Chapter XVII: Trying Out the Gipsy Trail

The farmer pocketed the money that Miss Elting handed him.

"I've my own opinion of you!" flared Crazy Jane.

"Maybe you have," chuckled the farmer, "but----"

"You're quite right," Jane McCarthy taunted. "You wouldn't feel highly complimented if I were to express that opinion!"

"If it's that kind of an opinion----" muttered the farmer, turning red under the coat of tan on his face.

"It's _worse_!" retorted Crazy Jane incisively.

Muttering under his breath, but failing to speak clearly, the abashed farmer turned on his heel, striding away.

The humor of the situation now appealing to them, the girls and their guardian began to laugh heartily.

"Harriet, I believe you suspected this all the time," declared Miss Elting finally.

"Those boys looked mischievous. I didn't know what it was all about, but after a while, I confess, I did suspect them. Never mind, I'll be even with them."

"No, you leave it to me," interjected Jane.

"I am glad that none of you girls betrayed the boys," declared Miss Elting approvingly. "I would suggest that you say nothing to them when we next see them. Let them introduce the subject if it is introduced at all. They may betray themselves. Tommy, don't you lisp a word of it."

"I don't lithp," retorted the little girl indignantly. "I thpeak jutht like other folkth."

"I did not mean it that way, dear," laughed the guardian. "I meant that you shouldn't mention our experience to any one. Now that we have bought and paid for the melons I think we had better stow them in the car. Come, let us get ready for bed."

"Are we to make an early start in the morning?" asked Hazel.

"Yes. We must not delay if we expect to remain in the contest."

The girls had no intention of giving up the contest. They thought it possible that they might have the company of the Tramp Club on the morrow, as a good part of the Meadow-Brook course lay over a highway, this being the most direct route for the day's tramping.

Rather to their surprise they discovered no trace of the Tramp Club next day. The smoke from the latter's campfire was no longer visible when the girls left their own camp in the morning, nor was there any indication on the road that the boys had passed over it. What the girls did not know was that the boys had slipped off into a ravine when the word had been brought to them that the irate farmer was out looking for the people who had visited his melon patch. From there they had moved inland and made a new camp. In the morning they took a roundabout course, avoiding the highway. It were better to be beaten by the girls that day than to be caught by the angry farmer. It was because of this longer route that the Meadow-Brook Girls were again able to get ahead of their rivals.

The tracks of Jane's car had long since been obliterated when the party neared the end of the day's journey. This did not trouble them, for a certain definite stopping place had been agreed upon, and as was customary, when following the highway, the girls now and then dropped a handful of grass in the road. Especially was this done when they came to forks in the road, so that in case Jane McCarthy returned that way to look for them she might see which direction they had taken. In doing this, though the girls were unaware of the fact, they were following a gipsy practice as old as gipsies themselves. It was the gipsies' way of marking their trail for the benefit of others of their kind who had straggled behind.

"I think this is the place," decided Miss Elting, halting, pointing down a narrow lane that extended through a field of stunted bushes and brush. The gate that had once shut off this byway from the main road lay broken at one side of it and a ridge of grass had grown knee high in the middle of the lane. It was a lane that had once led down to a cider mill that now lay a heap of ruins.

"It ith thpooky-looking," observed Tommy.

"Jane is here," exclaimed Harriet. "I see her car tracks, but I don't see her car."

"No; the car has come out onto the highway and gone on," Miss Elting declared. "Jane must have driven to the next town to get something. We will go down that lane."

Harriet dropped some grass in the road, marking a trail into the byway to notify Jane that they had arrived. They then made their way down the lane. The girls were tired and footsore. Walking in the road had been more wearisome than tramping over the hills and fields, perhaps because the former was less interesting and more monotonous. It was therefore a welcome sight when they espied the tent that they called home, even though it was a now weather-beaten and dingy-looking piece of canvas. But Jane was nowhere in sight. Neither was her car.

"Where can Jane be?" exclaimed Margery.

"Perhaps this will explain matters," replied Miss Elting, taking down a sheet of writing paper that had been pinned to the flap of the tent. "Ah! Jane says she has gone on to the town of Granite to meet her father, from whom she got a letter this morning. She says she may not be back until late, and that we shall find the melons in the bushes to the west of the tent."

"I don't want any of those old melons," pouted Margery.

"I do," retorted Tommy. "I'll eat all I can get."

"At least, we have a right to eat them now that we have paid for them," smiled the guardian. "The first thing to do will be to heat some water and bathe. We are all very dusty. Tommy, you and Margery take your baths first. In the meantime we will build the fire and get the supper going. This is going to be a pleasant camp. I wonder if we shall see our friends, the boys, this evening?"

"Not if they see us first," chuckled Harriet. "Oh, what we won't do to them when we get the opportunity."

"Jane must have had quite a time putting up the tent without assistance," remarked Miss Elting. "She did it very well, too."

