined her
companions. She declined to tell them that night, however, just what the
Gipsy had communicated to her.
"Where shall we sleep to-night?" asked Miss Elting.
"Sybarina says we may have the wagon to sleep in," answered Harriet.
"Shall we use it?"
"No. I think I prefer to sleep in the open," answered the guardian. "It
is not a cool night. Suppose we roll up in our blankets and sleep by the
campfire? What do you say, girls?"
"I thay yeth," spoke up Tommy. "I'll put my feet againtht the fire; then
I won't have cold feet any more."
They were sound asleep in a few moments after turning in. Even the Gipsy
dogs that had been barking most of the evening, and the crying babies,
to whom none of the tribe had given the slightest heed, were now quietly
asleep. Sybarina watched her guests roll up in their blankets and nodded
approvingly.
"The true Romany," she muttered. For a long time the old woman sat by
the fire, sat until the embers fell together and the sticks began to
blacken, when she rose and peered into each sleeping face of the
Meadow-Brook Girls. Sybarina then hobbled to her own wagon and
disappeared within.
The Meadow-Brook Girls awakened next morning with the sun in their eyes.
Miss Elting sat up and called softly to Harriet. The guardian and
Harriet rubbed their eyes and blinked dazedly about them. There was
something strange about their surroundings, but just what that
strangeness was they for the moment did not know. All at once they
discovered what had happened. They were absolutely alone, save for their
sleeping companions.
"Why, they've gone!" cried Harriet.
"Gone and we never woke up," laughed Miss Elting. "How strange."
"Who hath gone?" mumbled Tommy, sitting up.
"The Gipsies," answered Harriet.
"They must have left in a great hurry, for some reason," suggested the
guardian. "I don't understand it. Nor do I understand how they managed
to slip away so quietly."
The wagon tracks were plainly outlined in the soft earth and the
remnants of the campfire were there, but that was all. Yet it was not
all. As Harriet sought to draw on her shoe she felt something hard in
the toe. Groping in the shoe with her fingers she drew forth a tightly
wrapped paper. Opening this she found a tiny brass triangle. On it were
crudely cut several strange characters.
"How curious," breathed Harriet. "But how did it get in my shoe?" she
wondered.
"Look on the wrapping paper," suggested Miss Elting.
Harriet did so. As she looked the puzzled expression on her face gave
place to a smile.
"It is from Sybarina," she exclaimed. "This is what she writes: 'A charm
for the Romany girl. No harm shall come to her who wears it. Happiness
and prosperity shall be hers forever and always. It is the Gipsy good
luck charm. Who knows but that, some day, you may wear it as a queen?
Farewell until we meet again.'"
"How strange!" murmured Harriet, holding up the trinket that her
companions might see.
"I wonder if it ith a charm againtht bullth?" piped Tommy.
"I would suggest, girls, that we return to our own camp. It may not be
there by this time."
Upon reaching their own camp they were much relieved to find everything
as it should be. Nothing had been disturbed. But, ere they had finished
their breakfast, three farmers came striding in to know if anything had
been seen of the Gipsies.
"They left early this morning," answered Miss Elting. "Why?"
"Wal, nothing only one of them traded off on me a ring-boned, spavined
old hoss, which he said was sound. I'll catch them when they come this
way again."
"I think I understand why the Gipsies took such an early departure,"
said Harriet after the men had gone. "But I do not believe Sybarina had
anything to do with such dishonest dealing."
The day's route was laid out after breakfast. The boys undoubtedly had
gone on, for nothing was to be seen of their campfire. Miss Elting
rather thought they would see no more of the Tramp Club after the
fortune-telling that Harriet had given the chief the night before. But
with the route that Sybarina had laid out for the girls, the guardian
believed they could make some time and gain the advantage over the boys.
Camp was hurriedly struck after breakfast. Their route that day lay
across lots and their camping place was to be on the edge of a forest
easily accessible to Jane with her motor car. Using government maps, as
they were doing, they were able to locate every little rise of ground,
every hollow and almost every clump of bushes along their way. These
government maps Miss Elting had purchased at a comparatively small cost,
as any one may do. They are very useful to one who is taking a tramp
through the country, and the Meadow-Brook Girls found them so.
Jane accompanied her companions out to the highway and followed along
behind them in her car for the first mile. Then their ways parted, the
tramping girls to climb a hill, Crazy Jane to follow the highway on to
the point where she too was to leave the road and make camp for them.
But there was always a long wait for Jane, so the girl occupied the time
in driving to the nearest village to make a number of purchases at the
stores.