“Who hath gone?” mumbled Tommy, sitting up.
“The Gipsies,” answered Harriet.
“They must have left in a great hurry, for some reason,” suggested the guardian. “I don’t understand it. Nor do I understand how they managed to slip away so quietly.”
The wagon tracks were plainly outlined in the soft earth and the remnants of the campfire were there, but that was all. Yet it was not all. As Harriet sought to draw on her shoe she felt something hard in the toe. Groping in the shoe with her fingers she drew forth a tightly wrapped paper. Opening this she found a tiny brass triangle. On it were crudely cut several strange characters.
“How curious,” breathed Harriet. “But how did it get in my shoe?” she wondered.
“Look on the wrapping paper,” suggested Miss Elting.
Harriet did so. As she looked the puzzled expression on her face gave place to a smile.
“It is from Sybarina,” she exclaimed. “This is what she writes: ‘A charm for the Romany girl. No harm shall come to her who wears it. Happiness and prosperity shall be hers forever and always. It is the Gipsy good luck charm. Who knows but that, some day, you may wear it as a queen? Farewell until we meet again.’”
“How strange!” murmured Harriet, holding up the trinket that her companions might see.
“I wonder if it ith a charm againtht bullth?” piped Tommy.