y appetite of youth!

"Do you suppose," whispered Helen, "that we could climb out of one of
these windows after she falls asleep?"

"I am sure I couldn't get through one," returned Ruth. "And I doubt if
you could. Besides, there will be guards, and the dogs are awake. We've
got to wait for help from outside, my dear."

"Do you suppose Tom will find us?"

"I hope not!" exclaimed Ruth. "Not while he is alone. But he certainly
will give the alarm, and the whole countryside will be aroused."

"Oh, dear, me! this old woman seems so sure that she can hold us
captive."

"I think she is crazy," Ruth declared. "And the other Gypsies must lack
good sense, too, or they would not be governed by her."

The queen gobbled down her supper and then prepared to retire to her own
bunk. She told the girls to do the same, and they removed their shoes
and outer garments and lay down--one on one side of the wagon, and one
on the other.

Ruth's head was toward the door. She could watch the movements of the
old Gypsy woman. Zelaya did not go to sleep at all, but seemed to be
waiting for the camp to get quiet and for her two visitors to fall into
slumber.

She kept raising her head and looking first at Helen, then at Ruth. The
latter knew by her chum's breathing that, despite her fears, Helen had
fallen asleep almost instantly.

So Ruth began to breathe deeply and regularly, too. She closed her
eyes--almost entirely. This was what Zelaya had been waiting for.

Silently the old woman arose and turned up the lampwick a little. She
knelt down before one of the padlocked boxes and unlocked it softly.
Then she rummaged in the box--seemingly beneath a lot of rubbish that
filled it, and drew forth a japanned box--like a cashbox. This was
locked, too, and Zelaya wore the key of it on a string about her neck.

Silently, with a glance at the two girls now and then, she unlocked
this box and opened it on the top of the chest, before which she knelt.

Ruth could see the old woman's face. It changed very much as she gazed
upon what was in the japanned box. Her black eyes glowed, and her gray,
thin lips were wreathed in a smile of delight.

Again Ruth remembered Roberto's account of his grandmother. She was a
miser, and he had mentioned that he had seen her at night gloating over
her hoarded wealth.

Surely Zelaya had all the signs of a miser. The next moment Ruth saw
that the old woman verily possessed something worth gloating over.

She