“Tell us all about it,” demanded Blake.
“We can’t until we hear Hadee’s story,” said Natalie.
And they heard that the next day. The broken leg had been set, and put in a plaster cast. Then, with the permission of Dr. Morse, Hadee, sitting up in bed in the Richardson home, told her story.
She had been with the Gypsy band all her life, traveling about the country. When she became old enough her mother had told her something of the tragedy of her own story. Hanson Rossmore’s daughter had met a handsome Gypsy lad, and fallen in love with him. Her father opposed her, but she ran away and was legally married to him. Then, feeling unable to return to her father, the girl took up a life with the nomads. Hadee was the only child, and when her parents died she remained with the tribe. She became one of the best fortune tellers.
It was Hadee who called at the Anderson home that night the ring disappeared.
“But I did not take it,” she said. “It fell down from the table into the folds of my sash. I discovered it when I got back to camp, but Neezar, who calls herself our queen, would not let me take it back. Then the camp was quickly moved away, and I did not have a chance to return—the diamond.
“I kept it with me, however, refusing to give it up, though they tried to make me. Life was very hard. Then came the taking of the farmer’s wife’s pocket-book. I did not do that, it was another of our band who used my name. When I heard of the trouble I tried to run away, but they watched me too close.
“Finally I got the chance, and, I came to this old mill. I stayed here nights and went out by day, as I could, to get food. I guess I took something from my grandfather here, and from your camp,” she said, with a shy smile at the boys. “I needed things. There was a handkerchief——”
“Mine—but you may keep it,” said Blake.
“And the canoe,” went on Hadee. “The boat I came in drifted away.”