Joe Bascom coming," said Uncle Jabez, who was facing the
store.

Instantly Roberto, as he called himself, jerked his hand from Ruth's
grasp. He had seen the men coming, too, and without a word he turned and
fled back into the woods.

"Why--why----" began Ruth, in utter surprise.

"What's the matter with that feller?" demanded Uncle Jabez, just as the
storekeeper and Farmer Bascom arrived.

"I seen the feller, Jabe," said the latter, eagerly. "He's one o' them
blamed Gypsies. I run him out o' my orchard only yisterday."

CHAPTER III

EVENING AT THE RED MILL

About this time Uncle Jabez began to wake up to the fact that his boat
and the flour were gone.

"It's a dumbed shame, Jabez! an' I needed that flour like tunket," said
Timothy Lakeby, the storekeeper.

"Huh!" grunted the miller. "'Tain't nothin' out o' your pocket, Tim."

"But my customers air wantin' it."

"You lemme hev your boat, an' a boy to bring it back, an' we'll go right
hum an' load ye up some more flour," groaned the miller. "That dratted
Ben will be back by thet time, I fancy. Ef he'd been ter the mill I
wouldn't hev been dependent upon my niece ter help row that old boat."

"Too heavy for her--too heavy for her, Jabe," declared Joe Bascom.

"Huh! is thet so?" snapped the miller. He could grumble to Ruth himself,
but he would not stand for any other person's criticism of her. "Lemme
tell ye, she worked her passage all right. An' I vum! I b'lieve thet
'twas me, myself, thet run the old tub on the rock."

"Aside from the flour, Jabez," said the storekeeper, "'tain't much of a
loss. But you an' Ruthie might ha' both been drowned."

"I would, if it hadn't been for her," declared the miller, with more
enthusiasm than he usually showed. "She held my head up when I was
knocked out--kinder. Ye see this cut in my head?"

"Ye got out of it lucky arter all, then," said Bascom.

"Ya-as," drawled the miller. "But I ain't feelin' so pert erbout losin'
thet boat an' the flour."

"But see how much worse it might have been, Uncle," suggested Ruth,
timidly. "If it hadn't been for that boy----"

"What did he say his name was?" interrupted Timothy.

"Roberto."

"Yah!" said Bascom. "Thet's a Gypsy name, all right! I'd like ter got
holt on him."

"I wish I could have thanked him," sighed Ruth.

"If you see him ag'in, Joe," said the miller, "don't you bother about a
peck o' summer apples. I'll pay for them," he added, with a sudden
burst of