Harriet was making the fire with Hazel's assistance, Tommy and Margery were preparing for their baths. Twilight was upon them before they realized it. By that time the supper was cooking, the coffee steaming, the savory odor of food filling the air about them. The melons were reserved for the dessert. These had ripened and were now soft, sweet and delicious.

"Girls, it is worth four dollars and eighty cents to have such melons, isn't it?" smiled the guardian.

"Yes, indeed," chorused the girls.

"I wonder what has become of the Tramp Club," mused Harriet.

"You will not see any more of the Tramps for a while," laughed Hazel. "It is a wonder to me that we haven't seen any real tramps since we have been out on this trip. At potato-digging time one usually sees a great many of them."

"We haven't been on the road much, or perhaps we should have seen more of them. That is one advantage in keeping away from the highways. One meets few live things in the fields except the birds and occasionally sheep and cattle."

"Not to mention bulls," finished Harriet laughingly. "Speaking of tramps, I believe I just saw one over yonder," added the girl.

"Are you joking?" questioned the guardian.

For answer Harriet sprang up and ran toward the tent. She did not reach it. She halted sharply as a man stepped in front of her. He was a typical follower of the road, dirty, unkempt and evil looking.

"What do you want here?" demanded Harriet, with a calmness that she was far from feeling.

"Not much. We want some money and something to eat," leered the intruder.

"You will get neither here. What were you doing in that tent? You came here to rob us. Go away before we give you something you won't like."

Miss Elting and Hazel sprang up, scattering the tin dishes far and wide as they ran to Harriet's assistance, when three other men stepped into view from the far side of the tent.

"If you folks will hand out your valuables, and make no racket about it, we won't hurt you," announced one of the newcomers. "What we want is a little help, that's all. We're poor fellows in distress. We ain't the kind that rob women. We ask for assistance."

Miss Elting's revolver was in the tent where she could not reach it now. Had she had it with her she would have assisted the men in a way that they would not have liked. What to do under the circumstances she did not know. Neither Tommy nor Margery appeared able to do anything. They were frightened nearly out of their wits.

"You have a peculiar way of asking for assistance. Had you come to us in the proper manner we should have been glad to give you something to eat. Now we shall not. Neither have we money for you. I order you to go away from here. If you refuse the consequences will be on your own heads. We are not quite so defenseless as you might think. Will you go?"

The spokesman laughed. The spirit of the girls appeared to amuse him. The fellow had not the least idea that there was any other person about. He, with his companions, had seen the Meadow-Brook Girls come into the camp alone. Not another person so far as they knew, was within some miles of the place. They had watched the camp and waited until dark to carry out their plan of robbing the five women.

"Can you get it, do you think, Harriet?" questioned Miss Elting in a low tone.

"I'll try," she answered. She knew what the guardian meant. "It" meant Miss Elting's revolver. All at once the girl darted past the man who stood directly in front of her. She had almost reached the tent, when one of the tramps caught hold of her by the shoulder. Harriet was lithe and quick. She slipped from his detaining clutch and sprang back. But her opportunity was gone. The men partly divining her purpose, had quickly blocked the entrance to the tent. The leader nodded to one of them to watch Tommy and Margery. Three others directed their attention to Miss Elting, Harriet and Hazel. They placed themselves in such positions that the girls were hedged in. To try to run would be to fall into the clutches of one or another of the three ruffians who were guarding them.

One of the men uttered a shrill whistle. Still another tramp came running into the camp.

"Turn out the tent in a hurry. Don't take anything that ain't good. There's money in there somewhere. Now turn your pockets out, ladies."

His words were cut short by a long wailing cry uttered by Harriet Burrell.

"Hoo-e-e-e-e! Hoo-e-e-e-e-e! Help, help!" It was the call of the Meadow-Brook Girls, with the warning cry for assistance added.

The man who had made the demand sprang at her. Harriet leaped back. In doing so she felt her arms pinioned by a second man. She had forgotten for the moment that there were guards behind her. Miss Elting suddenly found her arms gripped from behind. She struggled with all her strength. So did Harriet. Hazel screamed as she felt her own arms pinioned.

"Herd the other two in the tent, then git all the swag you can find," commanded the spokesman breathlessly, for he was having his hands full helping his assistant to hold Miss Elting and the two girls. One grasped Tommy and Margery by their arms, and fairly dragging them over, flung them into the tent. "Get the stuff! Never mind those two. They're too scared to bother. It's these that we've got to look out for," he directed.

"Hoo-e-e-e-e-e! Hoo-e-e-e-e-e! Help, help!" screamed Harriet.

"Yell, Hazel!" gasped Harriet.

"I--I can't! Oh, I can't!" wailed Hazel.

Tommy found her voice at this juncture and raised it in a piercing scream. A moment later a blanket was twisted about her head and she was flung into a corner, clawing and kicking. Margery cowered at one side of the tent, too frightened to move.

Just then a new note was sounded. From behind the tent rose a shrill cry in a voice unfamiliar to either the girls or to the thieving tramps, a voice that caused the tramps to release their prisoners and turn to face the owner of the voice prepared for trouble.