CHAPTER X
IN THE GYPSY CAMP
Ruth remembered what Roberto had said about his miserly grandmother. Shebelieved these people who had offered her and Helen a ride were of thesame tribe as Roberto, and the way Queen Zelaya spoke, caused the girlto believe that this old woman and Roberto's grandmother were one andthe same person.
She could say nothing to Helen at the moment. Personally she felt moreafraid of this Gypsy Queen than she had of the two rough men in theabandoned house that afternoon!
"Come!" repeated Zelaya. "Tell me of all the riches and jewels--the goldand silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the richsilks--all of it! I love to hear of such things," exclaimed the woman,grinning again in her terrible way.
Helen opened her lips to speak, but Ruth pinched her. "Tell hernothing," the girl of the Red Mill whispered. "I am afraid we have saidtoo much already."
"Why?" queried Helen, wonderingly.
"Pshaw! this old woman can't hurt us. Isn't she funny?"
"Speak up, my little ladies!" commanded Queen Zelaya. "My will is lawhere. Do not forget that."
"I guess your will isn't much law to _us_," replied Helen, laughing andtossing her head. "You see, we do not know you----"
"You shall!" hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forthone of her claw-like hands. "Come here!"
Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly shestopped. The queen's terrible eyes seemed to hold the girl in a spell.Involuntarily Helen's limbs bore her toward the far end of the van.
The girl's face became pale; her own eyes protruded from their sockets;the Gypsy Queen charmed her, just as a snake is said to charm a youngbird in its nest.
But Ruth sprang after her, seized Helen's arm again, and shook her.
"You stop that!" she cried, to the old woman. "Don't you mind her,Helen. She has some wicked power in her eyes, my dear!"
Her cry broke the hypnotic spell the woman had cast over Helen Cameron.The latter sank down, trembling and sobbing, with her hands over herface.
"Oh, dear, Ruthie! I wish we hadn't gotten into this wagon," she moaned.
"I am sure I wish so, too," returned her chum, in a low voice, while theold woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horridlaughter.
"Aren't we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only twomiles or a little over."
"I wish we could speak to that other woman," muttered Ruth.
"Do you suppose this old thing is crazy?" whispered Helen.
"Worse than that," returned Ruth. "I am afraid of them all. I don'tbelieve they mean us well. Let's get out, Helen."
"Oh! where shall we go?" returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft asRuth's own.
"We must be somewhere near the town."
"It is pitch dark outside the windows," complained Helen.
"Let's try it. Pitch dark is not as bad as this wicked old creature----"
The hag laughed again, although she was not looking at them. Surely shecould not hear the girls' whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a shiverover both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she calledherself, could read what was in their minds.
"Yes, yes!" whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. "Youare right. We will go."
"We'll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us----Thenwe'll run!"
Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.She turned the knob and tried to open it. _The door was fastened uponthe outside!_
Again the old woman broke into her cackling laugh. "Oh, no! oh, no!" shecried. "The pretty, rich little ladies cannot go yet. They must be theguests of the poor old Gypsy a little longer--they must eat of her salt.Then they will be her friends--and maybe they will help to make herrich."
The girls stood close together, panting, afraid. Helen put her lips toRuth's ear, and whispered:
"Does _that_ mean she is going to hold us for ransom? Oh, dear! what didI say this very day? I _knew_ Gypsies were like this."
"Hush!" warned Ruth. "Try and not let her see you are so afraid. Perhapsshe means only to frighten us."
"But--but when she looks at me, I seem to lose everything--speech, powerto move, even power to think," gasped Helen.
Just then the van turned suddenly from the road and came to a halt. Theyhad been traveling much faster than Ruth and Helen had supposed.
Lights flashed outside, and dogs barked, while the voices of men, womenand children rose in a chorus of shouts and cries.
"Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "They have gotten into town atlast."
Ruth feared this was not so. She tried to peer out of one of thewindows. There was a bonfire at one side, and she thought she saw atent. There were other wagons like the one in which they seemed to beimprisoned.
"Now they'll _have_ to let us out," repeated Helen.
"I am afraid not," returned the girl of the Red Mill. "This is the Gypsycamp, I am sure, dear. Do try to be brave! I think they never meant totake us after Tom, at all. We are prisoners, dear."
At once Helen's spirits sank, but she grew angry.
"You'd better not keep us here," she cried, looking again at the oldwoman. "My father has plenty of money and he will spend it all to get meback--and to punish you."
"We will not take all his money from him, my pretty little lady,"returned Zelaya. "Only a part of it. And the poor Gypsy has nothing,"and once more she cackled.
The door of the van was unlocked and opened. In the lamplight appeared arough-looking man, with an evil face and a squint in one eye. He saidsomething to the queen in their own tongue, but he spoke with greatrespect, and removed his hat and bowed to her, when she replied.
Ruth and Helen started for the door, but the man motioned them back andscowled at them in an evil manner. They could see a crowd of curiousfaces without, and behind this man were children, women both old andyoung, and a few men.
Zelaya lifted the child from its bed, and passed her into the arms ofthe woman who had guided Ruth and Helen to the van. She smiled upon thegirls just as pleasantly as before, but now they knew that she was falseand cruel.
Then the queen waved her hand and the door was closed. "You remain withme to-night, little ladies. Oh! Zelaya would let nothing troubleyou--no, no!"
