The Corner House Girls Among the Gypsies Part 35

"I am with you there, Aggie," admitted Neale. "I guess this is a serious affair. The Gypsies are in it."

Between the two, the boy and the girl told Mr. Pinkney all about the silver bracelet and the events connected with it. The man listened with appreciation.

"I don't know, of course, anything about the fight between the two factions of Gypsies over what you call Queen Alma's bracelet--"

"If it doesn't prove to be Sarah Turner's bracelet," interjected Agnes.

"Yes. That is possible. They may have just found it--those Gypsy women.

And the story Costello, the junkman, told us might be a fake," said Neale.

"However," broke in Mr. Pinkney again, "there is a chance that the bracelet was given to Tess and Dot for a different purpose from any you have suggested."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Neale and Agnes in unison.

"It is a fact that some Gypsies do steal children. Now, don't be startled! It isn't commonly done. They are often accused without good reason. But Gypsies are always more or less mixed up with traveling show people. There are many small tent shows traveling about the country at this time of year."

"Like Twomley & Sorber's circus," burst out Agnes.

"Smaller than that. Just one-ring affairs. And the shows are regular 'fly-by-nights.' Gypsies fraternize with them of course. And often children are trained in those shows to be acrobats who are doubtless picked up around the country--usually children who have no guardians.

And the Gypsies sometimes pick up such."

"Oh, but, Mr. Pinkney!" cried Agnes, "we are so careful of Tess and Dot. Usually, I mean. I don't know what Ruth will say when she gets home to-night. It looks as though we had been very careless while she was gone."

"I know what children have to go through in a circus," said Neale soberly. "But why should the Gypsies have selected Tess and Dot?"

"Because, you tell me, they were playing circus, and doing stunts at the very time the Gypsy women sold them the basket."

"Oh! So they were," agreed Agnes. "Oh, Neale!"

"Crickey! It might be, I suppose. I never thought of that," admitted the boy.

He was carefully running the car while this talk was going on. He soon drove past the Poole place and later stopped at a little house where the constable lived.

Mr. Ben Stryker was at home. It was not often that automobile parties called at his door. Usually they did not want to see Mr. Stryker, who was a stickler for the "rules of the road."

"What's the matter?" asked the constable, coming out to the car. "Want to pay me your fine, so as not to have to wait to see the Justice of the Peace?"

He said it jokingly. When he heard about the missing Kenway children and of the reason to fear Gypsies had something to do with it, he jumped into the car, taking Mr. Pinkney's place in the front seat beside Neale.

"I've had my eye on Big Jim Costello ever since he has been back here," Stryker declared. "I sent him away to jail once. He is a bad one. And if he is mixed up in any kidnapping, I'll put him into the penitentiary for a long term."

"But of course we would not want to make them trouble if the children went to the camp alone," ventured Agnes. "You know, they might have been hunting for the two women who sold them the basket."

"Those Gypsies know what to do in such a case. They know where I live, and they should have brought the two little girls to me. I certainly have it in for Big Jim."

But as we have seen, when the party arrived at the spot where the Gypsies had been encamped, not a trace of them was left. That is, no trace that pointed to the time or the direction of their departure.

"Maybe these Gypsies did not have a thing to do with the absence of Tess and Dot," whispered Agnes.

"And maybe they had everything to do with it," declared Neale, aloud.

"Looks to me as though they had turned the trick and escaped."

"And in those motor-vans they can cover a deal of ground," suggested Mr. Pinkney.

Agnes broke down at this point and wept. The constable had got out and with the aid of his pocket lamp searched the vicinity. He saw plainly where the vans had turned into the dusty road and the direction they had taken.

"The best we can do is to follow them," he advised. "If I can catch them inside the county I'll be able to handle them. And if they go into the next county I'll get help. Well search their vans, no matter where we catch them. All ready?"

The party went on. To catch the moving Gypsies was no easy matter.

Frequently Mr. Stryker got down to look at the tracks. This was at every cross road.

Fortunately the wheels of one of the Gypsy vans had a peculiar tread.

It was easy to see the marks of these wheels in the dust. Therefore, although the pursuit was slow, they managed to be sure they were going right.

From eleven o'clock until three in the morning the motor-car was driven over the circuitous route the nomad procession had taken earlier in the night. Then they came to the new encampment.

Their approach was announced by the barking of the mongrel dogs that guarded the camp. Half the tribe seemed to be awake when the car slowed down and stopped on the roadway. Mr. Stryker got out and shouted for Big Jim.

"Come out here!" said the constable threateningly. "I know you are here, and I want to talk with you, Jim Costello."

"Well, whose chicken roost has been raided now?" demanded Big Jim, approaching with his smile and his impudence both in evidence.

"No chicken thievery," snapped Stryker, flas.h.i.+ng his electric light into the big Gypsy's face. "Where are those kids?"

"What kids? I got my own--and there's a raft of them. I'll give you a couple if you want."

Big Jim seemed perfectly calm and the other Gypsies were like him.

They routed out every family in the camp. The constable and Neale searched the tents and the vans. No trace of Tess and Dot was to be found.

"Everything you lay to the poor Gypsy," said Big Jim complainingly.

"Now it is not chickens--it is kids. Bah!"

He slouched away. Stryker called after him:

"Never mind, Jim. We'll get you yet! You watch your step."

He came back to the Kenway car shaking his head. "I guess they have not been here. I'll come back to-morrow when the Gypsies don't expect me and look again if your little sisters do not turn up elsewhere.

What shall we do now?"

Agnes was weeping so that she could not speak. Neale shook his head gloomily. Mr. Pinkney sighed.

"Well," the latter said, "we might as well start for home. No good staying here."

"I'll get you to Milton in much shorter time than it took to get here," said the constable. "Keep right ahead, Mr. O'Neil. We'll take the first turn to the right and run on till we come to Hampton Mills.

It's pretty near a straight road from there to Milton. And I can get a ride from the Mills to my place with a fellow I know who pa.s.ses my house every morning."

Neale started the car and they left the buzzing camp behind them. They had no idea that the moment the sound of the car died away the Gypsies leaped to action, packed their goods and chattels again, and the tribe started swiftly for the State line. Big Jim did not mean to be caught if he could help it by Constable Stryker, who knew his record.

The Corner House car whirred over the rather good roads to Hampton Mills and there the constable parted from them. He promised to report any news he might get of the absent children, and they were to send him word if Tess and Dot were found.