Mona was off.
“I’m not going,” said Gerry, sitting down on the ridge. “Betty, you’re not to either. We might go back to Sybil and ask; but she’s given us the orders, and——”
The couples parted company.
But there was little enjoyment in searching after “sign” when Mona and Rene had gone. The others heard several shouts of excitement as two more bunches of the patrin were picked up; then the adventurous pair disappeared from view.
“I’m perfectly sure,” said Gerry, after almost half an hour more had gone, as she and Betty were just preparing to slip over the ridge, “that they ought not to have gone. But——”
They had been seated for a while on the topmost ridge, counting up their “sign” discoveries in preparation for their return. It was just as they had finished that they heard the sound of a step behind them.
“Oh, you’s the other two young ladies, is yer?” said a voice. Betty and Gerry turned. “Well, an’ I’ll trouble you to come along.”
As they stared with amazement their gaze fell upon a gipsy boy, who stood there, tall and handsome, but with an insolent lowering look upon his face.