Peter, stung by her taunts, made a quick rush forward. For a moment Bessie did not know what to do. She wondered if, when it came to the test, she would really be able to use the knife; to try to cut or stab this man. He was getting nearer each moment, and, just as she was almost within his grasp she darted back and aimed a blow at him with the knife.
There was no danger that it would strike him; Bessie thought that, if she could only convince him that she had meant what she said, he would hesitate. And she was right. He gave a cry of alarm as he saw the steel flash toward him and drew back.
"She would stab me!" he exclaimed furiously, to Lolla. "I was not to be struck with a knife. John said nothing about that. He told me only to guard this girl--"
"She wouldn"t really touch you with it," screamed Lolla, so furious that she forgot the need of keeping her voice low. "John wouldn"t let her frighten him that way, he is too brave. Oh, how the women will laugh when they hear how the brave Peter was frighted by a girl with a little knife!"
But Bessie, in spite of her own indecision, had managed, somehow, to convince the man that she was serious, and Lolla"s taunts no longer affected him. He drew back still farther, and stood looking stupidly at the two girls.
"You"re wiser than she," said Bessie approvingly. "I meant just what I said. Keep as far as that from me, and you"ll be safe. I"m not afraid of you any more."
Nor was she. Her victory, brief though it might be, had encouraged her, and revived her drooping spirits. Dolly, too, seemed to have gained new life from the sight of the big gypsy quailing before her chum. She had stopped trembling, and stood up bravely now, ready to face whatever might come.
"Good for you, Bessie!" she exclaimed. She darted a vicious look at Lolla. "I wish that treacherous little gypsy would come somewhere near me," she went on, angrily. "I"d pull her hair and make her sorry she ever tried to help those villains to keep us. When they put her in prison I"m going to see her, and jeer at her!"
Lolla, looking helpless now in her anger, said nothing, but she glared at the two girls.
"I think these people are very superst.i.tious," whispered Dolly to Bessie, when it became plain that, for the moment, the two gypsies intended only to watch them, without making any further attempt to tie them up.
"I think so too," returned Bessie, in the same tone. "But I don"t see what good that is going to do us, Dolly."
"Neither do I, just yet, Bessie. But I can"t help thinking that there must be some way that we could frighten them, if we could only think of it; so that they would be frightened and run away."
"We might tell them--Oh, I"ve got an idea, Dolly."
She looked at Peter and Lolla. They were at the very edge of the little clearing in which Dolly had been imprisoned.
"Listen, Lolla," said Bessie, calmly. "I believe that you are a good girl, though you have lied to me, and tried to make me think you were my friend, when all the time you were planning, you could betray me. This place is dangerous."
Lolla looked at her scornfully and tossed head.
"Don"t think you can frighten me with your stories," she said, with a laugh. "It is dangerous--for you. When my man comes you will find that he is not a coward, like Peter, to be frightened with your knife. He will take it away from you and beat you, too, for trying to frighten Peter with it."
"Yes, he is brave, Lolla. We saw that when he ran away from the fire that he saw last night near the lake."
Bessie was taking a chance when she said that. She did not know whether Lolla had heard of the mysterious flashlight explosion or not, but she thought it more than probable that John had told her of it. And she was reasonably sure that he was still wondering what had caused the light that had so suddenly blinded him. Her swift look at Lolla showed her that her blow had struck home.
"He is a brave man, indeed, to keep on with his wicked plan to steal my friend after such a warning," Bessie went on sternly. "But his bravery will do him no good. There is a spirit looking after us. It made the fire that frightened him, and the next time he will not only see the fire; he will feel it, too."
Now she looked not only at Lolla, who seemed shaken, but at Peter, who was staring at her as if fascinated. Evidently he, too, had heard of the strange fire. Bessie had reckoned on the probability, that seemed almost a certainty, that John would not have been able to explain, even to himself, the nature of the flashlight explosion. And evidently she was right. Then she took another chance, guessing at what she thought John would probably have said to explain the fire.
"I know what he told you," she said slowly. "He said that the fire came from a spirit that was guiding him, and was trying to help him. But he only said that because he did not understand. It meant just the opposite; that it would be better for him to go home, and forget the wicked plot he had thought of."
