ittle
girl in our town yesterday. Perhaps you gypsies took it by mistake; and,
if so, we'd be glad to have it back."

"We haven't any doll," growled one big gypsy. "We have only what is our
own."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Mr. Carr. "We'll have a look about
the camp and see what we can find."

The gypsy growled and said something else, though what it was Bert
could not hear. The gypsies did not seem pleased to have visitors, nor
did the dogs who sniffed about the feet of Bert, his father and the
policeman. One dog growled, while others barked, and then the gypsy man
who had first spoken made them go away.

"You are wasting your time here," said this gypsy, who seemed to be the
leader, or "king," as he is sometimes called. "We have nothing but what
is our own. We have no little girl's doll."

"We'll have a look about," said Mr. Carr again.

But though the policeman and Mr. Bobbsey, to say nothing of Bert, who
had very sharp eyes, looked all about the gypsy camp, there was no sign
of the missing doll. If a gypsy man had taken it, of which Helen, at
least, was very sure, he had either hidden it well or, possibly, had
gone off by himself to some other camp in another part of the woods.

"If the doll would only talk now and tell us where she is, we could get
her," said Bert with a laugh to his father, when they had walked
through the camp and come out on the other side.

"That's right," agreed Mr. Bobbsey; "but I'm afraid the doll isn't smart
enough for that. Do you see anything else that the gypsies may have
taken?" asked the twins' father of the policeman.

"I'm not sure," answered Mr. Carr. "We had a report of two horses
missing, and they may be here, but most horses look so much alike to me
that I can't tell them apart. I guess I'll have to get the men who own
them to come here and see if they can pick them out."

For half an hour Bert, his father and Mr. Carr roamed through the gypsy
camp, the dark-faced men and women scowling at them, and the dogs now
and then barking. If there were any boys or girls in the camp Bert did
not see them, and he thought they might be hiding away in some of the
many wagons.

"Well, we didn't find the doll," said Mr. Carr when they were on their
way back to Lakeport. "But I'm sure some of the horses the gypsies have
don't belong to them. The chief of police is going to make them move
away from that camp anyhow, for the man who owns the land doesn't like
the gypsies the