Part 26 (1/2)
He was Roberto, the Gypsy!
CHAPTER XX
HE CANNOT TALK
”Is he badly hurt?” cried Mr. Cameron, who dared not get down and leave the horses just then.
”Don't tell us he is killed, Ruthie!” wailed Helen, clasping her hands and unable to leave the carriage.
The Gypsy boy lay very still. One arm was bent under him in such a queer position that the girl of the Red Mill knew it must be broken. His olive face was pallid, and there was a little blood on his lips.
She dared not move him. She bent down and put her ear to his chest. His heart was beating--he breathed!
”He's alive!” she said, turning to her friends in the carriage. ”But I am afraid he is badly hurt. At least, one arm----”
The youth groaned. Ruth turned toward him with a tender little cry. She thought his eyelids quivered, but they were not opened.
”What will we do with him? He ought to be taken to a hospital. Where's the nearest doctor?” asked Mr. Cameron.
”Lumberton,” said Ruth, promptly. ”And that is the only place where there is a hospital around here.”
”Back we must go, then,” declared Mr. Cameron, promptly. ”We sha'n't see Master Tom to-day, that's sure. You get out, Helen, and I'll turn around.”
Helen ran to her friend who still hovered over the boy. At once she recognized him.
”My goodness me! Roberto! isn't that strange? Then he did not go south with the other Gypsies.”
”It seems not--poor fellow,” returned Ruth.
”Do you suppose he knows all about the necklace--how his grandmother became possessed of it, and all?”
”I don't know. I am sure Roberto is quite honest himself,” returned Ruth. ”He is not a thief like those wicked men who were talking that day in the old house, and who seem to have so much influence in the Gypsy camp.”
”I don't care!” exclaimed Helen, warmly. ”I am sorry for Roberto. But I hope father _does_ send detectives after the Gyps., and that they catch and punish that horrid old woman. How mean she was to us!”
”s.h.!.+” warned Ruth.
Roberto gave no sign of returning consciousness now. That puzzled the girl of the Red Mill, for she had thought he was just about to come to.
Mr. Cameron turned the carriage and halted it beside the spot where the boy lay. ”Of course you two girls can't lift him?” he said.
”Of course we can!” returned his daughter, promptly. ”Oh! Ruth and I haven't been doing gym. work for two years for nothing. Just watch us.”
”Easy!” murmured Ruth, warningly, as Helen seized the youth's legs.
”Perhaps he has more than a broken arm.”
”But he must be lifted,” said Helen. ”Come on, now! He isn't conscious, and perhaps we can get him into the carriage before he wakes up.”