Peter seemed to be weakening, but Lolla tossed her head again.
"Are you a baby? Do you think that is true?" she said to him. "Don"t you see that she is only trying to frighten you, as she did with the knife?"
"Indeed I am not," said Bessie, earnestly. "I am not angry with you, any more than I am afraid of you now. If you stay here something dreadful will happen to you both. You would not like to go to prison, would you, and stay there all through this summer, and the next winter, and the summer of next year, when you might be traveling the road with your brothers?"
"Make them keep quiet, Peter," cried Lolla, furiously. "She is quite right There is danger here, but it comes from her friends. She thinks that if she can fool us into letting her talk, they may pa.s.s by and hear her voice."
"You keep quiet," said Peter, doggedly, evidently deciding that, this time, he could safely obey Lolla"s orders, and quite ready to do so. "If you make any more noise I will--"
He left the sentence uncompleted, but a savage gesture showed what he meant. He had a stout stick, and this he now swung with a threatening air.
Bessie had hoped to work on the superst.i.tious nature of the gypsy man, and to frighten him, perhaps, if she had good luck, into letting her go off with Dolly. But Lolla"s interference had put that out of the question. She turned sadly to Dolly, to see her companion"s eyes twinkling.
"Never you mind, Bessie," she said. "They"re stupid, anyhow. And as long as they don"t tie us up we"re all right. I"d just as soon be here as anywhere. Someone will go along that trail presently looking for us, and when they do we can shout. They"ll probably make a noise themselves, so as to let us know they are near. And I"m not frightened any more; really I"m not."
But Bessie, tired and disappointed, was nearer to giving in than she had been since the moment when she had awakened and found that Dolly was missing. She felt that she ought to have distrusted Lolla; that she had made a great mistake in thinking, even for a moment, that the gypsy girl meant to betray her own people.
Then suddenly a strange thing happened. A new voice, that belonged to none of the four who were in the clearing, suddenly broke the silence. It seemed to come from a tree directly over the heads of Lolla and Peter, and, as it spoke, they stared upward with one accord, listening intently to what it said.
"Will you make me come down and punish you?" said the voice. It was that of an old, old man, feeble with age, but still clear.
Bessie stared too, as surprised as the gypsy, and the voice went on: "I gave your companion a sign last night that should have warned him. I speak to you now, to warn you again. The next time I shall not give a warning; I shall act, and your punishment will be swift and terrible. Take heed; go, while there is time."
For a moment the two gypsies were speechless, looking at one another in wonder, and Bessie was not disposed to blame them. Her own head was in a whirl.
"Quick; it is in that tree!" said Lolla, easily the braver of the two of them. "Climb up there, and see who it is that is trying to frighten us, Peter."
But Peter was not prepared to do anything of the sort. He was trembling, and casting nervous glances behind him, as if he were more minded to make a break and run down the trail.
"Climb yourself! I shall stay here," he retorted.
And Lolla, without further hesitation, sprang into the branches of the tree and began to climb.
As she did so the mysterious voice sounded again.
"You cannot see me, yet," it said. "You can only hear me. See, my voice is in your ears, but you cannot see as much as my little finger. Beware; go before you do see me. For when you do, you will regret it; regret it as long as you live!"
When Lolla, a moment later, reached firm ground again, she was trembling, and Bessie saw that her courage was beginning to fail. She looked about her nervously, as Peter was doing. And suddenly the voice spoke again, but this time it shouted, and it was in a stronger, more vigorous tone, and one of great anger.
"Must I show myself! Must I punish you?" it said, furiously. "Fear me; you will do well! Go--GO!"
With a yell of terror Peter turned suddenly, and ran through the thick bushes toward the trail, crying out as he went, and stumbling.
"Come; it is the devil! I saw his horns and his tail then," he screamed. "Come, Lolla, this is an accursed place. I told John it was wrong to try to do this; that he would get into trouble."