Helen burst into wild sobs at this, and threw herself upon the floor ofthe van. Ruth faced the old woman with wrathful sparks in her browneyes.
"You are acting very foolishly, indeed, whoever you are. You Gypsiescannot carry things with such a high hand in this State of New York.You'll find out----"
"I am Zelaya, the Queen," interrupted the old hag, hoarsely. "Have acare! I will put a spell upon you, little lady----"
"Pooh! you can't frighten me that way," declared Ruth Fielding. "I amnot afraid of your spells, or your fortune telling, or any of yourfoolish magic. If you believe in any of it yourself, you have not gainedmuch wisdom all the years you have lived."
"You do not fear the arts of my people?" repeated Zelaya, trying to holdRuth with her eye as she had Helen.
"No, I do not. I fear your wickedness. And I know you must be verydishonest and cruel. But you have no more supernatural power than I havemyself!"
Zelaya's wrinkled face suddenly reddened with passion. She raised herclaw-like hand and struck the bold girl sharply upon the cheek.
"Impudence!" she muttered.
"And _that_ is nothing supernatural," said Ruth, with continuedboldness, although the blow had hurt her--leaving its mark. "You arebreaking the laws of the land, which are far more powerful than anyGypsy law----"
"Wait!" commanded the woman, threateningly. "You will learn yet, boldgirl, how strong our laws are."
She went back to her stool, mumbling to herself. Ruth lifted Helen intoone of the berths, and sat down beside her. By and by the door of thevan opened again and a bold-looking young woman--not the one that hadbrought them to the van--came in with three wooden bowls of a savorystew. She offered t
he tray to the visitors at a motion from old Zelaya,so that they had their choice before the queen received her own supper.
"Let's eat it," whispered Ruth to Helen, when she saw that Zelayaplunged her own tin spoon into the stew. "It surely isn't drugged, or_she_ wouldn't touch it."
They ate greedily, for both were hungry. It takes more than fear tospoil the healthy appetite of youth!
"Do you suppose," whispered Helen, "that we could climb out of one ofthese windows after she falls asleep?"
"I am sure I couldn't get through one," returned Ruth. "And I doubt ifyou could. Besides, there will be guards, and the dogs are awake. We'vegot to wait for help from outside, my dear."
"Do you suppose Tom will find us?"
"I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not while he is alone. But he certainlywill give the alarm, and the whole countryside will be aroused."
"Oh, dear, me! this old woman seems so sure that she can hold uscaptive."
"I think she is crazy," Ruth declared. "And the other Gypsies must lackgood sense, too, or they would not be governed by her."
The queen gobbled down her supper and then prepared to retire to her ownbunk. She told the girls to do the same, and they removed their shoesand outer garments and lay down--one on one side of the wagon, and oneon the other.
Ruth's head was toward the door. She could watch the movements of theold Gypsy woman. Zelaya did not go to sleep at all, but seemed to bewaiting for the camp to get quiet and for her two visitors to fall intoslumber.
She kept raising her head and looking first at Helen, then at Ruth. Thelatter knew by her chum's breathing that, despite her fears, Helen hadfallen asleep almost instantly.
So Ruth began to breathe deeply and regularly, too. She closed hereyes--almost entirely. This was what Zelaya had been waiting for.
Silently the old woman arose and turned up the lampwick a little. Sheknelt down before one of the padlocked boxes and unlocked it softly.Then she rummaged in the box--seemingly beneath a lot of rubbish thatfilled it, and drew forth a japanned box--like a cashbox. This waslocked, too, and Zelaya wore the key of it on a string about her neck.
Silently, with a glance at the two girls now and then, she unlockedthis box and opened it on the top of the chest, before which she knelt.
Ruth could see the old woman's face. It changed very much as she gazedupon what was in the japanned box. Her black eyes glowed, and her gray,thin lips were wreathed in a smile of delight.
Again Ruth remembered Roberto's account of his grandmother. She was amiser, and he had mentioned that he had seen her at night gloating overher hoarded wealth.
Surely Zelaya had all the signs of a miser. The next moment Ruth sawthat the old woman verily possessed something worth gloating over.
She lifted from the interior of the box a string of flashing gems--abroad band, or necklace, of them, in fact--and let them flow through herfingers in a stream of sparkling light. They were beautiful, beautifulpearls--a really wonderful necklace of them!
Ruth held her breath for a moment. The queen turned suddenly and shot akeen, suspicious glance at her. The girl knew enough to cough, turnslightly, and recommence her steady breathing.
The old woman had dropped the pearls in haste. Now she picked them upagain, and went on with her silent worship of the gems.
Ruth did not startle her again; but she saw something that made her ownheart beat faster and brought the perspiration out upon her limbs.
Above the old woman's head, and behind her, was a window. Pressed closeto the pane of the window Ruth saw a face--dark, evil, be-mustached. Itwas one of the Gypsy men.
She remembered now what she had overheard between the two supposedtramps who had taken shelter in the deserted house during the tempest.Was _this_ one of those two ruffians? And was he the one who had railedat the division of some stolen treasure, and had spoken withcovetousness of the beautiful pearls?
The thought made Ruth tremble. His wicked face withdrew, but all thetime the Gypsy queen was admiring the necklace, Ruth felt that the evileyes of the man were also gloating over the pearls.
Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace Page 10
