Bobby had one more question to ask the Gypsy girl before she went to sleep, and she asked that in secret.
"How did that Varey woman--that Gypsy queen--know so much about me, and about Laura Belding, and our affairs?"
"Did she?" returned Margit, sleepily. "She is a sharp one! But, then, the Vareys have worked through this part of the country for years and years. That is why I was given to them, I think. Perhaps Grace Varey has been to Centerport many times--I do not know. We Romany folk pick up all sorts of information--yes!"
Bobby stole into bed beside Eve. She could not sleep for some time; but finally her eyes closed and--for some hours, or some minutes, she never knew which--she slept. Then, a dog"s howling broke her rest.
Bobby sat up and listened. The dog"s mournful howling sounded nearer.
Some dog about the Sitz premises answered with several savage barks.
But, as nothing followed, the city girl dropped back upon her pillows again.
The night noises of the country, however, disturbed her. She could not sleep soundly. Once she thought she heard voices--and so clearly that it seemed as though they must be in the bedroom.
But it was still dark. n.o.body could be astir, she told herself, at such a dark hour. A rooster crowed, and then several others followed. She fell asleep again slowly counting the chanticleers.
And then--suddenly, it seemed--Eve was shaking her and calling in her ear:
"Oh, Bobby! Bobby! Wake up--do! What do you suppose has happened?"
It was broad daylight. Eve was more than half dressed and the door between their room and that occupied by the Gypsy girl was open.
"What"s the matter?" gasped Bobby.
"She"s gone!" wailed Eve.
"Who"s gone?" and Bobby leaped out of bed.
"That girl. Out of the window. She"s run away!"
Bobby ran to look into the room. The window sash was up and the blinds wide open. The girls had slept on the ground floor, and alone in this wing of the rambling old farmhouse.
"What did she run away for?" demanded Bobby, slowly. "She could have _walked_ away, had she wanted to, couldn"t she? n.o.body would have stopped her."
"But she"s gone!" cried Eve.
"So I see," Bobby admitted, grimly. "She didn"t go of her own free will, you can just bet!"
"I didn"t think of that," cried Eve, running to the window.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and even farmer folk remain an hour longer in bed on that day. The sun, which had just risen, revealed the hillside fields and pastures clearly. There was not an object in sight which suggested the missing girl"s escape, saving just beneath the window. There several planks had been laid upon the soft earth, to make a walk to the hard path. This had been done by those who had come after Margit Salgo, so as to leave no footprints.
Eve finished dressing in a hurry and ran to tell her parents and Otto.
Mr. and Mrs. Sitz slept at the other end of the house, and Otto and the hired man on the floor above.
Whoever had kidnapped the girl--for such it seemed to be--had worked very circ.u.mspectly. The watchdog, chained by his hutch, had been caught and a strong rubber band fastened about his jaws so that he could not bark. This had evidently been the first work of the marauders.
Then they had gone about taking out the girl coolly enough. There were few footprints anywhere. And in the roadway they found where a wagon had been turned around. In this wagon, it was likely, Margit had been carried away, and it had started along the road in the direction of Centerport.
"They have got her again," sighed Bobby. "And goodness only knows what they will do with her, or where they will hide her away." "Perhaps we will never see the poor girl again," ventured Eve.
But Bobby did not believe that. She knew now, for sure, that Margit Salgo was in some manner closely connected with the private affairs of Miss Carrington. She was sure that both the Gypsies and Margit would appear near the high school again.
CHAPTER XV--ANOTHER RIVALRY ON THE FIELD
Eve Sitz had no rival at Central High when it came to putting the shot; but there were plenty of girls who essayed the broad jump--and some did almost if not quite as well as Eve. Notably Lou Potter, a senior who practiced a.s.siduously and who had many friends who believed she would, in the end, best the Swiss girl.
"The meet is a long way off yet," said one of Lou"s friends to Laura Belding. "That girl you juniors are boosting isn"t the only "hope" of Central High."
"Whom do you mean?" returned Mother Wit.
"That girl whose name sounds like a gla.s.s of vichy--what is it? Eve----"
"And what about Eve Sitz?" demanded Bobby, who chanced to arrive in time to hear the senior"s remark.
"And here"s another fresh one," said the senior, eyeing Bobby coolly.
"Thinks she is going to grab off the quarter-mile."
"You make me tired!" returned Bobby, promptly. "Is that what you call loyalty to the school? If you"ve got another girl faster than I am, trot her out. I won"t stand in her light."
"Nor will Eve interfere with any girl who can beat her in jumping, or put the shot farther," declared Laura, quickly.
"Oh, yes! That"s all very pretty talk. But Mrs. Case is favoring you.
She is favoring the whole junior cla.s.s. _We_ weren"t doing all the athletic stunts last year when we were juniors--no, indeed!"
"Well, whose fault is it if the junior cla.s.s stands better in after-hour athletics than the senior?" demanded Bobby, laughing.
"And you pushed yourselves into the basketball team even before you were juniors," declared the other girl, angrily.
"Come, now!" returned Laura, warmly. "That"s not fair at all. If any of you seniors had shown any desire to play the game to win, Mrs. Case would have put you on the first team--you know that. But your cla.s.s, as a whole, would rather dance, and go to parties, and attend the theatre, and all that. You know very well that Mrs. Case has often called our attention to the fact that late hours takes the vitality out of us, and makes success in the gym. and on the field impossible."
"Thanks for your lecture, Mother Witless!" snapped the other girl. "But I don"t care for it. And let me tell you that Lou Potter is going to make your soda-water champion look cheap."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Bobby, as the older girl turned away. "Do you suppose we"ll be as high and mighty as all that when we get to be seniors, Laura?"
"I hope not--not even if we get to be patriarchs," laughed Mother Wit.
"But Miss Potter is making a good jump, just the same, Bobby. Eve isn"t going to have it all her own way."
"Why, Eve"ll beat her easily," declared Bobby, with confidence.
Eve Sitz did not find it so easy to score ahead of all her rivals, however. And Lou Potter"s record steadily grew better. Eve knew that she was doing her very best right along, whereas the senior was creeping up, creeping up--showing almost as good a record as Eve, and still forging on.
Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, held the championship for putting the shot, and Eve knew that she had surpa.s.sed her score. In the broad jump it was almost as difficult for the contestants to learn their exact record as it was for the sprinters to learn theirs. If Mrs. Case measured the distance she kept the record secret.
Some of the seniors, especially those who were backing Lou Potter, began to make trouble in the meetings of the athletic committee, too.