"He is wise; he is safe!" said the mysterious voice. "Go too, Lolla; I am growing impatient. Go, if you want to see John, your lover, and the brothers that you love, again. The time is growing short. I come; I come; and when I come--"
And then at last Lolla"s nerves, too, gave way, and she followed Peter, screaming, as he had done, while she ran. Bessie, as astonished and almost as frightened as the two gypsies had been, turned then to see how Dolly was bearing this extraordinary affair, to see her chum rolling about on the ground, with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, that was funny!" Dolly exclaimed. "They were easy, after all, Bessie."
"They"ve gone! It"s all right now," said Bessie. "But who was it, Dolly? Who could it have been?"
"It was me!" exclaimed Dolly, weakly, between gasps of laughter, forgetting her grammar altogether. "I learned that trick last summer. They call it ventriloquism. It just means throwing your voice out so that it doesn"t seem to come from you at all, and changing it, so that people won"t recognize it."
Bessie stared at her, in wonder and admiration. "Why, Dolly Ransom!" she said. "However do you do it? I never heard of such a thing!"
"I don"t know how I do it," said Dolly, recovering her breath. "No one who can does, I guess. It"s just something you happen to be able to do."
"You certainly frightened them," said Bessie. "And you saved us with your trick, Dolly. I think they"ve run clear away. We can follow them down the trail; they won"t stick to it, and I think we can go right back to Long Lake, now, without being afraid any more. Come on, we"d better start. I don"t want to stay here."
CHAPTER XII.
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN.
"Stay here? I should say not!" exclaimed Dolly. "I"m almost starved--and, Bessie, they must be terribly worried about us, too. And now tell me, as we go along, how you ever found me. I don"t see how you managed that."
So, as they made their way down the trail, Bessie told her of all that had happened since her rude awakening at the camp fire, just after the gypsy had carried Dolly off.
"Oh, Bessie, it was perfectly fine of you, and it"s only because of you that we"re safe now! But you oughtn"t to have taken such a risk! Just think of what might have happened!"
"That"s just it, Dolly. I"ve got time to think about it now, but then I could only think of you, and what was happening to you. If I"d stopped to think about the danger I"m afraid I wouldn"t have come."
"But you must have known it was dangerous! I don"t know anyone else who would have done it for me."
"Oh, yes, they would, Dolly. That"s one of the things we promise when we join the Camp Fire Girls--always to help another member of the Camp Fire who is in trouble or in danger."
"Yes--but not like that. It doesn"t say anything about going into danger yourself, you know."
"Listen, Dolly. If you saw me drowning in the water, you"d jump in after me, wouldn"t you? Or after any of the girls--if there wasn"t time to get help?"
"I suppose so--but that"s different. It just means going in quickly, without time to think very much about it. And you had plenty of time to think while you were tramping along that horrid dark trail after me."
"Well, it"s all over now, Dolly, and, after all, you had to save both of us in the end."
"That was just a piece of luck, and a trick, Bessie. It didn"t take any courage to do that--and, beside, if it hadn"t been for you I would never have had the chance to do that. I wonder why Lolla let you have her knife to cut those cords about me?"
"I think she"s a regular actress, Dolly, and that she wanted to make me feel absolutely sure she was on our side, so that we would both be there in that trap when she and Peter came back."
"It"s a good thing he was such a coward, Bessie."
"Oh, I think he"d be brave enough if he just had to fight with a man, so that it was the sort of fighting he was used to. You see it wasn"t his plan, and when I said I"d use that knife he couldn"t see why he should run any risk when all the profit was for the other man."
"And when you played that trick with your voice he was frightened, because he"d never heard of anything of that sort, and he didn"t know what was coming next. I think that would frighten a good many people who are really brave."
"Bessie, why do I always get into so much trouble? All this happened just because I changed those signs that day."
"Oh, I don"t know about that, Dolly. It might have happened anyhow. I"ve got an idea now that they knew we were around, and that John planned to kidnap one of us and keep us until someone paid him a lot of money to let us go. Something Lolla said made me think that."
"Then he was just playing a joke when he said he wanted to marry me?"
