Ruth was shaking with hysterical terror. The creature clung to her hand and mumbled this warning over and over again.
“What’s she telling you, Ruth?” demanded the hilarious Pearl.
“Trouble! trouble!” mumbled the supposed fortune-teller, shaking her head, but accepting the next girl’s dime.
Ruth whispered swiftly to Pearl: “Oh! let us get out of here. These men mean to rob us—I am sure.”
“They would not dare,” began the startled Pearl.
Just then there was a creaking of heavy wheels, and a voice shouting to oxen. The Gypsies glanced swiftly and covertly at one another, falling back farther from the vicinity of the girls.
Indeed, several of them returned to the card game. The fortune-teller mumbled her foolish prophecies quickly. Into the glade, along a wood-path from the thicker timber, came two spans of oxen dragging three great logs. A pleasant-faced young man swung the ox-goad and spoke cheerily to the slow-moving, ponderous animals.
“Let’s go at once, Pearl!” begged Ruth. “We’ll keep close to this lumberman. Dot and Tess can ride on the logs.”
“Come on, girls! I think this old woman is a faker,” cried Pearl. “She can’t even tell me whether I’m going to marry a blond man, or a brunette!”
“Don’t go yet, little ladies,” said the tall man, suavely. “Zaliska can tell you much——”