Once they were free, Roberto seized the girl's hand and led her through the darkness and the rain. Ruth's tender feet stumbled painfully over the rough ground, but the boy was not impatient.
He seemed to know his way in the dark by instinct. Certainly, Ruth could scarcely see her hand before her face!
However, it was not long before she realized that they had come out upon the shore of the island. There was a vast, empty-looking place before them, which Ruth knew must be the open lake.
Where the sentinels had gone, she could not guess, unless Roberto had managed to drug them, too!
However, there was not a word said, save when Roberto led her down, to the water and she felt it lave her feet. Then he muttered, in a low tone:
"Don't fear, little Missy."
As they waded deeper and deeper into the lake, following as she supposed the track by which the wagons had come to the island, Ruth was more than a little frightened. Yet she would not show Roberto it was so.
Once she whispered to him: "I can swim, Roberto."
"Good! But I will carry you," and he suddenly stooped, slung her across his shoulder as though she had been a feather-weight, and marched on through the water.
It was plain that the Gypsy boy knew this ford better than the drivers of the vans, for he found no spot that he could not wade through and carry Ruth, as well. It was nearly an hour before they reached the land.