"Yes, I think so, because I don"t think he was foolish enough to think he could ever really get you to do that. I did think so at first, but if that had been so I"m quite sure that Lolla wouldn"t have helped him."
"She"d have been jealous, you mean?"
"Yes, I"m quite sure, you see, that she saw him and talked to him when we went over to their camp that time, so that she could take orders from him to Peter. He knew he"d be watched, so he must have made up his mind from the first that he would have to have help."
"I wonder what he is doing now, Bessie."
"I certainly hope he"s still over there at the camp, sitting near that guide. The guide said he would shoot him if he tried to get away, you know."
"My, but I"ll bet there"s been a lot of commotion over this."
"I"m sure there has, Dolly. Probably all the people at the hotel heard about it, too. I"ll bet they"ve got people out all through the woods looking for us."
"I wish we"d meet some of them--and that they"d have a lot of sandwiches and things. Bessie, I"ve simply got to sit down and rest. I want to get back to Miss Eleanor and the girls, but if I keep on any longer I"ll drop just where we are. I"m too tired to take another step without a rest."
"I am, too, Dolly. Here--here"s a good place to sit down for a little while. We really can"t be so very far from Long Lake now."
"No," said a voice, behind them. "But you"re so far that you"ll never reach there, my dears!"
And, turning, they saw John, the gypsy, leering at them. His clothes were torn, and he was hot and dirty, so that it was plain that he had had a long run, and a narrow escape from capture. But at the sight of them he smiled, evilly and triumphantly, as if that repaid him amply for any hardships he had undergone.
"Don"t you dare touch us!" said Bessie, shrilly.
She realized even as she said it, that he was not likely to pay any attention to her, but the sight of his grinning face, when she had been so sure that their troubles were over at last, was too much for her.
She sank down on a log beside Dolly, and hid her face in her hands, beginning to cry. Most men, no matter how bad, would have been moved to pity by the sight of her sufferings. But John was not.
"Don"t cry," he said, with mock sympathy. "I am not going to treat you badly. You shall stay in the woods with me. I have a good hiding place, a place where your friends will never find you until I am ready. You are tired. So am I. We will rest here. It is quite safe. A party of your friends pa.s.sed this way five minutes ago. They will not come again--not soon. I was within a few feet of them, but they did not see me."
Bessie groaned at the news. Had they only reached the place five minutes earlier, then, they would have been safe. She was struck by an idea, however, and lifted her voice in a shout for aid. In a moment the gypsy"s hand covered her mouth and he was snarling in her ear.
"None of that," he said, grittingly, "or I will find a way to make you keep still. You must do as I tell you now, or it will be the worse for you. Will you promise to keep quiet?"
Bessie realized that there was no telling what this man would do if she did not promise--and keep her promise. He was cleverer than Peter, and, therefore, much more dangerous. She felt, somehow, that the trick which had worked so well when Dolly had used it before would be of no avail now. He might even understand it; he was most unlikely, she was sure, to yield to superst.i.tious terror as Peter and Lolla had done. And, leaning over to Dolly, she whispered to her.
"Don"t try that trick, Dolly. You see, if the others had dared the voice to do something they would have found out that there was really nothing to be afraid of--and I"m afraid he"d wait. It may be useful again, but not with him, now. If we tried it, and it didn"t work--"
"I understand," Dolly whispered back. "I think you are right, too, Bessie. We"d be worse off than ever. I was thinking that if only some of the other gypsies were here we might frighten them so much with it that they"d make him let us go."
"Yes. We"ll save it for that."
The gypsy was still breathing hard. He looked at the two girls malignantly, but he saw that they were too tired to walk much unless he let them rest, and, purely out of policy, and not at all because he was sorry for them, and for the hardships he had made them endure, he let them sit still for a while. But finally he rose.
"Come," he said. "You"ve been loafing here long enough. Get up now, and walk in front of me--back, the way you came."
They groaned at the prospect of retracing their footsteps once more, but he held the upper hand, and there was nothing for it but obedience. That much was plain. Desperately, as they began to drag their tired feet once more along the trail, they listened, hoping against hope for the sounds that would indicate that some of the searchers they were sure filled the woods were in the neighborhood.