appened 'em
at all."

"But where have they gone?"

"I couldn't tell you. We'll make search. But we've got to have something
to travel in, and if it don't take too long to fix your auto, we'll
travel in _that_."

Of course, this was good sense, and Tom saw it, impatient as he was. The
constable laid aside the vest with the badge of office upon it, and the
blacksmith proceeded to open his forge and light a fire and a lantern.
Then he listened to Tom's explanation of what had happened to the car,
and went to work.

Fortunately the damage was not serious, and the blacksmith was not a bad
mechanic. Therefore, in an hour and a half he closed the smithy again,
removing his apron, and the constable donned his vest and got into the
car beside the troubled Tom.

"Now let her out, son!" advised the official. "You've got all the law
with ye that there is in this section, and ye kin go as fast as ye
please."

Tom needed no urging. He shot the repaired car over the road at a pace
that would have made his sister and her chum scream indeed!

Once at the bottom of the hill where the car had been stalled, they
stopped and got out, each taking a lantern by the constable's advice.
Blodgett and his horses had done their best to trample out the girls'
footsteps, but there had been no other vehicle along the road, and the
searchers managed to find footprints of the girls at one side.

"Sure them's them?" asked Mr. Peck.

"You can see they are not the prints of men's shoes," said Tom,
confidently.

"Right ye air! And here's another woman's shoe--only larger. They went
away with some woman, that's sure."

"A woman?" muttered Tom, greatly amazed. "Whoever could she be--and
where have they gone with her?"

CHAPTER XII

A BREAK FOR LIBERTY

Ruth finally slept in the Gypsy van as sweetly as though she were in her
own little bed in the gable room at the Red Mill. She was bodily
wearied, and she had lost herself while yet she was watching the Gypsy
Queen worshipping the pearl necklace, and fearing that the man with the
evil eyes was peering into the interior of the van.

A hundred noises of the Gypsy camp awakened her when the sun was
scarcely showing his face. Dogs barked and scampered about; horses
neighed and stamped; roosters crowed and hens cackled. The children were
crying, or laughing, and the women chattering as they went about the
getting of breakfast at the fires.

The fires crackled; the men sat upon the van