Part 10 (2/2)

”What is it?” he hissed.

”Don't! don't!” begged Helen. ”You'll let those bats all out here----”

”Bats?” queried Tom, in wonder.

”In the chimney,” whispered Ruth. ”Listen!”

The stir and squeaking of the bats were audible. Enough rain had come in at the top of the broken chimney to disturb the nocturnal creatures.

”Just the thing!” giggled Tom, seeing what Ruth would do. ”Frighten them to pieces!”

The girl of the Red Mill had secured the stick she used before. She pulled aside the ”stopper” of newspaper and thrust in the stick. At once the rustling and squeaking increased.

She worked the stick up and down insistently. Scale from the inside of the chimney began to rattle down to the hearth below. The voices ceased.

Then the men were heard to scramble up.

The bats were dislodged--perhaps many of them! There was a scuffling and scratching inside the flue.

Below, the men broke out into loud cries. They shouted their alarm in the strange language the girls had heard before. Then their feet stamped over the floor.

Tom ran lightly to the window. He saw a bat wheel out of the window below, and disappear. The rain had almost stopped.

It was evident that many of the creatures were flapping about that deserted dining-room. The two ruffians scrambled to the door, through the entry, and out upon the porch.

The sound of their feet did not hold upon the porch. They leaped down the steps, and Tom beckoned the girls eagerly to join him at the window.

The two men were racing down the lane toward the muddy highroad, paying little attention to their steps or to the last of the rainstorm.

”Panic-stricken, sure enough! Smart girl, Ruthie,” was Master Tom's comment. ”Now tell a fellow all about it.”

The girls did so, while Ruth lit the alcohol lamp and made the tea. Tom was ravenous--nothing could spoil that boy's appet.i.te.

”Gyps., sure enough,” was his comment. ”But what you heard them say wasn't much.”

”They'd been robbing somebody--or were going to rob,” said Helen, shaking her head. ”What frightful men they are!”

”Pooh! they've gone now, and the old machine is fixed. We'll plow on through the mud as soon as you like.”

”I shall be glad, when we get to civilization again,” said his sister.

”And I'd like very much to understand what those men were talking about,” Ruth observed. ”Do you suppose Roberto knows about it?

Pearls--beautiful pearls, that fellow spoke of.”

”I tell you they are thieves!” declared Helen.

”We'll probably never know,” Tom said, confidently. ”So let's not worry!”

Master Tom did not prove a good prophet on this point, although he had foreseen the breaking down of the automobile before they started from the Red Mill. They went back to the car and started from the old house in a much more cheerful mood, neither of the girls supposing that they were likely to run across the Gypsy men again.

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