CHAPTER II
ROBERTO, THE GYPSY
Ruth Fielding, following the death of her parents and while she wasstill a small girl, had left Darrowtown and Miss True Pettis, and allher other old friends and acquaintances, to live with her mother'suncle, at the Red Mill. Her coming to the mill and her early adventuresin and about that charming place were related in the first volume ofthis series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."
Ruth made many friends in her new home, among them Helen and TomCameron, the twin, motherless children of a wealthy dry-goods merchantwho had a beautiful home, called "the Outlook," near the mill, and MercyCurtis, the daughter of the railroad station agent at Cheslow, thenearest important town to Ruth's new home. Ruth, Helen, and Mercy allwent to Briarwood Hall, a girls' school some distance from Cheslow,while Master Tom attended a military academy at Seven Oaks, near thegirls' institution of learning. The incidents of their first term atschool are related in the second volume of the series, while in themid-winter vacation Ruth and her friends go to Snow Camp in theAdirondacks.
Later, our friends spent part of a summer vacation at Lighthouse Pointon the Atlantic Coast, after which they visited Silver Ranch in Montana.The sixth volume tells of another mid-winter camping adventure on CliffIsland, while the volume previous to our present story--number seven, infact--was entitled "Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm."
This story narrated Ruth's particular interest in Sadie Raby, a strange,wild girl who ran away from cruel people who had taken her "to raise."Her reunion with her twin brothers, Willie and Dickie, and how they allthree became the special care of Mr. Steele, the wealthy owner ofSunrise Farm, is told. It is through Ruth's efforts that the Rabys aresettled in life and win friends.
Now Ruth and her schoolmates had returned to the Red Mill and Cheslow,and but a brief space would elapse before the girls would begin theirthird year at Briarwood Hall; they were all looking toward the beginningof the fall term with great eagerness.
Had Ruth Fielding been able to think at this moment of the boat'soverturn, or of anything but her uncle's peril, she might haveconsidered that the possibility of her ever seeing Briarwood Hall againwas somewhat doubtful!
The hurrying water tugged at her as though a hundred hands had laid holdof her person. She was nearly arm-pit deep in the flood, and her uncle'sbody was so heavy that she had all she could do to hold his head abovethe surface.
She could not get him back into the boat, even, and perhaps that wouldnot have been a wise move. For the old skiff, shaking and rocking, waslikely to be torn free by the battling current. If it should swing intodeep water, it must sink almost at once, for the water was pouring inthrough the hole that had been battered in its side.
The flour was fast becoming saturated with the river-water, and itsincreased weight would bear the boat to the bottom, if it slipped fromthe reef.
Unable to see any good of boarding the boat again, Ruth tried to workher way along the reef until she stood upon a higher part of it. UncleJabez was unconscious, blood flowed from a deep cut on his head, and helay a dead weight in her arms.
Never had Ruth Fielding been in greater peril. She was frightened, butmostly for the old man who seemed so seriously hurt.
Tossing her loosened hair out of her eyes, she stared longingly at thelanding near Lakeby's store. It was some distance up-stream, and not aperson was in sight. She feared, too, that it was too far away for hervoice to carry.
Yet she must scream for help. She shouted again and again, endeavoringto put all the strength of her voice into the cries. Was that an answer?The girl held her uncle high in her arms and looked all about.
Nobody was at the store landing. Nobody was behind on the other shore ofthe river--and she was glad that Aunt Alvirah and Mercy had not seen theaccident, for neither of them could have helped in this predicament.
Yes! there was the repeated shout--and nearer. Ruth's eyes turned to thenorth shore of the Lumano again. There was somebody running down thebank--not near the store kept by Timothy Lakeby, but directly oppositethe rock on which the old boat had stranded.
"Oh! oh! Help! help!" shrieked the girl of the Red Mill.
"Hold on! I'm coming!"
The voice came to her more strongly than before. She could not see whothe person was, but she knew he was alone. She could not imagine how hewas to aid them.
Why did he not run to the store and bring other men to help? There! heseemed to have leaped right into the river!
"Oh, dear me! the strongest swimmer could not reach us, let alone helpUncle Jabez ashore," was Ruth's thought.
But up came the figure into sight again. Dripping, of course, now hestood firmly on a peak of rock that was thrust above the tide, and shookback the long black hair from his eyes.
He was a wild looking person. His feet were bare and his ragged trouserswere rolled to his knees. He wore neither vest nor coat, and his shirtwas open at his throat. To Ruth he seemed very bronzed and roughlooking.
But whoever, or whatever, he might be, the girl prayed that he wouldprove able to rescue Uncle Jabez. She felt that she could save herself,but she was having all she could do to bear up the unconscious miller.
