"Come!" repeated Zelaya. "Tell me of all the riches and jewels--the gold and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich silks--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 her nothing," the girl of the Red Mill whispered. "I am afraid we have said too 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 law here. Do not forget that."
"I guess your will isn"t much law to _us_," replied Helen, laughing and tossing her head. "You see, we do not know you----"
"You shall!" hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forth one of her claw-like hands. "Come here!"
Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly she stopped. 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 young bird 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 her face.
"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 the old woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horrid laughter.
"Aren"t we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only two miles 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"t believe they mean us well. Let"s get out, Helen."
"Oh! where shall we go?" returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft as Ruth"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 she could not hear the girls" whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a shiver over both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she called herself, could read what was in their minds.
"Yes, yes!" whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. "You are right. We will go."
"We"ll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us----Then we"ll run!"
Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.
She turned the k.n.o.b and tried to open it. _The door was fastened upon the outside!_
Again the old woman broke into her cackling laugh. "Oh, no! oh, no!" she cried. "The pretty, rich little ladies cannot go yet. They must be the guests 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 her rich."
The girls stood close together, panting, afraid. Helen put her lips to Ruth"s ear, and whispered:
"Does _that_ mean she is going to hold us for ransom? Oh, dear! what did I say this very day? I _knew_ Gypsies were like this."
"Hush!" warned Ruth. "Try and not let her see you are so afraid. Perhaps she means only to frighten us."
"But--but when she looks at me, I seem to lose everything--speech, power to move, even power to think," gasped Helen.
Just then the van turned suddenly from the road and came to a halt. They had been traveling much faster than Ruth and Helen had supposed.
Lights flashed outside, and dogs barked, while the voices of men, women and children rose in a chorus of shouts and cries.
"Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "They have gotten into town at last."
Ruth feared this was not so. She tried to peer out of one of the windows. There was a bonfire at one side, and she thought she saw a tent. There were other wagons like the one in which they seemed to be imprisoned.
"Now they"ll _have_ to let us out," repeated Helen.
"I am afraid not," returned the girl of the Red Mill. "This is the Gypsy camp, I am sure, dear. Do try to be brave! I think they never meant to take 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 old woman. "My father has plenty of money and he will spend it all to get me back--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 a rough-looking man, with an evil face and a squint in one eye. He said something to the queen in their own tongue, but he spoke with great respect, and removed his hat and bowed to her, when she replied.
Ruth and Helen started for the door, but the man motioned them back and scowled at them in an evil manner. They could see a crowd of curious faces without, and behind this man were children, women both old and young, and a few men.
Zelaya lifted the child from its bed, and pa.s.sed her into the arms of the woman who had guided Ruth and Helen to the van. She smiled upon the girls just as pleasantly as before, but now they knew that she was false and cruel.
Then the queen waved her hand and the door was closed. "You remain with me to-night, little ladies. Oh! Zelaya would let nothing trouble you--no, no!"
Helen burst into wild sobs at this, and threw herself upon the floor of the van. Ruth faced the old woman with wrathful sparks in her brown eyes.
"You are acting very foolishly, indeed, whoever you are. You Gypsies cannot 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, hoa.r.s.ely. "Have a care! I will put a spell upon you, little lady----"