“Wait a minute. We want to make sure that he is alone.”
They waited until the gypsy had passed them and gone on a distance of a hundred feet or more. He was evidently alone.
“Maybe we had better let him go,” whispered Roger. “That will make one less to tackle, if the others are ahead of us.”
“He’s not going to get away,” answered Dave decidedly. “We may not meet the others at all, and in that case we’d be very foolish to let this fellow get out of our clutches. Come on! I’m going to make him a prisoner!”
Making as little noise as possible, our hero went after the gypsy, who had now passed a turn in the road and was out of sight. The senator’s son followed, and soon both came up behind the fellow ahead.
The gypsy was taken completely by surprise. He had seated himself on a rock to fix one of his shoes, and before he could regain his feet both of the young civil engineers had him covered with their weapons.
“Throw up your hands and keep quiet,” demanded Dave sternly.
“Yes, don’t you dare to cry out,” added Roger. “If you do, you’ll get shot.”
“What is this? For why do you stop me like this?” stammered the gypsy. He was a tall, swarthy-looking fellow, with anything but a cheerful countenance.
“You know well enough why we have stopped you,” returned Dave. “What have you done with those two young ladies who belong in Crumville?”