urged Ruth. "I am sorry I said
anything about it."

"Oh, he isn't seriously injured by _that_," said the surgeon, holding up
the needle. "But I do not think he is 'playing possum.'"

"It isn't possible!" exclaimed Helen, confidently.

"And how long must he lie here?" Ruth asked.

"Oh, in a fortnight he'll be as fine as a fiddle. Of course, he won't be
able to use his arm much for several weeks. But the ribs will knit all
right. Maybe he can find some light job----"

"We'll see about _that_," Helen interrupted.

"I can see you young ladies are much interested in him," chuckled the
doctor. "And not entirely because he is a handsome, black-eyed rascal,
eh?"

Ruth knew that old Tony Foyle, the gardener at Briarwood Hall, was
interested in the lad. He had gone up to the ward to see Roberto several
times, and came away enthusiastic in the Gypsy's praise.

"Sure," said Tony, to Ruth, "he's jist the bye after me hear-r-t.
Herself would like him, he's that doomb!"

"Herself" was Tony's wife, who was the cook at Briarwood Hall.

"And the way that boy do be lovin' flowers! Sure, his bed in the
horspital is jest covered wid 'em. He'd be a handy lad to have here ter
give me aid, so he would. An' I been tellin' Mis' Tellingham that I need
another helper."

"We'll get him the job, Tony!" cried Ruth, in delight. "I believe he
would like to help around your hothouse and the beds. I'll see."

She interceded with the principal for Roberto, and obtained her promise
that the Gypsy boy should have the job. Then she sounded Roberto
himself, and by the way his eyes lit up and he smiled and nodded, Ruth
knew he would be delighted to be Tony Foyle's assistant.

"At least," thought Ruth, "I can keep in sight of him for a time.
Perhaps he couldn't tell us, anyway, where Queen Zelaya has hidden
herself. But I believe he knows, and I haven't much faith in the results
those detectives get."

Roberto mended rapidly. He was soon up and about the ward, when the
girls called. He was less restless than Ruth expected him to be, and he
still signified his intention of coming to help the little old Irish
gardener at Briarwood Hall.

"When he recovers his powers of speech," said the doctor, "it will be as
suddenly as he lost them. No doubt of that. But it is a most puzzling
case. I am glad he is not going far from Lumberton. I want to watch the
progress of the affair."

The next day Roberto came to Briarwood.

CHAPTER XXII

A GR