ouraged her,
and revived her drooping spirits. Dolly, too, seemed to have gained new
life from the sight of the big gypsy quailing before her chum. She had
stopped trembling, and stood up bravely now, ready to face whatever
might come.
"Good for you, Bessie!" she exclaimed. She darted a vicious look at
Lolla. "I wish that treacherous little gypsy would come somewhere near
me," she went on, angrily. "I'd pull her hair and make her sorry she
ever tried to help those villains to keep us. When they put her in
prison I'm going to see her, and jeer at her!"
Lolla, looking helpless now in her anger, said nothing, but she glared
at the two girls.
"I think these people are very superstitious," whispered Dolly to
Bessie, when it became plain that, for the moment, the two gypsies
intended only to watch them, without making any further attempt to tie
them up.
"I think so too," returned Bessie, in the same tone. "But I don't see
what good that is going to do us, Dolly."
"Neither do I, just yet, Bessie. But I can't help thinking that there
must be some way that we could frighten them, if we could only think of
it; so that they would be frightened and run away."
"We might tell them--Oh, I've got an idea, Dolly."
She looked at Peter and Lolla. They were at the very edge of the little
clearing in which Dolly had been imprisoned.
"Listen, Lolla," said Bessie, calmly. "I believe that you are a good
girl, though you have lied to me, and tried to make me think you were my
friend, when all the time you were planning, you could betray me. This
place is dangerous."
Lolla looked at her scornfully and tossed head.
"Don't think you can frighten me with your stories," she said, with a
laugh. "It is dangerous--for you. When my man comes you will find that
he is not a coward, like Peter, to be frightened with your knife. He
will take it away from you and beat you, too, for trying to frighten
Peter with it."
"Yes, he is brave, Lolla. We saw that when he ran away from the fire
that he saw last night near the lake."
Bessie was taking a chance when she said that. She did not know whether
Lolla had heard of the mysterious flashlight explosion or not, but she
thought it more than probable that John had told her of it. And she was
reasonably sure that he was still wondering what had caused the light
that had so suddenly blinded him. Her swift look at Lolla showed her
that her blow had struck home.
"He is a brave man, indeed,
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