"

The old woman got up. "Then go," she said roughly.

All at once there came over Judy a feeling of fear. She turned quickly
and saw the young leader in the door behind her. There was something
sinister in his looks, and between the two she felt trapped.

"Let me out," she panted. "Let me out."

With a smile, the man in the door drew aside, and she stepped out into
the daylight. As she did so, he whispered to the old woman, "What did
you get?"

"Nothing. But the girl has on a chain with a pearl in it that would
buy us food for a year."

"Oh!"

He followed Judy quickly.

"Stay, and we will play for you," he urged.

But her nerves were shaken.

"No, no," she said, hurriedly, "I must go home."

"You must stay until we play," he insisted, and called the men
together, and Judy, still trembling from the moment of dread in the
dark tent, sank down once more beside the sullen girl on the rugs.

But the leader called the girl away for a moment, and when she came
back she sat closer to Judy than before, and her hand was busy with the
fastening of the chain at the back--but so lightly, so deftly, that
Judy sat unconscious.

And in the intervals of the music the girl laughed and chatted, telling
Judy of the life on the road, of anything to hold her attention.

"You would look like one of us," she said, "if you wore one of these,"
and she threw across Judy's shoulders a scarf of red silk.

"I believe I am half gipsy," said Judy, trying to be agreeable, but
shrinking with a feeling of repulsion from the untidy creature so near
her.

The girl drew away the scarf with a loud laugh and a triumphant nod and
a wink to the leader, and presently the music stopped.

"I must go," said Judy, more and more in dread of these strange people.

Once more the old woman bent over the blue flames; but the children had
gone deeper into the wood, and the place was silent except for the
occasional guttural remark of one of the men, or a wail from the baby
in the wagon.

"I must go," she said again, and started off.

But when she reached the road, the young leader caught up with her.

"You are beautiful," he said, when he was beyond the hearing of the
others.

Judy hurried on in silence, but he kept by her side. "You are
beautiful," he said again, and laid his hand on her arm.

Then Judy whirled around on him. "Don't speak to me that way again,"
she said, imperiously. "I may be alone and helpless, and I know now
th