"Hold on!" shouted the rescuer again.
Once more he plunged forward. He disappeared off the rock. Was heswimming again? The half-overturned boat hid him from Ruth's gaze.
Suddenly he shouted close at hand. Up he bobbed on the higher point ofrock just beyond the boat.
"What's the matter, Missy?" he demanded. "Is the old man hurt?"
"He hit his head. See! he is unconscious," explained Ruth.
"I'll get him! Look out, now; I've got to push off this old boat, Missy.She ain't no good, anyway."
Ruth saw that he was a big, black-haired, strong looking boy. Hiscomplexion was very dark and his eyes sparkling--like cut jet beads. Hemight have been seventeen or eighteen years old, but he was fully astall, and apparently as strong, as an ordinary man.
His long hair curled and was tangled like a wild man's. His beard hadbegun to grow on his lip and chin. In his ears Ruth saw small gold ringsand his wrists and forearms--which were bared--were covered with anintricate pattern of tattooing in red and blue ink.
Altogether, she had never seen so strange a boy in all her life--andcertainly none so strong. He leaped into the broken boat, seized Ruth'soar that had not been lost in the overset, and bracing it against therock, pushed the trembling boat free in a moment.
Ruth could not repress a scream. It looked as though he, too, must bethrown into the river, as the boat was caught by the current and jerkedfree.
But the wild boy laughed and leaped upon the higher part of the rock. Asthe miller's old boat drifted down stream, he sprang into the wateragain and reached the girl and her burden.
"Give him to me!" commanded the boy. "I can bear him up better than you,Missy. We'll get him ashore--and you can't be any wetter than you arenow."
"Oh, never mind me!" cried Ruth. "I am not afraid of a ducking. And Ican swim."
"You don't want to try swimming in _this_ place, Missy," he returned."You follow right behind me--so."
He turned, carrying the heavy figure of the miller in his arms as thoughhe weighed but a hundred pounds instead of nearer two, and set offtoward the shore along the ledge of rock by which he had come.
Ruth saw, now, that beyond where the boat had been wrecked, the rockjoined the shore, with only here and there a place where it was deepunder water.
She saw, too, that the boat was now sinking. It had not sailed ten yardsin the fierce current before its gunwales disappeared. It sank in adeeper channel below--flour and all! Ruth realized that Uncle Jabezwould be sorely troubled over the loss of those bags of flour.
Ruth paddled to the shore behind the strong boy, but before they reallyreached terra firma, she knew that Uncle Jabez was struggling back toconsciousness. The boy lowered the miller easily to the ground.
"He's coming 'round, Missy," he said. His smile was broad, and thelittle gold
rings twinkled in his ears.
Ruth, wet and bedrabbled as she was, did not think of her owndiscomfort. She knelt beside Uncle Jabez and spoke to him. For someseconds he was so dazed that he did not seem to recognize her. Then hestammered:
"Ha--ha----I knowed we couldn't do it. No--no gal kin do a man's work.Ha!"
This seemed rather hard on Ruth, after she had done her best, and it hadnot been her fault that the boat was wrecked, but she was too excitedjust then to trouble about the miller's grumbling.
"Oh, Uncle! you're not badly hurt, are you?"
"Ha--hum! I dunno," stuttered the miller, and sat up. He rubbed hisforehead and brought his hand, with a little blood upon it, back to thelevel of his eyes. "I vum!" he ejaculated, with more interest thanbefore. "I must ha' cracked my head some. Why was it I didn't drown?"
"This little missy, here," said the black-eyed youth, quickly. "_She_saved you, Mister. She held your head above water till I come."
"Why--why----Niece Ruth! you did _that_?"
"Oh, it was nothing, Uncle Jabez! I am so glad you are not hurt worse.This boy really saved you. He brought you ashore."
"Who be ye, young man?" asked the miller. "I'm obleeged to ye--if whatmy niece says is true."
"Oh, I am named Roberto. You need not to thank--no!" exclaimed thestranger, suddenly getting up and looking all about.
"But it was very brave of him," declared Ruth, and she seized the boy'shand. "I--I am so glad you were near."
"Here's Tim and Joe Bascom coming," said Uncle Jabez, who was facing thestore.
Instantly Roberto, as he called himself, jerked his hand from Ruth'sgrasp. He had seen the men coming, too, and without a word he turned andfled back into the woods.
"Why--why----" began Ruth, in utter surprise.
"What's the matter with that feller?" demanded Uncle Jabez, just as thestorekeeper and Farmer Bascom arrived.
"I seen the feller, Jabe," said the latter, eagerly. "He's one o' themblamed Gypsies. I run him out o' my orchard only yisterday."
Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace Page 2
