“They started out in the machine around eight o’clock,” explained Mrs. McCall. “They are searching high and low for the puir bairns.”
“All alone?” gasped Ruth.
“Mr. Pinkney has gone with them. And I believe they were to pick up a constable. That Neale O’Neil declares he will raid every Gypsy camp and tramp’s roost in the county. And Sammy’s father took a pistol with him.”
“And you let Agnes go with them!” murmured Ruth. “Suppose she gets shot?”
“My maircy!” cried the housekeeper, clasping her hands. “I never thought about that pistol being dangerous, any more than Uncle Rufus’s gun with the broken hammer.”
CHAPTER XXIV—THE CAPTIVES
That ride, shut in the Gypsy van, was one that neither Tess nor Dot nor Sammy Pinkney were likely soon to forget. The car plunged along the country road, and the distance the party traveled was considerable, although the direction was circuitous and did not, after two hours, take the Gypsy clan much farther from Milton than they had been at the previous camp.
By eleven o’clock they pulled off the road into a little glade that had been well known to the leaders of the party. A new camp was established in a very short time. Tents were again erected, fires kindled for the late supper, and the life of the Gypsy town was re-begun.
But Sammy and the two little Corner House girls were forbidden to leave the van in which they had been made to ride.
Big Jim came over himself, banged Sammy with his broad palm, and told him: