d when you left me!"

"What's become of Mrs. Vernon?" asked Raymonde.

Aveline did not know. In the hullabaloo of the pursuit the woman had
been allowed to escape. She had the wisdom not to return to the camp,
and was indeed never seen again in the neighbourhood. Great was the
excitement at the farm when the gipsies brought in the German. Mr.
Rivers himself undertook to drive them and their prisoner to the
jail.

Raymonde and Aveline had a thrilling story to tell in the marquee that
night, where everybody collected to hear the wonderful experience,
those who had already gone to their tents donning dressing-gowns and
coming to join the interested audience. Miss Gibbs seemed divided
between a sense of her duty as a schoolmistress to scold her pupils
for undertaking such an extremely wild proceeding, and a glow of pride
that her girls had actually succeeded in effecting the capture of an
escaped enemy. On the whole, pride and patriotism prevailed, and the
pair were let off with only a caution against madcap adventures.

Raymonde found herself the idol of the gipsies at the strawberry
gardens next day.

"We're to have a big reward, lady, for copping that German!" said the
Romany woman. "It'll buy us a new horse for our caravan. Will you
please accept this basket from us? We wish we'd anything better to
offer you. I'll teach you three words of Romany--let me whisper! Don't
you forget them, and if you're ever in trouble, and want help from the
gipsies, you've only to say those words to them, and they'll give
their last drop of blood for you. But don't tell anybody else, lady;
the words are only for you."

"What was she saying to you?" asked Morvyth curiously.

"I can't tell you," replied Raymonde. "It's a secret!"

[Illustration: "RAYMONDE DREW A LONG BREATH OF INTENSE RELIEF, AND PEEPED
OUT"]

CHAPTER XIII

Camp Hospitality

The brief visit at the camp was vanishing with almost incredible
rapidity; the week would finish on Saturday, but Miss Gibbs had
decided to stay till Monday morning, so as to put in the full period
of work on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was of course a holiday, and the
pickers enjoyed a well-earned rest. Those who liked went to the little
church in Shipley village, the clergyman of which also held an outdoor
service in the stackyard at the farm for all whom he could persuade to
come.

In the afternoon the members of the camp gave themselves up to
hospitality. They had small and se