Part 13 (1/2)
”Come!” repeated Zelaya. ”Tell me of all the riches and jewels--the gold and silver-plates you eat from, the jewelry you have to wear, the rich silks--all of it! I love to hear of such things,” exclaimed the woman, grinning again in her terrible way.
Helen opened her lips to speak, but Ruth pinched her. ”Tell her nothing,” the girl of the Red Mill whispered. ”I am afraid we have said too much already.”
”Why?” queried Helen, wonderingly.
”Pshaw! this old woman can't hurt us. Isn't she funny?”
”Speak up, my little ladies!” commanded Queen Zelaya. ”My will is law here. Do not forget that.”
”I guess your will isn't much law to _us_,” replied Helen, laughing and tossing her head. ”You see, we do not know you----”
”You shall!” hissed the horrible old creature, suddenly stretching forth one of her claw-like hands. ”Come here!”
Ruth seized her friend tightly. Helen was laughing, but suddenly she stopped. The queen's terrible eyes seemed to hold the girl in a spell.
Involuntarily Helen's limbs bore her toward the far end of the van.
The girl's face became pale; her own eyes protruded from their sockets; the Gypsy Queen charmed her, just as a snake is said to charm a young bird in its nest.
But Ruth sprang after her, seized Helen's arm again, and shook her.
”You stop that!” she cried, to the old woman. ”Don't you mind her, Helen. She has some wicked power in her eyes, my dear!”
Her cry broke the hypnotic spell the woman had cast over Helen Cameron.
The latter sank down, trembling and sobbing, with her hands over her face.
”Oh, dear, Ruthie! I wish we hadn't gotten into this wagon,” she moaned.
”I am sure I wish so, too,” returned her chum, in a low voice, while the old woman rocked herself to and fro in her seat, and cackled her horrid laughter.
”Aren't we ever going to get to that town? Tom said it was only two miles or a little over.”
”I wish we could speak to that other woman,” muttered Ruth.
”Do you suppose this old thing is crazy?” whispered Helen.
”Worse than that,” returned Ruth. ”I am afraid of them all. I don't believe they mean us well. Let's get out, Helen.”
”Oh! where shall we go?” returned her friend, in a tone quite as soft as Ruth's own.
”We must be somewhere near the town.”
”It is pitch dark outside the windows,” complained Helen.
”Let's try it. Pitch dark is not as bad as this wicked old creature----”
The hag laughed again, although she was not looking at them. Surely she could not hear the girls' whispers, yet her cackling laugh sent a s.h.i.+ver over both girls. It was just as though Queen Zelaya, as she called herself, could read what was in their minds.
”Yes, yes!” whispered Helen, with sudden eagerness in her voice. ”You are right. We will go.”
”We'll slip out without anybody but the old woman seeing us----Then we'll run!”
Ruth jumped up suddenly and stepped to the door at the rear of the van.