oot a sharp pain, and very slight as the sound was, causing
the bull-dog to awake. He raised his wicked face, saw the figure like his
own people, and yet unlike, but a step or two away, and, uttering a low
growl, sprang forward.

In the ordinary course of things this growl would have risen in volume
and would have terminated in a volley of barking; but Annie was prepared:
she went down on her knees, held out her arms, said, "Poor fellow!" in
her own seductive voice, and the bull-dog fawned at her feet. He licked
one of her hands while she patted him gently with the other.

"Come, poor fellow," she said then in a gentle tone, and Annie and the
dog began to perambulate round the tents.

The other dogs raised sleepy eyes, but seeing Tiger and the girl
together, took no notice whatever, except by a thwack or two of their
stumpy tails. Annie was now looking not only at the tents, but for
something else which Zillah, her nurse, had told her might be found near
to many gypsy encampments. This was a small subterranean passage, which
generally led into a long-disused underground Danish fort. Zillah had
told her what uses the gypsies liked to make of these underground
passages, and how they often chose those which had two entrances. She
told her that in this way they eluded the police, and were enabled
successfully to hide the goods which they stole. She had also described
to her their great ingenuity in hiding the entrances to these underground
retreats.

Annie's idea now was that little Nan was hidden in one of these vaults,
and she determined first to make sure of its existence, and then to
venture herself into this underground region in search of the lost child.

She had made a decided conquest in the person of Tiger, who followed her
round and round the tents, and when the gypsies at last began to stir,
and Annie crept into the hedgerow, the dog crouched by her side. Tiger
was the favorite dog of the camp, and presently one of the men called to
him; he rose unwillingly, looked back with longing eyes at Annie, and
trotted off, to return in the space of about five minutes with a great
hunch of broken bread in his mouth. This was his breakfast, and he meant
to share it with his new friend. Annie was too hungry to be fastidious,
and she also knew the necessity of keeping up her strength. She crept
still farther under the hedge, and the dog and girl shared the broken
bread between them.

Presently the tents were all astir;