stable from Severn Corners. It was a pity Tom Cameron had
not been with him!

Finally Ruth saw that the man had given up the search, and the Gypsies
were going to depart. She determined to make a desperate attempt to
attract his attention to herself.

She suddenly sprang through the group of children, knocking the bold
girl down in her effort, and started, yelling, for the constable.
Instantly one of the men halted her, swung her about, clapped a palm
over her mouth, and she saw him staring balefully down into her face.

"You do that ageen--I keel you!" he hissed.

It was the evil-eyed man who had spied upon Queen Zelaya, as she had
worshipped the pearl necklace in the van the evening before. Ruth was
stricken dumb and motionless. The man looked wicked enough to do just
what he said he would.

She saw the constable depart. Then the Gypsies huddled into the wagons,
and she was seized by Zelaya and put into the first van. The old witch
was grinning broadly.

"Ah, ha!" she chuckled. "What does the Gentile girl think now? That she
shall escape so easily Zelaya? Ha! she is already like one of our own
kind. Her own parents would not know her--nor shall they see her again
until they have paid, and paid in full!"

"You are holding the wrong girl, Zelaya," murmured Ruth. "_My_ parents
are dead, and there is nobody to pay you a great ransom for me."

"False!" croaked the hag, and struck her again.

The caravan rolled on after that for a long way. It did not stop for
dinner, and Ruth grew very hungry, for she and Helen had been too
excited that morning to eat much breakfast.

Through the open door and the forward window Ruth saw considerable of
the road. They were seldom out of sight of the lake. By and by they
turned right down to the water's edge and she heard the horses' feet
splashing through the shallow water.

She could not imagine where they were going. Out of the door she saw
that they seemed to be leaving the land and striking right out into the
lake. The water grew deeper slowly, rising first over one step and then
another, while the shore of the lake receded behind them. The other vans
and the boys driving the horses followed in their wake.

Curious, Ruth arose and went to the forward end of the van. She could
see out between the driver and his wife, and over the heads of the
horses. The latter were almost shoulder deep now, and were advancing
very slowly.

Some rods ahead she saw that there was a wooded