Part 2 (2/2)
”And inside was that beautiful fretted silver bracelet. And that--”
”Just as certainly belongs to the Gypsies,” finished Ruth. ”At least, it does not belong to you and Dot.”
”Aw shu-u-cks!” drawled Sammy in dissent.
Even Agnes cast a wistful glance at the older girl. Ruth was always so uncompromising in her decisions. There was never any middle ground in her view. Either a thing was right, or it was wrong, and that was all there was to it!
”Well,” sighed Tess, ”that Gypsy lady _said_ she knew we were honest.”
”I think,” Ruth observed thoughtfully, ”that Neale had better run the car out again and look about town for those Gypsy women. They can't have got far away.”
”Say, Ruth! it's most supper time,” objected Neale. ”Have a heart!”
”Anyway, I wouldn't trouble myself about a crowd of Gypsies,” said Agnes. ”They may have stolen the bracelet.”
”Oh!” gasped Tess and Dot in unison.
”You know what June Wildwood told us about them. And she lived with Gypsies for months.”
”Gypsies are not all alike,” the elder sister said confidently in answer to this last remark by Agnes. ”Remember Mira and King David Stanley, and how nice they were to Tess and Dottie?” she asked, speaking of an incident related in ”The Corner House Girls on a Tour.”
”I don't care!” exclaimed Agnes, pouting, and still viewing the bracelet on her arm with admiration. ”I wouldn't run _my_ legs off chasing a band of Gypsies.”
They were all, however, bound to be influenced by Ruth's decision.
”Well, I'll hunt around after supper,” Neale said. ”I'll take Sammy with me. You'll know those women if you see them again, won't you, kid?”
”Sure,” agreed Sammy, forgiving Neale for calling him ”kid” with the prospect of an automobile ride in the offing.
”But--but,” breathed Tess in Ruth's ear, ”if those Gypsy ladies don't take back the bracelet, it belongs to Dot and me, doesn't it, Sister?”
”Of course. Agnes! do give it back, now. I expect it will cause trouble enough if those women are not found. A bone of contention! Both these children will want to wear the bracelet at the same time. Don't _you_ add to the difficulty, Agnes.”
”Why,” drawled Agnes, slowly removing the curiously engraved silver ornament from her arm, ”of course they will return for it. Or Neale will find them.”
This statement, however, was not borne out by the facts. Neale and Sammy drove all about town that evening without seeing the Gypsy women. The next day the smaller Corner House girls were taken into the suburbs all around Milton; but nowhere did they find trace of the Gypsies or of any encampment of those strange, nomadic people in the vicinity.
The finding of the bracelet in the basket remained a mystery that the Corner House girls could not soon forget.
”It does seem,” said Tess, ”as though those Gypsy ladies couldn't have meant to give us the bracelet, Dot. The old one said so much about our being honest. She didn't expect us to _steal_ it.”
”Oh, no!” agreed Dot. ”But Neale O'Neil says maybe the Gypsy ladies stole it, and were afraid to keep it. So they gave it to us.”
”M-mm,” considered Tess. ”But that doesn't explain it at all. Even if they wanted to get rid of the bracelet, they need not have given it to us in such a lovely basket. Ruth says the basket is worth a whole lot more than the forty-five cents we paid for it.”
”It _is_ awful pretty,” sighed Dot in agreement.
”Some day they will surely come back for the bracelet.”
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