l do
you good," the gipsy Diana was saying to them; and when they managed to
open their sleepy eyes, they saw that she had a wooden bowl in one hand,
in which some hot coffee was steaming, and a hunch of bread in the
other. It was not very good coffee, and neither Duke nor Pamela was
accustomed to coffee of any kind at home, but it was hot and sweet, and
they were so hungry that even the coarse butterless bread tasted good.
As they grew more awake they began to wonder how the coffee had been
made, but the mystery was soon explained, for at a short distance a fire
of leaves and branches was burning brightly with a kettle sputtering
merrily in the middle. And round the fire Mick and his wife and big Tony
were sitting or lying, each with food in their hands; while a little
nearer them Tim was pulling another shawl out of a bundle.

"Give it me here," said Diana, and then she wrapped it round Duke,
drawing the other more closely about Pamela.

"Now you can go to sleep again," she said, seeing that the coffee and
bread had disappeared. "It'll not be a cold night, and we'll have to be
off early in the morning;" and then she turned away and sat down to eat
her own supper at a little distance.

"Tim," whispered Duke; but the boy caught the faint sound and edged
himself nearer.

"Tim," said Duke again, "is he not going to take us home to-night?"

"I'se a-feared not," replied Tim in the same tone.

A low deep sigh escaped poor Duke. Pamela, so worn out by the pain as
well as fatigue she had suffered that she could no longer keep up, was
already fast asleep again.

"When it's quite, quite dark," continued Duke, "and when Mick and them
all are asleep, don't you think us might run away, Tim?"

Tim shook his head.

"Missy can't walk; and she's dead tired out, let alone her poor foot,"
he said. "You must wait a bit till she can walk anyway. Try to go to
sleep, and to-morrow we'll see."

Duke began to cry quietly.

"I'm too midderable to sleep," he said. "And it's all my fault. Just
look at sister, Tim. She's not even undressed, and she'll die--sleeping
all night without any bed out in the cold. Oh, and it's all my fault!"

"Hush, hush, master!" said Tim, terrified lest the others should
overhear them.

"What does he want to do with us? Why won't he take us home?" asked
Duke.

Tim hesitated a moment.

"I thought at first it was just to get money for bringing of ye back,"
he said. "I've known him do that."

"But us