don't," warned the man; "come on,
no nonsense."

As there seemed to be nothing else to do the boys obeyed. As they drew
closer they recognized the fellow.

"Oh, you know me, eh?" he snarled; "well, you'll know me better before
we get through. Follow me, now. Pedro, you take the rifle and fall in
behind. If they try to escape shoot them down."

Here was a fine situation. They had found the gipsies' camp with a
vengeance, but for all the good it was going to do The Wren, unless
they could get her away, they might as well not have come. These gloomy
reflections sifted through their minds as they paced along, the man with
the rifle occasionally prodding them with it just to make them "step
lively," as he phrased it.

At length they came to a sort of large open place shaped like a basin,
and placed in the middle of this natural island. In this basin were set
up several squalid tents, about which the gipsies were squatting.

They set up a yell of surprise as the two boys were brought in.

"Where under the sun did you find them, Beppo?" exclaimed the same woman
who had so cruelly ill-treated The Wren the time the boys rescued her.

"Oh, they were just taking a stroll, and happened to stroll in here,"
said Beppo viciously.

"I guess they won't have a chance to bother us again. They're going to
make quite a stay here."

The gipsies set up a taunting laugh. Suddenly, from one of the tents,
a tiny figure darted.

"Oh, I knew you'd come! I knew you'd come," it cried.

It was the poor little Wren. She had been stripped of her nice clothes
and put into some filthy rags, her face was stained with crying and
there was a bruise on her forehead.

With a curse Beppo seized the child by one arm, swung her round and
dealt her a savage box on the ear.

"Get back where you belong!" he roared.

The next instant Beppo had measured his length on the ground and beneath
one of his eyes a beautiful plum-colored swelling was developing. As has
been said, Roy could hit a powerful blow.

CHAPTER XXVII.

DELIVERANCE.

The next minute all was wild confusion. The boys found themselves on the
ground, being scratched and bitten and kicked by men and women alike.
They did not have a chance against this horde of half savage wanderers.
At length beaten and bruised they were tied with ropes and thrown into
one of the tents and a man set to guard it.

All day they lay there without anything to eat or drink and no one to
come near