ke the children they capture become Gypsies, too.
Suppose, years and years hence, I should meet Ruth and she should ask to
tell my fortune as Gypsy women do--and she shouldn't know me----"

Helen began to sob again. She was working herself up into a highly
nervous state and her imagination was "running away with her," as Ruth
often said.

Just then she almost lost the punt-pole, and this near-accident startled
her. She might need that pole yet--especially if the boat drifted into
shallow water.

She looked all around. She stood up, so as to see farther. Not a moving
object appeared along either shore of the lake. This was a veritable
wilderness, and human habitations were far, far away.

She raised her eyes to the chain of hills over which she and her brother
and Ruth had ridden the day before. At one point she could see the road
itself, and just then there flashed into view an auto, traveling
eastward at a fast clip.

"But, of course, they can't see _me_ 'way down here," said Helen,
shaking her head. "They wouldn't notice such a speck on the lake."

So she did not even try to signal to the motor-car, and it was quickly
out of sight.

The current was now stronger, it seemed. The punt drifted straight down
the lake toward the broad stream through which Long Lake was drained.
Helen hoped the boat would drift in near one shore, or the other, but it
entered the stream as near the middle as though it had been aimed for
that point!

Here the water gripped the heavy boat and drew it onward, swifter and
swifter. At first Helen was not afraid. She saw the banks slipping by on
either hand, and was now so far from the Gypsies, that she would have
been glad to get ashore. Yet she did not think herself in any increased
danger.

Suddenly, however, an eddy gripped the boat. To her amazement the craft
swung around swiftly and she was floating down stream, stern foremost!

"Oh, dear me! I wish I had a pair of oars. Then I could manage this
thing," she told herself.

Then the boat scraped upon a rock. The blow was a glancing one, but it
drove the craft around again. She was glad, however, to see the bow
aimed properly.

From moment to moment the boat now moved more swiftly. It seemed that
the foam-streaked water tore at its sides as though desiring to swamp
it. Helen sat very quietly in the middle seat, and watched the dimpling,
eddying stream with increasing anxiety.

Suddenly the punt darted shoreward. It looked just a