“You get out of here! You have no right here!” screamed the old gypsy hag, and in her sudden fury she hurled herself at the two young civil engineers, sending them out into the corridor. Then she tried to shut the door of the room behind her.
But now Dave’s blood was up, and he knew it would be useless to attempt to argue with the old hag. He made a leap forward, caught her by the arm, and swung her around. As he did this, Roger caught the old hag by the other arm, and between them they ran her down the corridor. Here they saw the open door to a vacant room, and into this they thrust the old woman, who, by this time, was screaming at the top of her lungs. The door had a hook with a staple to it, and this they locked.
“Now you behave yourself and keep still,” ordered Dave. “If you don’t, you’ll get into worse trouble than ever.”
“Oh, Dave! is it really you?” came from the room at the other end of the corridor.
“Roger! Roger!” burst out Laura, “can’t you come and release us?”
“We are chained fast to the floor,” explained Jessie.
“We’ll release you, and we’ll get you out of here in no time,” answered Dave; and then he and his chum ran back to where the girls were confined.
They had just passed into the room and were hard at work on some chains which bound the two girls to rings in the floor, when there came an unexpected interruption. They heard footsteps in the corridor, and an instant later several gypsy men appeared. Then, before they could make a move to escape or show fight, the door to the room was slammed shut and they heard the click of a heavy lock.
Dave and Roger were prisoners in company with those they had sought to rescue.
